When I first heard the term 'Voter Caging', I had no idea what it meant. All I could imagine were multiple arrests on election day under bogus charges to keep these particular folks from going to the polls that day. Not that this idea is so far-fetched. We all know about purging the voter rolls, so who is to say that there couldn't be a step further into that direction?
Alas, I was wrong. Voter Caging is a different, but equally disturbing and disgusting practice:
A political party or a campaign collects lists of registered voters and sends fairly innocuous mailings marked 'do not forward' or 'return to sender' to these individuals. If the mail is returned, that particular person's voter registration gets challenged on the grounds that the person is not living at the residence listed on the registration.
Typically, the main targets of such mailings are minorities and people living in minority neighborhoods. Many times, active duty military are targeted, as well. In 2004, voter caging lists were prepared in Florida (who'da thunk?), Ohio (surprise, surprise!), and Pennsylvania. (I believe it).
While not everyone agrees with Greg Palast's assessment that the 2004 election was stolen, this following youtube piece is invaluable as an explanation of how voter caging was done, and the effects it might have had.
Part Two below the fold.
In light of this, and the death-and-tax certainty of a repeat in 2008, Senator Kerry has decided to cosponsor a bill by Senator Whitehouse, The Caging Prohibition Act. This bill would put and end to this practice, as Senator Kerry states on his website.
“The practice of ‘caging’ is reprehensible and has absolutely no place in our democracy. Here in America, every citizen, regardless of race, gender, religion or sexual orientation has the right to cast his or her vote. These are the very foundations of our democracy and this bill will ensure that we protect fundamental freedoms for millions of voters across our country,” said Senator Kerry.
Well put, Senator Kerry!
Knowing that these types of shenanigans among others may well have cost him the election and robbed the American people of a fair and democratic process, is a great motivator to affect change. Let's hope that this legislation passes and won't be stopped by the Roadblock Republicans and others, who are determined to keep election fraud alive and well.
We citizens should be equally determined to not let them steal our right to vote again. I urge everyone to call their senators and urge them to sign on to this very important Caging Prohibition Act.
Comments (2)
Posted by Connie | November 6, 2007 9:23 PM
You know, the most frustrating aspect of all the illegal maneuvers by the criminals in the republican party who executed them, is that to this day, so many democrats are still apologizing for not running a winning campaign in 2004. Instead of celebrating the fact that John Kerry did the unthinkable -- he beat an incumbent, wartime president, and he won big; JK and all who worked so hard for him are subjected to the same old lies about how the democrats just can't seem to get it together to win elections. Well, we did. Someday, I hope Greg Palast, or Bev Harris of Blackboxvoting, or Brad Friedman of bradblog, or maybe a whistle blower, will come forward with the goods about the 2004 election fraud that took place on the repub owned and operated ballot counting machines. The rest of the world will know that Americans were not stupid enough to vote Bush in for a second term. He just took it. Thanks for this video, Kerstin. Let's just hope that we have uncovered all the repubs sneaky methods of stealing elections before the next one takes place. I'm so proud of John Kerry's bill to end caging tactics by the repubs. Little by little....
Posted by fedup | November 7, 2007 3:12 AM
Well I am one that believes that the election was stolen but..... as Senator Kerry stated ( Senator Kerry on the Ed Shultz show I believe in '06 said, that he was astounded that some things were not illegal in certain states)they twisted and bent the legal into what should be criminal.
The Republicans pulled every trick in the book in '04 from suppression to Republican ownership of electronic voting machines. Although Senator Kerry tried his hardest to fracture this before the election was held, the Republican controlled Secretaries of State in certain swing states over ruled with the help of Republican judges.
This just so angers me, and angers me even more when those on the left think that it was so easy to prove, when even Republican US attorneys were saying that these tactics were ridiculous and wouldn't go along with them, and in the end were fired for speaking truth to power.
These criminals that have taken over our country the last 7 years need to be stopped and I pray be taken down and convicted. Karl Rove needs to be behind bars instead of speaking to the kool-aid drinkers at evangelical cult facilities. (That is a whole other issue of Republicans trying to infiltrate their minions (religious right)upon all of us.)