Monthly Archives: December 2011
NBC Washington: Virginia Primary Voters Will Be Asked for Loyalty Oath
Similar pledge asked for in 2000
-By Tim Persinko
December 29, 2011- Voters who want to take part in the Commonwealth's March 6 Republican primary will be asked for a November commitment.
Virginia Republicans requested the Va. State Board of Elections to allow it to ask primary voters for a loyalty oath, promising to support the Republican party's nominee for president in the general election.
"The code of Virginia allows for political parties to require individuals who wish to participate in presidential primaries to sign a pledge that he or she will support the party's candidate in the general election," said Justin Riemer, deputy secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections. For this year's primaries, Virginia's Republican party chose to exercise that right.
According to the Times-Dispatch: "The pledge will require the voter to sign and to print his name beneath a line that says: 'I, the undersigned, pledge that I intend to support the nominee of the Republican Party for president.'"
Huffington Post: Voter ID Law Blocked By Feds In South Carolina, Texas Could Be Next
-By Trymaine Lee
December 28, 2011- Last week the Justice Department blocked a South Carolina law that would require voters to produce photo identification at the polls. Now a similar Texas voter ID law could very well be next to face a legal challenge.
Under the Voting Rights Act, Texas numbers among a few states, including South Carolina, that must have federal approval of any changes to its election laws because of its history of racial discrimination.
"The Texas attorney general's office is prepared to take all necessary legal action to defend the voter ID law enacted by the Texas Legislature," Texas AG spokeswoman Lauren Bean told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington Bureau and the organization's senior vice president for advocacy and policy, said he expects the Texas law to be blocked as well.
Truthout: Occupy Rigged Elections: A Call for the Second American Revolution in 2012
When candidates emerge who support the positions and demands of the 99 percent, the more certain we can be that our elections will be rigged.
-by Victoria Collier and Ronnie Cummins
December 27, 2011- A great battle is coming. The 2012 elections are our chance to turn the tide back toward real democracy, but we must begin immediately. Only by organizing for a democratic revolution now can we break the hold of corporate criminals over our elections and take real power in 2012, legitimately and nonviolently.
Thanks to Occupy Wall Street and the 99 percent movement, millions of Americans are finally shaking off the depression and torpor of the past decade, heeding the mass-consciousness call to reclaim power from corporatist forces that have hijacked our country, our planet, and our future. We may not all have taken to the streets yet, but we will. Or we'll contribute in other creative, personally liberating ways, pitching in with prison-break fervor to unblock the channels of revolutionary energy.
New York Times: Unlikely Agitator, an Insider, Speaks Out Against Electoral Fraud in Russia
-By Michael Schwirtz
December 28, 2011- VLADIMIR, Russia — At first glance, Sergei N. Filippov seems an unlikely political provocateur.
A consummate insider, he is the chief executive of a regional affiliate of the government-owned energy giant, Gazprom, here in this ancient town. And he is an influential local member of Russia’s ruling party, United Russia.
But there he was at the latest session of the Vladimir Region legislature last week, disrupting scheduled debates on forest fire prevention and a transportation tax, to make an appeal to his fellow party members: acknowledge and repair the fraud that many people here believe United Russia committed in recent parliamentary elections.
“These violations must be documented,” said Mr. Filippov, who has worked in the regional government for about 15 years. “We cannot be silent about this. We will be doing a disservice if we fail to speak up today.”
The Brad Blog: Newt Gingrich Committed Massive Voter Fraud! (According to GOP/Fox ‘News’ ACORN Standards)
-By Brad Friedman
December 28, 2011- If the same standards are applied to Newt Gingrich as have, for years, been applied to the now-defunct ACORN organization by both Republicans and their media arm, Fox "News", then it seems Newt Gingrich's campaign has committed thousands of acts of voter fraud.
As CNN and TPM are reporting right now:
Newt Gingrich, who failed to make it onto the ballot in Virginia, is alleging that fraud on the part of one of the signature collectors is to blame, reports CNN: “We hired somebody who turned in false signatures. We turned in 11,100 — we needed 10,000 — 1,500 of them were by one guy who frankly committed fraud,“ Gingrich said to a woman in Algona, Iowa.
The Brad Blog: No Photo ID Required to Vote in GOP’s Iowa Caucus
-By Brad Friedman
December 28, 2011- For all of their years of claims that massive voter fraud is going on at the polling place, such that Photo ID restrictions are required to ensure the integrity of the vote, you'd think that when Republicans have a chance to run their own elections, they'd be sure to want it to be as "fraud" free as possible.
Nonetheless, despite onerous polling place Photo ID requirements now passed into law in about a dozen states where the GOP controls both the legislative and executive branches, voters will be able to cast their ballot in next Tuesday's "First-in-the-Nation" Republican Iowa Caucuses without bothering to show a Photo ID — even though the Republican Party itself sets their own rules for voting there.