Local Elections Taken Over? Election "Observers" being filled with Out-of-State Thugs.

Am I the only one who's got a bad feeling about volunteer "election observers" watching our every vote, or how with a few tweaks, things can get way out-of-hand? 

WISCOSIN ELECTION: On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Senate Elections and Urban Affairs Committee heard testimony on proposed administrative rules regarding the conduct of elections observers in the State of Wisconsin. The rule would allow the observers area to be no less than three and no more than eight feet away from the sign-in table which is consistent with Act 177 along with prohibiting the use of video or still cameras while the polls are open for voting. 

The drummed up fear mongering around a recent Racine election was the impetus for reform, and gave us our first glimpse into the what "election observer" intimidation is going to look like. As reported back in June of 2012 by the Root River Siren:

A complaint has been filed with the Government Accountability Board by a Racine resident which stems from an alleged act of voter intimidation by a poll observer at Jefferson Lighthouse Elementary School polling place. The poll observer has been identified as Willard Helander who turns out to be the County Clerk of Lake County, Illinois. Helander reportedly harassed and intimidated voters and even tried to prevent one voter from putting her ballot in the voting machine by following close behind and shouting at the voter.

That's not all:

The best part is the conclusion by the investigator: "Overall, the complaints filed with this office in regards to what the election observers did observe on 6-5-12 do not prove voter fraud or that a crime had occurred at any polling place. Many of the complaints received the observer had made assumptions of fraud...with no proof that had occurred. Most of the observers themselves have written in their observations that they violated those rules stated they would abide by."

So would it be crazy to believe "observers" at our polling places would start us down a very bad road?

Mary Ann Hanson of Brookfield testified on the proposed administrative rule … (that from) previous experience as an election observer during elections from the past three years that include the 2011 and 2012 recall elections … there has been a large influx of observers outside of the State of Wisconsin due to the status it holds as a battleground state in federal and some statewide elections.

True the Vote traitors con system and supporters, with no blowback.

Don't get me wrong, voter suppression efforts by Republicans must be stopped.

Having said that, the actual stories of "supposed" rampant fraud has become a source of entertainment for me. Seriously, what will they come up with next?

Here's something that mustered a chuckle that I just had to pass along, from Brad Blog:

The Rightwing, (not) "non-partisan",Republican-allied "election integrity" group calling themselves "True the Vote" knows first-hand what fraud actually is.

On Election Day this year, their own observers were barred from monitoring the polls in Franklin County, OH, after the county's bipartisan Board of Elections had determined that the group had "forged" and photocopied the signatures of candidates needed to allow the group's poll monitors access to precincts in the county during the Nov. 6 Presidential Election.

I mean you can’t make this stuff up, no one would believe it. Just as bad:

That's the same True the Vote who also used a fraudulent photo of an African-American woman holding up a (Photoshopped) sign reading "I ONLY GOT TO VOTE ONCE!" in a well-polished video used to announce their national launch back in 2010. (The real photo, before it was faked, reveals the woman holding up a sign at a Florida protest during that state's Presidential Election debacle in 2000. The sign actually read, ironically enough, "DON'T MESS WITH OUR VOTES".)

A "non-partisan" "charity" too...well, maybe not:

It's also the same True the Vote which claimed 501(c)3 non-profit status as a "non-partisan" charity, only to be found to be quite partisan indeed by a Texas court. Their lie about their non-partisan, not-for-profit status resulted in the group having to return a $35,000 charitable grant from a foundation which also backs the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity.

If ACORN committed all three of these offenses, what do you think right wing world would have done? From what I can tell, conservative voters s*** don't stink.

The Rightwing group enjoys dishonestly scamming their supporters by pretending that all "voter fraud" --- even absentee ballot fraud or voter registration fraud that doesn't even result in a vote --- is evidence that polling place Photo ID restriction laws are needed to combat a scourge of nationwide "voter fraud" being committed on a systemic basis by, of course, Democrats.

According to Brad Friedman:

The Daily Caller, in an article related to the battle over polling place Photo ID restriction laws cited a list of supposed "voter fraud convictions in 46 states" at True the Vote's website.

You'll be shocked --- SHOCKED! --- to learn that True the Vote's list not only doesn'tinclude "convictions in 46 states", it doesn't even include one single conviction, prosecution or even allegation of the type of "voter fraud" that the polling place Photo ID restriction laws both The Daily Caller and True the Vote are advocating for are supposedly designed to prevent.