The Obama Nation
Posted by: Jubal | 10/07/2008 8:34 AM
Form the New York Post:
No wonder Democrats get so riled up over things like requiring proof of identity to vote. It gets in the way of GOTV efforts.
CLEVELAND - Volunteers supporting Barack Obama picked up hundreds of people at homeless shelters, soup kitchens and drug-rehab centers and drove them to a polling place yesterday on the last day that Ohioans could register and vote on the same day, almost no questions asked.Gosh, what a shock. I'm only surprised they didn't pick up cadavers from the morgue for a "Weekend At Bernie's" GOTV effort. Then again, maybe they are. Any suspicious poll worker could be intimidated with accusations of "life-ism."
The huge effort by a pro-Obama group, Vote Today Ohio, takes advantage of a quirk in the state's elections laws that allows people to register and cast ballots at the same time without having to prove residency.
Republicans have argued that the window could lead to widespread voter fraud because officials wouldn't have an opportunity to verify registration information before ballots were cast.
Among the volunteers were Yori Stadlin and Vivian Lehrer of the Upper West Side, who got married last week and decided to spend their honeymoon shepherding voters to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
Early today, Stadlin's van picked up William Woods, 59, at the soup kitchen of the Bishop Cosgrove Center.
"I never voted before," Woods said, because of a felony conviction that previously barred him from the polls. "Without this service, I would have had no way to get here."
No wonder Democrats get so riled up over things like requiring proof of identity to vote. It gets in the way of GOTV efforts.
Anonymous, you have an excellent point. Sometimes people become annoyed by a person or event, to the extent...
Yep, even in Orange County you can register to vote without having to present an ID. My father, who has lived with my husband and I since December just went to register to vote yesterday, directly to the ROV offices. He didn't even have to prove he lived here. Never had to show a driver's license, nothing. Amazing. They just gave him the form, he filled it out and whammoo! A registered voter! Imagine, his driver's license hasn't been changed, and his address on that is in Bakersfield.
Yes, because we ALL know that the homeless and recovering drug addicts shouldn't have the right to vote. (Where's a poll tax when you really need one?)
It won't matter anyway: Saturday's ABC/Washington Post poll has Obama up 6% over McCain in Ohio. And even if Ohio is close enough to contest, Obama is pulling ahead in the key states. FiveThirtyEight.com has him winning 344 to 194 in the Electoral College. RealClearPolitics has him at 364 to 174. Intrade is going for Obama 69 to 30.
McCain is floundering. Palin's initial charm is wearing off. The fat lady is warming up off-stage.
And, BTW, I take no pleasure in this. The GOP is getting its just desserts for nominating a man whom George Will this weekend rightly called "a collectivist-nationalist."
Given the large number of people left homeless by the widening foreclosure debacle, proving residency is going to be a big issue.
And, the registration laws vary from state to state.
Republicans and Democrats both commit voter fraud, just ask the poll guards that were used in the OC not to long ago.
Anon @ 9:36: They don't require ID when registering; your father could have just as easily registered by mail without showing ID.
Instead, they will require him to present ID when he goes to the polls in November. At that time they will verify his identity.
MN
Republicans and Democrats both commit voter fraud, just ask the poll guards that were used in the OC not to long ago.
"Not too long ago?" Try 20 years ago.
Regardless of the PR wisdom of posting uniformed poll watchers with signs warning "Non-Citizens Can't Vote," that isn't fraud.
And Mr. Whipple, don't try to make this into a civil rights issue when it isn't. The Obama campaign deliberately targeting transients, registering them to vote -- whether they are eligible or not -- and then hauling them to the polling place mocks a mockery of the franchise.
Sometimes I think your are so bitter at the GOP you cannot see straight on other issues.
Matt,
My comment, above, was not driven so much by bitterness as it was amazement at the umbrage and indignation of the GOP faithful -- who would be doing the same thing in Ohio as the Democrats if they could pull it off.
The notion that "my party" is honorable, noble, virtuous, and truthful, while the "other party" is evil, greedy, lying, and cheating is just simply a pile of fertilizer. Both major parties pull off whatever dirty tricks they can to retain and increase their power.
Frankly, you're like two skunks who can't smell each other.
...the GOP faithful -- who
would be doing the same thing in Ohio as the Democrats if they could
pull it off.
Then why aren't they? There's nothing to stop them from rounding up warm bodies, giving them a voter reg form to fill out, and then truck them to the polls.
This "pox on both your houses" attitude can be taken to the level of unthinking and reflexive.
Okay, Matt. I'll see your hauling of transients to the polls and raise you all of the Bush administration's signing statements.
Over the last eight years, Bush has issued hundreds of these insidious documents declaring that he had no intention of obeying a law that he had just signed.
Like I said, Both major parties pull off whatever dirty tricks they can to retain and increase their power.
Do you need some more apples to compare to the oranges we're talking about, Mr. Whipple?
I'll take that as a tacit admission you're just engaging in knee-jerk anti-GOP ragging.