Two Items of Grave Concern: GOP Writes Election Contingency Plans & GOP Spreads Malicious ACT Rumors
GOP Writes Election Contingency Plans
Well, it
should come as no surprise that the Bush junta is trying to bypass the
Constitution again. I suppose they are meeting with too much
opposition to be able to effectively rig the touch-screen voting
machines, so they are taking yet another stab at winning without
votes. Forgive me if I seem skeptical when it comes to the GOP
setting up guidelines to “protect” elections. Here are the
details from VotersUnite!
DeForest Soaries, chairman of the Election Assistance Commission, says the government needs to establish guidelines for canceling or rescheduling elections if terrorists strike the United States again.
VotersUnite!
spoke with legislative staff in Washington D.C. and learned that the
House is discussing guidelines, but that the discussions do not include
any mention of canceling the election. The discussions are centered
around guidelines for rescheduling deadlines in case of a wide-scale
interruption of basic services. The goal, according to the staff, is to
ensure that the election can be held successfully, and Congress is
attempting to develop contingency plans in case problems occur.
These seem like reasonable precautions. Nevertheless, VotersUnite! believes that we, the voters, also need to take precautions.
While
Article I, Section 4[1] of the Constitution of the United States gives
Congress the power to determine the day of the election of Senators and
Representatives, and while Article II, Section 1[4] gives Congress the
power to determine the day of the Presidential election, the Constitution DOES NOT give Congress the power to cancel these elections.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
Contact
your U.S. Senators and Representative immediately and make sure they
know you are watching this issue closely. Let them know:
1) You appreciate their efforts to ensure that our elections run smoothly.
2) You
will not tolerate the passage of any guidelines that provide for
canceling a national election or rescheduling it in a way that could
delay the inauguration of newly-elected officials at the traditional
times in January 2005.
To write Senator Tom Harkin, go here:
http://harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm
http://grassley.senate.gov/webform.htm
To write to your Representative in the U.S. House, go here:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
GOP Spreads Malicious Rumors About ACT
This is a bad one. My own mother read it in the newspaper and thinks it’s true.
Last
Friday, Ed Gillespie, Chairman of the Republican National Committee,
sent an ATTACK ACT email to millions of Republican activists. In the
message, he urged Republican Team Leaders to write letters to the
editors of their local papers suggesting that ACT is sending “murderers
and rapists door-to-door.”
These Republican tactics reveal how scared they're getting and how low they'll stoop.
Read the full text of Gillespie's email below — filled with the typical lies and exaggerations.
The Attack Email from the RNC – Sent Friday, June 28th, 2004
America
Coming Together (ACT) has claimed to reach over 2 million targeted
households in their efforts to register Democratic voters to defeat
[pResident] (sic) George W. Bush. This week in Arkansas the Kerry
campaign hired a senior member of the ACT team to lead their state
efforts.
Recently
in Ohio, the state Democratic Party declared that ACT will run the
ground game for them. Furthermore, today's Kansas City Star
reports that Charlene Davis, director of the Jackson County election
board, said “many of the voter registration forms ACT workers had
turned in contained inaccurate information” and called it “the worst
I've ever seen.” Erroneous information included forms filled out
for residents of Kansas and Minnesota, and forms from people too young
to vote.
ACT
has admitted to sending felons convicted of sex crimes and assault to
conduct voter registration efforts in as many as 17 states. Despite
initial willingness to clarify their hiring process they now refuse to
say whether they sent a murderer and a rapist door to door.
I
hope you will make clear that the party of this state, under your
direction, is not using similar tactics to register voters and in doing
so reaffirm the validity of your activities.
As
both our parties mount aggressive efforts to register new voters and
encourage participation in the political process, I hope you will join
me in repudiating these tactics to provide all voters the assurance
that the election process is transparent, bipartisan, and fair.
I
can't tell you enough how important our Party's grassroots efforts are
and how much pride we take in your role as Team Leaders. You make ours
the hardest working, most efficient political team in the history of
politics.
Keep up the great work.
Sincerely,
Ed Gillespie
Chairman
OK, group gag now.
Blog For Iowa 
This is really dirty politics! And it is very difficult to counter. I have concerns that if people bring these allegations up in the press in order to squash this false and harmful allegation before it gets well established, that they will simply spread it. Maybe the best strategy to counter this would be to watch carefully for it, and then go hard after the source (Gilespie and the GOP).
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I agree with you, Sue. To write in to newspapers in protest just spreads the rumor even further. I think we need to keep our ears open and counter it on an individual basis whenever we can–like with my mom.
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Ugh.
— Dawn
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