Greg Palast: African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit List

June 16, 2006
African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit List
by Greg Palast

http://www.opednews.com

The Republican National Committee has a special offer for African-American soldiers: Go to Baghdad, lose your vote.

A confidential campaign directed by GOP party chiefs in October 2004 sought to challenge the ballots of tens of thousands of voters in the last presidential election, virtually all of them cast by residents of Black-majority precincts.

Files from the secret vote-blocking campaign were obtained by BBC Television Newsnight, London. They were attached to emails accidentally sent by Republican operatives to a non-party website.

One group of voters wrongly identified by the Republicans as registering to vote from false addresses: servicemen and women sent overseas.

Here's how the scheme worked: The RNC mailed these voters letters in envelopes marked, “Do not forward”, to be returned to the sender. These letters were mailed to servicemen and women, some stationed overseas, to their US home addresses. The letters then returned to the Bush-Cheney campaign as "undeliverable."

The lists of soldiers of "undeliverable" letters were transmitted from state headquarters, in this case Florida, to the RNC in Washington. The party could then challenge the voters' registration and thereby prevent their absentee ballot being counted.

One target list was comprised exclusively of voters registered at the Jacksonville, Florida, Naval Air Station. Jacksonville is third largest naval installation in the US, best known as home of the Blue Angels fighting squandron.

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_greg_pal_060616_african_american_vot.htm

hmmh...wonder if this is related:

Defense Department Survey indicates a 24% disenfranchise rate on the military vote in 2004. The National Guard was especially hard hit.

http://www.nationaldefensecommittee.org/pages/absentee_voting.html

We Need a Better Way for Soldiers to Vote


Wednesday, December 14, 2005; Page A28


A Defense Department survey on military voting found that 79 percent of military personnel tried to vote in the 2004 presidential election and that 73 percent of those actually voted .

But the survey obscured an important fact: Disenfranchisement of military and overseas absentee voters remains high. Between 30 and 45 percent of these potential voters failed to receive their absentee ballots or received them too late to matter, according to surveys by the National Defense Committee and the Overseas Vote Foundation.

About 1.4 million active-duty members of the uniformed services and 1 million spouses and family members are eligible for absentee voting. In addition, an estimated 4 million U.S. civilians who live abroad are eligible. Yet most states still conduct absentee voting through U.S. mail via a cumbersome three-step process.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/13/AR2005121301729.html

I can remember this being in the news, but I believe the disenfranchisement of soldiers of color is a new and more specific revelation. For sure, obtaining the vote blocking campaign files is a new development.

From the article:



But I'm not going to hold my breath until charges are brought.

Here's a little personal footnote: I was in Seoul, Korea when I turned 21 in 1970. That's how old you had to be to vote back then. I sent for an absentee ballot, which prompted my county officials back home to advise me (via snail mail of course) that I had to get a signature from my Battalion Commander. I did, and returned the form to them. I never heard from them again. I wonder who I voted for that year?

Since then I have voted in every single primary and general election.

have no problems winning the next election? I guess we all know why he is so confident.

past dirty tricks and lies of the GOP and knowing the vulnerability of the machines, one has to guess the Cheney is confident of success.

really going to do anything about any of this, it's probably wise to just shut up about it--all that is going to happen is that even more people won't
bother to even register to vote, let alone actually vote...

Yeah...outrageous...more outrageous that Ohio?, more outrageous than sending Cuban fascists to destroy legal ballots in Florida?, more outrageous than sending diebold machines home with poll workers in San Diego? or more outrageous than African-American legislators pleaing for a fucking lousy signature

It's not the GOP anymore kiddies...

Ever since about 1964, the Republican party has been the white flight party of the south. When national Democrats started backing civil rights legislation (and when blacks started being Democrats), the southern Democrats changed parties to Republican.

:mad: Who isn't on the Republican hit list? Seriously...

Criminal charges?

for standing up for our military's right to vote. I hope, but I won't be holding my breath, to hear a major campaign on this from Dems *at the national level*.

Having just read this in my email inbox, I'm enraged all over again. We knew this. But now we really know it. And they know it. Everyone knows it now. Who's going to do something in court? Does anyone have the money, the time?

edited to eliminate words that might put me in Guantanamo. Fuck you.

(I posted this previously in the other thread on this topic.)

These lists were generated through extensive matching and screening, not just simple things like precincts with AA majorities.

Consider matching against publicly available voting records: party affiliation, voting in recent primaries, voting patterns of other members of same household.

Now match against subscriber lists of magazines, real estate and property tax records, church memberships, background check (might have a criminal past, might have a lien or judgment, maybe had been late on child support).

And all of the above would be within the law. Now add in those extra database they contracted for from the same vendors who also did database contract work that is "protected" by law ("Now how did those get merged by some glitch?").

I didn't think it was possible.

to rememember that in the midst of all the details. It's been that way since "The Compromise of 1876" when the Democrats gave away the presidency (Tilden to Hayes) in return for the withdrawal of Northern troops to support Reconstruction. Black voting levels have never reached Reconstruction levels again!!!

It's the same old same old. Where's the outrage? Our leaders should jump up and down on this one...
lets hope they get the message and "do the right thing."

Thanks kpete and thanks Greg Palast!!!