Blatant voter-suppression tactics at work in Wisconsin

reply to post by Blackmarketeer

Dear Blackmarketeer,

Nice to see you again. You've usually got a pretty good detector for things that aren't quite right. They snuck one by you this time. (It seems to me.)

The ballot that is supposedly two days late? No, it was right on time. From an official Wisconsin government website:

July 19, August 16, 2011 Recall Elections
On June 10, 2011, the Government Accountability Board ordered recall elections in the following State Senate Districts:

District 12 -- Senator Jim Holperin


There was a primary in District 12 on July 19, 2011, and a recall election was held on August 16, 2011. Senator Holperin retained his seat.

District 22 -- Senator Robert Wirch


There was a primary in District 22 on July 19, 2011, and a recall election was held on August 16, 2011. Senator Wirch retained his seat.

District 30 -- Senator Dave Hansen

The recall election was held on July 19, 2011. Senator Hansen retained his seat.

gab.wi.gov...
There really was an election on the 16th, the timing given on the mailing was fine.

With respect,
Charles1952

reply to post by charles1952


The two districts that received these mailers held their recall elections on August 9th. They printed the recall election date as August 11, making any ballots returned by that date (but after the 9th) invalid.

"Americans for Prosperity" also acknowledged the "mistake" claiming it was an innocent typo - so they were not in fact as you state in your post, correct for their respective districts. Not only were the dates incorrect but the return address supplied was also wrong. Anyone who used this absentee ballot to cast their vote would have had their vote tossed out.

That's voter suppression.

Americans for Prosperity sent misleading absentee ballot far more widely than previously known

The mailers were just the tip of the iceberg. The robo-calls and door to door canvassers are a new low, telling voters they don't have to bother voting if they signed a petition.

I hope Wisconsinites throw the bums out.

Originally posted by AnonymousCitizen

Originally posted by Blackmarketeer
Question: why is a "conservative" SuperPAC like "Americans for Prosperity" mailing absentee ballots only to democratic voters? Absentee ballots that just happen to have the incorrect return address and the incorrect election date, two days AFTER the close of the election (Aug. 11 instead of Aug. 9)?

What does this 10+ month old postcard have to do with the current topic of voter intimidationsuppression? I'm not getting that connection. Are you saying the recall election was last fall? And we all missed it? Crap.

edit on 6/5/12 by AnonymousCitizen because: use correct word

It has EVERYTHING to do with it! Just like Bush has EVERYTHING to do with what's wrong today! Don't you know that time doesn't matter? Dates are just facades to what's really happening! That mailer dated 10 moths ago means that the ones sent out this year are..the real...thing that...means that other thing...and stuff...

What are you, a Koch brothers shill sympathizer Nazi anti-freedom fascist Creationist or something?!?!?!?!

/TOA

Sounds like an "Acorn" style infiltration.

Why would the real groups actually risk the "risks" ?

Was there any genuine proof the mailers came from the accused offices ?

Maybe "Acorn" slipped people into the inside as employees and "helpers".

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Unions or corporations. Both are corrupt as all get out.

I would go so far as to say that some unions have become corporations these days, with the upper level leadership receiving benefits packages and bonuses just as absurd as what the CEO's from the corporations are getting.

Not saying unions hadn't had their place in the past, but too many of them have morphed into nothing more than giant lobbying machines.

There's really no difference. The unions pump money into the candidates that they think will maintain or increase their power, and corporations do the same, Two sides of the same coin I think.

Originally posted by Iamonlyhuman
reply to post by Blackmarketeer

 

The BIG question is who is doing this? The true answer might not be who people suspect.

Corporations who want $.50 an hour employees are doing this

This so reminds me of CA Prop8.

Neo-cons love to tout "State Rights" - - - so how exactly is $30 mil out of state money OK to buy a state election?

The Dems have about $4 mil - most local donations.

It wasn't right for the Mormons to buy Prop8 from out of state funding - - - any more then it is OK for out of state money to buy this state election.

Is this "make up the rules as you go along" - - - as long as you win?

Tout State Rights when it works in your favor?

Originally posted by Blackmarketeer
reply to post by jdub297

 

Repeating a lie doesn't make it true. The big out-of-state money is going to Walker's coffers.

gov-scott-walkers-big-money-backers-include-13-out-of-state-billionaires

Walker's Unprecedented Out-of-State Contributions Alarming

Scott Walker Getting Nearly Half His Donations from Out-of-State While Decrying Out-of-State Money

[iScott Walker's Out-of-State Money

No, and repeating thug political tactics was bound to backfire when the majority of hard-working tax-paying citizens got fed up with union organizers trying to tell them how to live and trying to hijack the "system."

Now that the "silent majority" are fighting back, you don't like the game anymore?

In less than 1 term, and despite union thugs' howling, the state has turned a billio-dollar deficit into a surplus, private workers come closer to equal satnding with public union leeches, and now the leeches cry out.

More than a year since Walker limited collective bargaining rights for most public employees, the nation’s three largest public unions — the National Education Association (NEA), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — have channeled at least $2 million from their treasuries and super PACs to two Wisconsin-based independent expenditure groups.

The American Federation of Teachers, United Food and Commercial Workers, Teamsters and the United Autoworkers have also dipped into their D.C. treasuries for the Wisconsin recall.

The unions, however, have struggled to keep up with Walker’s deep-pocketed, anti-union friends. They include the Republican Governors Association, which received a $1 million contribution from conservative billionaire David Koch in February, and billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson.

On March 7, the NEA, the nation’s largest union, transferred $3 million to its super PAC, the NEA Advocacy Fund. A week later, that super PAC sent $500,000 to the We Are Wisconsin Political Fund, a state-based independent expenditure group headed by the state AFL-CIO’s president. The fund has spent the money on direct mail, phone banking, canvassing and support for other pro-recall groups in the state.

Wisconsin recall breaks record thanks to outside cash

So, "fighting fire with fire" chaps your ass? Get used to it. People are tired of the "progressive" spin and the casting of every anti-liberal vote as somehow stolen or bankrupt.

As Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (DNC Chair) predicted, Wisconsin is a forewarning of what's to come in November. The "battleground" states are about to become just that. Get ready for more.

jw

reply to post by frankensence

I hope Wisconsinites throw the bums out.

CNN reports that the race is a "dead heat": Walker 58%, Barrett 41%; Kleefisch 55%, Mitchell 42%.

Some dead heat.

Looks like Wisconsites have retaken their state from the unions, and "thrown the bums out!"

Good call.

jw

Originally posted by jdub297
CNN reports that the race is a "dead heat": Walker 58%, Barrett 41%; Kleefisch 55%, Mitchell 42%.

Some dead heat.

MSNBC said, 'Walker is projected to win but this should be very tight.'

What is their definition of 'tight', losing by 10 instead of 20?

50% reporting at 9:30pm Central Time.

Looks like a landslide for Walker and the (R) Lt. Governor.

Landslide !!

Landslide !!

9:45pm Central Time.

CNN has "checked" the Republicans as winners !!!

Hey Obama
can you say

LANDSLIDE LOSS ?

What the unions could not see is that they isolated themselves by taking so much from the rest of the community to benefit themselves. It has gotten "progressively" worse decade after decade, until everything in our inflated society costs substantially more, to pay some union or some special interest group. Eventually "the people" turned out to be a special interest group of their own.

Unions are no different from the mafia (in some workplaces, they even are associated with specific crime families!).

I can't believe the tide is starting to turn. I only wish my grandfather had lived to see this day. He was threatened on the shop floor by union thugs 70 years ago.

I was threatened 20 years ago.

Maybe as Americans become knowledge workers, they won't have to be threatened by unions any more. Maybe the day is coming when unions are truly irrelevant.

Originally posted by Thunderheart
Hey Obama
can you say

LANDSLIDE LOSS ?

Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz addressed her party’s prospects of reclaiming the Wisconsin governor’s mansion, calling the battle to recall Gov. Scott Walker a “dry run” for the November election.

Wasserman Schultz: Wisconsin recall a ‘dry run’ for November

"No show Obama?"

Tough decisions, standing up to thuggery. I can't wait 'til Nov.

jw

Originally posted by jdub297
"No show Obama?"

Maybe he should have 'liked' Barrett on Facebook as well.

Originally posted by Thunderheart
Hey Obama
can you say

LANDSLIDE LOSS ?

He needs to come to reality !!

Gulp & Gasp !!

reply to post by Thunderheart

I can hear the unions and their WhiteHouse minions doing their best Monty Python: "It's only a flesh wound."
And, "I'm feeling much better."

deny ignorance

jw

Originally posted by jdub297
I can hear the unions and their WhiteHouse minions doing their best Monty Python: "It's only a flesh wound."
And, "I'm feeling much better."

Be careful before they bleed on you.