Clinton Makes Entrance By Trash Dumpsters (Arkansas after FReep Report)

We have just returned to Budge's house to do the FReep report because there is a lot of information to report.

In attendance were Budge, Travelgirl, The Battman, parsifal, Don Frivoinai, sweetliberty, and another FReeper who, for reasons you will come to understand shortly, needs to remain anonymous until after the election.

We arrived at Budge's around noon to get everything set up for the maiden FReep of the Arkansas Hog Wild FReepers and the FReepmobile. We got to the site around quarter after 1 and finished up some signs and headed over to the convention center to await the arrival of XXX42 and his horde of Rats. There we were joined by several folks from the Hutchinson campaign and there were quite a few folks who came down from Mount Ida. There ended up being about 30 of us on the outside.

During the wait, we were informed of quite a few "questionable" things going on. For starters, there was one young man who is active with Tim Hutchinson's campaign who was threatened with arrest if he didn't leave the premises. He had done nothing to provoke this action other than they knew who he was. One of the FReepers who is a poll watcher was also threatened with arrest when she tried to go inside the convention center. Another young man who is a Hutchinson aide had a ticket to the event and because he had been seen talkiing to the "opposition" he was not allowed in, being told that it was a private event and they could exclude whoever they wanted to. There was also a group of black folks who were with us so this young man passed his ticket to one of the black guys, who removed all his campaign stuff and went in incognito, laughing saying that they'd never suspect a black guy. Will give you his report later.

Nobody would tell us what door Clinton would be entering by so we took a chance and hung out on one side of the building where they said the car would drive by. True to form, XXX42 was late by nearly an hour. But here is the great part. We were positioned between 2 entrances. One was a major side entrance. The other was a small, fenced-in service entrance by the garbage dumpsters. Well, guess which one he used. Think....which would be most appropriate. Yep, you guessed it. The snake slithered in through the garbage entrance. And he got a look at our signs. It was a classic moment in FReeperdom.

There was a whopping 500 people or so there for the "event". There were few enough people that there was a Jehovah's Witness convention going on in the building at the same time. When Clinton arrived the Jehovah's Witnesses started leaving. At that time we didn't realize that there was another event going on and Travelgirl and The Battman asked one of the cops on duty why everyone was leaving. He responded, "if Clinton entered a room, what would YOU do?" When the Jehovah's Witnesses left, the parking lot started clearing out.

Anyway, we may have to flesh in this post after we all get home because there is a lot to tell, but there is certain information that it is very important to get out there NOW! Back to our "spy". When he came out, he said they were running it like a church service, and the whole focus was on how the evil Republicans are trying to keep them from voting. They were saying that we have all the poll watchers this election to prevent THEM from voting. Now, here is the clencher. They were told that there would be attorneys posted at every precinct to prevent poll watchers from challenging ANY ballots. Now, mind you, one of our poll watchers has already had massive problems with them at the polls during early voting the past couple of weeks and has been advised to retain an attorney. They have had the sherriff remove her from the polls twice when she had done nothing inappropriate...only challenging ballots for improper or no ID. There is an all out campaign by these people to intimidate the poll watchers and then turn around and accuse us of voter intimidation. This is serious and at least one person has some legitimate fear. I can't really elaborate at this point. The reason we wanted to get this up right away is to get other FReepers on the case to get this publicized and contact appropriate media, political and legal sources to alert them that Republican poll watchers in this county are likely to be facing an organized, all-out Rat attack. Any help that FReepers can offer is needed!! Make phone calls, send letters. Whatever you can do. Post your ideas as well.

...how are you gonna discourage it if you don't give this scumbag some jail time?!

What's the point of having bleedin' heart judges if they can't be relied on to turn perps back out on the streets....sheesh!!! The RATS have just about got the system, top to bottom, where they wanted it. Their best laid plans are gonna end up in a heap if we perservere.

A more or less interesting article regarding election judges. Apparently not that difficult(at least in Texas) to achieve. I've looked no further than this article, but on the surface, it appears there are no "special" requirements for election judge. Election judges are where the rubber meets the road on election day, no?

Conservatives Should Work as Election Judges to Prevent Voter Fraud
By: Steve Parkhurst
Managing Editor, Houston Review
Conservatives consistently speak of grassroots this and grassroots that. We seem to view the word grassroots as meaning the little things to get out the vote such as block walking for candidates or making phone calls.
There seems to be so much build up to the day of the election that once election day rolls around, the grassroots idea seems to be put away last cycle's yard signs. For those that do the block walking and make the phone calls, one would think they would like to see their work pay off in the long run.
Grassroots people need to understand maybe the most important of all the grassroots work: Working the polls on election day, in one way or another. Conservatives must begin to take back the election process where so many wrongs are committed and fraud runs rampant.
I recently worked as an election judge in northern Harris County where the voters decided on emergency services, water board members, and some municipal tax bond raises. The precinct I worked had just shy of 9,800 voters. In that same precinct, 29 voters showed up on election day with 5 going to the polls during early voting. For those without a degree in mathematics, that's 34 voters who voted out of nearly 9,800 voters. Each person who voted in the election, basically voted for and represented the votes of 288 people.
Now this column is not about voter apathy; there could be encyclopedia-length studies written on that subject. The issue here is what a dishonest election judge can do on an extremely slow day where a few votes can make a huge difference. It doesn't take an army of people to help prevent the type of fraud that can take place here. One person can monitor and work the polls with an election judge or even be a poll watcher. In precincts where people decide to vote in place of their friend who "forgot" to vote that day, all it takes is the election judge to open the poll book, sign in the voters place, then cast a ballot so their voice can be heard, AGAIN.
Those who work with election judges or monitor the polls as a poll watcher can get all the training they need from fellow election experts. This seems to be such a fundamental idea, but it can make all the difference. When one voter can cast a ballot to speak for 288 fellow voters, someone has to stand up and take notice of the possibilities for wrongs to be committed here.
An election judge is supposed to have an alternate judge from the political party opposite that judge. Sometimes election judges cannot find an alternate judge from the other party so they find anybody, even a member of the same party. In a situation where the possibility of casting that extra ballot illegally is taken away, the fundamental right to vote is preserved.
Even in a situation where an election judge is the only person working the polls, things can also get too hectic at times to carefully monitor the voters in the polling place while attending to others. There are rules in polling places pertaining to the use of cell phones, displaying of campaign literature, removal of materials left by previous voters in the voting booths, illegal electioneering, talking, and the list goes on.
All the work, all the phone calls, all the walking, and all the envelope stuffing can be for nothing if the election is fraudulently administered. The effort taken to monitor the polls is well worth it, for it defends our basic right to make our voice heard with an honestly run election.
To drive home the point, think about this election law that you see broken every time there is an election. Rule 61.001 of the Texas Election Code states that no person, other than for the purpose of voting, may enter a polling place. That may seem harmless enough on the surface. But remember, this includes the media. The media is NOT allowed inside the polling place. How often do you see the news on election day and there is a TV camera and a reporter in a polling place watching candidates cast ballots as well as former presidents?
The point to understand is that these laws are there and some people have no idea about the laws. These laws are easily broken. And when laws are being broken this easily, how many other laws are dishonest or inattentive election judges or poll watchers failing to enforce.
The March primary is right around the corner. Being that these primaries are run by each party, there is likely to be less fraud involved, although a carefully placed, dishonest election judge could try to swing an election for a particular candidate. Contact your local party office and find out how to train to be an election judge or an election worker.
There will most likely be another election in April for run-offs in certain areas. The point being, get involved now, while there are elections taking place. You do get paid to be an election judge or worker, so it's not like volunteering your time for free. Get the training now, so that in November, you're ready to combat the voter fraud that is likely to occur in very important races, in a critical off year election. When you've worked an election and done your part on that very important day, you've done your part for the grassroots effort.
We've read them before, we've heard them before, but the words of Edmund Burke in 1780 hold true today as they did 222 years ago when the
prevention of vote fraud is possible, "The only thing necessary for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing".

The Houston Review

FGS

This just in (well, just located by Budge anyway) from the WORLD SOCIALISTS website, and it is full of lies and misinformation. For example; it says that poll watchers have no right to demand ID. Well, that is HALF true. They have no right to demand ID from the voter but DO have the right to have the poll worker request ID. Or another example: it says that a ballot can only be challenged AFTER it is cast. That is inaccurate. It is challenged BEFORE it is cast as in many cases it requires a different ballot....such as when there is electronic voting a challenged ballot would have to be cast on a paper ballot form.This should give y'all a bit more insight into what we're dealing with here. It also names our poll watcher. Personally, I would like to see these poll watchers take the initiative and file charges against the NAACP goons for intimidation and interfering with the election process.

Republicans marshal "poll watchers" to intimidate Democratic voters

By Kate Randall 4 November 2002

The Republican Party, with the backing of the Bush administration, will post thousands of party functionaries at polling stations in various parts of the country on Election Day, November 5, to intimidate working class and minority voters from casting their ballots. This anti-democratic operation in being carried out under the cover of “poll watching.”

Large numbers of “poll watchers” are to be posted in key places where the contest for congressional seats and governorships is expected to be very close, particularly targeting minority voters and those in strongly Democratic districts.

With characteristic cynicism, the Republican right and the Bush administration are mounting this “keep-them-from-voting” effort in the name of electoral “reform.” In the aftermath of the 2000 election crisis in Florida—which exposed pervasive methods of election fraud and discrimination that disenfranchised tens of thousands of minority and working class voters—the forces that organized the theft of the White House are escalating their attack on the right to vote.

Millions of Americans across the country who should be eligible to vote are in one way or another prevented from voting or having their votes counted, either by restrictive voter registration procedures, the failure of antiquated voting machinery, or outright intimidation and ballot rigging. But as far as George W. Bush and the Republicans are concerned, purging the electoral process of fraud does not mean eliminating obstacles to the exercise of the franchise and the counting of all votes cast, but rather the opposite—finding new pretexts for keeping working class voters from the polls.

The idea is to use the legal right of candidates to place poll watchers at election sites as the cover for stationing political operatives who will challenge the credentials of likely Democratic voters, especially in minority neighborhoods where the overwhelming majority of those who cast ballots are expected to vote for the Democrats. With control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate hanging on the distribution of a relatively small number of votes in a limited number of highly contested races, the Republicans calculate they can help shift the outcome by using bullying tactics to suppress the vote.

Such methods are not entirely new. For more than half of the twentieth century, the Democratic Party, which politically dominated the US South, intimidated black voters from participating in elections through a combination of Jim Crow laws and physical terror. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, part of the majority on the US Supreme Court that handed the 2000 election to Bush, began his political career as a Republican lawyer enforcing literacy tests to keep Hispanics from voting in Arizona.

Poll watchers are barred by law from harassing voters. They have no right, for example, to demand that voters produce ID’s or other proofs of citizenship or residency. There are federal civil rights and election laws that make such practices a crime.

Yet the Republican operation to intimidate would-be voters has evoked barely a whimper of protest from the Democratic Party. This is consistent with the prostration of the Democrats before the Republican assault on democratic rights, demonstrated first in their refusal to seriously fight the impeachment conspiracy against Clinton, then in their half-hearted effort to halt the theft of the 2000 presidential election, and finally in their support for Bush’s unprecedented attack on civil liberties, carried out in the name of the “war on terrorism.”

An indication of the methods to be expected of the Republicans on Tuesday was seen in early balloting last month. According to Democratic Party officials, on October 21 five Republican poll watchers showed up at the courthouse in heavily-Democratic Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a key district in the contest between incumbent Republican Senator Tim Hutchinson and Democratic candidate Attorney General Mark Pryor.

According to eyewitness accounts, the Republican supporters only questioned African-American voters. Democratic spokesman Guy Cecil commented, “They were literally going up to them and saying, ‘Before you vote, I want to see your identification.’” Some potential voters were also photographed.

Trey Ashcraft, chairman of the Jefferson County Election Commission, summoned a deputy from the Sheriff’s Office several times to escort poll watcher Diane Jones out of the clerk’s office for interfering with the voting process.

Voter Bonita McCray told the Pine Bluff Commercial that she was asked by poll watcher Allison Johnson to produce her identification. “When she insisted, I put my ID back in my purse,” she said. “They had no right to do this.” Officials in the clerk’s office, however, said that a number of voters were intimidated by the harassment and left without casting their ballots.

Charlotte Munson, Pine Bluff Deputy Clerk, reported that a Republican poll watcher walked behind her counter to photograph voter information she had pulled up on her computer screen.

Such conduct is illegal and unconstitutional. Under Arkansas state law, challenges can be made only after a voter has cast his or her ballot. None of the Republican violators were detained or arrested.

In Michigan, state Republicans are planning to send several hundred “watchers” on Election Day to challenge voters from heavily Democratic precincts in urban and minority areas. In Detroit, which is overwhelmingly African-American, it is accepted by both parties that more than 90 percent of voters who go to the polls on Tuesday will vote for Democratic candidates.

In Florida, the Democratic Party filed suit last Thursday to block Republicans from massing poll watchers at voting precincts in Miami-Dade County. Circuit Judge Eleanor Schockett issued a ruling November 1 prohibiting the Emergency Campaign to Stop Bill McBride, a Republican political action committee, from placing observers in 450 of 553 Miami-Dade polling places. Bill McBride is the Democratic challenger to Governor Jeb Bush, the president’s brother.

The Republican committee had attempted to side-step a county law that requires each potential observer to submit a separate application, and submitted instead a compiled list of applicants. Regulations also require “watchers” to represent political parties or candidates. The Florida Republican Party has now denied any official connection to the anti-McBride committee, but made no public statement to that effect prior to the Democrats’ lawsuit.

Also in Florida, Governor Bush plans to utilize a list of allegedly ineligible voters to bar approximately 94,000 people from participating in the gubernatorial election. This same list—which includes felons and deceased individuals—was exposed as vastly inaccurate during the 2000 presidential election. Even the company that generated the list, DBT Online, has admitted it is “seriously flawed.” Nevertheless, Florida election authorities plan to utilize it to bar voters from casting their ballots.

Worl Socialists Website

Analysis of and commentary on false and misleading statements in post #829:

"The Republican Party...will post thousands of party functionaries at polling stations in various parts of the country on Election Day...to intimidate working class and minority voters from casting their ballots. This anti-democratic operation in being carried out under the cover of “poll watching.”

Translation: Republicans are fed up with democrats trying to steal elections via various kinds of voter fraud and this election are exercising their constitutional right AND duty to place poll watchers in polling places in an effort to insure the integrity of the process.

"Large numbers of “poll watchers” are to be posted in key places where the contest for congressional seats and governorships is expected to be very close, particularly targeting minority voters and those in strongly Democratic districts."

Point 1; correction: number of poll watchers is limited to one per candidate, party or issue.

Point 2; translation: Counties where there is typically a lot of fraud.

"the Republican right and the Bush administration are mounting this “keep-them-from-voting” effort

Blatant lie.

"the aftermath of the 2000 election crisis in Florida—which exposed pervasive methods of election fraud and discrimination that disenfranchised tens of thousands of minority and working class voters—the forces that organized the theft of the White House are escalating their attack on the right to vote."

Point 1; translation: many illegal votes weren't counted.

Point 2; translation: we failed to steal the election.

"With control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate hanging on the distribution of a relatively small number of votes in a limited number of highly contested races, the Republicans calculate they can help shift the outcome by using bullying tactics to suppress the vote."

Translation: They could prevent us from doing whatever is necessary to win in these areas where we have the most cooperation available to us.

"Chief Justice William Rehnquist, part of the majority on the US Supreme Court that handed the 2000 election to Bush, began his political career as a Republican lawyer enforcing literacy tests to keep Hispanics from voting in Arizona."

This is a bad thing? I think it should be instituted nationwide. If they can't read, write and speak Englich they have no business voting in an American election. I would even take it one step furthur and require an IQ test. If a person couldn't test at least at 90 they're too dumb to be allowed to vote because they obviously don't have the comprehension skills to understand the issues.

"Poll watchers ...have no right... to demand that voters produce ID’s or other proofs of citizenship or residency."

That is true but they DO have the right to ask the poll worker to request it.

"According to eyewitness accounts, the Republican supporters only questioned African-American voters."

LIE. (Stop_the_rats, perhaps you could address some of these things which you were directly a part of).

"Some potential voters were also photographed."

They are restricted from photographing voters IN THE VOTING BOOTH. This was not done. In the incidents that I know of they only photographed those who would not remove campaign paraphernalia (illegal to wear in polling places) and dummy ballots for assuring that voters voted "correctly". Again, I will defer to stop_the_rats to elaborate on this.

"Trey Ashcraft, chairman of the Jefferson County Election Commission, summoned a deputy from the Sheriff’s Office several times to escort poll watcher Diane Jones out of the clerk’s office for interfering with the voting process."

They failed to mention that he ILLEGALLY had her removed and that she was allowed to return once they realized that. It is also interesting to note that Trey Ashcraft himself was later in "trouble" for posting signs at polling places which said that voters had to produce ID in order to be allowed to vote. (See stop_the_rats post #662).

"Officials in the clerk’s office, however, said that a number of voters were intimidated by the harassment and left without casting their ballots."

Translation: A number of voters were angry about having to follow the law for a change.

If they left without casting their ballots whose fault is that? Unless of course they were not voting legally. Hmmm.

"Under Arkansas state law, challenges can be made only after a voter has cast his or her ballot. None of the Republican violators were detained or arrested."

Point 1; incorrect. If a voter is unable or unwilling to comply with the request for acceptable identification or is unable to accurately verify the information on his identification or if there is discrepancy between the ID and the registration information then the ballot can be challenged and the reason is given in writing on the front of the envelope in which the ballot is placed. The election judges have the final say on whether a ballot is admitted or not and since the majority of the election judges are Rats, it is likely a moot point anyway.

Point 2; none were detained or arrested because they were NOT BREAKING ANY LAW.

Those are just some of my observations, analyses and comments on this ridiculous and deceptive article. But then, that's the Rat MO. I did not address the parts dealing with Michigan and Florida because I am not familiar with their laws regarding poll watchers. I suspect they are very similar to ours here in Arkansas though.

Stop_the_rats; I hope you will clarify on the specifics addressed here since you would know exactly to what they were referring.

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