Trashing Democracy

Bill Berkowitz - WorkingForChange - 10.14.04

Voters Outreach of America, an outfit largely funded by the GOP, is accused of trashing registration forms of hundreds of Democrats in Nevada

These days, schemes to suppress the vote are coming down the pike at a NASCAR-like clip: In July, Michigan State Rep. John Pappageorge told a gathering of party officials at an election strategy meeting of the Oakland County Republican Party that "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election cycle." In Orlando, Fla., members of the Orlando League of Voters -- an African-American civic group made up of mostly elderly women that has helped turn out large numbers of Democratic voters in the city -- were the subject of an intimidating house-to-house investigation by Governor Jeb Bush’s state police, who were supposedly checking out charges of electoral irregularities. The Rev. Jesse Jackson recently charged Republican Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell with “trying to reverse gains made by the civil rights movement by limiting where some Ohioans can cast their ballots,” the Palm Beach Post recently reported.
Now, a new voter suppression scheme has been uncovered: One that thwarts the democratic process before voters even exercise their franchise. A voter registration outfit largely funded by the Republican National Committee is being accused of destroying the registration forms of hundreds of newly registered Democratic voters in Nevada.

(Eds. note: Click here to ask President Bush to stop the destruction of voter registrations, or visit ElectionProtection.org to volunteer as a polling place monitor.)

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