Hillary Supporters Use Rovian Vote Suppression Tactics in NV

Maybe there's a reason this isn't as beyond the pale as it looks. But I'm not seeing it.

The Nevada State Democratic party has set up nine at-large caucus locations on the Las Vegas strip for casino workers who might not otherwise be able to caucus on January 19th. Remember, because of the recent Culinary Workers Union endorsement of Barack Obama, casino workers are expected to vote heavily for him.

Now, the Nevada State Education Association (the state teachers' union), which is seen as supportive of Clinton though it has not formally endorsed her, is suing the Democratic party to prevent those at-large caucuses from meeting on the grounds that similar arrangements have not been made for other Nevadans.

I don't know the particulars of how the Nevada caucuses are arranged. But the 'tell' is the fact that the teachers' union apparently didn't think this was a problem until Sen. Obama bagged the key union endorsement. When asked why the union had never approached the state party about this issue until Friday, union president Lynne Warne, tellingly replied, "We're approaching them now."

If there's one thing that's core to the modern Democratic party is that voter suppression tactics are always wrong. Much of the US Attorney purge scandal was at root about Republican voter suppression tactics. I suspect this is doubly wrong -- both in the sense that the suit is meritless on its face but certainly also in the sense that you don't decide how easy to make it for people to vote depending on who you think they're likely to vote for.

Please leave these shameful tactics to Republicans.

Las Vegas casinos become polling sites


Published: Jan. 13, 2008 at 10:41 AM
Print story Email to a friend Font size:LAS VEGAS, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Democratic Party officials, hoping to increase voter turnout in the Nevada caucuses, will for the first time use Las Vegas casinos as polling places.

Although there will be more than 1,700 caucus precincts across the Silver State, estimates are that the votes cast in the casinos could be more than 10 percent of the statewide total, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

At the Bellagio, many of the hotel workers will go on break around noon and gather in a 30,000-square-foot ballroom to vote for the Democratic Party nominee Jan. 19.

At the Bellagio, executives estimate between 4,000 and 5,000 employees will be working at caucus time.

"It's not perfect for us. We've got a business to maintain," said Gordon Absher, spokesman for MGM Mirage, which owns the Bellagio and three other casinos hosting caucuses.

Under rules set by the Nevada Democratic Party, only casinos that have been organized by the powerful Culinary Workers Union Local 226 were selected as caucus sites, the newspaper reported...