Roll Back Those Lazy-Crazy-Hazy-Days Of Summer

It's the summer of 1963, err, 2013 in the Good Ol' U.S. of A and everything is A-okay!

Any 'War on Poverty' Is Thankfully Still Just A Dream
Poverty? What poverty? This is the greatest nation on the face of the Earth!

(80 Percent Of U.S. Adults Face Near-Poverty, Unemployment: Survey)

We Will Arrest Those Who Practice The Love
That Dare Not Speak Its Name
Really, what do they expect?

(Gays in Baton Rouge arrested under invalid sodomy law)

The Little Lady Knows Her Place (As She Should)
We're working hard to ensure that the only abortions will be back alley ones!
(As abortion limits sweep US, even 'purple' states join the crackdown)

Negroes Know Their Place Too
Because they know death lies only a whistle at a white woman (or a hoodie) away!

(George Zimmerman Found Not Guilty And Goes Free)

And For the Ones Who Are Still Too Uppity...
We'll make it as hard as legally possible to vote!

(North Carolina Passes the Country's Worst Voter Suppression Law)

Yes siree, Bob! We wish that summer would always be here!

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.

Scaife/Trib Total Media PA Paper Gives False Voter ID "News"

If not the world, at least the White House.
(Photo via Pittsburgh City Paper)

Looks like we have a bigger concern than those confusing Voter ID Law ads running in Pennsylvania -- there's at least one newspaper printing a story with outright false information in it. According to Think Progress, last Thursday, The Mount Pleasant Journal ran a story with the headline "Photo ID required for November election."

Of course, the new voter suppression ID law has been suspended for the November 6th election. The Mount Pleasant Journal is a weekly newspaper run by right-wing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife's Trib Total Media. They printed the story more than two weeks after the court ruling blocked the law.

The story in The Mount Pleasant Journal has no byline.

(Via Think Progress)

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 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

Obama for America v. Husted, 12-cv-636

First, we'll start with the complaint and then move on to how the media he says/she says it.

The complaint begins with:

Plaintiffs bring this lawsuit to restore in-person early voting for all Ohioans during the three days prior to Election Day – a right exercised by an estimated 93,000 Ohioans in the last presidential election. Ohio election law, as currently enacted by the State of Ohio and administered by Defendant Ohio Secretary of State, arbitrarily eliminates early voting during the three days prior to Election Day for most Ohio voters, Amendment to the United States Constitution and can be rectified by the Court enjoining enforcement of statutory changes that eliminate early in-person voting for most Ohioans during the three days before an election.a right previously available to all Ohio voters. This disparate treatment violates 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth [emphasis added.]

What happened that they feel they need to restore it?

That's in the next paragraph:

Specifically, taken together, Amended Substitute House Bill Number 194 (“HB 194”), Amended Substitute House Bill Number 224 (“HB 224”) and Substitute Senate Bill Number 295 (“SB 295”), all enacted by the 129th Ohio General Assembly, impose different deadlines for in-person voting prior to Election Day (“early voting”) on similarly situated voters. Prior to the enactment of these laws, there was a single uniform deadline of the Monday before Election Day for inperson early voting. After the enactment of these laws, voters using the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act (“UOCAVA”) may vote early in-person at a board of elections office up through the Monday before Election Day, while non-UOCAVA voters can vote early in-person at a board of elections office (or designated alternate site) only up until 6 p.m. on the Friday before Election Day.

The 129th Ohio General Assembly is the current General Assembly (as of August, 2012). So these are recent changes - that is changes since the last presidential election.

The complaint is to restore the Ohio voting law to what it was before these laws were enacted.

So on with the he says/she says.  From ABC News:

A new flap in the ongoing battle on voting equality began this week when Mitt Romney accused President Obama's re-election committee of suing to restrict military voting rights in Ohio. And while Romney did not address the issue campaigning in Indiana today, he called the lawsuit "an outrage" in a written statement "The brave men and women of our military make tremendous sacrifices to protect and defend our freedoms, and we should do everything we can to protect their fundamental right to vote," it reads. "I stand with the fifteen military groups that are defending the rights of military voters."

Republicans say a lawsuit brought by Obama for America in July seeks to eliminate additional time for in-person early voting allotted to service members in the battleground state. Democrats, on the other hand, contend the presumptive GOP nominee is deliberately trying to distort the facts.

"Mitt Romney is falsely accusing the Obama campaign of trying to restrict military voting in Ohio," a Friday statement said. "In fact, the opposite is true: The Obama campaign filed a lawsuit to make sure every Ohioan has early voting rights, including military members and their families."

See that?  Which side is actually telling the truth? ABC never quite gets there.  In fact it takes two more paragraphs for ABC to say:

[T]he Obama campaign sued the Buckeye State last month to block those laws from taking effect, restoring weekend voting as it was in 2008. Democrats say those last days before Nov. 6give a crucial extra cushion for Americans who might not have had the opportunity to enter the voting booth in the days prior. If the challenge is successful, they say, military voters would not see any difference in their rights. [Emphasis added.]

And if they quoted (or even read) the complaint they'd see that that is true.

So, what does that say about ABC reporting Romney's "stand" to "defending the rights of military voters"?

Or the media's "get both sides to tell their side and we've proved our objectivity" stand?