This New York Times editorial “Block the Vote” discusses legislation that is being enacted across the United States which is specifically focussed on discouraging voter registration drives.

In a country that spends so much time extolling the glories of democracy, it’s amazing how many elected officials go out of their way to discourage voting. States are adopting rules that make it hard, and financially perilous, for nonpartisan groups to register new voters. They have adopted new rules for maintaining voter rolls that are likely to throw off many eligible voters, and they are imposing unnecessarily tough ID requirements.

Florida recently reached a new low when it actually bullied the League of Women Voters into stopping its voter registration efforts in the state. The Legislature did this by adopting a law that seems intended to scare away anyone who wants to run a voter registration drive. Since registration drives are particularly important for bringing poor people, minority groups and less educated voters into the process, the law appears to be designed to keep such people from voting.

It imposes fines of $250 for every voter registration form that a group files more than 10 days after it is collected, and $5,000 for every form that is not submitted — even if it is because of events beyond anyone’s control, like a hurricane. The Florida League of Women Voters, which is suing to block the new rules, has decided it cannot afford to keep registering new voters in the state as it has done for 67 years. If a volunteer lost just 16 forms in a flood, or handed in a stack of forms a day late, the group’s entire annual budget could be put at risk.

HAVA - Hindering votes
When placed in the context of the HAVA legislation that is resulting in a large number of legitimate voter registrations to be cancelled it becomes evident that they who are creating such legislation really prefer that Americans do not vote.

Weyrich: We don’t want to encourage voting
To gain a sense of how America’s political right feel about the importance of voting, consider the remarks of Paul Weyrich.  According to wikipedia, Weyrich is a founder of the Heritage Foundation, the Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation and widely considered one of the founders of the American New Right.  Listen to him here.

Convicted GOTV phone line jamming felon released from prison:
Also related, there is the story of the executive director of the New Hampshire state Republican Party who spent seven month after being convicted for running a phone-jambing scheme during the 2002 mid-term election, and has just been released.  Now that he is out of prison, will he “help” with the next election?  One suspects so…

Charles McGee, the former executive director of the state Republican Party, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and served seven months for his part in the scheme to have a telemarketer to tie up Democratic and union phone lines in 2002.

He’s back at his old job with a Republican political marketing firm, Spectrum Monthly & Printing Inc., and will be helping out at the firm’s “GOP campaign school” for candidates.

Fooled Again
Mark Crispin Miller’s “Fooled Again” is a good read for understanding all of the recent strategies employed in limiting the vote.

I support Greg Messer for County Supervisor District 3. A county supervisor needs to be able to make difficult decisions, gather information from multiple sources, be strong enough to support his beliefs, be flexible enough to change his mind if he finds he is wrong, be an effective team player , understand large budgets , supervise department heads and have a long range plan for the county.

Greg Messer is an honest man, has been an effective businessman, has supervised hundreds of people and has managed budgets of more than fifty million dollars. Greg is the only candidate with an adequate background to be an effective county supervisor. I recommend Greg Messer for County Supervisor District 3.

Neil Posson
1626 Highland
Mt. Shasta, California
530-926-5767