Voting Disorders: A Purging Binge

Most people only dabble in politics every two years or so, and don’t really understand it well. There is but one objective in the game, and that is to win. Winning means getting more votes than the other guy. It’s that simple. The means by which this is done vary – often times it is a mere matter of persuasion, but this is a crude and primitive technique. Even using wedge issues like abortion and gays and guns doesn’t guarantee results.

There are other ways to bring about political victory – for instance, controlling vote counting machinery. I’ve written a lot about that – if ever there were a case of the Emperor’s New Clothing, it is the doe-eyed acceptance of electronic voting machines where the actual count is done behind a green curtain. Americans presume to know that our way of doing things is superior to all others, so the idea that votes are being stolen right under our noses, out in plain sight, is unthinkable. Think again.

Another way to bring about victory is to keep the other party from voting in the first place. The game is pretty obvious now – Democrats want to register as many voters as possible, Republicans want to keep them away from the polls. So the right wing noise machine has been busy for two years now – it started out quietly, as one official or another would complain about “voter” fraud, as if election fraud was not our greatest problem. (John Fund of the Wall Street Journal wrote a book about voter fraud, which is itself a fraud.) Then it got louder. And louder. Pretty soon all of the ‘pubbies were talking about it, and the blogs got into it (here, here, here) – here we go again – RWCJ (right wing circle jerk).

Like everything coming out of the Republican Party, they are organized from the top down. The ground level people bark on command, it seems. So when the Montana Republican Party challenged the voting credentials of 6,000 people in Democratic-leaning counties, it followed the national lead. The hypocrisy made the skin crawl – these folks who work their top-down economics on us, who despise any organizing attempts by the lower classes, such as labor unions and ACORN, are suddenly concerned that voting rights be preserved. Righto.

A judge stepped in and put a stop to the shameless Montana purge, calling it “political chicanery”. But the New York Times and CBS News have covered more chilling aspects of the vote purge movement, where swing states like Nevada and Colorado have been targeted. In Colorado alone, 19.4% of voters have been removed from the rolls since the 2004 election. There are sure to be confrontations as people go to vote on election day and find out they are not listed. Sure, in some places they can file provisional ballots, but that’s a fake vote – that is, those ballots are not counted. They are just used to get pesky voters out of their hair.

What to do? Democrats, as usual, are on this like sweat on Rocky Balboa – no, wait, that’s not true. Democrats, as usual, are not on this at all, and have done little or nothing about it. Greg Palast has offered up a comic book, Steal Back Your Vote, that offers advice on what to do when challenged by Republican thugs on election day, or when learning that you have been purged from the voting rolls. (Insist on voting on a real ballot, don’t yield to pressure, stand your ground, call the police.)

Election fraud, voter intimidation, voter purges. We’re in line for another stolen election. Vice President Sarah Palin. It’s high comedy. There is a TV show that’s going to run on BBC America – channel 264 on Direct TV, 879 on Dish, at 4 and 8 PM (MST) tonight. Here’s the promo:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Make some popcorn. We’re behind the eight ball again. Learn what the Republicans have been up to these last four years, and how the Democrats did nothing about it.