Antics in Philly

Anyone who knows Philly at all is not surprised at this turn of events today.




Rick Leaventhal interviewed one of the two New Black Panther members after the one with the nightstick was removed by the police. I found it hysterical that the NBP member was comment on how "intimidated" he was by a guy who was at least a foot shorter than him who had a microphone.

Now to be clear there were no reports from VOTERS who said that these "gents" denied them access to the polls but the poll watchers did report that the presence of these two guys were indeed "intimidating".

There have been random reports today of irregularities...from poll watchers being denied access to polling facilities and random power outages, there have been hiccoughs and worse across the country. Let us hope, however that it does not escalate beyond this.

More Philly Antics....




Lovely......we have electioneering taking place IN POLLING PLACES (also in Philly)




The New Republic has a partial list of the Shenanigans reported so far.

Herewith a partial accounting of (unsubstantiated) chaos at the polls, as reported by callers to legal volunteers here at Election Protection headquarters:

St. Louis, MO: Voters are being offered $100 to leave the line and abstain from voting.

Warsaw, VA: The lights are out at the precinct and poll workers are using flashlights.

Aurora, CO: "Soiled ballots."

West Orange, NJ: The voting machine broke. Poll workers have paper ballots, but no pencils. Oops.

Market Street, Philadelphia: Voters are cutting in line; poll workers are threatening to shut down the precinct.

Largo, FL: Voters are being booted from line for wearing partisan clothing.

Manassas, VA: A woman is told she has to choose between local and national elections--a volunteer insists she can't vote in both.

Hamilton County, OH: When a scanner broke, the ballots were placed in an envelope and sent downtown. Voters were told the ballots would be counted "tonight or tomorrow."

More from Philadelphia: Partisan volunteers are escorting voters into the booth.

Ingham County, MI: The A-K line is moving slower than the L-Z line.

Pittsburgh, PA: Machines are down, down, down!

Bartow County, GA: Only Republicans are on some ballots; Democrats have to be written in. Also, the booths face open to the line, so your neighbors can see who you're voting for.

Baltimore: Voting machines are stuck in "audio" mode. Elderly woman reports "mass confusion."

There is much much more.....

From Tiny ACORNS

My BTR partner Jazz Shaw has a great post at The Moderate Voice today about ACORN and the voter fraud that they are perpetuating in many swing states.

Let me preface this post by saying that I still believe 100% in Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts. The more informed voters we have out there considering the issues and casting their votes, the better off we are. We, as a country, may make mistakes now and again, but hopefully we learn from them and move on more the wiser. But there is one group - specifically the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN - who just seems to keep showing up in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Case in point: In Indiana, the Marion County (Indianapolis) area seems to have managed the
astonishing task of registering 105% of its eligible residents to vote.

So we have 644,197 people eligible to be registered in Marion County/Indianapolis, and 677,401 people registered. Congratulations go to Indianapolis for having 105% of its residents registered!

Or how about registering a 7 year old girl to vote in Connecticut? Or one man in Cleveland who was registered to vote three times in a single day using two different home addresses? Perhaps you prefer the story of a convicted felon in Milwaukee registering not only himself to vote, but registering others as well? (No matter your take on felon voting restrictions, it’s currently illegal in Wisconsin and ACORN should know that.)

Then there is the story out of Nevada where ACORN registered the entire Dallas Cowboys starting line-up as residents/voters of Nevada. Fox News just reported about a woman in Ohio who claims that ACORN workers harassed her into registering multiple times saying "just sign your name and give us the last 4 of your social (security number) and we will do the rest."(no video link is up yet but the NY Post talks to a pizza delivery driver who was urged to register 10-15 times!)

Voter fraud is an issue that should not have ideological divisions. As Americans who love our Republic we should all be appalled at these actions and we should ALL denounce the fraud that ACORN is committing. As Jazz said, everyone who is eligible to vote should be allowed to vote. That is a given. However, election tampering needs to be nipped in the bud quickly and visibly. It is the only way to make sure that our elections remain above board.

The Sanctity of the Vote.

This is good news for people who believe in the sanctity of one man/one vote.

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional rights, validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws.
In a splintered 6-3 ruling, the court upheld Indiana's strict photo ID requirement, which Democrats and civil rights groups said would deter poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots. Its backers said it was needed to prevent fraud.

One of the arguments against photo ID (as stated above) is that it is tatamount to a "poll tax". However, considering that one has to have a photo ID in order to get a welfare check or other state subsidies, it is a straw man argument. The majority, in their opinion, states why...

The law "is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting 'the integrity and reliability of the electoral process,'" Justice John Paul Stevens said in an opinion that was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy.

Protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process is something we should all be able to agree upon, right?