Voter fraud & Republicans, be serious

Greg Palast: US Atty Replacement Played Role in Voter Suppression
by beedee
Wed Mar 07, 2007 at 06:20:32 AM PST
Cross-posted @ lethologica

As if there weren't enough intriguing aspects to the US Attorneys case already, Greg Palast dropped this bombshell in my mail today:

Timothy Griffin, Karl Roveâ??s assistant, the Presidentâ??s pick as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Griffin, according to BBC Television, was the hidden hand behind a scheme to wipe out the voting rights of 70,000 citizens prior to the 2004 election.

Key voters on Griffinâ??s hit list: Black soldiers and homeless men and women. Nice guy, eh? Naughty or nice, however, is not the issue. Targeting voters where race is a factor is a felony crime under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

So now we can attach election tampering to this scandal. More details below...

beedee's diary :: ::
The most fascinating aspect of this piece is how it was uncovered:

In October 2004, our investigations team at BBC Newsnight received a series of astonishing emails from Mr. Griffin, then Research Director for the Republican National Committee. He didnâ??t mean to send them to us. They were highly confidential memos meant only for RNC honchos.

However, Griffin made a wee mistake. Instead of sending the emails â?? potential evidence of a crime â?? to email addresses ending with the domain name â[email protected]â? he sent them to â[email protected].â? A website run by prankster John Wooden who owns â??GeorgeWBush.org.â? When Wooden got the treasure trove of Rove-ian ravings, he sent them to us.

And we dug in, decoding, and mapping the voters on what Griffin called, â??Cagingâ? lists, spreadsheets with 70,000 names of voters marked for challenge. Overwhelmingly, these were Black and Hispanic voters from Democratic precincts.

I was disgusted enough with the prospect of giving one of Rove's former assistants subpoena power, but it looks like he's been involved in another Katherine Harris style voter purge ala Florida 2000:

The Griffin scheme was sickly brilliant. We learned that the RNC sent first-class letters to new voters in minority precincts marked, â??Do not forward.â? Several sheets contained nothing but soldiers, other sheets, homeless shelters. Targets included the Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida and that cityâ??s State Street Rescue Mission. Another target, Edward Waters College, a school for African-Americans.

If these voters were not currently at their home voting address, they were tagged as â??suspectâ? and their registration wiped out or their ballot challenged and not counted. Of course, these â??cagesâ?? captured thousands of students, the homeless and those in the military though they are legitimate voters.

This needs to get out there and become part of the narrative of this story. Especially given that we all learned yesterday that the US attorneys who were fired had IMPECCABLE credentials and reputations, the fact that THIS is the caliber of one of their replacements should demonstrate that this was a purely political move to place administration stooges in major positions of power.