DISQUS

DISQUS Hello! Jack and Jill Politics is using DISQUS, a powerful comment system, to manage its comments. Learn more.

Community Page

Jack and Jill Politics

A black bourgeois perspective on U.S. politics
Jump to original thread »
Author

Obama and the Theft of Black Votes

Started by baratunde aka jack turner · 11 months ago

This Washington Post article — For Obama, Hurdles in Expanding Black Vote — talks about how even a small increase in African-American voter registration could hand Obama a big win in November. But the article fails to delve below the surface into the real challenges in terms of stealing our votes that we face yet [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ ... Continue reading »

56 comments

  • AnthonyMason

    11 months ago

    Like I've been telling all my black and brown friends: Make sure to bring tape recorders, cam recorders, cameras and cell phones to the polling place. If something fishi goes down, take pictures, video record, and voice record everything that goes down in there. If the folks working the tables tell you your name isnt on the registration rolls, make sure that the whole world (via youtube) knows who they are.

    Welcome to the new world order of American democracy
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    That is some really good advice.
    reply
  • JJ

    11 months ago

    Waiting until election day might be too late. Everyone should be double and triple checking their registration well before registration deadlines.

    This is especially true if you've moved, registered recently through a drive (like a volunteer on the street), haven't voted in a while, or have a 'black sounding' name.

    On election day, GO EARLY. If they give you any shit, push back and find out who the Democrat observer is and ask them for advice. Try to force your way into voting on a regular ballot, and only vote provisionally as a last resort. Make sure to take down the provisional ballot number.

    Taking a camcorder as well is great advice. Especially because one of the favored tactics in Ohio was to simply not have enough voting machines in black neighborhoods, then closing while there were still huge lines. Call the local news if that happens, but home video of this will be moving.
    reply
  • cheryl aka jill tubman

    11 months ago

    Agreed. I think people should do whatever possible to document in realtime what's happening at the polls and send to their local tv and radio stations.
    reply
  • eclecticbrotha

    11 months ago

    Also, be sure to check the card they send before each election to verify its accuracy. Look for any misspellings or errors in your address. Little things like that are what end up as challenges on election day, and provisional ballots are often challenged as well. Also, BE SURE there's a paper trail if electronic voting machines are used. In fact, if your polling place uses Diebold voting machines and provides provisional ballots I'd suggest using the provisional ballots. Diebold is notorious for its weak security and there is no paper printout to verify your vote in case a recount is necessary. Also, the owner of Diebold is a well known Bushie.

    Black Box Voting is an election watchdog site that has all kinds of information on Diebold machines an how to protect your vote:
    http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
    reply
  • NO ID

    11 months ago

    JJ and everyone else...you don't need a camcorder, which some folks might not have. All you need these days is a cell phone...or even a digital camera that can shoot video.
    reply
  • smoothie

    11 months ago

    i swear i tell everyone who ive helped in the registration process the same thing,,i even tell them to bring a witness to vouch for you. its that crucial now
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    i even tell them to bring a witness to vouch for you

    ::

    That image in the context of voting in a western democratic republic is simply shocking.
    reply
  • Chakra Khan

    11 months ago

    No Doubt!

    People, we all need to take responsibility for confronting this shit. All of us.

    DON'T PUT UP WITH IT

    If you are a member of a church group, go to the polls as a group, with cameras recorders ANYTHING
    reply
  • CPL

    11 months ago

    Palast is big here in the UK. His work discussing the suppression of Black votes is gaining a whole lot of attention here because the Brits want Obama as Pres.

    We're going to meet with Parliament this week. They are going to get me an interview with black members of the House of Commons...just for my benefit, because I am the only African-American on this study trip and I will say that when Black Brits see me walking on the Oxford campus, their chests puff out a little more and they grin huge. LOL.

    I will do a post on my time here in Oxford at the university for JJP readers.
    reply
  • heartsandflowers

    11 months ago

    When are you running for office - seriously? I will work for your campaign! Donna needs company......
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    You live in the UK?
    reply
  • CPL

    11 months ago

    I'm attending a course on British Politics and processes at Oxford.
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    Fabulous.
    reply
  • cheryl aka jill tubman

    11 months ago

    that would be great to hear a report on your UK experience and what brits and expats are saying
    reply
  • smoothie

    11 months ago

    Brits love anything that slants or even attempts to be left. They hated AND I MEAN HATED Blair for never standing up to W. I did a tour there 4 yrs ago.
    reply
  • CPL

    11 months ago

    Smoothie, the Brits STILL hate Tony Blair and wishes he'd just immigrate to the States, already. I had to do a book review on a book written by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, and it was 100 pages of pure contempt for Blair.

    Gordon Brown isn't well-liked either, but the Brits aren't screaming for his head and he's wisely distanced himself from Bush, so that earned him brownie points.
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    No pun intended.
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    It makes me wanna spit bullets.

    The Black and Brown vote will deliver a landslide. We've got to get over the Steal Threshold in this election.

    We must.
    reply
  • TruthSeeker

    11 months ago

    Months ago when the voter registration drive was revealed as strategy, the purges crossed my mind. So, I have to believe that if it could cross my mind, surely it's prominent in the minds of people whose business it is to win. Obama wouldn't be having armies or volunteers signing people up only to have an equivalent number of registrations purged would he?

    Are there alternatives for someone who shows up on election day and is not registered?
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    They can receive a provisional ballot and cast their vote. Election officials can then look to see if some error took place. If rolls are purged, though, any record of their registration will be purged with it.

    What if some of these purges took place after the initial Vote for Change registration drives?

    In Maine, people do not get a receipt, for lack of a better word, of their registration. I urge folks to keep copies of their registration forms. At this rate, they will have to be notarized before being turned in, with registrants keeping a copy of the notarized form.
    reply
  • TruthSeeker

    11 months ago

    Damn, then I think everyone should know they are entitled to a provisional ballot. I don't think the O campaign was stressing keeping a proof of registration for all the people registered recently.

    This sucks. Voting rights should not be at the mercy of partisan politics.
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    This sucks. Voting rights should not be at the mercy of partisan politics.

    ::

    TruthSpeaker
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    Polling like this is going to turn up the fraud forthwith.

    41-point lead among Hispanic voters is huge.
    reply
  • JJ

    11 months ago

    A close family member of mine works in the DoJ and was in voting rights for years. The politicization going on over there is worse than even the Washington Post has uncovered. It's insane. Bush has basically turned the DoJ into an arm of the GOP.

    There was a massive campaign to limit communication among the career workers and rig the process to determine which cases to pursue. Career lawyers, who were presumed to lean Democrat because they were working in Voting Rights, were barred from discussing their cases with each other. That way they couldn't complain that their boss, an appointee, told them to drop the case or settle. Talking about your cases was a firing offense, so they could get rid of liberals more easily. Being more idealistic than your average lawyer, most tried to stick it out, but after Kerry lost a lot of them left to be replaced by repug lackies.

    Bush also tried to limit the publics ability to bring suits under the Voting Rights Act so that only the DoJ could sue. Of course there was a complete fall off in voting rights suits. Oh, but they did file complaints on behalf of white voters in the south.

    The purging of rolls is just despicable. Minorities in any state or district with Republicans in control of the rolls should be absolutely frightened. I hope that somehow the Obama campaign is moving forward with a serious ground operation to correct and prevent these abuses, even though he's not really addressing the subject to a wide audience.
    reply
  • cheryl aka jill tubman

    11 months ago

    it's a shame. our tax dollars hard at work! (sigh)
    reply
  • karlewis

    11 months ago

    Check out O man's response. Cool ass dude man.

    http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/07/28/late-e...
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    Nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you try.
    reply
  • JJ

    11 months ago

    Thanks for that.

    I have such a man-crush on Obama. He's just so.... normal. When's the last time you could say that about a presidential candidate? Bill had that quality, but not as much as Obama does. What happens when, after the conventions and debates, a large part of the population that still think of Obama as an "other" realize that he's actually the most normal guy on the scene in decades. I think come late October, all the vote rigging in the world won't save McCain from a landslide defeat.
    reply
  • NO ID

    11 months ago

    but do people want "normal" or do they want a facade that seems otherworldly and "presidential" even if that's not the case?
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    what are you talking about?
    reply
  • b-dogg

    11 months ago

    when i read articles about the "black vote" i can't help but laugh. kind of silly it seems to me to say all blacks who vote will vote for obama because he is black. why should blacks vote for obama? because of his skin color? go ahead and vote that way if you want to- that way we as a nation can finally learn our lesson- it is economic class that has far more bearing on things than race. granted the two have become so intertwined they cannot almost not be separated. but at the end of the day it is a class issue.
    reply
  • cheryl aka jill tubman

    11 months ago

    That's true. One of my uncles lives in a red state, has become wealthy and actually voted for W in 2000. Voting for McCain however is against the interests of African-Americans no matter your class or income however.
    reply
  • eclecticbrotha

    11 months ago

    Another person who thinks blacks vote based on skin color and not on issues. To the people who insist of believing that lie I have two words:

    Alan Keyes.
    reply
  • GreenLadyHere

    11 months ago

    eclectic: According to an article that I read, he has morphed into Independent. Wonder how long "they" will support him? :>) :>)
    reply
  • heartsandflowers

    11 months ago

    These voter purges - what a nice term for denying people the right to vote - have been going on for YEARS. I suggest people contact the State Attorney general for their states because the buck stops with them. Every state has different laws. We've already seen from past behavior an accurate prediction of what is going to be attempted and may occur this election cycle. It happened during the primaries - remember when Obama allegedly got zero votes in some areas in Harlem? The entire Bradley effect is a lie that continues to be given validity. He in fact had enough votes to win his run for governor. Those ballots were taken and tossed into the Pacific and they floated back to shore months later. I feel like saying, "wake up people". We need to arrange rides, monitor polls, have cameras/recording devices and copies of the laws, post alerts about traffic being diverted to discourage voting, use Twitter for instant updates and whatever it takes. This is a war - despite any misgivings about how well Obama will govern, make no mistake he is NOT wanted by some organized people with a vested interest in keeping the status quo. We have to be prepared to out-strategize them.
    reply
  • Admiral_Komack

    11 months ago

    Off-topic:

    What is wrong with the Monday Open Thread?

    You cannot see the commoents.
    reply
  • Admiral_Komack

    11 months ago

    Ahem..."comments"
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    Gallup/USA Today poll:

    McCain 49%
    Obama 45%

    Now let's see if the networks tell us they don't believe this, that this poll must be an outlier.

    And then I woke up.

    Wonder if they simply switched the names.

    The network executives just creamed their pants
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    reply
  • Town

    11 months ago

    http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content...

    The Virginia GOP is claiming they want a probe of voter registration fraud because some teenagers allegedly stole some woman's id and went down to the voter registration place and changed her registration. The GOP claims this has been happening statewide but won't say where else it's been happening.

    Yeah, I think I'll steal somebody identity and instead of charging up their credit cards or stealing their money, I'll go to the voter registration place and change their registration!

    To my knowledge you don't have to register as a "Democrat" or "Republican" in Virginia. My voter registration card just has my name, address and districts I live in.
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    All the battleground states will have rampant election fraud.
    reply
  • nettie

    11 months ago

    We have our very own election fraud watchdog in Jimmy Carter who goes out to nations around the world to monitor elections but here in the US we have to worry about every type of voter fraud and disenfranchisement imaginable. What a joke this administration has turned us into.
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    Oh, election stealing has been going on long before this administration.

    And it's happened on both sides of the aisle.
    reply
  • soulsistah02

    11 months ago

    I'd like for everyone to contact the chapters or local offices of these organizations and encourage them to press the Secretary of State and all election officials to keep our elections fair and accessible to all:

    ACLU: www.aclu.org/votingrights/index.html
    Fair Vote: www.fairvote.org
    NCLR: www.nclr.org
    NAACP Legal Defense Fund: www.naacpldf.org
    NUL: www.nul.org
    Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law: http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/2005website/hom...
    LCCREF: www.civilrights.org/about/lccref/index.html
    The Interfaith Alliance: www.interfaithalliance.org
    League of Women Voters: www.lwv.org
    Common Cause: www.commoncause.org
    MALDEF: www.maldef.org
    Color of Change: www.ColorofChange.org
    MoveOn: www.MoveOn.org

    Other Ways To Get Involved:

    (a) Encourage your friends and family members to become election judges. That way, you can have an on-the-ground view of how the elections are proceeding in your district. You should be able to find out more information about becoming an election judge by visiting your Secretary of State's website or municipality's website.

    (b) Become an election escort. All you need to do is read about your state's and municipality's election rules and policies and volunteer to escort the elderly or uninformed voters to the polls.

    (c) Bring cell phones that are outfitted with recording devices (e.g. digital cameras and cam corders) and digital cameras to record any unscrupulous behavior.

    It's time out for saying that this is someone else's problem. That kind of thinking has gotten us nearly eight years of incompentency, indifference and injustice. Let's help elect Barack Obama to the White House.
    reply
  • GreenLadyHere

    11 months ago

    soulsistah02: This information, coupled with informing the media [of various ilks] should help!! Thank you.
    reply
  • NO ID

    11 months ago

    This is all good, but the Washington Post article seems to suggest that if we could get enough disenfranchised voters to vote, it would steer the election to Obama as those numbers are huge and likely to vote in his favor. I don't worry about voter fraud but then I'm in a large city that Obama won handily in the primiaries. But what about the black folks who are unfamiliar or turned off by the voting process? It would seem that the work on the ground would be even getting them to the polls.
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    Thanks for the info.
    reply
  • Symphony

    11 months ago

    "...this is the first election when Floridians will discover the impact of a change in state policy regarding criminals, namely that felons who have served their time and have been paroled can have their civil rights restored - a fancy way of saying they can register to vote - almost automatically." -Lakeland Ledger.

    One article said it could be as many as 150,000 who have their voting restored. I'm sure it won't be that many based on numerous reasons.
    reply
  • Lynne

    11 months ago

    Did anyone watch "Recount" on HBO?? Please don't tell me 2008 is the sequel....I swear, I just know there are so many people in the Bush Administration and their cronies who have the mark of the beast tatooed on the back of their heads.
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    11 months ago

    So much religious symbolism I don't know what to do! ;)
    reply
  • NO ID

    11 months ago

    i know this is a political site but beauty is political too...
    http://adage.com/bigtent/post?article_id=129759
    Black Vogue Popularity Sparks Conde Nast's first ever reprint

    hey how do i link so that the headline shows and not the link, some of y'all seem to be up on how that's done....please share :-)
    reply
  • Gee

    11 months ago

    Election fraud is not a conspiracy theory but a reality. I agree with No ID, there are quite a few Black people, and people in general, like myself, who don't believe in the election process. And I don't think that people will get enough disenfranchised voters to vote, and cause Obama to win. Though I do hope and think Obama will win I will say this to all of you who question us none voters......."Please, please, please put as pay as much attention to your local (city, schoo, municipal court elections, etc.) as you have for the presidential election. Truth be told, your vote actually counts on the local level. Now for the presidency....not technically. I'm not sayin don't vote. Of course, vote for the president, but ALSO vote for your community. Once we have good officials in the local positions, they can rise to the top. Similar to Obama
    reply
  • NO ID

    11 months ago

    "W" Trailer Hits The Web
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyDvUwRalXY
    in the meantime, enjoy this heartwarming story of how one young man lives the American dream, fails upward and becomes POTUS through the efforts of his rich, politically connected daddy....
    reply
  • GreenLadyHere

    11 months ago

    NO ID: I'm smiling! :>) :>) Thank you. :>)
    reply
  • Lily

    11 months ago

    This may be helpful for those of us who are going to do what we can to protect the vote. Being in Seattle is a blessing at times.

    http://www.stealingamericathemovie.org/

    WHAT YOU CAN DO
    STEALING AMERICA can become a tool not just for the issue but for your group in particular; many theaters will allow us to “table” in the lobby to hand out literature. At some it will be possible to hold benefits for your own organization. The attached flyer explains all.

    I urge you to make the most of this opportunity, and at the least put out the call to your members to fill the theaters near them. At the moment, it is especially important that there be a huge turnout in NYC and LA. But also contact friends and colleagues in all the various cities -– let’s fill those theaters to overflowing!
    Sally Castleman
    Grassroots Coordinator,
    STEALING AMERICA Vote by Vote
    * If you have suggestions of additional theaters in your area to the ones listed below, that you think ought to be contacted as possible venues, please write to me at20SallyC@ElectionDefenseAlliance.org.

    here's a list of cities

    http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/2008/07/s...
    reply
Please login to comment.
Returning? Login