Voter Suppression in Wisconsin — Again
enlarge In Koch-ville, USA, voters are scary. At least, Democratic voters are. Americans for Prosperity helpfully sent out reminders to voters to mail in their absentee ballots. Wasn’t that nice of them? Only, the deadline on their helpful litte brochure for returning absentee ballots is August 11, two days after the recall election. This isn’t the first time they’ve done this. In September of last year they plotted many schemes to suppress the vote ( audio here ). What boggles my mind is that they get away with it over and over again. This time maybe they won’t. They are being sued by voters . In one complaint (PDF) , the voter was pretty clear about why he was filing: I received an absentee ballot request form from Americans for Prosperity. It intentionally listed to return up to Aug 11. The date of the election is Aug 9. If I followed their instructions my ballot would not be legal. I think they purposely intend to discount my vote. I understand such activity to be against the law. I believe I was targeted by the Republican group because I am a Democrat and a senior citizen. AFP, of course, plays the innocent error-maker. JSOnline : Matt Seaholm, state director of AFP, blamed the mistake on a typo, saying his group was not trying to mislead anyone. “This just went out to our members,” Seaholm said. “I’m sure the liberals will try to make a mountain out of a molehill in an attempt to distract voters’ attention from the issues.” But other sources say the fliers were received by “card-carrying Democrats active in the recalls” of state Sens. Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls) and Rob Cowles (R-Allouez). Harsdorf is running against teacher Shelly Moore, and Cowles is being challenged by former Brown County Executive Nancy Nusbaum. Just went out to their members who also happen to be Democrats? Yeah, I don’t think so. No self-respecting Democrat would be a member of Americans for Prosperity. Meanwhile AFP is busily dropping $500,000 in ad buys against Democrats running in the recalls. Politics, Koch style. Update: Jesse Russell reports that the return address on the envelope is one for Wisconsin Family Action , the activist arm of Wisconsin Family Council (990) , which appears to be an offshoot of the Family Research Council. Looks like the Republican hate machine is in full force.
See more here:
Voter Suppression in Wisconsin — Again
Posted by
on August 2, 2011. Filed under