They are not being counted. Here's the trick: Overwhelmingly, all polls show that NPP, or independent voters, are Bernie Sanders voters. Regular registered Democrats tend to slightly favor Hillary Clinton in the polls. So if you knock out the NPP voters by giving them placebo ballots -- provisional ballots -- that's one way to steal the primary in California on June 7.
DB: The poll worker says that everybody knows these ballots don't get counted, so there's some awareness this is another Bernie fake-out.
Palast: The polls show an overwhelming preference of NPP/independent voters for Sanders versus registered Democrats who slightly favor Clinton.
And listen up: If you are in Nevada, Utah or Florida, you are not safe going into the voting booths either, because provisional ballots are everywhere in the USA under federal law. People are being given provisional ballots like candy. In 2008, 2.1 million voters were shunted to provisional ballots. They might as well have written their vote on bubbles. 2.1 million voters.
Who gets these ballots normally? I was on a book tour in Palm Springs and there were about 200 white folk and two people of color in the audience. I said, "Has anyone here ever gotten a provisional ballot?" The only two Black voters in the room both raised their hands, and that was it. Black people know what provisional ballots are, and they probably know that if they fill one out, the chance of it getting counted is slim. If you are given a provisional ballot, don't take it. Demand adjudication -- say that independents are entitled to regular ballots in the Democratic primary. This is a nationwide problem.
DB: Give us some history. Tell us about the Laguna and Acoma pueblos in New Mexico, south of Albuquerque. Tell us about what happened to this indigenous community and those who called this into question and defended people's right to vote.
Palast: I went to the Acoma pueblo in New Mexico with my investigations team. The Native Americans who live in the pueblo were voting for city council in droves because they are very concerned that their land is being poisoned by the uranium mines -- which are going to expand." Because they didn't want their lands poisoned, they had a motive to vote. There was also a reason for people to not let them vote. The people that wanted the mine didn't want the natives to vote. What did they do?
They told the pueblo residents, "You are not properly registered." In Native American communities, they say things like "Your address is incorrect because it says 'home next to the Post Office.'" That's often the only address in a pueblo, but it's not a street number, so their registration is challenged.
There were 200 people in the pueblo who had their registrations challenged, and they were given provisional ballots. "Don't worry. If you overcome the challenge, we'll count your vote. Fill out the provisional ballots and put them in the envelope."
The county took the ballots and threw them all away because they said they were in the wrong envelopes. They were the envelopes the government had given them, knowing they were the wrong envelopes they could then throw out. That's how this game is played.
No one is hit with more provisional ballots than Native Americans. They are one of the most Democratic Party-leaning groups there are. If you are wondering if this is a one-party steal system, it was the Democrats who took away votes of their fellow Democrats at the pueblo because they didn't like who they were voting for in the primary. This is typical, as we are seeing in California right now.
DB: In Arizona, you write about a John Brakey, who worked with Audit Arizona. What happened to him?
Palast: He's a great vote theft and election manipulation investigator. He's well known in our field and works with a great team of attorneys. He was a poll watcher in Arizona, and they were taking Hispanic voters, especially young men, and automatically sending them over to provisional ballots -- which wouldn't get counted.
They'd say, "What's your name?" "Jose Juarez." "Well your name isn't on the voter roles." Why? When they looked for Juarez, they looked under "W" -- I kid you not! When Brakey complained, the state of Arizona called in the state cops, not to stop the theft of the vote but to arrest John Brakey, the poll worker. This is the type of games that are played.
In California, with the attempt to steal votes by giving independent voters provisional ballots, for the first time there are a lot of white people, Bernie voters, who are being treated as if they are Black, Hispanic or Native American voters.
This is the typical treatment for voters of color in America, under our apartheid provisional ballot system we have. Two million ballots in 2008 were provisional and most were thrown in the garbage. We are heading into a primary where poll workers are going to try to shunt the independent voters to the provisional ballots and get their votes thrown away. If you take a provisional ballot and you are an NPP voter, it will 100% be thrown away because you're not allowed to use that ballot even if they give it to you.
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