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The Roots of Voter Suppression by Ron Carver, otherwords.org | October 3, 2012
When I hear conservatives like Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, Alabama State Senator Scott Beason, and Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Representative Mike Turzai try to rationalize their bid to disenfranchise minority, elderly, and student voters, I pivot quickly to memories of the terror I witnessed in the early 1960s. At that time, just out of high school, I joined the Southern civil rights movement's efforts to register hundreds of thousands of black Mississippians. read more »Crying Fraud, Then Creating It by Robert Kuttner, prospect.org | October 3, 2012
For once, the Republicans were right. They have been obsessively claiming that voter-suppression measures are necessary because of widespread “ballot fraud.” However extensive investigations by the mainstream media have shown that ballot-fraud is a convenient myth. Even the Bush administration, in an extensive five-year search, turned up no evidence of the kind of voting fraud—fake IDs, voting in the name of dead people, folks being bribed to vote—that the Republicans routinely allege. Now, however, Republicans can claim some vindication. Serious voter fraud has emerged in Florida. But the ballot fraud is being perpetrated by Republicans! read more »If They Can't Suppress The Vote, Maybe They Can Just Buy It Outright by Digby , OurFuture.org | October 3, 2012
Golly, I'm so old I can remember when the Republicans used to go into a fugue state and start speaking in tongues upon hearing tales of Democratic campaign organizers offering free cigarettes to homeless people to get them them to vote: read more »Republicans Are Playing Defense Over Voter Registration Fraud by Marc Caputo , mcclatchydc.com | October 2, 2012
President Barack Obama has received unexpected help from the unlikeliest of quarters: The Republican National Committee. Devoted to bashing Obama, the RNC gave the president’s reelection campaign a political contribution of sorts by insisting that state parties, such as Florida’s, hire a vendor that’s now under investigation for voter-registration fraud by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in as many as 10 counties involving at least 220 suspect forms. Remember all that talk from Republicans about voter fraud? Well, it ain’t just for ACORN anymore. Now, instead of being on offense against Obama, Republicans are playing defense over voter-registration fraud. Some organized Republican voter-registration drives have virtually ground to a halt as Republicans fired the firm, Strategic Allied Consulting, in seven battleground states. It’s such a mess that the Republican Party of Florida has filed an elections complaint against the Strategic Allied Consulting, which then turned around and bashed…. The Republican Party of Florida. read more »The Fight to Vote by The Nation, The Nation | September 27, 2012
The American experiment began on an exclusive note: only white male property owners who paid taxes, met religious prerequisites, and were 21 or older were allowed to vote. The next 200 years saw a fight over the franchise that pitted progress (elimination of religious tests and property requirements, passage of the Fifteenth Amendment) against reaction (Jim Crow literacy tests, poll taxes and grandfather clauses). It was only in the twentieth century that Native Americans, African-Americans, women and 18-year-olds were accorded the place in the democratic process that should have been theirs at the founding of the Republic. What is so alarming about voting in the twenty-first century is that the forces of reaction are again on the march. Unsettled by their inability to “manage” an expanded and changing electorate, the corporations that fund the American Legislative Exchange Council and other right-wing groups are waging a war on voting. read more »In Pennsylvania, a Victory for Voting Rights—Sorta by Abby Rapoport, prospect.org | September 19, 2012
It's a lot easier to talk about a law—and pass one—than to implement it. Just ask Pennsylvania lawmakers—and Pennsylvania citizens, and judges, and voting-rights activists. The state's voter ID law, passed by Republican lawmakers in March, is best known for threatening to disenfranchise more voters than laws in any other stae. But in mid-August, Pennsylvania Judge Robert Simpson refused to grant an injunction to stop the state from implementing the law in November. The judge said that he believed state officials' assurances that they had plans in place (though some were still not in action) to prevent widespread disenfranchisement. Those promises are not enough for the state supreme court. read more »Reelect Obama, Overturn Citizens United? by Katie McDonough, salon.com | September 18, 2012
You already know that President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have radically different positions on Medicare, abortion rights and rebuilding the economy. What’s less clear is how effectively they’ll be able to implement their agendas. While the makeup of the next Congress remains unknown, a recent report from the Center for American Progress (and a nifty corresponding infographic, below) lays out what a single Obama — or Romney — appointee could mean for some of the Court’s most contentious rulings. Chief among them? Citizens United. It was, after all, only a 5-4 vote that allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. An Obama second term — and his third SCOTUS appointment — could mean the highly polarizing, highly influential case might be reconsidered — and overruled. read more »Katrina vanden Heuvel and Jamie Raskin on the Pro-Corporate Supreme Court by Bill Moyers, billmoyers.com | September 17, 2012
The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel and Jamie Raskin, constitutional law professor and Maryland state senator, join Bill to discuss how the uncontested power of the Supreme Court is changing our elections, our country, and our lives. The two joined forces for a special upcoming issue of The Nation entitled “The One Percent Court.” “We wanted to bring attention to how this court has empowered the 1% at the expense of the 99%,” says vanden Heuvel. “How it is now working for big business, for corporate power against the interests of ordinary citizens in this country.” read more »The Founders Versus the Funders by Lawrence Lessig, The Progressive | September 12, 2012
The problem in America’s democracy that Citizens United has come to represent can be simply stated: The People have lost faith in their government. They have lost the faith that their government is responsive to them because they have become convinced that their government is more responsive to those who fund your campaigns. As all of you, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike, find yourselves forced into a cycle of perpetual fundraising — spending anywhere between 30 percent and 70 percent of your time raising money to get back into office or to get your party back into power — you become, or at least most Americans believe you become, responsive to the will of “the Funders.” But “the Funders” are not “the People.” read more »Super Pacs In Sheep's Clothing by Alex Seitz-Wald, salon.com | September 11, 2012
One of the oldest dirty tricks in politics is running candidates in your opponent’s primary to distract them from the general or even potentially knock them out entirely. The FBI is reportedly investigating Rep. David Rivera for backing a fake Democrat with envelopes stuffed with cash, and Republicans in Wisconsin openly supported “fake Democrats” there in order to give Gov. Scott Walker an edge in the election’s timing. But the rise of super PACs has opened up a new venue for this tactic, allowing operatives to anonymously deploy hundreds of thousands of dollars of ads while deceitfully pretending to be partisans of the other side. read more »
The Latest
Corporations Hide Election Spending From the Public Eye, The Nation | October 19, 2010
To avoid angering the public and their investors, some corporate interests are going to great lengths to hide their political spending. These companies have dumped money into nonprofits and trade associations that often have innocuous names like Americans for Job Security or Revere America, but in reality serve to shield donors from accountability for their spending in our elections. read more »
Joe Manchin's oddly inspiring debate performance, salon.com | October 19, 2010
Man, did John Raese lay it on thick Monday night. read more »
Senators Who Opposed Tobacco Bill Got Top Dollar From Industry, mcclatchydc.com | June 12, 2009
Among the 17 senators who voted against allowing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco are some of the top recipients of campaign contributions from the tobacco industry, which has donated millions of dollars to lawmakers in the past several campaign cycles. read more »
Recession Adds To Hurdles Facing U.S. Census, npr.org | March 25, 2009
A year from now, the U.S. will conduct its decennial population count. The findings are used to re-apportion congressional districts, disburse federal funding — even decide where new traffic lights go. But the economic crisis threatens to make this daunting task even harder. There is special concern about minority groups, which are traditionally hard to count.
Political Fight Brewing on Census, Associated Press | February 12, 2009
There's still a year before Americans start filling out their census forms. But even before President Barack Obama has named a new director for the U.S. Census Bureau, Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have begun bickering about how that person will carry out the once-a-decade job of cataloging the country's population. read more »
Obama Sworn in as 44th President, The Washington Post | January 21, 2009
Barack Obama took the oath of office today as the 44th president of the United States and pledged to "begin again the work of remaking America." Addressing a huge throng estimated at nearly 2 million people on the capital's Mall and millions of others watching on television, Obama somberly recognized the multiple crises now afflicting the nation at a time of war abroad and economic turmoil at home read more »
Obama Justice Picks Break with Bush Path, iht.com | January 6, 2009
President-elect Barack Obama has tapped four Clinton administration lawyers, whose records signal a sharp break from the legal policies of the last eight years, to fill four top Justice Department posts. read more »
Democratic Congress Convenes, uk.reuters.com | January 6, 2009
The new U.S. Congress convenes on under pressure to deal with a worsening economy by passing a stimulus package that Barack Obama could sign into law soon after being sworn in as president. "We are in a very difficult spot," Obama told reporters between meetings with congressional leaders on Capitol Hill. read more »
Obama Pledges to Work With Governors, CNN | December 3, 2008
Plagued by rising unemployment, falling tax revenue and increased demand for state services, the nation's governors met with President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden to press for federal money to ease their fiscal strain. read more »
Blacks Face Voting Obstacles, The Guardian | October 31, 2008
While formal poll taxes were declared illegal in 1965 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act, versions of it remain in place — for instance, in the cost of taking time off work, travelling to the polls, or obtaining identification. African American votes are now discounted by many other means, as well. read more »
