Wendy Bell Is On The Case! She's Got The SCOOP On PA Voter Fraud!! OMG!!

Except that she isn't and she doesn't.

Today, on her Facebook page, Wendy posted this: 

According to an internal document provided to me by an anonymous whistleblower, the following is a new directive of the PA Department of State regarding ballots mailed in WITHOUT a postmark.

 

"Ballots that lack a postmark or other proof of mailing, or for which the postmark or other proof of mailing is illegible, are PRESUMED (emphasis added) to have been mailed by Tuesday, November 3, 2020, and are valid and must be counted, unless A PREPONDERANCE OF THE EVIDENCE DEMONSTRATES THAT THE BALLOT WAS MAILED AFTER NOVEMBER 3. (Added emphasis again.)

 

1. What in THE HELL does that even mean? And,

 

2. If PA voters have three days after today to get their ballots in, why would the Department of State need to create a provision mandating that ballots WITHOUT postmarks be considered valid? Isn't creating rules to override other rules a form of vote tampering?

Wow! An "internal document" from a whistle blower who wishes to remain anonymous!

This must be sooo super secret, right? 

I mean it's internal and sourced anonymously, right??

It must be something the Wolf administration doesn't want you to see, right???

(You know where this is going, right????)

You can see the document right here. Take a look at page 4 (of the 4 page super-secret document that anyone can find online). There, you can read this:

Ballots that lack a postmark or other proof of mailing, or for which the postmark or other proof of mailing is illegible, are presumed to have been mailed by Tuesday, November 3, 2020, and are valid and must be counted, unless a preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that the ballot was mailed after November 3, 2020.

Look familiar, Wendy? Took me about 10 seconds to find.

Anyway, look at Wendy's #2 paragraph. She's saying (or at least implying) that the voting boards will be treating as valid anything mailed three days after today, asking "isn't this vote tampering?"

Except that when you look at the beginning of this super secret document that anyone can find online, you'll see this:

On October 28, 2020, the Department of State issued guidance related to the segregation of mail-in and civilian absentee ballots received by mail after 8:00 P.M. on Tuesday November 3, 2020 and before 5:00 P.M. on Friday, November 6, 2020.

Ah, Wendy didn't tell you that they're only looking at stuff arriving before Friday at 5. Indeed the document even says that the voting board will not be opening:

Ballots (whenever postmarked) received by mail after 5:00 P.M. on Friday, November 6, 2020.

So, Wendy how many ballots mailed on Friday would arrive by Friday? And what sort of chance is there that something dropped in a mailbox on Thursday arrives by Friday at 5? Or dropped in a mailbox on Wednesday?

Anyway, this is also in that super-secret document:

One authorized representative of each candidate in an election and one representative from each political party shall be permitted to remain in the room in which the ballots are canvassed.

And:

County boards of elections are instructed to maintain separate counts for each of the following categories of ballots: (i) ballots with a postmark on or before November 3, 2020 which are counted; (ii) ballots without a postmark (or with an illegible postmark) which are presumed to have been mailed prior to Election Day and which are counted; and (iii) ballots without a postmark (or with an illegible postmark) which are determined by a preponderance of the evidence to have been mailed after Election Day and which are not counted.

So all the candidates and both parties will know how many of your non/badly-postmarked ballots there are. 

This is Wendy Bell's conspiracy theory today - that the election will be thrown by those many many Pennsylvanians who'll watch tonight's returns, be disappointed with the result, and then fill out their mail-in ballots and rush them out to the Post-Office tomorrow (or maybe Thursday, possibly Friday) hoping they arrive by Friday at 5 with illegible or absent post-marks. And that without Wendy's dogged pursuit of this story, and stunning devotion to delivering the truth to the public, no one would ever have known.

Wendy, you do see how crazie this is, don't you?

How Trump And His Enablers in the GOP Are Corrupting The Postal Service To Aid His Re-Election

From the AP:

A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked controversial Postal Service changes that have slowed mail nationwide, calling them “a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service” before the November election.

Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima, Washington, said he was issuing a nationwide preliminary injunction sought by 14 states that sued the Trump administration and the U.S. Postal Service.

And:

The judge noted after a hearing that Trump had repeatedly attacked voting by mail by making unfounded claims that it is rife with fraud. Many more voters are expected to vote by mail this November because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the states have expressed concern that delays might result in voters not receiving ballots or registration forms in time.

“The states have demonstrated the defendants are involved in a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service,” Bastian said.

He also said the changes created “a substantial possibility many voters will be disenfranchised.”

BTW, the "defendants" here are Donald Trump and Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General.

You can read the order here.

From the Judge's analysis:

Although not necessarily apparent on the surface, at the heart of DeJoy’s and the Postal Service’s actions is voter disenfranchisement. This is evident in President Trump’s highly partisan words and tweets, the actual impact of the changes on primary elections that resulted in uncounted ballots, and recent attempts and lawsuits by the Republican National Committee and President Trump’s campaign to stop the States’ efforts to bypass the Postal Service by utilizing ballot drop boxes, as well as the timing of the changes.It is easy to conclude that the recent Postal Services’ changes is an intentional effort on the part the current Administration to disrupt and challenge the legitimacy of upcoming local, state,and federal elections, especially given that 72% of the decommissioned high speed mail sorting machines that were decommissioned were located in counties where Hillary Clinton receive the most votes in 2016.

And this happened in Pennsylvania: 

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court extended the due date for mail ballots in the November election, a decision that will likely result in more votes being counted in the state — and more time to determine the final results.

Mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania have previously been due by the time polls close on Election Day. But the court's order adds a three-day extension to receive ballots that are postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day. Ballots with a preelection postmark will now be counted as long as they are received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 6, three days after the polls close.

The court also wrote that ballots "received within this period that lack a postmark or other proof of mailing, or for which the postmark or other proof of mailing is illegible, will be presumed to have been mailed by Election Day unless a preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that it was mailed after Election Day."

Of course, to our good friends in the GOP, this was an assault on democracy and the rule of law itself.

Today’s blatantly political decision to violate the law irresponsibly heightens the risk that our state will experience a lengthy, disputed, and controversial outcome in what is expected to be an extremely close presidential race.

— Senator Pat Toomey (@SenToomey) September 17, 2020

The idea of having more citizens voting has always been anathema to the GOP - they only want the right voters voting (see what I did there?).

A Tale of Two Elections

As with everything in our Two Americas, your voting experience varied radically depending on how much money you have.

In an African American neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio, the scene was long lines and long waits as extended hours early voting only really extended to the white, Republican suburbs:


Meanwhile, voters in Bel Air, California were met with free valet parking, lattes and finger food in the luxe version of democracy:

USA! USA! USA!

The latest in voter suppression in Pennsylvania today

1) Judge orders partisans to stop asking voters for ID outside Homestead polls

2) Watchdog: Evidence of Unlawful Voter Purge in Pennsylvania

3) Video of 2012 Voting Machines Altering Votes in PA:

Evidence Suggests PA GOP Poll Watchers Targeting African American Precincts

Via an email from SEIU:

Evidence Suggests PA GOP Poll Watchers Systematically Targeting African American Precincts

WASHINGTON, DC – After receiving information indicating that the Pennsylvania Republican Party and the Pittsburgh Tea Party may be systematically sending poll watchers to predominantly African American precincts in Pittsburgh, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Common Cause, The Advancement Project, The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the ACLU, together with a number of local community groups, sent a letter to Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez, who is responsible for enforcing the Voting Rights Act, asking that the Justice Department “make every effort to ensure that voters at these targeted locations are able to cast their ballots freely and fairly” and also to ask the Pennsylvania Republican Party about the source of its lists and the basis of its targeting.

“We have seen their list and it strongly suggests that the Pennsylvania Republican Party is coordinating with the Pittsburgh Tea Party to target African American voters for intimidation at the polls,” said Nicole Berner, SEIU Associate General Counsel. “The Pennsylvania Republican Party has serious questions to answer about where they are putting their poll watchers and why.”

Full text of the letter after the fold.

Old (Wrong) Voter ID Posters Displayed in Police Station in the Lower Hill in Pittsburgh

In addition to posters wrongly telling PA citizens that they must show photo ID before they can vote on Tuesday being displayed in a place where the unemployed gather, apparently, they are also being displayed in a police station in a predominately African-American neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

From a good source:

"...I saw two of these posters on a bulletin board in the lobby of the District 2 police station on Centre Avenue in the Lower Hill."

Hey! Anyone see these outdated, misleading posters still being displayed on government property in, oh I don't know, Mt. Lebanon, or say, Fox Chapel, or Cranberry Township? (Please stop laughing.)

PA CareerLink Office in Robinson Displaying Poster Saying You Must Show Photo ID to Vote

A reader sent me this photograph taken today by cell phone, November 1, 2012:

(Click photo to enlarge)

This was photographed at the Allegheny West CareerLink office at Robinson Plaza Two, Suite 410, Pittsburgh, PA 15205. For those who are fortunate enough not to know it, in order to collect unemployment in PA, many are required to attend mandatory session/s at a CareerLink center.

The information on the poster is wrong as there is a temporary injunction against needing to show photo ID at the polls for the election on November 6, 2012 and it may therefore suppress the vote.

This needs to be taken down IMMEDIATELY! (Why was it still up?)

I will be calling them.

UPDATE: I left a message for the center's directory, Tiffany (didn't catch the last name). She's either at the Downtown office /out to lunch. I also spoke to someone at the ACLU about this.

UPDATE 2: Everyone, please call them to complain: (412) 809-3500!

UPDATE 3: Tiffiany did leave a message for me today (Nov. 2) and we are now playing phone tag.

And yet even more voter suppression

NSFW
As David noted here, as of October 26th, radio ads falsely claiming that Pennsylvania voters had to show photo ID on election day were still running on KDKA radio (and who knows where else). And then there's this. Yesterday afternoon, while everyone was still bracing for what Sandy might bring to PA and while we were in an official state of emergency, the voter suppression was ongoing -- this time, on the streets of Pittsburgh. I saw this via Facebook from a co-worker (and someone whom I trust):

OMFG!!!!! There are state trucks driving around the city today with 30ft signs that say SHOW ID!!!! This is unbelievable!!!! Anyone know what numbers would be best to contact about this...if you dont know we DO NOT NEED to show ID on the 6th

Unfortunately, he was going in the opposite direction, so no photograph was taken.

Now, I don't know if the giant ads he saw had the fine print like the one below, but even if they did, what message are you really going to get (or literally see) from something on a moving vehicle?

According to Ngani Ndimbie of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, buses displaying signs like the one below -- even if they display the fine print -- are a problem for obvious reasons and add to the misinformation:

Reports from supporters/ voting rights advocates about the new "(small text) If you have it, (big text) Show it" bus ad campaign were the tipping point before we filed the latest complaint w/ Judge Simpson about the state misinforming voters.

On top of that, what an incredible waste of state resources!

If you happen to see one of these moving billboards, please take a photo and send it to the ACLU of Pennsylvania (and me!).

An example of the new, fine print added "show it" campaign:

More and more voter suppression

Pennsylvania:
From Capitol Ideas we see that Spanish-language billboards and radio ads in Philadelphia, PA are still telling voters that they need photo ID to vote in Pennsylvania -- after the temporary injunction.

Ohio:
We learn from Daily Kos that an Ohio county is sending voters both the wrong election date and the wrong directions to the polls.

Help

The deadline for voter registration in Pennsylvania is this Tuesday, October 9th. Help register people to vote:

Volunteer in Pennsylvania: http://OFA.BO/FxCvgG  

(Gotta vote? Go here: http://OFA.BO/JPJfoT )

UNDONE (temporarily)

Though some got today's PA Voter ID law ruling wrong initially (Post-Gazette and Think Progress) causing real confusion (at least by me and some others on Twitter), most (including Pittsburgh City Paper) got it right the first time. The bottom line is that House Majority Leader Mike Turzai and Governor Tom Corbett and their Republican buddies have been temporarily undone.

The bottom line is this:

The election in November will function just as the primary election did. You do not need to have an ID to vote in Pennsylvania on November 6th. Poll workers can ask you for an ID, but you will not be prevented from voting normally (on a machine without a provisional ballot) if you do not show them an ID.

Latest PA Voter ID Law News

1. Good on County Exec Rich Fitzgerald! He's using a loophole in the new Voter ID Law to allow nursing homes and colleges to issue their own free photo ID for voting in Allegheny County -- for any registered voter who wants it, not just residents and students. Plus, the requirements to get these IDs are not as onerous as the ones to get a PennDOT ID. The Kane Regional Center nursing home system and Community College of Allegheny County will be participating in this. Locations and dates to be announced later.

2. PA State Rep. Daryl "I don't Speak Mexican" Metcalfe says only lazy people will be disenfrachised from voting by PA's new Voter ID law -- just like those 47% Romney was talking about. Via Think Progress:

HOST: Are you absolutely convinced…that the methods to implement this law are effective and will in fact make sure no legitimate voter will be disenfranchised?  

METCALFE: I don’t believe any legitimate voter that actually wants to exercise that right and takes on the according responsiblity that goes with that right to secure their photo ID will be disenfranchised. As Mitt Romney said, 47% of the people that are living off the public dole, living off their neighbors’ hard work, and we have a lot of people out there that are too lazy to get up and get out there and get the ID they need. If individuals are too lazy, the state can’t fix that.

3. PA Comwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson will hold a hearing on September 25th on the new Voter ID Law. Testimony will be taken from both sides. In the meantime, the PA branch of the ACLU has asked Simpson for a preliminary injunction to block the new law.

4. The Tea-baggers are revolting (no pun intended). Via PoliticsPA:

The Independence Hall Tea Party PAC, “warned today that it will organize to defeat Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Ron Castille, a Republican, and PA Supreme Court Justice Max Baer, a Democrat, in their respective 2013 retention races, if Voter ID is not implemented in the November, 2012 General Election,” the group wrote in a press release.

PA Supreme Court Rules Lower Court Must Revist Voter ID Law

Via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

HARRISBURG -- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ordered a lower court to revisit its decision that allowed the new voter ID law to remain in effect for the November elections.  

If Commonwealth Court finds the state's implementation of the law will disenfranchise voters in November, the high court has ordered it to issue an injunction.

Via Keystone Politics:

We should be optimistic given this ruling. The PA Supreme Court did not “punt” the issue.  

Here is the crucial, predictive paragraph from pages 6 and 7 of the ruling:

Thus, we will return the matter to the Commonwealth Court to make a present assessment of the actual availability of the alternate identification cards on a developed record in light of the experience since the time the cards became available. In this regard, the court is to consider whether the procedures being used for deployment of the cards comport with the requirement of liberal access which the General Assembly attached to the issuance of PennDOT identification cards. If they do not, or if the Commonwealth Court is not still convinced in its predictive judgment that there will be no voter disenfranchisement arising out of the Commonwealth’s implementation of a voter identification requirement for purposes of the upcoming election, that court is obliged to enter a preliminary injunction.

All Ye Rogues, Strumpets and Pestilent Hordes: State Supreme Court Hearing on PA Voter ID Law is Today!

PCN will be live televising and live streaming today's 9:30 AM Supreme Court of Pennsylvania's oral argument session, which includes hearings on the state’s second legislative redistricting plan and the Voter ID (suppression) law (Channel 48 on Comcast Cable).

This was the law that a PA judge upheld largely based on a bigoted 1869 case called Patterson v. Barlow. Via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Amazingly, in Patterson the Supreme Court went out of its way to clarify -- and endorse -- the law's biased approach. The opinion justifies a tougher process for Philadelphia voters because "rogues and strumpets do not nightly traverse the deserted highways of the farmer. Low inns, restaurants, sailors' boarding-houses and houses of ill fame do not abound in rural precincts, ready to pour out on election day their pestilent hordes."  

For good measure, the court explained that to overturn the tighter procedures for Philadelphia voters "would be to place the vicious vagrant, the wandering Arabs, the Tartar hordes of our large cities, on a level with the virtuous and good man."

These days, we simply call them Obama voters:


Even if the Court were to overturn the law -- which they won't -- we have this to worry about:

True the Vote and other Tea Party-affiliated groups are reportedly recruiting 1 million volunteers to object to the qualifications of voters in targeted communities on and before Election Day, according to the study. These volunteers are being rallied to block, in their own words, the “illegal alien vote” and “the food stamp army.” Their stated goal is to make the experience of voting “like driving and seeing the police behind you.”

If you need information on the new Voter Suppression Law, or if you need help in getting ID, please check out the following:

http://www.866ourvote.org/  

http://www.seventy.org/Elections_Voter_ID.aspx  

http://www.aclupa.org/issues/votingissues/voterid/

Or if all else fails, better hope your kid is a celebrity!

Quote of the Day

The quote of the day goes to Pittsburgh City Councilor Natalia Rudiak commenting in today's Post Agenda meeting on the difficulty registered voters in Pennsylvania are facing going through PennDOT trying to get ID which complies with the new PA Voter ID law:

"PennDOT is not the Dept. of Voting, it's not the Dept. of Democracy."

ABC News did a story yesterday which backs her up. It begins with this:

Two government offices, three hour-long lines, two 78-mile trips, two week-long waiting periods, four forms of identity and two signed affidavits later, Pennsylvanians will be allowed to vote.

Press Conference and Hearing about the Pennsylvania Voter ID Law

Via press release:

City Councilor Natalia Rudiak Rallies Citywide Groups to Fight Against Voter Suppression

Pittsburgh-- On Wednesday, September 12, 2012, Councilwoman Rudiak will host a press conference and hearing regarding Act 18 of 2012, the Pennsylvania “Voter ID” Law. Speakers will provide national and historic context on this law, as well as an explanation of what Pennsylvanians need in order to vote in November’s election, and how to get it.

What: Press Conference and Hearing about the Pennsylvania Voter ID Law
Date: Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Time: 12:45 PM
Where: City Council Chambers, 414 Grant Street, 5th Floor

Invited guests include:

ACLU

Pittsburgh United

Black Political Empowerment Project

Alliance of Retired Americans

Epilepsy Foundation

City residents impacted by new law

“Our democracy should not be a confusing, bureaucratic nightmare.” Rudiak said. “Unfortunately, I have heard from a number of residents across the city who want to vote, as they always have, but are not sure if they will be stopped at the polls this November 6. We need to move forward with real election reform, and leave costly partisan attempts to disenfranchise voters in the history books, where they belong.”

Though an estimated 100,000 registered voters in Allegheny County do not have PennDOT issued photo identification cards, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has budgeted funding for only 75,000 “free” voter ID cards statewide.

Watch live at http://pittsburgh.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2  or on Channel 44 on Verizon (Channel 13 on Comcast???)

PA Voter ID Law Upheld by Commonwealth Court

Pennsylvania's new Voter ID Suppression Law, which State House Majority Leader Mike Turzai admitted was passed to help Romney win and which the State stipulated about in court that there were no known cases of voter fraud, was upheld by the Commonwealth Court today.

So, basically, that's a big FUCK YOU to the nearly 1 million eligible voters in our state who do not possess the now needed ID.

If you can't win on the merits of your policies or candidates, then suppress the vote...

Time to drag your granny to PennDOT!

There is a meeting/training session today about the new law. Via Facebook from Celeste Taylor:

TODAY! WESTERN PA VOTER ID GATHERING: NAACP and PA Voter ID Coalition organizations based in western PA will hold an informal gathering and training session on Wednesday, August 15 at 3:00 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Freedom Unlimited located at 2201 Wylie Ave. in Pittsburgh (next door to the NAACP branch office). Representatives from Homer S. Brown Law Association, Black Political Empowerment Project, Rodman Street Missionary Baptist Church, Team Community College of Allegheny County and 10-20 western PA organizations will participate in strategizing for continued non-partisan voter registration, voter ID, Get Out The Vote and Election Protection. For details, contact Celeste Taylor at [info @ Facebook link]. On Twitter @PAVOTERID: https://twitter.com/#!/PAVoterID , On Facebook, our page: PAVoterIDCoalition: http://www.facebook.com/pages/PAVoterIDCoalition/403831659629393  

Voter ID of Last Resort News (& Just Say "No" To PA Voter ID Laws March)

The Citizen's Call has an excellent article on what it will take to get a “last resort” ID from PennDOT for those voters who are unable to obtain crucial documentation such as birth certificates and social security cards. They won't start issuing these ID for another two weeks, by the way.

Also, there will be a Just Say "No" to PA Voter ID Law march today. Via an email from The Thomas Merton Center:

There is still time to RSVP for a delivery of petitions, tomorrow, Aug. 14, at 1 p.m. in downtown Pittsburgh.  

The Just Say "No" To PA Voter ID Laws petitions call on Mark Wolosik, the Division Manager at the Allegheny County Elections Division, to join in, to the full extent of his legal authority, and Just Say No to enforcing the new Voter ID law.  

If you can attend - advocates are meeting outside the county Court House along Grant Street at 12:45 pm to march together to the elections division offices a few streets over. The address is 436 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, 15219.  

Please RSVP at - http://civic.moveon.org/event/justsayno/131919 .  

If you have not yet signed the petition - please take a moment to do so at: http://signon.org/sign/just-say-no-to-pa-voter?source=s.em.cr&r_by=2830971&mailing_id=5476

PA Gov. Corbett Doesn't Know New Voter ID Requirements That He Signed Into Law

While Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett (R) doesn't seem to know what actually qualifies as proper ID under the new Voter Suppression ID law he signed,

I bet he knows why he signed it:

FUN FACTS!

1 in 3 PA voters don't even know about the new voter ID law!  

Between 11 and 13% of PA's eligible voters, registered voters, and people who voted in 2008 believe they have the photo ID they need to vote in November, but actually don't!  

A whopping 43% of Philadelphia voters may not possess a valid PennDOT ID!

Had the new law been in effect in 2008, Barack Obama would have lost the state’s contest to John McCain by 200,000 votes! (The only fact that Republicans care about.)

What's up with that?

North Pittsburgh Politics points out that mailers sent out by Republican candidate Rep. Randy Vulakovich for an August 7th Special Election for PA State Senate District 40 (Jane Orie's old seat) contain absentee ballot applications that do not comply with the new Voter Suppression ID laws, while his Democratic challenger, Sharon Brown, is using the new absentee ballot applications that includes a section requiring PA State issued ID number/last 4 digits of Social Security number.

I'm finding conflicting information on exactly when the new requirements take effect. Anyone know?

In any case, since Vulakovich voted for the law -- and so must obviously be very concerned about voter fraud -- it's interesting that he doesn't want to be absolutely certain that the people he thinks will vote for him are eligible to cast that vote. He seems to be concerned here for example:

What is your position on the State's tightening restrictions on requirements to vote?  

Rep. Randy Vulakovich: "It’s important to protect the cornerstone of our Democracy and to maintain an open and honest process. One person, one vote."

Important except when voting for Vulakovich, I guess...