Repooplicans.com

It has become a familiar theme in U.S. elections. Democrats get blamed for attempted voter fraud due to efforts (and ties to groups that make efforts) to register as many eligible voters as possible, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or income bracket. Meanwhile, Republicans work very hard each and every election to ensure that, come Election Day, the smallest number of people possible are eligible to vote. Just look at Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. This is how Republicans win elections.

And here we go again.

Widespread reports of problems with electronic voting machines. It’s even been caught on tape:

What is going on? How is it possible that all of these machines can’t correctly record a small amount of data and spit out a paper receipt clearly showing which choices a voter made?

It’s not as if this is new technology.

Tens of thousands of ATMs have touchscreens. Millions of cell phones have touchscreens. I’m willing to bet that, in a single hour in the U.S. alone, the combined usage of these two types of touchscreen devices far exceeds that of the total usage of all electronic voting machines during an election. I’m also willing to bet that the total number of errors produced on ATMs and cell phones is less than those produced on electronic voting machines. If anyone can prove me wrong, please do so in the comments below. Imagine if, on every ATM and cell phone, every time you pressed the “2″ on the on-screen number pad a “7″ was displayed on the screen. The outcry would be tremendous and the fixes would come swiftly. Apparently, the same priority is not placed on deciding issues and electing officials in this country.

Faulty touchscreens made by companies with extreme partisan loyalties are, unfortunately, only one of the problems with elections in our country. Much larger than the ridiculous electronic issues we face, are the efforts by the Republicans to suppress the vote.

Jumping all over this issue, Greg Palast and Robert Kennedy Jr. have teamed up to bring us the incredible, Steal Back Your Vote. This in-depth investigation into the voter suppression and irregularities that have occurred so far this year, as well as in past elections, is both eye-opening and extremely frightening.

Their co-authored article, Block the Vote, published yesterday in Rolling Stone, details many of the things they uncovered during their investigations. The video available at the Steal Back Your Vote site, as well as the free comic book (PDF) pictured here, document the various means of voter suppression with which the Republican Party is attempting to steal yet another election.

Now, before I hear outbursts or accusations that I’m making blanket statements, you need to understand that this is not something the Republican Party denies or is even really all that quiet about. As Palast and Kennedy wrote in their article (emphasis added):

Suppressing the vote has long been a cornerstone of the GOP’s electoral strategy. Shortly before the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, Paul Weyrich — a principal architect of today’s Republican Party — scolded evangelicals who believed in democracy. “Many of our Christians have what I call the ‘goo goo’ syndrome — good government,” said Weyrich, who co-founded Moral Majority with Jerry Falwell. “They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. . . . As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”

Today, Weyrich’s vision has become a national reality. Since 2003, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, at least 2.7 million new voters have had their applications to register rejected. In addition, at least 1.6 million votes were never counted in the 2004 election — and the commission’s own data suggests that the real number could be twice as high. To purge registration rolls and discard ballots, partisan election officials used a wide range of pretexts, from “unreadability” to changes in a voter’s signature. And this year, thanks to new provisions of the Help America Vote Act, the number of discounted votes could surge even higher.

For more excellent examples and detailed examples of ridiculous Republican attempts at suppressing the vote, please see TPM’s, Republican Voter Suppression: A Guide. And for several other videos involving voting problems and voter suppression, be sure to check out the Video the Vote channel on YouTube.

So does this mean we should panic? Absolutely not. That doesn’t mean, however, that we should let our guard down either. The courts are jumping all over efforts to suppress the vote this year. The Supreme Court recently blocked a GOP effort to purge voter rolls in Ohio and, just this week in an effort to reduce lines and wait times, a federal judge ordered Pennsylvania to provide paper ballots to voters when half of the voting machines at any polling station are not working. For many precincts, that could mean having to provide paper ballots when as few as one machine breaks. Why, you ask? Because…

In Philadelphia, for example, more than 90 percent of precincts have no more than two voting machines.

This, in a city over 1.5 million people. Unbelievable.

Thankfully, there are thousands of dedicated, hard-working people putting in countless hours to help protect the voting rights of millions of Americans. They’ve put together some of the best resources and tools I’ve ever seen to help voters cast their ballots and report problems this year.

If you do experience difficulties or irregularities at the polls, please also report them. Where’s My Vote? (thanks to David V!) is attempting to log as many issues as possible in order to alert elections officials when patterns are identified. There’s even an iPhone app created by the Twitter Vote Report (follow the effort on Twitter here), an innovative effort to provide real-time updates on polling place conditions:

Vote Report lets you send a quick report about the conditions at your polling place and thereby alert the media, officials, and watchdog groups of any irregularities which might need attention. Likewise, this will show all the places where things are going smoothly.

10 Tips To Make Sure Your Vote Will Count is another excellent resource, put together by Wholesum.org, containing dozens of links to other voting issue-related sites and resources. Probably the most important advice to remember from their site, should you run into issues while voting:

Supervisor couldn’t help you? Do not leave your polling station. Call 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683). This hotline will be staffed with legal experts who can help you determine your voting rights. The Election Protection group running the hotline will also have legal experts in the field monitoring the polls. If you don’t have a legal question and just want to report a problem you’ve encountered, call a separate hotline, 866-MYVOTE1 (866-698-6831), and leave a message. Please be sure to leave your name and phone number on the message if you want someone to investigate your problem and get back to you.

Please share the phone numbers above with as many people as possible. It’s very important that everyone, regardless of which way they are voting, is allowed a fair chance to participate in our democracy.

And, remember, it is up to each and every one of us to DOUBLE-CHECK OUR BALLOTS (electronic or otherwise) before we cast our votes. If you experience any problems, or are unsure that you completed the process correctly, check with a poll worker. That’s what they are there for.

Only 5 days left. We need to make sure every vote is counted.

–Gordy

Election