Suppressing the vote

Michigan (17 electoral votes):

Back in July, Republican state representative John Pappageorge actually came right out and said “If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we’re going to have a tough time in this election.”

Wisconsin (10 electoral votes):

State Republican Party has demanded that Milwaukee city officials require identification from 37,000 voters who they say have questionable addresses. (The basis for this claim? That the voters refused to accept registered mail from the GOP.) If the city doesn’t comply, the party is threatening to have volunteers challenge each individual at the polls, creating long lines and backlogs.

In Milwaukee’s black neighborhoods, somebody has been distributing a flyer claiming that “if you’ve ever been found guilty of anything, even a traffic violation [...] if anybody in your family has ever been found guilty of anything you can’t vote in the presidential election”.

The College Republicans organization at UW-Madison sent erroneous poll location information to students in six residence halls. (The College Republican National Committe has also cheated senior citizens out of over $6 million by lying to them about who they were collecting for, but that’s not a vote-suppression matter, just ordinary fraud.)

Ohio (20 electoral votes):

The Ohio Republican Party is paying recruits $100 each to wait in polling places and challenge voters, especially in heavily Democratic neighborhoods. A party co-chairman calls newly registered voters “ringers”, implying that they are somehow illegitimate. Recruits are being taught to, among other things, challenge mentally disabled voters.

Somebody has been phoning voters in Columbus, Ohio, saying they’re from the Board of Elections and telling them that their polling places have moved, or offering to pick up and deliver their absentee ballots.

Someone cut the phone lines for the largest Toledo-area Kerry GOTV phone bank.

Someone has been sending forged letters, purporting to be from the Lake County Board of Elections, to newly registered Democrats telling them that they may have been registered illegally and may not be eligable to vote this year.

And a whole blog devoted just to tracking vote suppression in Ohio this year.

Nevada (5 electoral votes)
Oregon (7 electoral votes)
West Virginia (5 electoral votes)
Pennsylvania (21 electoral votes):

Voters Outreach of America, a GOP-funded voter registration company headed by Nathan Sproul of Arizona, has been destroying Democratic registration forms in Nevada and Orgeon. The company has also been working in West Virginia.

Sproul also has a company called Sproul & Associates, which has been hired by the Republican National Committee to increase the party’s voter rolls. In Pittsburgh Sproul & Assoc lied about being hired by the non-partisan company America Votes to register voters so that they could register people in a public library; they then would only register Republicans.

South Carolina (8 electoral votes):

Someone has distributed a fake letter, purporting to be from the NAACP, claiming that people won’t be allowed to vote if they have unpaid parking tickets, or haven’t submitted a credit report.

South Dakota (3 electoral votes):

Republican poll workers have been intimidating Native American voters by following them around or writing down their license plate numbers. A restraining order has been issued.

Games Club

I actually played some games at Friday’s Games Club meeting. Let’s see...

kent_allard_jr brought Betrayal at House on the Hill again, and I got to play this time. This looked like a fun game, and I guess it could be if everyone played up the potential role-playing aspects, but the luck aspect is so heavy that my character wound up just wandering around having nothing interesting happen to her till the endgame, when a ghost killed her. I think it’d work better with only three or four players instead of six, so you don’t have to wait so long between turns.

We played Puerto Rico, and I did horribly, but we got through a full five-player game, including set-up and put-away, in only 80 minutes!

And Carcassone, with the river tiles but no other expansions. We even used the original farm scoring rules, which was probably a mistake. I need to track down the revised rules.

And a bunch of us brain-stormed a most-dramatic-case scenario for the election. I think it involved Rehnquist being dragged from his operating table to rule on the constitutionality of the Colorado electoral vote referendum, resulting in an electoral tie, with the Democrats taking back the Senate but not the House, and brokering a deal to get McCain as president with Edwards as veep. I forget the details.

The Old Issue

“The Old Issue”
October 9, 1899
(Outbreak of Boer War)
Rudyard Kipling

“Here is nothing new nor aught unproven,” say the Trumpets,
“Many feet have worn it and the road is old indeed.
“It is the King—the King we schooled aforetime !”
(Trumpets in the marshes—in the eyot at Runnymede!)

“Here is neither haste, nor hate, nor anger,” peal the Trumpets,
“Pardon for his penitence or pity for his fall.
“It is the King!”—inexorable Trumpets—
(Trumpets round the scaffold at the dawning by Whitehall!)

“He hath veiled the Crown and hid the Sceptre,” warn the Trumpets,
“He hath changed the fashion of the lies that cloak his will.
“Hard die the Kings—ah hard—dooms hard!” declare the Trumpets,
Trumpets at the gang-plank where the brawling troop-decks fill!

Ancient and Unteachable, abide—abide the Trumpets!
Once again the Trumpets, for the shuddering ground-swell brings
Clamour over ocean of the harsh, pursuing Trumpets—
Trumpets of the Vanguard that have sworn no truce with Kings!

All we have of freedom, all we use or know—
This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.

Ancient Right unnoticed as the breath we draw—
Leave to live by no man’s leave, underneath the Law.

Lance and torch and tumult, steel and grey-goose wing
Wrenched it, inch and ell and all, slowly from the King.

Till our fathers ’stablished, after bloody years,
How our King is one with us, first among his peers.

So they bought us freedom—not at little cost
Wherefore must we watch the King, lest our gain be lost,

Over all things certain, this is sure indeed,
Suffer not the old King: for we know the breed.

Give no ear to bondsmen bidding us endure.
Whining “He is weak and far”; crying “Time shall cure”.

(Time himself is witness, till the battle joins,
Deeper strikes the rottenness in the people’s loins.)

Give no heed to bondsmen masking war with peace.
Suffer not the old King here or overseas.

They that beg us barter—wait his yielding mood—
Pledge the years we hold in trust—pawn our brother’s blood—

Howso’ great their clamour, whatsoe’er their claim,
Suffer not the old King under any name!

Here is naught unproven—here is naught to learn.
It is written what shall fall if the King return.

He shall mark our goings, question whence we came,
Set his guards about us, as in Freedom’s name.

He shall take a tribute, toll of all our ware;
He shall change our gold for arms—arms we may not bear.

He shall break his judges if they cross his word;
He shall rule above the Law calling on the Lord.

He shall peep and mutter; and the night shall bring
Watchers ’neath our window, lest we mock the King—

Hate and all division; hosts of hurrying spies;
Money poured in secret, carrion breeding flies.

Strangers of his counsel, hirelings of his pay,
These shall deal our Justice: sell—deny—delay.

We shall drink dishonour, we shall eat abuse
For the Land we look to—for the Tongue we use.

We shall take our station, dirt beneath his feet,
While his hired captains jeer us in the street.

Cruel in the shadow, crafty in the sun,
Far beyond his borders shall his teachings run.

Sloven, sullen, savage, secret, uncontrolled,
Laying on a new land evil of the old—

Long-forgotten bondage, dwarfing heart and brain—
All our fathers died to loose he shall bind again.

Here is naught at venture, random nor untrue—
Swings the wheel full-circle, brims the cup anew.

Here is naught unproven, here is nothing hid:
Step for step and word for word—so the old Kings did!

Step by step, and word by word: who is ruled may read.
Suffer not the old Kings: for we know the breed—

All the right they promise—all the wrong they bring.
Stewards of the Judgment, suffer not this King!