From the Styx by Peggy Tibbetts

Election year is upon us. Trying to sort out the mess that is our national election system is enough to give me a headache.

The first votes in the presidential primaries have been cast on the pinball voting machines in New Hampshire and the system hit full tilt. The exit polls didn’t agree with the machine count (yet they agreed with the paper ballot count) so the MSM tossed out the exit polls and declared New Hampshire voters racist. Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich and Republican candidate Albert Howard have requested a recount with the support of Election Integrity experts from outside the state. They aren’t asking for a partial recount a la 2004. They are demanding a full recount. And they are being charge well over $100,000. Since I’m a count-all-the-votes geek, I think it’s a good idea to investigate the primary results. But it doesn’t bode well for the general election in November. 

Brad Blog is all over this story, so don’t take my word for it.

Last week the Indiana Voter ID case came before the Supreme Court. If you read my blog you know that I despise Voter ID laws. When you register to vote you must show ID. There’s no reason you should have to show ID every time you vote. You should sign a voter verification card, hand it to the election judge, and receive a ballot. Simple as that. Requiring IDs to vote is voter disenfranchisement and is unconstitutional.

However this article says most of the Supremes don’t seem all that concerned about voter disenfranchisement or the Constitution:

Court Seems to Back Indiana Voter ID Law
By Mark Sherman

Washington – The Supreme Court appeared ready Wednesday to uphold the nation’s strictest requirement that voters show photo identification before casting a ballot.

The justices are faced with a partisan dispute that echoes the bitterly divided decision that sealed the 2000 presidential election for George W. Bush. Now, as then, the court seemed divided along ideological lines.

Wednesday’s arguments were over a challenge to an Indiana law, passed in 2005, that is backed by Republicans as a prudent way to deter voter fraud. Democrats and civil rights groups oppose the law as unconstitutional and call it a thinly veiled effort to discourage elderly, poor and minority voters – those most likely to lack proper ID and who tend to vote for Democrats.

But Justice Anthony Kennedy, often a key vote on the court, did not sound persuaded that the challengers had made their case …

This NY Times article explores the previous rulings on voter disenfranchisement and reveals a Court that is increasingly hostile to voters:

A Supreme Court Reversal: Abandoning the Rights of Voters
By Adam Cohen

The Supreme Court heard arguments last week in a hugely important case about voter ID laws. Asking for identification at the polls may sound reasonable, but an Indiana law disenfranchises large numbers of people without driver’s licenses, especially poor and minority voters. If the court upholds the law, as appears likely, it will be a sad new chapter in its abandonment of voters, a group whose rights it once defended vigorously.

As long as there have been elections, there have been attempts to keep eligible people from voting. States and localities adopted poll taxes, literacy tests, “white primaries,” “malapportionment” – drawing district lines to give a small number of rural voters the same representation as a large number of urban voters – and restrictions on student voting. In recent decades, the Supreme Court has rejected all of them …

Last but never least, Greg Palast exposes voter fraud for the bogeyman it is:

Space Invaders: Five Million Aliens for Hillary
Will José Crow Voter ID Laws Pick Our President?
by Greg Palast

State Representative Russell Pearce of Mesa Arizona has warned us:

“There is a massive effort under way to register illegal aliens in this country.”

How many? According to the Congressman’s office, there are five million: Democrats, he says, who are not good Americans – they’re Mexicans!

Really?! Holy Cow! The Senator has uncovered a conspiracy to flood the voter rolls with Brown Hordes who’ve swum the Rio Grande just for a chance to vote for Hillary Clinton?!

Thank the Lord for vigilant citizens like Senator Pearce. His efforts, along with the work of other patriotic (Republican) politicians, successfully stopped 300,000 voters from obtaining ballots in 2004 – because these voters had brought the wrong ID to the polls. New ID laws in Arizona and half a dozen states blocked these voters at the polling-house door. Others with “wrong” ID’s were handed what are called ‘provisional’ ballots – which were then not counted.

On Wednesday, the Republican majority on the US Supreme Court indicated it would vote to uphold these new voter ID requirements …

Back home in Colorado we await the Legislature’s decision about how to proceed now that the majority of our voting machines have been decertified. In the meantime, the chair of the Colorado Democratic Party called for Coffman’s resignation. Even though it won’t fix this mess, at least it’s a start.

Dem chair calls on Coffman to resign
By Lynn Bartels  

The chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party called on Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman to resign, saying his office is operating under a “cloud of controversy” over voting systems.

“The public’s confidence in the elections process continues to erode under the watch of this secretary of state,” chairwoman Pat Waak said Monday in a statement.”

“Coffman has failed miserably in his attempts to instill the confidence and trust the voting public deserves in the elections process. He needs to leave” …

If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.

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