Screwing With Your Vote

Taking Away Your Voice: The Campaign To Destroy Your Right To Vote

  Witness History / BBC (8/28/20) The Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark civil rights-era electoral law was designed to protect African-American and other minority voters. It was introduced to remove the many obstacles that were in place to prevent African-Americans from being able to vote. Many states, particularly in the south, used intimidation, local laws and so-called literacy tests to prevent black people from being able to register to vote. In 2010 Shelby County in Alabama attempted to overturn a key part of the law. In 2013 the US Supreme Court upheld their challenge. Now voters who are…

Read More

For Election Administrators Across The Nation, Death Threats Have Become Part Of The Job

Multiple election officials in Milwaukee quit after a chaotic Wisconsin primary in April. “Whoever caused this should be hung from a tree. That’s right, lynched. Jesus thinks you’re a piece of shit.” By Jessica Huseman ProPublica (8/21/20) Jared Dearing, the director of Kentucky’s Board of Elections, had little to do with Louisville, the state’s largest city, having only one polling place for the June 28 primary. It was a county decision, and it made sense. In-person turnout was expected to be low during the pandemic. The polling place, a convention center, offered multiple locations to cast ballots, and transportation by bus…


The Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights Under Law Denounces Trump’s Plan To Station Law Enforcement At Polling Locations

Federal Law Does Not Allow for Any Conduct Voters May Find Intimidating Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights (8/21/20) WASHINGTON – On August 20, President Trump announced that he will be stationing federal troops at polling sites in November. With an unprecedented number of Americans expected to vote in the upcoming election, and polling places limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we must ensure free and fair elections that encourage voter turnout, and not voter suppression. The following is a statement from Kristen Clarke, president and executive director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “In no uncertain terms, we fully condemn any…


Massive, Sophisticated $1 Billion Online Trump Disinformation Campaign Will Mess With 2020 Election

  Amanpour & Company / PBS (2/20/20) President Trump has personally pledged to spend one billion dollars if it will keep him in the White House. McKay Coppins, a journalist for The Atlantic, has identified how a substantial amount of this funding is being spent. After creating a Facebook page so he could follow pro-Trump social media accounts and communicate with online Trump supporters, Coppins uncovered something remarkable: a campaign-coordinated effort to undermine journalists and the mainstream press on a mass scale. Coppins told Hari Sreenivasan about the Trump campaign’s stunning effort to launch one of the largest disinformation campaigns…


Are You Ready For Trump To Lose … And Remain President? (And, No, It’s Not Just About The Electoral College)

Trump is going to do everything he possibly can to stay in power. That’s the basic assumption that one has to make. By Jeff Schechtman Radio Who.What.Why (7/10/20) Mary Trump, President Donald Trump’s niece, has written a tell-all book that portrays her uncle as a man unhinged, obsessed with winning, and still afraid of what his father might say if he loses. Which inevitably raises the question: What might such a man do if he senses his bid for reelection slipping away amid a punishing pandemic with a rising death toll, unemployment in double digits, racial division, and plummeting poll…


Court Reinstates Wisconsin Voting Restrictions In Major Victory For Republicans

  By Sam Levine The Guardian (6/30/20) A federal appeals court reinstated significant voting restrictions in Wisconsin on Monday, handing Republicans a victory just months before the November election in one of the country’s most important battleground states. The ruling reinstates a Republican-backed law that allows local election officials to offer only two weeks of early voting before election day. That restriction will have a severe impact on cities like Madison, which had tentative plans to offer nearly a month of early voting this fall and Milwaukee, which offered nearly six weeks of early voting ahead of the 2018 general election. Both are cities with large minority…


Investigative Journalist Greg Palast: Here’s How Trump Will Steal The 2020 Election

  By Chauncey Devega The Guardian (6/15/20) As Election Day 2020 approaches, it would appear that presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his party have much to celebrate. Biden leads Donald Trump by an average of eight percentage points in national polling, with some surveys showing Biden ahead of Trump by as many as 14 percentage points. Biden also enjoys huge leads among the Democratic Party’s key constituents, including black voters, Latinos and other nonwhites, college-educated white women and younger voters. Polls also show Joe Biden making gains among older white voters, a group that consistently supports Republicans and has been especially loyal to Trump. Biden also leads Trump in key battleground…


Why MILLIONS Of Americans Choose Not To Vote

Non-voters could tip the results in particular states. [Editor’s Note: Among the many interesting facts in this study the one that stands out is that non-voters are about evenly split between those leaning Dem and GOP. Imagine — just IMAGINE — if the dems could get their stupid heads out of lobbyist back pockets and give people a reason to vote for them. Unfortunately, as history has shown, there is little reason to believe they will. — Mark L. Taylor] By Gabriella Novello Who.What.Why (5/21/20) If voter turnout is indicative of a democracy’s health, then the US is clearly ailing….


Think Trump & Republicans Wouldn’t Cancel An Election? Look At What Georgia’s GOP Just Pulled Off

By Julia Conley Common Dreams (5/19/0) Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will be permitted to hand-pick the state’s next Supreme Court Justice after that same high court ruled last week that a special election set for Tuesday could be canceled. Kemp and his Secretary of State, Brad Raffensberger, moved to cancel voting in the state earlier this year after state Supreme Court Justice Keith Blackwell announced he would step down after his six-year term expires at the end of 2020. Taking the matter of who should succeed Blackwell into his own hands will allow Kemp, a Republican, to appoint another right-wing judge to serve…


No Image

New Movie ‘Slay the Dragon’ Exposes The Republican Undemocratic Gerrymandering Scheme

“Astonishing manipulation of democracy.” Movie focuses on how Wisconsin voters lost their vote. The Rising (4/4/20) Filmmakers of ‘Slay the Dragon’ Barak Goodman and Chris Durrance discuss gerrymandering as a non-partisan issue with Katie Fahey, founder of Voters Not Politicians. Link To 10-Minute Video Official “Slay The Dragon” Movie Trailer: Link To 2+-Minute Video  


Well, They’ve Got A Point: Iran Says US Should Focus On Fixing Its Own ‘Nontransparent’ & Undemocratic Elections Before Lecturing Others

Two of the last three presidents have lost the popular vote yet won the presidential election thanks to the Electoral College. By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (2/17/20) The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday urged U.S. officials to focus on fixing their own country’s “nontransparent” and undemocratic system before calling into question the legitimacy of elections in other nations. Abbas Mousavi, spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters that the U.S. system “ignores the vote of the majority of people” and said “American officials had better address questions” about the country’s elections from the U.S. public. Mousavi appeared to be referring to the Electoral College,…


I Asked People Why They Don’t Vote, And This Is What They Told Me

People long to be heard and deserve fair representation. By Andrew Joseph Pegoda The Conversation (1/17/20) At least 40% to 90% of American voters stay home during elections, evidence that low voter turnout for both national and local elections is a serious problem throughout the United States. With the 2020 presidential election approaching, directives for people to “get out and vote” will be firing up again. Some people might be indifferent or simply not care, but many who forgo voting have legitimate reasons. Over the past decade, through my extensive research on civil rights and oppression, through my observations of social media comments and through my conversations with hundreds of…


Wisconsin Voter Purge: Every City Ranked

By Scott Anderson Patch.com (12/19/19) MILWAUKEE, WI — The fate of 230,000 registered voters in Wisconsin is up for grabs as two groups engage in a legal fight to either keep them on the state’s voter rolls, or kick them off. Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed a lawsuit in Ozaukee County Circuit Court, claiming the Wisconsin Election Commission would violate state election laws if they failed remove residents from state voter rolls if residents fail to update their information within 30 days of moving. On Friday, Ozaukee County Circuit Court judge Paul Malloy issued an order…


Republican Family Secrets: Deceased Strategist’s Daughter Makes Vote-Blocking Files Public That GOP Wanted Sealed

Hofeller files have led to bombshell developments in two major legal battles in the political world. By Hansi Lo Wong NPR (1/5/20) More than a year after his death, a cache of computer files saved on the hard drives of Thomas Hofeller, a prominent Republican redistricting strategist, is becoming public. Republican state lawmakers in North Carolina fought in court to keep copies of these maps, spreadsheets and other documents from entering the public record. But some files have already come to light in recent months through court filings and news reports. They have been cited as evidence of gerrymandering that…


No Image

Federal Judge Blocks NC’s Restrictive Voter ID Law, Citing State’s ‘Sordid History’ Of Racist Voter Suppression

  By Julia Conley Common Dreams (1/1/20) Civil rights advocates on Tuesday praised a federal judge in North Carolina who struck down the state’s new voter ID law, saying in her ruling that there was likely “discriminatory intent” behind state Republicans’ attempt to force voters to present specific forms of identification at the polls. U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs wrote in her ruling that the law, S.B. 824, was the latest example of North Carolina’s “sordid history of racial discrimination and voter suppression stretching back to the time of slavery, through the era of Jim Crow, and, crucially, continuing up to the present day.”…


Voting Machine Problems In Key Swing State Have Officials Panicked About Upcoming Election: ‘There are concerns for 2020’

    By Matthew Chapman Raw Story (11/30/19) On Saturday, The New York Times documented the problems officials in Northampton County, Pennsylvania experienced administering the 2019 uniform election with ExpressVoteXL voting machines — sparking a fresh round of worries about the integrity of the election infrastructure in a state that will be closely watched in 2020. “Vote totals in a Northampton County judge’s race showed one candidate, Abe Kassis, a Democrat, had just 164 votes out of 55,000 ballots across more than 100 precincts. Some machines reported zero votes for him. In a county with the ability to vote for a straight-party ticket,…


Trump’s Giant Loophole: Executive Control Of The Judicial Branch Is The Final Step To Tyranny

What happens when the judiciary is captured — and the bad guys are true fascists? Well, they turn the law itself into an instrument of violence. [Editor’s Note: This is an extremely important article to read and consider. Few people really understand the most dangerous moment we are facing in this nation. Whether by bumbling stupid luck or strategic calculation, Donald Trump has pushed the nation to the abyss of totalitarian fascism and time is short. — Mark L. Taylor] By Umair Haque Medium (10/25/19) In case you didn’t notice, yesterday [10/24] was an especially dark day for America democracy….


The Deep State Government Hiding In Plain Sight

[Editor’s Note: Be sure to watch all the way through to the end to catch Bill Moyer’s commentary. — Mark L. Taylor] Moyers & Company (4/15/16) Mike Lofgren, a congressional staff member for 28 years, joins Bill Moyers to talk about what he calls Washington’s “Deep State,” in which elected and unelected figures collude to protect and serve powerful vested interests. “It is how we had deregulation, financialization of the economy, the Wall Street bust, the erosion or our civil liberties and perpetual war,” Lofgren tells Moyers. Link to 27-Minute Video ***** Essay: Anatomy Of The Deep State In terms…


Rulings On Gerrymandering And The Census Will Redefine The Political Future & Gut Any Semblance Of Democracy

By Terry Gross Fresh Air / NPR (7/9/19) Mother Jones journalist Ari Berman says recent Supreme Court decisions on redistricting and the 2020 census citizenship question will help determine which party is in power in the next decade. 37-Minute Audio (Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2019. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )


‘Dark Money’ Facebook Ads Are The Right’s Weapon For 2020

Having a huge impact by spending very little. By Tom Perkins The Guardian (7/5/19) In the weeks leading up to a tightly contested 2018 midterm election in Virginia, a Facebook page called “Wacky Wexton Not” ran an ad that pictured Democratic congressional candidate Jennifer Wexton next to Nazi troops. Another labeled her an “evil socialist”. Yet another referenced Nazi uniforms, stating, “Wexton and her modern day brown shirts. They Are Evil. They Hate America. They Hate You.” Who spent $211 launching 24 anti-Wexton ads? It’s unclear. The ads state they were “Paid for by a freedom loving American Citizen exercising my natural…


Rev. William Barber: A Moral Man In Immoral Times Fights For The Poor To Be Heard

Racist Gerrymandering Created A GOP Stronghold Across The Nation. We Must Fight Back Democracy Now! (6/10/19) Longtime civil rights leader Rev. Dr. William Barber joins us to respond to his conviction Thursday for trespassing during a 2017 protest against gerrymandering and attacks on healthcare at the North Carolina Legislature. Barber had refused to leave the General Assembly as ordered, after he organized a sit-in at the legislative building when Republican leaders refused to meet with him about concerns with voter ID requirements and redistricting plans that would weaken the power of the black vote. “The GOP extremists are afraid. They know they cannot win…


Outside The Law: American Election System In Hands Of Secretive Corporations

Weak state or federal guidance leaves many cybersecurity companies doing whatever they want. The Guardian (4/23/19) Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin is a newcomer to the cause of reforming America’s vote-counting machines, welcomed through baptism by fire. In 2015, Maryland’s main election system vendor was bought by a parent company with ties to a Russian oligarch. The state’s election officials did not know about the purchase until July 2018, when the FBI notified them of the potential conflict. The FBI investigated and did not find any evidence of tampering or sharing of voter data. But the incident was a giant red flag as to the…



‘Operation Divide The Left’: Analysis Shows 2020 Online Disinformation Campaign Already Well Underway

“As it relates to information warfare in the 2020 cycle, we’re not on the verge of it—we’re already in the third inning.” By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams (2/20/19) As the pool of candidates vying for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president continues to grow, so does a “sustained and ongoing” push to spread lies about them on social media—with one key aim being to sow division among progressive voters—according to an alarming Politico report published Wednesday. Citing analyses by and conversations with data scientists and digital campaign strategists, the outlet reported: “Researchers and others interviewed for this story say they cannot conclusively point to the actors behind…


Private Israeli ‘Mossads’ For Hire: “We are looking at the tip of the iceberg in terms of where this can go.”

Inside a plot by former intelligence agents to skew American elections, starting with one small-town race. [Editor’s Note: The threat posed to all levels of elections by private intelligence groups and businesses — both foreign and domestic — is real and growing. — Mark L. Taylor] By Adam Entous & Ronan Farrow The New Yorker (2/18/19) One evening in 2016, a twenty-five-year-old community-college student named Alex Gutiérrez was waiting tables at La Piazza Ristorante Italiano, an upscale restaurant in Tulare, in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Gutiérrez spotted Yorai Benzeevi, a physician who ran the local hospital, sitting at a table with Parmod…


North Carolina: This Is What Election Fraud Looks Like In Real Time

[From Commoner Call reader, Tom Crofton: “This has a video of a timeline that really shows how the cheating worked an example of a private citizen using public records to make a difference.” — Editor] By Doc Dawg The Daily Kos (1/8/9) The citizens of North Carolina’s 9th U.S. Congressional District are without representation in Congress as I write, while state officials investigate allegations of election fraud in the November contest between Democrat Dan McCready and his Republican opponent, Mark Harris. On election night Harris appeared to eke out a slim victory (by a 905 vote margin), prompting a gracious…


The Real Midterms Winners: Gerrymandering, Voter Suppression & Lack Of Ballot Box Defense

“The GOP’s long game of gerrymandering districts and using the courts to undermine easy access to voting will continue to come into play as their message shrinks to its bigoted and maniacal base.” — Keeanga-Yahmatta Taylor ***** From In These Times (11/7/18) Rick Perlstein, historian and author of The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan The reporting of the election returns coming on Tuesday was surreally and tragically incomplete. We hung on every word in down-to-the-wire races. In Florida, the governor and Senate races were supposedly decided by something like 51,000 votes and 20,000 votes out…


ProPublica Documentation Of Election Day Voting Problems

  Long Lines Test Voter Patience Across The Nation — Voters reported waits of an hour and longer on Election Day in areas ranging from the Gulf coasts of Texas and Florida to parts of Missouri and South Carolina, up to Chicago, rural central Pennsylvania and New York City. Polling places opening late, voting machine outages, understaffing and sheer volume caused some voters to abandon the lengthy lines before casting their ballots. In the Houston area, voters waited over half an hour for polls to open as staff struggled to get voting machinery online. Voters who were late for their jobs…


No Image

WATCH FOR FREE: Documentary ‘Rigged’ Exposes GOP’s 10-Year Effort To Sabotage Democracy By Undermining Your Voting Rights

  By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams (11/2/18) As the GOP’s attacks on voting rights continue across the United States—from Georgiato North Dakota and Kansas—and a massive coalition of progressive groups has formed to break the hold that powerful corporate and wealthy interests have on American democratic institutions, the recently released documentary Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook aims to reveal, “in chilling detail, the dark genius behind the ten-year Republican strategy to reverse the rising demographic tide of minority voters.” Filmed during the 2016 election, Rigged was released just ahead of 2018’s highly anticipated midterm elections. The documentary sheds light on strategic efforts by members of the Republican Party at all…


Southern Poverty Law Center: ‘They served their time. Their voices could make a huge difference.’

  Southern Poverty Law Center (10/5/18) Lorena Barnum Sabbs was just 11 years old when she was arrested. She was trying to integrate the local movie theater in Americus, Georgia. But when the group of 30 girls refused to leave the balcony, police arrested them and drove them almost an hour away to the Leesburg Stockade. They slept on the cells’ cement floors. They were threatened. A snake was thrown into their cells. Some were held as long as 45 days. Their parents didn’t know where they were until a local dogcatcher spread the word. No one could get them…


Hey, Youngsters, America’s Old Farts Have A Message For You: “Don’t Vote!”

An edgy Knock the Vote social media ad has been gaining social media traction this week features old white seniors Trump supporters taunting younger citizens into not voting in the upcoming November elections. “Tax cuts for the rich? Hell yeah, I’m rich as fuck,” one old fart declares in the ad. Another declares: “Climate change? That’s a you problem. I’ll be dead soon.” The ad concludes with a bitter bit of prediciiton: “We’ll be there, but you won’t because we’re a generation of doers, not whiners. We’re doing great.” Link to 1-Minute Video (Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2018….


If It Doesn’t Have Paper Backups & Automatic Audits, It’s Not An Election Security Bill

  By Joe Mullin Electronic Frontier Foundation (8/24/18) Right now, the U.S. Senate is debating an issue that’s critical to our democratic future: secure elections. Hacking attacks were used to try to undermine the 2016 U.S. election, and in recent years, elections in Latin America and Ukraine were also subject to cyber attacks. It only makes sense to harden the security of U.S. voting machines, which are perhaps the most direct route to impacting an election’s results. But the current bill that’s advancing in the Senate, the Secure Elections Act, is no solution at all. If it isn’t strengthened dramatically, senators should vote…


PROTECT THE VOTE: Frustrated Michigan Voters May Be On The Verge Of Bypassing Lawmakers To Pass A Slew Of Voting Reforms

    By Sam Levine The HuffPost (7/9/18) Civil rights groups in Michigan say they’ve collected enough signatures to allow voters in November to choose whether they want to amend the state constitution to include a series of measures designed to make it easier to vote there. The potential constitutional amendment includes two elements that voting advocates say could significantly expand access to the ballot box: requiring the state’s motor vehicle agency to automatically register people when they get a driver’s license or personal ID card (people may opt out if they don’t want to register) and allowing people to register…


Another Way GOP Screws Wisconsin: In Gerrymandered Districts, Citizens Likely To Lose Economic Security

  By Shankar Vedantam NPR (5/1/18) The researchers believe this is because politicians in gerrymandered districts are less likely to advocate for goods on behalf of their constituents. Link to 3+-Minute Audio ***** Check Out The Commoner Call Archive File “Screwing With Your Vote” For Stories On The Many Ways Your Vote Is Under Attack. Pass The Link Along To Your Activist Contacts. Knowledge is the first step of reform! Link Here


Top Republican Official Says Trump Won Wisconsin Because Of Voter Suppression ID Law

  By Ari Berman Mother Jones (4/16/18) Election officials and Democrats in Wisconsin have repeatedly argued that the state’s strict voter ID law allowed Donald Trump to win the state in 2016 by keeping thousands of voters—predominantly in Democratic-leaning areas—from the polls. Now a top Republican official in the state is saying the same thing. “We battled to get voter ID on the ballot for the November ’16 election,” Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, who defended the law in court, told conservative radio host Vicki McKenna on April 12. “How many of your listeners really honestly are sure that Sen. [Ron] Johnson was going to win reelection or President Trump…


A Worm’s-Eye View Of Weaponizing Your Facebook Data For The Russpublicans: Exploiting The Hearts & Minds Of Americans

As Wylie describes it, he was the gay Canadian vegan who somehow ended up creating “Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare mindfuck tool”. By Carole Cadwalladar The Guardian (3/17/18) The first time I met Christopher Wylie, he didn’t yet have pink hair. That comes later. As does his mission to rewind time. To put the genie back in the bottle. By the time I met him in person, I’d already been talking to him on a daily basis for hours at a time. On the phone, he was clever, funny, bitchy, profound, intellectually ravenous, compelling. A master storyteller. A politicker. A data science…


If Dems Plan To Win They Need To Confront Restrictive Voter ID Laws, Hackers, Vote Blocking Gerrymandering

There is no need to win over the people when you have decided you’ve already won the election.   By Sarah Kendzior de Correpndent (11/10/17) On July 3, a group of Georgia voters filed a lawsuit  against state officials following the discovery that their voting machines were deeply vulnerable to hackers and had possibly been breached. This information was not news to the sued officials: a cybersecurity expert had discovered and reported breaches in August 2016, and even more vulnerabilities were reported in March 2017 – but nothing was done to fix them. Instead, elections were held in Georgia with ostensibly faulty equipment, making the…


Election Madness: The Ballot Is Never Enough

“Historically, government, whether in the hands of Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals, has failed its responsibilities, until forced to by direct action: sit-ins and Freedom Rides for the rights of black people, strikes and boycotts for the rights of workers, mutinies and desertions of soldiers in order to stop a war. Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.” – Howard Zinn, Election Madness (2008)


Mother Jones Magazine Investigation: Rigged – How Voter Suppression Threw Wisconsin To Trump

And possibly handed him the whole election. By Ari Berman Mother Jones (November/December 2017) You can’t say Andrea Anthony didn’t try. A 37-year-old African American woman with an infectious smile, Anthony had voted in every major election since she was 18. On November 8, 2016, she went to the Clinton Rose Senior Center, her polling site on the predominantly black north side of Milwaukee, to cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton. “Voting is important to me because I know I have a little, teeny, tiny voice, but that is a way for it to be heard,” she said. “Even though it’s…


Greg Palast: How Hillary Votes Were Suppressed In Wisconsin

    By Greg Palast Greg Palast’s Facebook Page (9/29/17) A new study estimates that at least 5.2% of voting-eligible registered voters in Wisconsin were prevented from voting in the 2016 presidential election because of new ID requirements. The number rises to 8% among low-income registrants. It’s also worth noting that even more were deterred: 7.2% of nonvoting registrants earning above $25K per year and a whopping 21.1% of those earning below $25K per year. But, far, far worse than the ID law was the study’s finding that other vote suppression tactics meant that voters were blocked at the polling…