Ohio voting rights activist and attorney, Bob Fitrakis, says the Ohio elections may have already been won, responding to reports of massive voter purges in Democratic precincts.
Dr. Fitrakis, told OpEdNews, "Essentially, by purging these rolls, the Republicans, by shrinking the electorate, have already won in Ohio. If they can't win, which is what the polls show among registered voters, the way to win is to use their nuclear option-- to target black voters, young voters and the working poor-- by purging them so they can't vote.
Reports indicate that starting as early as shortly after the 2004 presidential elections, but particularly recently, hundreds of thousands of voters-- mostly urban apartment dwellers (likely black) and students-- who are primarily Democratic-- were sent notifications that they would be purged from the eligible voter lists if they did not respond the letter. But, reportedly, the letter was designed to be easily overlooked, perhaps treated as junk mail. Failure to send in a response caused the voter to be removed from the voting roll.
Fitrakis observes, "They aren't challenging voter eligibility in Republican areas. This is coming from the republican party. They're not targeting their own base.
"If it follows the pattern from 2004, they will have purged heavily Democratic areas.THey will challenge high performance democratic precincts."
According to Fitrakis, HAVA, the Help America Vote Act, requires centrally maintained voter records, which would probably have been kept by secretary of state Ken Blackwell. Fitrack theorizes, that the voter records were "probably purged from the secretary of state's office, because HAVA mandates a centrally located database. But the letters would have gone out from the separate county boards of election."
This is part of the challenge. It may be necessary to actually deal with each of the 88 counties.
Fitrakis says, "We're up against 88 county prosecutors. That's what they've been doing for two years. it's been killing us. They say we have to get the records from the county-- you literally have to fax phone or show up to literally demand these records."
OpEdNews asked Bob Fitrakis, "What can be done?" "What can voting integrity activists do?" What can the Democratic party do?
Fitrakis replied, "We're going to try desperately to get to the bottom of this and try on Friday to get an injuction-- Monday, at the latest.
We asked, "Is there any chance that this can be turned around."
"Yes, A federal judge can issue an order to reinstate all the purged voters." says Fitrakis.
What can readers and activists do to help? They can tell the DNC, tell the Ohio state democratic party to either file a suit separately or in cooperation with Fitrakis and the ongoing suit he's had filed since the 2004 election.
Fitrakis says, ""Put pressure on the democrats to bring suit.
"I would urge the DNC-- the party can't let this stand. They could proceed to Federal court and argue that this is a civil rights case-- against blacks and young people. They could file their own suit. They could join our suit. There are a lot of ways they could do it procedurally. They could intervene as an independent party. They could join our lawsuit I would welcome any action by them.
"They have to realize the election might have been decided by these purges. My book, that I wrote with Harvey Wasserman, reported that in 2004, the only reason the race was even close was because of the purging done in 2004 in the Democratic counties.
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
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A few declarations.
-While I'm registered as a Democrat, I consider myself to be a dynamic critic of the Democratic party, just as, well, not quite as much, but almost as much as I am a critic of republicans.
-My articles express my personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.
Bona fide Republicans, and I know there are many out there--my doctor who voted against Bush, my father who can't stand the idiot and once risked his life to stop Hitler, a teacher I worked with shares my social values but sees herself as "fiscally conservative," Republicans who have written publicly of their regrets of voting for Bush, to mention a few--should be every bit as concerned as Democrats about voter fraud.
I welcome--no, beg!--such Americans to join in this frightfully real battle to save Democracy. It is no less important than the War of 1812, for anyone who does not want to live in a fascist dictatorship.
by
Daniel Geery (26 articles, 55 quicklinks, 121 diaries, 651 comments)
on Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 9:20:32 AM
to vote if they have social security card a drivers license Medicaid card, just two cards with their names to hell with registration just one way to purge the voters
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james watt (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 9:25:58 AM
What a load of crap the mention of "Bona fide Republicans" is.
Anybody who was intellectually honest and prized the concept of a representative democracy and a democratic republic would be DISGUSTED and SICKENED by the behavior of the Republican Party in the last five years, as exemplified by Ken Blackwell in this most recent little power play against Democracy.
Anybody who cares a damn about fairness and honesty in politics or believes in their COUNTRY and CONSTITUTION above their PARTY but who remains in the Republican Party for ANY REASON is nothing more than a "good German."
I say to all those "bona fide Republicans" whether they claim to be fiscal conservatives or social conservatives or just anti-choice that they should SHUT THE HELL UP if they are going to keep putting an "R" next to their name -- they are part of the enemy, not part of the COUNTRY. If they are so well programmed that they can't bide the idea of being a Democrat, the LEAST (the VERY, VERY, VERY least) they could do is become an independent and SHOW that they don't support the corporate fascism and anti-constitutional behavior of their party.
To sit back and LET IT HAPPEN and reap the rewards of being part of the party in power (regardless of how that power was gotten or kept) is "aiding and abetting the crime."
To them and their friends, I say: F$#* YOU and the party you rode in on.
And to the Democrats and the DLC -- if they don't fight this crap, then they don't deserve power, and we'll give it to the Progressive Socialists after the inevitable civil war we will have to fight to get these criminals from power.
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Charlie L (2 articles, 2 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 591 comments)
on Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 12:59:21 PM
What a load of crap the mention of the "True American" is!
Anybody who was intellectually honest and prized the concept of a representative democracy and a democratic republic would be DISGUSTED and SICKENED by the behavior of America in the last five years, as exemplified by that country cheering for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Anybody who cares a damn about fairness and honesty in politics or believes in humankind and the world, but who claims to be a True American for ANY REASON is nothing more than a "good German."
I say to all those "bona fide Americans" whether they claim to be fiscal conservatives or social conservatives or Progressive Socialists, that they should SHUT THE HELL UP if they are going to be a part of this sick, violent, consumer society -- they are part of the enemy, not part of humankind. If they are so well programmed that they can't abide the idea of being a planetary citizen, the LEAST (the VERY, VERY, VERY least) they could do is stop consuming, overpopulating, draining the resources of the world while pretending they aren't, and denying their history and SHOW that they don't support the corporate fascism and anti-human behavior of America.
To sit back and LET IT HAPPEN and reap the rewards of being part of America (mindless that that country rests on six million or more exterminated Native Americans) is "aiding and abetting the crimes against our Planet."
To them and their friends, I say: F$#* YOU and the insane principles you live by.
And to the Americans and their sick ways-- if they don't even recognize this crap, then they don't deserve to go on living, and we'll give the Planet to the those who presently struggle to live off the land, after the inevitable collapse of these hypocrites and their high and mighty horse.
What a load of crap the mention of "Bona fide American" or "Progressive Socialist" is!
On the other hand, it might be good to get beyond knee-jerk labels and get together as members of the same species whenever that's possible. It would be nice if Shiites and Sunnis could look at what they have in common, as opposed to their differences, just to give one example.
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Daniel Geery (26 articles, 55 quicklinks, 121 diaries, 651 comments)
on Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 2:52:44 PM
HAVA allowed the Demo voter purge - GOP retains Congress
Ohio,.. California,.. where else did the Republican Secretarys of States purge massive numbers of Democratic voters off the voting rolls. You better check if they purged your ability to be able to vote November 2006.
Visit Bradblog.com ,.. there is a lot of chatter about this purging of voters off the rolls.
This is the "October Surprise",.. they purged a massive number of Democratic voters off the voting rolls. This will enable them to retain control of the both Houses of Congress.
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Dale Kazanjian (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 12 comments)
on Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 2:46:52 PM
Now, for this brilliant criminal strategy to work...
Yes, that would seem to be the plan. Now, they need a few things to happen for the criminal plan of the REPUBLICAN Party to work:
1. The Republicans will need a good "excuse" to explain their surprise wins. (Maybe a little tension in the middle east? Maybe a little tension in North Korea? Maybe a small attack on the USA? Can you say "false flag operation?")
2. The Republicans will need the mainstream media to buy into the excuse and claim the election was "fair and honest, with just a few smatterings of inconsequential problems." That's a no-brainer -- the corporate media has been doing that since 1998 without interruption every time the Republicans somehow secure a statistically or scientifically impossible win.
3. The Dems will have to sit back and not throw a hundred thousand lawyers and ten million dollars at this disgusting crime against Representative Democracy by the Republican Party and Republican operatives at the local level in every state.
4. The individual voters who have had taken away from them the franchise that previous generations DIED to give them will have to just walk off quietly and without complaint when told them are not allowed to vote. They will have to care more about what happens on LOST or AMERICAN IDOL than 230 years of history.
That's all that has to happen, and I suspect that is EXACTLY what will happen.
To quote a thousand sources (but not Edmund Burke, who apparently never said it): All that has to happen for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
Charlie L
Portland, OR
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Charlie L (2 articles, 2 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 591 comments)
on Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 3:13:36 PM
