According to reports coming out of Virginia, a phony flier from the State Board of Elections advising Democrats to vote on November 5, has been distributed fairly widely in an area known as Hampton Roads. The flyer, seen right, says that this change was, “the only way to ensure fairness to the complete electorial process.” (Republicans, it notes, are encouraged to vote on the 4th.)
There is, of course, no election taking place on November 5. Our next President will have been chosen by then.
Similar flyers are seen every four years. It seems to me that they’re generally distributed in predominantly African American communities. Apparently it was enough of a problem in Virginia that they passed a law about it… Here’s a quote from an article in the Virginian-Pilot:
…In 2007, the General Assembly passed a law making it a Class 1 misdemeanor to knowingly communicate false information to registered voters about the date, time and place of the election or voters’ precincts, polling places or voter registration statuses in order to impede their voting. The measure is one of the few such deceptive voting practice laws in the country, according to the watchdog group Common Cause…
It seems to me that it should be a felony to knowingly deceive someone about an election with the intention being to keep them from voting, but I suppose it’s good that they at least have a law on the books… I wonder if Michigan has any such law.
21 Comments
If heard it reported that when people vote straight Democratic ticket in Virginia, it is not registering a vote for president.
I don’t know what I can speak.
I’ve heard it reported that if you vote straight Democratic ticket you’re registering for twice the level of Federal Income Taxes, loss of input in future health care decisions, and the elimination of national borders in both North and South America.
Gee EoS, I’ve heard that’s true if you vote straight Republican or straight Democrat ticket. Except replace income tax hike with having the fed print up more money and devaluing the currency, because we both know neither major party will actually cut spending. And I remember a lot of Republicans laughing at old crazy Ron Paul for mentioning the North American Union during the primaries. So don’t kid yourself into thinking this batch of Republicans will actually govern like small government Republicans. It’s all just rhetoric to get elected, and you’re falling for it.
I know it’s trendy to beat up on you here, but I actually mean no disrespect.
Chuck Baldwin’s the man. I never laughed at Ron Paul – I voted for him!
EoS, you are truly the most gullible person I’ve ever seen.
Rebuke withdrawn. I honestly am iffy on both Baldwin (seems a trifle theocratic) and Barr (used to be a neocon, but so did I so who am I to judge), but I’m probably going for one or the other just to boost third party legitimacy… knowing neither will win, it sort of nullifies my misgivings in favor of the long-term strategy. Unless I change my mind, of course.
The funny thing about this pamphlet situation that nobody mentions, is that if you’re stupid enough to fall for it, should you really be voting?
Well, somebody had to be the asshole and say it.
Ditch Digger, I’ve always felt that if you’re stupid enough to get robbed, you don’t deserve the money that was taken anyway.
Oh, and apparently what I heard is true, except not for Virginia but for North Carolina. See the link. Voters in North Carolina who vote straight ticket have to remember to also vote separately in the presidential race.
EoS, your response was juvenile…get up on the wrong side of the pulpit this morning?
Robert:
It’s closer to a Nigerian scam than robbery, because you are tricked into doing something harmful to yourself just by reading words on a piece of paper from someone you’ve never met, stating something contrary to common sense and/or common knowledge. Stupidity plays a factor, unlike in a typical robbery, where someone just takes your stuff against your will, often by force. That’s not to say the perpetrators aren’t bad people, but it does kinda call into question the competence of anyone who’d fall for it. I suspect we all have an inkling of this deep down, whether we admit it or not.
Ok, I’ll be the asshole to say this then; most robbery could be avoided if the victims were not so stupid.
I’m not sure anybody had to say that, but I did anyway, and I think I’ve out-assholed you.
My hat’s off to you, sir.
good.
Now that Terry McAuliffe will be governor of Virginia in 2016, the GOP won’t be able to rig the state in their favor, and the Dems will rig it in favor of themselves if need be. The chances of the GOP retaking the White House in 2016 have now been significantly reduced. It will be interesting to see what transpires in Florida and Ohio over the next couple years.
To Robert,
I think the chances of the GOP retaking the White House as fair, notwithstanding Terry McAuliffe’s win. It’s possible that people think someone else’s governor is better at being a Republican and is doing a better job then their own Republican governor.
HW,
Here’s one voter suppression discussion we’ve had in the past.
That was a while ago. Is the job you are doing tainted by the guy who worked there in the past before you ever got there?
HW, I just pointed it out for the example of one method of voter suppression – mass disinformation campaigns. There are many, many other methods I’ve seen employed on a large scale. In Florida in 2000, for example, many thousands of voters were removed from voting rolls based only on the fact that they had a particular first and last name which was common among certain racial minorities. You’ve heard about voter roll ‘cleaning’ such as that I imagine. I can name many others and put together a list of where they were used and documented by the press and/or authorities.
States have laws to purge voters who no longer exist every so often. That is reasonable. If they didn’t do it I would have to wonder why. I never said the voting process isn’t often manipulated. I do not see evidence that such a thing was done to the benefit of Donald Trump.
Well, I wasn’t talking specifically about the Trump election with this voter suppression conversation. I was just responding to your earlier statements about not seeing suppression.
What it looks like happened in the Trump win was mainly attributable to a failure of the voter identification and get-out-the-vote operations within the Democratic Party’s campaign. It looks like a really tight hold was kept on the details of those aspects of the campaign as they were shut down essentially.