Is the Tea Party Illegaly Colluding to Repress the Vote?

Could the Tea Party be colluding with Republicans and other conservative groups to attempt to stop possible liberals from voting in this election? It’s a pretty strong accusation, but it’s one being made in Wisconsin.

From WKTB.com:

A liberal advocacy group is accusing state Republicans of colluding with the Tea Party movement to throw minority and student voters off the rolls.

One Wisconsin Now’s director, Scot Ross, alleges the groups decided in June to send mailings to minorities and students warning them to confirm their voter registrations or risk being thrown off the rolls. Ross says the groups wanted to note how many mailings came back as undeliverable and dispatch poll observers to challenge voters who claimed those addresses.

Ross is basing his allegations on audio recordings of a Tea Party coalition meeting in June.

One Wisconsin Now has full details up on its website, including quotes from key figures allegedly involved, as well as a synopsis of the potential plan.

THE PLOT
According to the statements made on the recordings, Dake lays out the plans, detailing contact between himself and Reince Preibus, the Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair and Mark Block, state director of Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin:

The Republican Party of Wisconsin will use its “Voter Vault” state-wide voter file to compile a list of minority and student voters in targeted Wisconsin communities.
Americans for Prosperity will use this list to send mail to these voters indicating the voter must call and confirm their registration information, and telling them if they do not call the number provided they could be removed from the voter lists.
The Tea Party organizations will recruit and place individuals as official poll workers in selected municipalities in order to be able to make the challenges as official poll workers.
On Election Day, these organizations will then “make use” of any postcards that are returned as undeliverable to challenge voters at the polls, utilizing law enforcement, as well as attorneys trained and provided by the RPW, to support their challenges.

As Firedoglake points out, because of the same-day voter registration laws in the state, the effectiveness of such suppression tactics are less dire, but can still cause a severe lockjam at the polls, which would inadvertently suppress the vote anyway, as well as create many potentially uncounted ballots.

…Wisconsin has same-day registration, so these challenged voters could provide proof of residency and just register at a new address. But these voters would have no idea going into the polls that the would be challenged. So the goal is to force voters into provisional ballots, which can be challenged later, or possibly to intimidate them from voting altogether. Roughly 35% of provisional ballots are never counted, many times because they require some kind of follow-up information on the part of the voter.

Voter suppression schemes are sadly a frequent part of some Republican campaign tactics. In 2008, the Michigan GOP became well-known for its “Lose Your House, Lose Your Vote” plan to challenge voters who’s houses were on foreclosure lists, stating that they must not technically be residents if they had no homes. The uproar over the scheme is believed to be responsible for the 2008 McCain team giving up and moving their operations out of the state.

There is no word yet on whether this allegation will be followed up with a full investigation.

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Geri M.

1:56PM PDT on Nov 1, 2010

The allegations are very likely accurate as republicans have done this before, in 2000 in 2004 for the presidential elections and numerous Congressional races for years. What is really astonishing is why nobody ever gets arrested! Everybody in Washington simply expects republicans to use illegal tactics to get their candidate elected! If a law doesn't bite anybody who violates it, nobody will respect it.

send a green star

Pat T.

9:27AM PDT on Sep 27, 2010

I have never seen such underhandedness as is in the Republican party.. The truth is something we do not hear from them and it is outrageous and supported by fox propaganda.
pat

Gina H.

1:29PM PDT on Sep 23, 2010

The GOP & tea party regime already mastered registering themselves at multiple locations so they can steal votes. They know about the possibility because they have been using it themselves for a while now. Sort of like G. Bush Sr. being registered in a hotel room in TX to avoid paying taxes on his property in Maine. I'm sure he never got questioned as to whether or not he voted in BOTH states. The GOP/tea party just wants to prevent other parties from being able to do the same I guess. If anyone needs to be monitored & double checked, it's them. They just want to ensure more numbers for them in case their rigged electronic voting booths don't work properly.

Robert B.

11:04AM PDT on Sep 23, 2010

It's the Big Boys with the Deep Pockets full of money financing all the lies. Who do think finances the teababblers? Or any other crooked politician for that matter. If you want to see behind the curtain read John Grisham's book: THE APPEAL, it's a real eye opener. The story itself is fiction but the behind-the-scene dealing are based on true events. A book worth reading.

Jae A.

1:22AM PDT on Sep 23, 2010

Gene W....,You said.."The best program that I have seen is that which allows anyone 55 or younger to place a portion of their SS money in an investment which is theirs to keep regardless of what happens to the SSA."
Hummm...maybe you thinking of things like investing in the stock market or housing market Gene W.? So it will be theirs to keep you say...Now that's a laugh. Where you off in some remote cave after the last Federal election until just recently and haven't seen any news since your coming out..of that cave :-). Maybe so, as that would be one of the reasons that anyone could suggest such as you did with that;/those comment. Appears that you were in that cave or ?...who knows what but you sure talk like someone who missed the housing markets crash and the near total crash of the stock market.
Bush and buds were pushing for what you just suggest, before their time was up in the White House, for those under 55 to do just that also. Now with hindsight on everyone's side... look at what would have happened to that SS money invested by individuals had those investments been made back then. If people had been able to do just what you suggest then they'd be left with zero today, as so many were as it was.
Yep Gene W...great plan you have there for those who might just as well take their SS money to any number of casinos in Vegas .where .their odds of having any left by the time they leave,much less by the time for retirement, are better than what your suggesting.

Judith S.

1:20AM PDT on Sep 23, 2010

Whoever made the comment about Democrats and Republicans being the flip sides of the same coin, that is definitely not the case. There is a very real difference in what values they hold and what is important to those of each party. The problem is that the last House and Senate voted in by the Democrats mostly (with a few striking exceptions) did not represent their constituents so it only appears that they are the flip sides of the same coin. However, we do need to pick our representatives more carefully by their values, and not which party they represent, for that very reason. Simply voting along party lines no longer means you will get what you expected.

Marianne C.

10:10PM PDT on Sep 22, 2010

You betcha! *wink, wink*

Susan O.

9:34PM PDT on Sep 22, 2010

Of COURSE they are ... they prefer to repress human rights at all costs, by inhibiting free elections.

Tea Party & Republicans: Supporting life, right up until birth!

Tom Y.

9:32PM PDT on Sep 22, 2010

I'd think the Tea Party has enough broad popular support, drawn from its voice for the "Taxed Enough Already!" populace, that it wouldn't need to resort to such subterfuge. There are enough minorities aboard to make it a majority! Big-tent movements will always attract elitist scorn, but people here shouldn't let such scorn motivate them.

Chrystle A.

5:41PM PDT on Sep 22, 2010

Sarah Palin is CLASSY? Oh, please. Other countries have been laughing at us for the whole time Bush was president and couldn't put one sentence together with any competence. Neither can Palin. Have any of you actually listened to either of these people speak, especially without a script? THEY MAKE NO SENSE WHATSOEVER! I don't care what political party someone is. If they make sense, I vote for them. Even Barbara Bush, his mother, had no faith that her son, George would ever manage to make anything of himself!!! That, to me, says it all!!!