Political Ruminations

Tagg Romney Investment Interests in Company That Provides Voting Machines to Ohio

Stephanie Miller’s interview with Rick Ungar regarding Ungar’s article about the Romney Family ties to the voting machine company, Hart Intercivic:

You can read Rick Ungar’s original piece here (and you should because it’s fascinating, informative, and scary). The story boils down to the Romney family, via Tagg Romney, having an interest in a company which provides Ohio with voting machines that will be used in the presidential election, and in particular, they will be used in Hamilton County, the location of Cincinnati.

According to Nate Silver, Ohio has a 50 percent chance of determining the outcome of this election.

You have to ask yourself why anyone in the Romney family would put themselves in such a position, especially since we know, and they know that we know, that modern Republicans just love to steal them some elections.

This should certainly be illegal as hell.

UPDATE October 24:

Mainstream media is avoiding this story. Because they’re gutless. Huge big thing continues to brew however, and you can read an update to Rick Ungar’s article on page 3 of his original piece, an update which points to a situation that’s actually worse than he thought when he wrote the piece. however, it seems that Ungar is unwilling to assign any motivations or possible guilt to anyone, probably because he values his job. That is not to say that it did not take some huge cojones to write the article to begin with, because it did.

Salon.com also has a piece up on this topic.

This is going to be a very interesting election, and you can bet that all eyes will be on Hamilton County, Ohio and the Hart Intercivic voting machines.

Morning Quote: David Axelrod

Top Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod to Fox News host Chris Wallace who repeated the completely false Republican claim that the Obama administration is trying to prevent the military from voting early in Ohio, emphasis mine: 

“I absolutely do and the way you stated it and the way, frankly, Gov. Romney has stated it, is completely false and misleading! What that lawsuit calls for is not to deprive the military of the right to vote on the final weekend of the campaign -- of course they should have that right. What that suit is about is whether the rest of Ohio should have the same right.

And I think it's shameful that Gov. Romney would hide behind our servicemen and women to try and win a lawsuit to try and deprive other Ohioans of their right to vote. ”

According to Crooks and Liars “Ohio's Republican-controlled legislature last year enacted new voting restrictions that prevented most voters from casting early ballots after the Friday before the election. Members of the military, however, had their rights preserved, giving them until Monday to vote.” and the Obama Campaign is suing to restore that right to cast an early ballot just prior to the election to all voters in Ohio.

More Stupid From the Department of Voter Disenfranchisement

Oh dear. Another Republican has apparently fallen in to the trap whereby he (mind bogglingly stupid) admits that voter id is about helping Romney win, and not, you know, about actual voter fraud (which doesn’t really exist in in-person voting).

This time (last time it was Pennsylvania House Majority Leader, Republican dope, Mike Turzai) it’s Wisconsin state senator, Glenn Grothman, and I’m sure I need not state that he is a…what else, a Republican piece of horseshit, another one of those who are determined to disenfranchise voters in order to win an election. From his interview with Think Progress (Keyes):

KEYES: If it were upheld and in place in time for the November election, do you think — polls have shown a pretty razor-thin margin — do you think it might ultimately help Romney’s campaign here in the state?
GROTHMAN: Yes. Right. I think we believe that insofar as there are inappropriate things, people who vote inappropriately are more likely to vote Democrat.
KEYES: So if these protections are in place of voter ID, that might ultimately help him in a close race?
GROTHMAN: Right. I think if people cheat, we believe the people who cheat are more likely to vote against us.

While the Wisconsin law has been by permanently blocked by Circuit Judge David Flanagan, the ruling is likely to be appealed, and if it is in fact reinstated, the law may very well  allow a Romney win unfairly (and by absolute intention of the Republicans), disenfranchising at least 300,000 people in Wisconsin:

Wisconsin is perennially a swing state in presidential elections. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) carried Wisconsin by just 0.4 percent in 2004; polls this year suggest it could be another nailbiter. PPP gives President Obama a 6-point edge, 50-44, but Rasmussen put Romney ahead by 3 points, 47-44.

Approximately 300,000 Wisconsinites lack a government-issued photo ID, more than 27 times the margin that Kerry won by in 2004. If the polls are still close in November and voter ID is reinstated, Grothman may very well be correct that the new law will give Romney an edge on Election Day. [….]

[….] A spokeswoman for Wisconsin’s Department of Justice, which defended the law in court, said state lawyers are currently reviewing Flanagan’s decision but will likely appeal the ruling.

It is estimated that Republican efforts at voter suppression will rob 5 million people of their right to vote in 2012. Utterly horrific and despicable.

Adding……..our old friend ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council)  is at the heart of the voter suppression laws in statehouses around the country.

Morning Quote: Charlie Crist

In a piece for the Washington Post, former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (I) on voter suppression efforts by Republicans in statehouses around the country (number of voters to be robbed of their right to vote is thought to be 5 million):

“ Including as many Americans as possible in our electoral process is the spirit of our country. It is why we have expanded rights to women and minorities but never legislated them away, and why we have lowered the voting age but never raised it. Cynical efforts at voter suppression are driven by an un-American desire to exclude as many people and silence as many voices as possible. ”

Via Josh Marshall, who noted “Voter suppression is as close as you get in democratic politics to mortal sin. And it's going to be one of the prime features of the 2012 election. It is shameful, cynical and frankly disgusting.”

Adding…..voter suppression is the last resort of a flailing political party which cannot  win on its  own merits.

Flashback Morning Quote: Steny Hoyer

A great flashback quote from Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md) (November 2011) on the Republican effort to steal yet another election by enacting voter id laws which target primarily minorities:

“ We know that voter suppression has been taking place, is [taking] place and is planned [to affect the 2012 election]. We are witnessing a concerted effort to place new obstacles in front of minorities, low-income families and young people who seek to exercise their right to vote. A poll tax by another name would smell as vile. ”

And recently, one of the Republican thugs even admitted it.

Morning Quote: Eric Holder

During a speech to the NAACP on Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder compared voter id laws (this particular law he was referring to is a voter id law in Texas) to Jim Crow-era laws and acts which were intended to suppress the African-American vote:

“Under the proposed law, concealed handgun licenses would be acceptable forms of photo ID, but student IDs would not. Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them, and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them. We call those poll taxes.”

These laws are absolutely nothing less than an attempt to disenfranchise minorities, led by many of the states where Republican governors are in power.

Morning Quote: Mike Turzai Admits Voter ID Laws Are About Limiting Turnout

House Majority Leader in the GOP controlled Pennsylvania legislature, Mike Turzai [R], verbalizes a list of that legislatures accomplishments, emphasis mine:

“Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it's done. First pro-life legislation -- abortion facility regulations -- in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”

Taegan Goddard notes what we have thought was clear as day all along, saying “Critics have long suspected voter ID laws are not about preventing fraud but about limiting turnout.”

Morning Quote: Tea Party Co-Founder Amy Kremer

At a Tea Party event yesterday, the Party’s co-founder, Amy Kremer, declared that Gov. Rick Scott’s (R-Fl) illegal voter purge is necessary because, according to Kremer,

“ If the Democrats cannot win it  [an election] fair and square, they will steal it.”

As Steve Benen noted this morning, Kremer made this oh so ironic remark without a “hint of irony”. Benen also pointed out that “87% of Scott's purge list is made up of minorities, minority voters tend to support Democrats, and the scheme is being executed five months before Election Day, the partisan motivations behind the governor's agenda is rather transparent”.

Image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore

Morning Quote: Sen. Dick Durbin

While lauding the end of DADT at a Bill of Rights celebration in Chicago, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) cautioned Americans regarding the voter suppression laws being enacted in many states, an effort financed by Charles and David Koch:

“At the top of our list of priorities is protecting the right to vote. We have fought for that for decades in this country and we must continue. There is a concerted, coordinated effort in states as close as Indiana and Wisconsin to deny millions of Americans the right to vote. It is spearheaded by the Koch brothers, and their big money interest.

Who do they want to keep out of the voting booth? Young people, old people, poor people, people with disabilities, people who live in rural areas — millions of Americans. Judson Phillips, leader of the tea party, thinks voting should be limited to, quote, those who own property, close quote. Isn’t that where we started? And to suggest that in a time of record foreclosures.

If we don’t fight to defend the ballot, all of our rights are in jeopardy.”

Teabag Fascist Movement to Restrict Voting Rights of Main Street

Stoking yet another false right-wing meme which proclaims that voter fraud is rampant in this country, Republican majorities in 22 statehouses across the country, have moved to enact laws which dramatically restrict the voting rights of college students, rural voters, senior citizens, the disabled and the homeless…in other words, of the young and the poor, both constituencies which tend to vote Democratic. Think Progress, emphasis mine:

As part of their larger effort to silence Main Street, conservatives are pushing through new photo identification laws that would exclude millions from voting, depress Hispanic voter turnout by as much as 10 percent, and cost taxpayers millions of dollars. In the next few months, a new set of election laws could make going to the polls and registering to vote significantly more difficult — in some cases even barring groups of citizens from voting in the communities where they live.

Conservative legislators across the country have said these laws are necessary to combat alleged mass voter fraud. But these fears are completely overblown and states already have tough voting laws on the books: fraudulent voters face felony charges, hefty fines, and even lengthy prison time.

Think Progress goes on to report on 8 of the states attempting to enact these restrictive voter id laws, so be sure to read the full article.

Meanwhile, on March 24th, the state of Ohio passed the most restrictive voter id legislation in the nation, disenfranchising as many as 900, 000 Ohioans

In just eight days, House Republicans hustled through HB 159, a bill that would require voters to show one of five forms of ID to vote in person: an Ohio driver’s license, state ID, military ID, U.S. passport, or “a new, free photo ID that State Bureau of Motor Vehicles would dispense to indigent citizens who qualify.” Currently, voters must show a photo ID or present a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck or government document with a current name and address. Unlike other states’ photo ID laws, HB 159 would not even allow students to use IDs issued by state colleges.

The bill sponsor, state Rep. Bob Mecklenborg (R) “said the bill is necessary to combat voter fraud and the perception of fraud.” But after failing to produce any actual evidence of such voter fraud, Meklenborg defended his theory with the inexorable proof that “I believe it happens” and “it’s impossible to prove a negative”:

While Republicans produced no evidence of voter fraud from impersonation, Mecklenborg and other GOP leaders say they believe it is going on unreported. “I believe it happens, but it’s proving a negative,” Mecklenborg told reporters after the vote. “It’s impossible to prove a negative. How do you prove that fraud doesn’t exist there?”

However, Cuyahoga County Board of Elections head Jane Platten, a Democrat, said she has never seen a case of voter impersonation in the seven years she has been with the local elections board.

I am beginning to wonder if the U.S. will survive the right-wing as a democracy with out a full blown civil war. Hyperbole? Maybe. But I don’t think so.