Pages

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Florida Republicans Targets Of Voter Suppression

Democrats always piss and moan about Republican voter suppression and fraud, but they're totally mute when it's the reverse. They seem to think that only Republicans are willing and capable of trying to cheat to get their candidate elected. They cried foul with Florida's hanging chads back in 2000 that won George W. Bush the election, but have conveniently dismissed or forgotten about ACORN in 2008, which handed the White House over to Barack Obama.

So it won't be surprising to not see much fuss about the fact that Florida Republicans (a swing voter state that is needed to win this election) have been targets of voter fraud. It seems that someone has been sending Republicans a letter telling them their citizenship is in question, which would mean they'd be ineligible to vote.

According to Charles Callaghan who received one of those letters, postmarked from Seattle, Washington with no return address:

“Basically, when I read the letter, I got the impression that I was not going to be able to vote, because my citizenship was being questioned." “I wasn’t quite sure why it would be, because I was born in the United States, and I’ve always been a United States citizen, and nothing has changed in my life … that would cause my citizenship to be called into question.”
“I said to my wife, somebody is just trying to keep me from voting." “To put that doubt in my mind that I can’t vote and then not give me a way that I could dispute it — because they didn’t give me a phone number or address — they are thinking I am going to get frustrated and just not go vote. ”

Apparently, many of the people who reported receiving the letters had donated to the Republican Party or candidates, and were told they had 15 days to provide original proof of citizenship to be eligible to vote. Those responsible probably figured people would simply not bother to check out the information, and just not vote.

Florida State is investigating.

“The Florida Department of State unequivocally opposes all attempts at voter fraud or intimidation and will pursue every avenue to ensure free, fair and open elections for all eligible voters,” Florida 
[snip]

“We’ve received multiple reports of a fraudulent letter that impersonates supervisors of elections and indicates that eligible voters might be ineligible,” Chris Cate, spokesman for the Division of Elections, explained to the Tampa Bay Times, which reported the letters have gone mostly — if not entirely — to Republicans in the state.

“We’re working with the state’s supervisors of elections, as well law enforcement, to identify the source of the letters and put a stop to them,” Cate said.

Sources: Daily Caller, Orlando Sentinel

No comments: