Early voting brings cries of bullying (FLORIDA)

sun-sentinel.com ^ | October 23, 2004 | Brittany Wallman

[orangelobster]

On Election Day, voters will be protected from campaign pressures by a 50-foot cone, an invisible barrier that campaign workers cannot breach. Not so for early voters.

While the Voter's Bill of Rights in state law says they have a right to "vote free from coercion or intimidation by elections officers or any other person," a glitch in the newer early voting law does not include the same 50-foot guarantee.

As a result, with early voting taking place in busy public places like City Halls and libraries, voters are voicing complaints of being blocked by political mobs, or being singled out for their political views. Others say they have been grabbed, screamed at and cursed by political partisans of all stripes.

Republican Rep. Tom Feeney of Oviedo said the antagonizers are "Kerry thugs" out to harass Bush voters.

"If you ask me whether I believe there is an organized effort to intimidate Republican voters, the answer is absolutely yes," said Feeney.

The Republican Party is calling on the secretary of state's office for help, asking that early voting rules be clarified.

The secretary of state's office has not yet responded.

"Significant numbers of people have already been deterred from voting," wrote Republican Party Chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan to Secretary of State Glenda Hood, "and this will continue until corrective measures are taken."

[Pastnowfuturealpha]

From a post: "If the RATS are engaging in voter intimidation, then where are those UN election monitors -"

I believe the actions are "for" the UN monitors - (That is if Kerry doesn't win)- they can then say after the election - "there were problems" - "WE don't agree with the outcome because of it" Could this be the plan - one has to wonder -

The election officials in Florida should do something to put in place good rules to protect the early voters - And if they don't - The Gov. should step up to the plate - And say in "public" (Very Public Notice) - he wants to see every voter get to vote without being harassed. For once - the Repubs. should get out in front of the issue - They should get visible - Very Visible - on this -

just my thoughts -

[RobRoy]

Except for absentee, we vote on nov. 2. what is with all this polling place hoopla more than a week before the election?

[orangelobster]

"1) I don't think that I would be intimidated by a guy who is 5'0" tall and 2) it points out how much of a moron DeVito is because if he was intimidating anyone, he was intimidating his own party."

My reading of this is that Devito had a mob of kerry supporters gathered around blocking the entrance. While I'm a big guy that would not bat an eye about this, there are a lot of frail elderly people who understandably would be intimidated by this.

While I have no problem whatsoever with celebrities speaking their minds, no matter how much I disagree with them, doing it in front of the entrance of the polling place and blocking the ballot box is another thing. He should be sent to the pokey.

[mattdono]

Fair point.

We had some Kerry goons that were harrassing people in front of the early voting area. We took the literature that they were jamming in people's faces and then we took their pictures. As soon as we started taking pictures, their behavior changed.

[orangelobster]

"Please note that the beginning of the article says that the harassers are partisans of all stripes. That is to set up the typical dem retoprt to accusations of wrongdoing. That is, "everybody does it, so it's no big deal."

There was someone on this board working the florida polling place and they said that it was purely dems. who were engaging in this. They said they were meeting today to figure out how to address this. Lib. lawyers apparently are playing with the election day rules of keeping agitators 50 feet from the 'entrance' by arguing that the 'entrance' means the voting station, not the entrance to the building. This is logic only a dem. could love. Consequently you have agitators standing at the entrance of the building (assuming there is a 50 foot hallway to the voting machine).

[orangelobster]

"We had some Kerry goons that were harrassing people in front of the early voting area. We took the literature that they were jamming in people's faces and then we took their pictures. As soon as we started taking pictures, their behavior changed."

You probably did the right thing by remaining composed and using cameras. I'm a cranky new yorker, so I probably wouldn't be able to contain the temptation to get in their face and tell them what I think about their incivility.

[SkyPilot]

(Sturmabteilung, Storm Troopers), also known as "Brown Shirts," the Nazi Party militia that helped Adolf Hitler rise to power in Germany. Created in 1922, the SA's supposed purpose was to guard Nazi Party meetings, but in actuality, Hitler meant for the group to serve as the Nazi army. The SA was extremely antisemitic and antidemocratic in its military activities.

Its members were mainly lower-middle class Germans who had lost their jobs due to the country's economic problems. The SA gave them something to be part of and proud of. They engaged in street fights with their political enemies, practiced pseudo-military exercises, and terrorized Germany.

[MerryJ1]

Any Floridians (or Ohio, PA, etc.) who may want to slap back: I've printed out a couple of pages from Newsmax.com -- "World Leaders Endorse Bush" 10/23/04, and "John Kerry's Accusers ..." including photos, time as POWs and medals awarded(you can cut-and-paste the latter to fit one 8-1/2"x11" page). Be sure to include credits/web-site info, which also offers free viewing site for "Stolen Honor" - take the printout masters to a Kinkos and run off a couple hundred copies (out of pocket cost depends on # of copies), then take these handouts to an early voting center and preoccupy the intimidators while the early Republican voters slip inside to cast a "Bush-Cheney" ballot. Be prepared to remain calm and reasonable in the face of apoplectic hate-mongering, and make sure your own armory is well-stocked for the ensuing battle of wits with some real nasty specimens. The point of all this is to both, provide some starch for the spines of those Republican voters who are being frightened away from the polls, and to raise at least some uncertainty among the automatons intimidating them as to whether they may, just possibly, be on the wrong side. Many of them get all or most of their political news and views from late night comedians and network news, and they simply do not know what they do not know.

[Rodm]

We need some video freepers in South Florida to capture this on tape.
It would knock half a dozen points of Kerry's poll numbers when it broadcast across the web.

[orangelobster]

"I believe the actions are "for" the UN monitors -"

yeah, you are probably right. A poster on FR said that this polling place bullying and demonstrations occurred in Spain in the last election. The florida dems. apparently are applying these tactics borrowed from Spanish socialists. I don't think this is a grassroots effort on their part. It comes from the top - the AFL-CIO, Soros etc. Ed Gillespie has protested the coordination with the DNC of these groups.

This poster also said that there were no cops at the polling place. This sounds like jeb bush has caved to the false 'voter intimidation' claims by the DNC.

[kitkat]

***Danny Devito should be arrested and given a high profile perp walk as an example that the polling place will not be tampered with.***

Devito is a little bit......er.......short in reasoning power.

Arrest the little slob for tampering with the election.

[APFel]

If anyone tries to coerce me into voting Dem, they will have earned the punch in the throat that I give them.

If I were in Florida I would have taken out Devito first, just for grins. Maybe it'd knock some sense into him and he would stop making cinematic garbage like "Throw Mama from the Train" and "The Duplex".

APf

[backhoe]

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[dbc813]

One of those polling places is where I will be going tomorow to cast my vote for President Bush! I am going with a group of about 12 people and will be bringing my video camera!

[dr_who_2]

Stand your ground and vote.