? for the brain trust re-pbs now video [View All]

so, i sent links to the 2 videos from the pbs now piece (up in the video forum) to some folks in my hood who are concern about elections, but don't really understand the problem.

i sent them with this message-

i know some people have concerns about "voter fraud" something which by and large really does not exist, and "election fraud" which most certainly is a problem of huge magnitude, and grave consequences. how this distinction has been muddied is all part of the plan.
fwiw, it remains my concern that outside groups came to rogers park and did the same sort of voter suppression.
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(i posted about this stuff, most is in my journal, fwiw. not sure if you have to really get the local issues to understand the exchange. i will sit down to reply to this tomorrow, but wonder what the brain trust might think. i got this reply from the loser of the local election.)


I'm a little confused on the caging issue and how this targets specifically low income and minority populations as mentioned early in the first video or even targeting those based on race. The statement was made that they were targeted and yet there was no proof offered in the videos as to how minorities were identified for the mailings - only that "newly registered" voters were sent the letters - which of course could include Republicans! Did I miss something?

Voter fraud is indeed a problem at least in the City of Chicago and certainly in the 49th Ward, which we identified as part of the lawsuit. That evidence never made it to the light of day because the judge pulled a highly unprecented move to reverse her own decision at a hearing where evidence was going to be presented. There were numerous incidents of voters voting from vacant buildings, particularly in Precinct 1 and even a couple of deceased voters voting.

It's important that every citizen has an opportunity to vote and that the process to do that is simple without being open to the possibility of fraud. Registering from an address of a building that's been vacant for over a year, as an example, and not allowing that voter to be challenged is simply wrong. We need to make sure that the Election Judges are enforcing the use of tools that already exist - to validate that a voter is who they say they are, that they live at the address that they claim to live at AND that the address is a valid address.

Yes, this requires showing some kind of ID, but it could be something as simple as a gas bill. None of this process is an overwhelming challenge to ask of a voter. Even a homeless person could be given the opportunity to register at a shelter as proof of residence in their particular community. Our voting rights are the basis of our democracy. It's wrong to prevent people from voting, but it's just as wrong to allow people to vote who intend to defraud the system. Either case diminishes our democratic process.