# Republican Strategy: Voter Intimidation **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 23, 2004, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767 "2004-10-23T14:35:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/41 "2004-10-23T23:29:25Z")
So, **Diogenes** , you’re standing behind Nuradin Abdi’s right to vote? He’s the native of Somalia charged with plotting to blow up a Columbus mall, here in the country illegally. He should be left alone to cast his vote? ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/42 "2004-10-23T23:29:45Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Even then, we don’t need self-appointed partisan Nazis trying to selectively enforce this bullshit. It’s more than a bit ironic to complain about legitimate and legal Republican tactics, when the Democrats still seem to be using [brownshirt](http://www.enquirer.com/midday/10/10232004_News_mday_breakin.html)[tactics.](http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=96592) to try to scare off the opposition. (Not to mention your little pay-them-with-crack ventures, phony registrations, efforts to keep Nader off the ballot, and whatnot.) Damned straight the Republicans are going to be keeping an eye on things; the Dems are simply not to be trusted. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/43 "2004-10-23T23:31:15Z")
> [@Apos](#): > > Apparently, you are too dense to post. These challanges are already filed and over with BEFORE the election is held. People who have already been shown to have invalid addresses are stripped from the rolls, and thus can’t vote anyway. > > The challenger mess inside the polls takes place AFTER all of that. Thank you for a typically dismissive insult. Nothing in the OP linked article indicates that those 35,000 have been stripped from the rolls, and therefore the GOP has a vested interest in making sure that those who vote are legally entitled to do so. P.S. Buck up on your spelling, Sparky. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/44 "2004-10-23T23:32:23Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > And these GOP thugs can tell just by looking at someone if they have a valid address? > > How are they going to know who to stop and harrass? The last sentence in the report answers you: observers are being given lists of people who registered with bad addresses or who otherwise are questionable. They will use the lists to decide who to challenge. [quoteEven then, we don’t need self-appointed partisan Nazis trying to selectively enforce this bullshit.[/QUOTE] It’s better to let illegal aliens vote than to challenge their attempts to do so? I don’t agree. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/45 "2004-10-23T23:35:53Z")
Two things I saw on a local news show last night: 1.0 Representatives of some “group” is / was going door-to-door in predominantly poor neighborhoods offering to help people fill out a ballot, or even to fill it out for them, and then to take said ballot for deposit, thereby sparing the person the trouble of delivering it to a polling place. The people who were interviewed for the news story were from an ethnic group that tradionally votes the Democratic ticket. Certain conclusions can be reasonably drawn, I think. 2.0 Some concern exists in Florida due to the number of people who own residences “up north” and in Florida. Apparently it is not illegal for such people to be registered voters in both locations. It is a felony to cast two (or more) votes in the same election, but there are no means in place to cross check on such people. According to the story from last night, there is some suspicion that several thousand such votes were cast in 2000’s election. I will try to locate a cite, but don’t have time right now. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/46 "2004-10-23T23:37:25Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > You obviously didn’t read the entire thing. _He’s here illegally._ He has no right to vote. Yet he’s registered to vote. > > Something is rotten in the state of Ohio. If he’s here illegally then I guess he can’t vote. Whether he’s a “suspected terrorist” is irrelevant either way. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/47 "2004-10-23T23:40:53Z")
[Here is one article](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/243393p-208651c.html) on the topic of “Snowbird voting” as reported on NPR, et. al. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/48 "2004-10-23T23:41:49Z")
> [@](#): > > So, Diogenes, you’re standing behind Nuradin Abdi’s right to vote? He’s the native of Somalia charged with plotting to blow up a Columbus mall, here in the country illegally. He should be left alone to cast his vote? I’m saying that being a “suspected terrorist” is not a _per se_ reason to abridge an individual’s right to vote. I a person is not a citizen, he can’t vote anyway. If he _is_ an American citizen, being a “suspected terrorist” (whatever that means) does not deprive him of the right to vote. Dragging the words “suspected terrorists” into the conversation is just well poisoning. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/49 "2004-10-23T23:43:14Z")
I see, **Bricker**. So everybody walks into the polling place, wearing large placards with thier names and addresses printed in appropriately large type? And your valiant defenders of civic virtue, they compare these with their lists? Well, then, that’s all sorted out. You see, **Dio** and his ilk (got ilk?) are under the delusion that the aforementioned valiant defenders will be depending on thier own personal impressions of the approaching voters. Like they might be swayed by their own personal racial or ethnic biases. Like maybe an illegal alien terrorist who looked like Mr. Rogers might not be subject to the same scrupulous scrutiny as, say, Dennis Rodman. Can’t have that, now can we? But they have lists, you say? Well, isn’t that dandy. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/50 "2004-10-23T23:44:25Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > I’m saying that being a “suspected terrorist” is not a _per se_ reason to abridge an individual’s right to vote. I a person is not a citizen, he can’t vote anyway. If he _is_ an American citizen, being a “suspected terrorist” (whatever that means) does not deprive him of the right to vote. > > Dragging the words “suspected terrorists” into the conversation is just well poisoning. I agree. But you agree that non-citizen Abdi has no business voting? And yet he was registered, and it doesn’t appear there was any other organized effort that would have uncovered this fraud. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/51 "2004-10-23T23:45:28Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > Thank you for a typically dismissive insult. Nothing in the OP linked article indicates that those 35,000 have been stripped from the rolls, and therefore the GOP has a vested interest in making sure that those who vote are legally entitled to do so. Then the problem is, you don’t know what you are talking about. I have a stack of copies of these challenge forms sitting right next to me, dipshit. Monday morning, the local BOE will be summarily stripping them all from the rolls. Which is too bad, because some of them are almost certainly real voters who didn’t write their address legibly enough or had other minor errors on their forms. They are going to wake up on Nov.2 and find that they cannot vote, that they are not on the rolls (no same day registration in Ohio). I wish I had time to track them down and see if they are real people, but I don’t. Cest la vie. > [@](#): > > P.S. Buck up on your spelling, Sparky. It’s called _typing_. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/52 "2004-10-23T23:49:05Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I see, **Bricker**. So everybody walks into the polling place, wearing large placards with thier names and addresses printed in appropriately large type? And your valiant defenders of civic virtue, they compare these with their lists? > > Well, then, that’s all sorted out. You see, **Dio** and his ilk (got ilk?) are under the delusion that the aforementioned valiant defenders will be depending on thier own personal impressions of the approaching voters. Like they might be swayed by their own personal racial or ethnic biases. Like maybe an illegal alien terrorist who looked like Mr. Rogers might not be subject to the same scrupulous scrutiny as, say, Dennis Rodman. > > Can’t have that, now can we? > > But they have lists, you say? Well, isn’t that dandy. I don’t know how voting works in, say, Mars, where based on some of your idea I suspect you’ve long been registered. But in Virginia, each person’s name is publicly announced as they supply it to the registrar prior to entering the booth. This would be sufficient for the monitors to use to check names. Now, if extra attention is paid to Dennis Rodman than to Fred Rogers on the basis of appearance, that’s bad. But if the name “Dennis Rodman,” is announced and it appears on a list of felons, then he should be challenged. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/53 "2004-10-23T23:59:18Z")
> [@Apos](#): > > Then the problem is, you don’t know what you are talking about. I have a stack of copies of these challenge forms sitting right next to me, dipshit. Monday morning, the local BOE will be summarily stripping them all from the rolls. Which is too bad, because some of them are almost certainly real voters who didn’t write their address legibly enough or had other minor errors on their forms. They are going to wake up on Nov.2 and find that they cannot vote, that they are not on the rolls (no same day registration in Ohio). I wish I had time to track them down and see if they are real people, but I don’t. Cest la vie. > It’s called _typing_. And I was supposed to know that by what means? Posters reference an article dated 23 OCT 2004. You had the opportunity to inform, but instead chose to be a :wally So much for fighting ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/54 "2004-10-24T00:13:15Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I don’t know how voting works in, say, Mars, where based on some of your idea I suspect you’ve long been registered. But in Virginia, each person’s name is publicly announced as they supply it to the registrar prior to entering the booth. This would be sufficient for the monitors to use to check names. > > Now, if extra attention is paid to Dennis Rodman than to Fred Rogers on the basis of appearance, that’s bad. But if the name “Dennis Rodman,” is announced and it appears on a list of felons, then he should be challenged. Publicly announced? I’ve been a regular voter since 1984, in four different states (including Virginia), and I’ve never once heard my name (or anyone else’s) publicly announced at a poll. Are you sure about this? In my current state they just ask for your name and address then they hand you a ballot. There’s no PA system that I’ve ever seen. In my previous state (ND) you don’t even have to register to vote. You just show up. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/55 "2004-10-24T01:02:04Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I don’t know how voting works in, say, Mars, where based on some of your idea I suspect you’ve long been registered. But in Virginia, each person’s name is publicly announced as they supply it to the registrar prior to entering the booth. This would be sufficient for the monitors to use to check names. I’ve been voting in Virginia for 30 years. This assertion is bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![MrFantsyPants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@MrFantsyPants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFantsyPants)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/56 "2004-10-24T01:26:05Z")
> [@Brutus](#): > > It’s more than a bit ironic to complain about legitimate and legal Republican tactics, when the Democrats still seem to be using [brownshirt](http://www.enquirer.com/midday/10/10232004_News_mday_breakin.html)[tactics.](http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=96592) to try to scare off the opposition. (Not to mention your little pay-them-with-crack ventures, phony registrations, efforts to keep Nader off the ballot, and whatnot.) > > Damned straight the Republicans are going to be keeping an eye on things; the Dems are simply not to be trusted. Do you actually read the articles that you post to, Brutus? Or are you actually one of those sneaky liberals, trying to make republicans look bad by very publicly being a moron? ---
**Author:** ![MisterThyristor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@MisterThyristor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MisterThyristor)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/57 "2004-10-24T02:17:02Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > {first part snipped} > > Now, if extra attention is paid to Dennis Rodman than to Fred Rogers on the basis of appearance, that’s bad. But if the name “Dennis Rodman,” is announced and it appears on a list of felons, then he should be challenged. Except, of course, that in Ohio ex-felons are allowed to vote. They have to re-register, since they are removed from the lists while they are in prison. Not your main point, I understand, but the 35,000 that were being challenged are from Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/58 "2004-10-24T02:27:11Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > So, **Diogenes** , you’re standing behind Nuradin Abdi’s right to vote? He’s the native of Somalia charged with plotting to blow up a Columbus mall, here in the country illegally. He should be left alone to cast his vote? Do they let you out of jail to cast a vote? ---
**Author:** ![LadySybil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c89c15/32.png) [@LadySybil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LadySybil)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/59 "2004-10-24T03:29:52Z")
Am I the only one who got this image? Ohio voter: I’d like to cast my vote today, please. Representative: You will not cast your vote until you prove yourself… \ BY DEFEATING ME IN COMBAT!! d&r ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767/60 "2004-10-24T03:37:01Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > … each person’s name is publicly announced as they supply it to the registrar prior to entering the booth… Well, that’s really something! Every single one, huh? They must read aloud literally hundreds of names every night! Do they take any special training in ethnic sensitivity in name pronunciation? Or do they just plow right into “Ramirez y Velascuez” or “Nguyen” or “Nahasapeemapetilo” any old way they can? And these guardians of the public trust, they must stand pretty close, I guess, so that they can hear each of these names being, ah, announced. I mean, they must, mustn’t they? Surely they don’t walk up to hear names announced for some, but not others, since equal suspicion applies to all, yes? Can’t have them performing some sort of intuitive profiling, which might be biased. So clearly they must spend thier entire tour of duty standing right next to the table, listening to the names being announced… Oh dear! What if there’s more than one! What if its a big precinct, maybe they have any number of tables spread about! How then can they cover all the bases, be in several places at once, listening to several sets of ongoing announcements and simultaneously cross-checking against a list of scoundrels! I am in awe, sir. Your Virginia stalwarts put Minnesotans to shame! Our poll workers are examples of prudence and hygiene, true, but nothing against the raw multi-tasking power of your Virginian poll workers! (I note with dismay that your marvelous tale is met with some suspicion, bordering on disdain. Be assured they are merely jealous, or perhaps too cynical to accept the wondrous implications of your testimony…) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-strategy-voter-intimidation/270767.md?page=4)