Everyday it seems like PA is a lost cause due to right wing cheating.

[JRLeft]

Why do Republicons hate America?

[Bjorn Against]

1. We will still probably win PA at the Presidential level, the state and local level however...

The Republican suppression efforts will no doubt cost us some seats in PA, I think Obama probably has a good enough lead that he can overcome the suppression efforts but the local candidates in tight races could lose because legal voters will be denied their basic right.

[AndyTiedye]

2. He Must. If They Steal Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, they "Win"

We cannot afford to lose PA. It is a "must-win" for us.

[Bjorn Against]

3. He needs two of the three states that you list

While there would be a path to victory without PA it is not a path we want to risk taking. PA is indeed very important and of the three states you mentioned it should be the easiest for us to win, but we certainly can't take it for granted and Obama will need to spend some money there to ensure he maintains his lead up through election day and have enough of a cushion to overcome the disenfranchisement.

[99th_Monkey]

7. It isn't just voter suppression

it's also the effects of Citizens United "dark money" and of the
election fraud that has never been fixed: i.e. who counts our
votes for the most part, are PRIVATE corporations with ties to
the GOP and with 'secret source codes' that allow whoever is
deemed worth to hack into the system and flip votes at will.


Due to all THREE of these huge influences, all in favor of Rmoney/Ryan,
it will take a HUGE turn out by Dems to overcome it, and win.

So our work is cut out for us, huh?

[Firebrand Gary]

4. Bullshit! Pennsylvania is not a lost cause, playing into Rove tactics here on DU will not sit well.

Simply put, the GOP is trying to steal the election and we will fight them every bit of the way! Until the very last minute, WE WILL fight for every ballot, do not doubt that.

The GOP tries this garbage all the time, they try to make our people apathetic, depressed in order to keep the enthusiasm low in hopes that we will not show up to the polls.

We will make sure that the country knows exactly what the GOP is doing, even if that means filming Republican fucktards denying people the right to vote!

The Democratic Party will no longer bring a knife to a gun fight. We will come at them with everything that we've got!

In other words, If I were talking to the Republicans, I'd say, Game on mother fuckers!

[HeiressofBickworth]

5. The voter suppression efforts in Republican states

are in clear violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

"Section 2 contains a general prohibition on voting discrimination, enforced through federal district court litigation. Congress amended this section in 1982, prohibiting any voting practice or procedure that has a discriminatory result. The 1982 amendment provided that proof of intentional discrimination is not required. The provision focused instead on whether the electoral processes are equally accessible to minority voters. This section is permanent and does not require renewal." (wikipedia)

Don't expect Holder's Justice Department to hop right on that. 1) Holder is notoriously reluctant to take on civil rights issues and 2) the Republicans have succeeded in tying him up in legal maneuvering over Fast & Furious.

[blkmusclmachine]

8. Also, Holder's too busy busting the hippies

to worry about vote stealing. Priorities, ppl!!!!


Operation Northwoods

[forthemiddle]

12. How do other states that require IDs get away with it then?

If this is a violation of the Voters Rights Act, and if the Supreme Court already ruled that Indiana's voter ID law was constitutional, what is the difference that PA (or Wisconsin, my state) is doing?

I know there are other states that require photo IDs at the polls, what is the difference? Is it the type of ID, the fact that ID might be harder to get, or what?

Thanks in advance. I just never understood the argument since other states are already, successfully requiring it.
Maybe someone from one of those states can fill me in.

[HeiressofBickworth]

13. The difference is in what is required to get the photo ID

In some states, a drivers license or DOL non-driver ID is obtained easily -- no onerous backup documentation required just a signed affidavit of citizenship and residency. In the Republican states, the requirements to get that ID are difficult...

Your original Social Security Card (who still has that?) Obtaining it from a social security office can be impossible for someone who is house-bound, for example. Social Security offices are only open M-F during business hours which means many working people aren't able to get there to get a new SS card. There is a fee for a replacement card.

Your birth certificate (no, not the one issued from the hospital with your foot prints on it). If you were born out of state there is the cost and time involved in obtaining a certified copy of your birth certificate. If you are an older person, born at home, there will be no state certificate available for you. Whatever documentation you used to sign up for Social Security will not be acceptable -- only a certified birth certificate will do. If you were born in-state, but live somewhere other than the location in which your birth certificate might be registered, you would have to spend the time and money to get there or rely on the mail.

If you are a naturalized citizen, your certificate of naturalization but not one more than 2 years old. Another fee.

The fact that you may have been registered to vote for the last 30 years has no bearing on this. Your old voter registration card is of no use.

In Florida, people have been deprived of their voting rights by letters from the state saying so. Under the US constitution, one is not supposed to lose one's rights without due process of law. Florida requires people to PROVE their citizenship. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

The number of Department of Licensing offices has been reduced and the hours have been shortened so even if you are able to jump through the other hoops, your opportunity to go to the DOL is reduced.

So who does this particularly effect: the poor -- they may have to make the choice between feeding the kids or spending the money on the documents necessary to register to vote. They may not have the transportation necessary to appear in a DOL office in order to obtain registration. The elderly: they may not have the mobility, money or other resources to obtain the documents required. Students: not able to use Student ID cards to obtain voting registration as the registration laws require an expiration date which most student ID's don't have.

Wisconsin’s voter ID law has been blocked twice in court, but the state would have some of the strictest ID requirements in the country if injunctions are lifted. After the law was passed, the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire provided new, optional student IDs including the necessary information. To offset the cost of the new IDs, the university will charge $2 for each, a cost that Democratic state Rep. Gary Hebl calls unconstitutional. “It’s a poll tax, obviously,” Hebl said. “The purpose of the card is to vote with it.” And Hebl said the low cost of the IDs didn’t make a difference. “To charge people to vote is unconstitutional,” he said. “If it costs a nickel, it’s unconstitutional; $2 could be the difference between buying a loaf of bread or voting.” http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/ _news/2012/08/17/

Any requirement that costs money is considered a "poll tax". Poll taxes were specifically banned by the Twenty Fourth Amendment, ratified in 1964 and literacy tests were banned by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

[chknltl]

6. Not sure that this proves that they hate America.

Imo, some don't know that this is going on, some refuse to believe that this is going on and some think that the ends justify the means. I would argue that the true haters here are the latter group and what they hate is not so much America but American democracy because it does not serve their purpose.

Allies can be made from strange bedfellows, perhaps Pennsylvania is yet winnable if inroads can be made into recruiting members (votes) from the first two groups. We could start by not suggesting that they all hate America.

Please do not take my post as a challenge or an invite to a flame war. My first inclination was to agree with you and post something snarky. That is the easy way out, maintaining the status quo of us vs them. Truth be told, if we are to win PA. we will need every voter we can get to turn out. The more we can get to turn out the better our chances will be of defeating the election fraud arrayed currently against Pennsylvania..

[FSogol]

9. Screw that. We'll win PA anyway. GOT f'ing V

[jerseygal]

11. Hard to GOTV in PA since there are no contact numbers and you can't volunteer.

I live in South Jersey in District 1 which is 85% Democratic.

Two friends and I have tried to contact people to help the Obama campaign with registration.

If you go to the website for OFA, there are NO phone numbers for the majority of the campaign headquarters. That's because all the smart young kids running them use cell phones. So we were unable to contact anyone.

We applied as volunteers on the website. None of us has heard anything.

One of my friends went over to Center City to go to the main headquarters at 15th and Chestnut. It is located on the 16th floor in a building that is not easily accessed - just a couple of small elevators. She went up there - there was no traffic in the office. She spoke to the person who was supposed to be the head of volunteers. She was particuarly interested in helping with registration - specifically going over the voter registration forms that are coming in - to make sure they were complete so they would not be disallowed. She (and I and several others) did this for the Obama campaign in 2008. The head of volunteers told her they were not doing that but he guessed she could if she wanted to. He then walked off, profoundly uninterested.

So if you can't volunteer for this campaign and no one is checking the registrations and you also have the voter ID problem, we are not going to win Pennsylvania.

Yesterday I walked around Center City Philly. You would never have known there was an election in this Democratic City. I did not see a single button except the one I was wearing. There were no tables to sell buttons or register people or get volunteers. I was a beautiful Friday and many people were out on the streets but there was no Obama campaign presence at all. Very different from 2008.

I got the email of someone in South Jersey who is supposedly going over the Pennsylvania to work so I will try him.

[SoCalDem]

10. Perception of chaos added to media befuddlement & tied to quirky polling

is what the GOP has planned for PA & Ohio.. The "real" efforts will be inside the machinery and behind closed doors during the counting..

Massive turnout is the only solution..and of course our dems on the ground there need to go door to door so people can get that damned ID they need.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. PA went through rethug voter purges in the mid-90s

and still managed to elect Bill Clinton.

http://articles.mcall.com/1994-12-29/news/2998945_1_national-voter-registration-act-county-s-voter-election-board