Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Republican political aide in Maryland guilty of voter fraud.

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We’ve already learned a lot about “The GOP War on Voting” from Ari Berman courtesy of Rolling Stone.

“As the nation gears up for the 2012 presidential election, Republican officials have launched an unprecedented, centrally coordinated campaign to suppress the elements of the Democratic vote that elected Barack Obama in 2008.”

Republicans across the country and even in Massachusetts are attempting to enact, and in some cases succeeding in their effort to enact, new laws that restrict the rights of voters. Instead of encouraging more active participation they are discouraging it because they know as more people participate in elections they lose.

Well today we learn courtesy of The Washington Post that the war is not without consequence as “Political aide to former Md. Gov Ehrlich found guilty of conspiring to suppress black vote.” Republicans robocalled heavily minority districts with the following:

“Hello. I’m calling to let everybody know that Governor O’Malley and President Obama have been successful,” the call said. “Our goals have been met. The polls were correct, and we took it back. We’re OK. Relax. Everything’s fine. The only thing left is to watch it on TV tonight. Congratulations, and thank you.”

It is really chilling that Republicans are willing to stoop to this level in an attempt to win an election. It just goes to show that some will stop at nothing.

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Comments

  1. I’ve said before that disseminating false or misleading information about the electoral process ought to be illegal.

  2. Schurick testified that he rejected campaign consultant Julius Henson’s black voter suppression strategy dubbed “The Schurick Doctrine” but later approved the robocall script. He called it a counterintuitive attempt to mobilize crossover Democrats and said he didn’t know the authority line, which would have noted that the message came from Ehrlich’s campaign, would be left off. Henson, whose trial on similar charges is set to begin in February, has said he did not believe the calls were illegal and that they weren’t meant to suppress the vote.

    They must have been hoping for a jury of teabaggers…

  3. I recall that there was a phonebank-wire-cutting incident in New Hampshire a few years ago where a GOP operative effectively shut down a phone banking operation. He was [they were?] found guilty too.

    Meanwhile we have a SCOTUS who said college kids can vote in the precinct/ward where their student housing is located, but states are requiring a valid ID with current address to vote — as if it’s reasonable to ask students to go to the DMV every single year to get a new idea even if they don’t have a car or even know how to drive.

    Maybe it’s a little insider-baseball-y, but really, where is the media on this one? I think this is the kind of issue that would really piss off most Americans if those Americans knew about it — both the GOP crap but also the voter ID laws and how they effectively restrict the rights of [ahem] normal people w.r.t. voting.

  5. Is that where the call would have included “I’m Robert Ehrlich, and I approve this message”? Or is it something else?

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