Don't Vote on Tuesday! You don't want to go to jail, do you?

I’ve been reading a lot of articles about this lately, and it does make me sick, literally. I have a knot in my stomach that won’t go away till it’s over, if then.

I had to stop reading that article half-way down. I just couldn’t read the rest, it was making me feel so sick.

Wow, I’m not sure I can even read it. As it is, I just want to go hide under my covers until it’s all over, anyway!

There are always people preying on the weak and gullible. These tactics are disgusting.

However, it would take an ill-informed person to fall for these ploys. It’s every American’s right to vote, but voters should educate themselves on the rules and regulations involved in voting. If they can’t do a little “basic” homework on democracy and the voting process… they probably can’t make an intelligent, informed decision anyway.

Many have fought for and died for our right to vote. Is it asking too much to want the populace to know the basics?

I’m convinced there should be a test given to anyone who wants to vote, if you pass the test you get to vote.

I think we should put them in a jigsaw trap, if they survive they get to vote. You know, like from the “Saw” movies.

That would be way more effective…..

I was telling my (Republican but voting Obama this one time) mom about that. I read an AP article yesterday about it that tried really, really hard to show “both sides”, but when it talked about Republicans being tricked, they could only dig up stuff from the primaries. Which is to say Republicans tricking Republicans. She got really cranky and made me stop. I was just listing the various places it is happening and what is being done in each place and she told me to stop talking about it because I was just saying the same thing over and over again.

I was very cranky with her. Each story I was telling was a different story of the party she supports, that she says after this election she will go back to supporting, doing what she admitted was despicable.

It is despicable and really shows the worst in people.

I am very happy to say I am finished with this election. I voted early and am done. This election, thought exciting and one of the most interesting races I’ve seen in my adult (voting age adult life!) life, has been draining. It has brought out the worst in people and really has set a fearful tone among a lot of people. I know it’s not just the election, but also a sign of the time; however, it’s just been an emotional drain on a lot of people.

People sick enough to do things like this, IMO, should be sitting inside a cell – for a nice amount fo time.

Republicans are so patriotic.

Voting is for marxist terrorist anyway.

Let’s just let Jesus decide for us….

@Miz: You don’t think this happens on both sides of the fence? Secondly not all republicans are Christians.
Perhaps we should let Jesse Jackson decide who should be president, he’s pretty righteous…...

OK, so now it is all about Jesse Jackson!

Oh my God! A black man! How Scary!

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…..I will fear no evil—for Jesse is the meanest mo-fo in the valley!

I so much enjoy the fleeting moments of Republican angst….I say fleeting because they wil steal tomorrow’s election and we will have to hear about McCain’s Mandate…..

@ Miz: I’m happy you enjoy other peoples sorrow. Perhaps after Obama wins you can really tell republicans how they are such bad people and the world would be better off without them. I’m sure glad Obama doesn’t stand for the same things that you do, or when he does likely become President this world would be in an awful place.

So I guess it’s only wrong when a republican does it…...when a democrat spreads lies about someone like Sarah Palin, it’s okay because…...?

Flying monkeys out in force….

Sarah Palin lies to the public repeatedly and enthusiastically. Most famously at this point right after the ethics report came out saying she had broken state ethics laws she went to interviews and rallies and said she was very happy to have been cleared of any wrongdoing.

She gives us so much material to work with, we don’t need to spread lies about her.

No, seriously, where have there been lies going around about her?

Voter suppression is almost entirely a republican animal. It only benefits them when voter turnout is low.

@EmpressPixie: Lies generated about Palin from the Liberal extremists.

1. Palin joined a secessionist political party.
2. Palin supported a Nazi sympathizer.
3. Palin wants creationism taught in schools.
4. Palin was almost recalled while mayor.
5. Palin opposes sex education.
6. The pictures showing Palin as proving some extremist right ideology.
7. Palin is the grandmother of Trig.
8. Palin is a book burner.
9. Palin favors abstinence only education.
10. Palin cut funding for programs that would support unwed teenagers.
11. Palin lied about selling a plane on ebay.

There are probably others but this is probably good enough for what you were asking. To simply not recognize that political banter doesn’t involve both parties is simply imprudent, negligent, and/or narrow minded.

9 out of 11 are documented, factual, and a simple Google should unearth them for you.

Never underestimate the….... of the American People…...

Even if your so called google search did PROVE 9 out of the 11 what about the other 2? Can I ask which 9 you are referring to, and which partisan news source you claim unearthed them for me with relevant links?

I would be happy to, but only if your Google is broken.

Your right, it’s awful for me to ask for you to back up your argument. Good luck in the election…...

If anyone is interested in listening to some in depth discussion of the worst that comes from both the democrats and the republicans, check out http://thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=276
Act 2, (though the whole show is good).

The republicans are much worse in general, when it comes to vote suppression. This is probably in large part due to demographics—they tend to win when people don’t turn out to vote, and lose otherwise. I’ve often wondered how republicans can support a party that makes this kind of chicanery part of the bread and butter of their campaigning. I think partly by refusing to see it, and partly by imagining that the abuses from the other side of the aisle (which do exist) are comparable. Right now, they aren’t. Though they have been in the past—in 1960 JFK arguably stole the election from Nixon.

Link to article and thread representing more voter suppression.
Black Panther Suppression

@finkelitis: ”I’ve often wondered how republicans can support a party that makes this kind of chicanery part of the bread and butter of their campaigning”

It’s not the party that that makes this the bread and butter of their campaigning. It’s the extremists.

The difference is that you’re comparing two guys on one side (Dem) to a widespread strategy on the other side (Rep) that’s actually supported by the leadership of that side.

@cyndyh: What widespread strategy has the leadership of the republican party engaged that causes voter suppression?

Carefully “examining” voter registers in heavily democrat counties and fraudulently removing a great number of legal voters for a great number of reasons.

Mailings saying that due to high turnout expectations, one party would vote Tuesday, one Wednesday. The democrats were scheduled for Wednesday.

Trying to say that anyone who had lost their house should not be able to vote because their address would change.

Calling elderly or non-English speaking Americans and telling them they could vote over the phone.

Only one and three are official policies. Two and four happened this year but of course cannot be traced back to the party they benefit.

The biggest is taking lists of felons and striking any “matching” names from the voting registers where a match means any name that begins with the first to letters. So if the felon is James Smith, all the James Smiths get stricken. But so do the Janet Smuckers and the Jamal Smalls. And the Ja Sm whatever elses. And amazingly, they only do this in counties that historically vote for the other side. Because if they are going to vote for you, there’s really no benefit to suppressing their vote.

And there’s trying to tell college students that they can’t register to vote in the state they attend school in.

There’s trying to pass laws requiring multiple IDs at the polls and enforcing them in areas that are heavily Mexican-American.

There’s election officials that decide to stop counting in counties that have large urban populations when you’ve worked out a way that the count favors your party now.

Election officials that decide they don’t have to show a printout or count to anyone and shred ballots when that count is questioned.

There’s turning people away from the polls.

@cyndy: And if telling them they can’t register there doesn’t work, there is giving them ridiculously more complicated applications than anyone else has to fill out to deter them. Williamsburg, VA ‘04.

Yeah. I’m just glad the usual tricks didn’t work for them this time around.

I heard the voter watchdog people talking about Ohio on the radio. After 2004 they (the watchdogs) were there in force to make sure everything went smoothly. And guess what? Since the republican secretary of state was replaced by a democrat, the vote actually went very smoothly, with virtually no lines, voter purges, etc. that so marred the 04 election.

@critter—there’s a huge body of evidence (a fraction of which has been mentioned here). And more so, I think you need to hold the leadership accountable even if they weren’t condoning and supporting this behavior. There are always abuses on both sides, but the scale is orders of magnitude apart.

I can’t believe people are still bitching about this….

@cheeb: I think it’s important to keep discussing this and other issues from past elections. Dirty politics (from any party) is something I’d like to see die a gruesome death. If we just forget about it now that the election is over, we’ll likely have this same conversation every four years. It’s time to fundamentally change the political campaign process, for the better of us all.

Yep, if we don’t learn to combat it it just keeps happening.