Georgia and its attempts to prosecute "voter fraud"

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17 Jul 2014, 7:35 am

http://www.vice.com/read/the-quitman-10-2-and-voter-suppression-in-modern-georgia-715

It is a lengthy article, but here are the key points it makes:

Quote:

On the morning of December 21, 2010, Lula Smart was preparing to leave for her job at Sears when she heard a firm knock at her front door. An array of law enforcement vehicles had amassed outside, and armed officers were fanning out around her house. Before that day, Smart had no rap sheet to speak of, only a master?s degree in criminal justice earned earlier that year. While she enjoyed her work in retail, Smart hoped to transition into a job more like that of her unannounced visitors, who would read her a dizzying list of felony voting fraud charges that amounted to more than 100 years in prison. Handcuffed, Smart soon met nine other incarcerated African Americans who had participated in a vigorous get-out-the-vote campaign ahead of an election the previous month. Three of those jailed had been elected to the local school board.

Quote:

Yet the massive investigation failed to produce evidence that Smart or any other member of the group had defrauded or coerced a single voter. With these goods lacking, the state built its prosecution instead on proving that she and others breached technicalities like carrying envelopes containing ballots to the mail for their close acquaintances without the proper authorization.

Quote:

In 2012, despite the case?s vulnerabilities, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal issued an executive order removing the three black women charged with voter fraud from the school board.

Quote:

Debra Dennard faces four felony charges in connection to the 2010 primary. Two of the counts allege that she criminally handled the absentee ballot of her father, David Dennard, whom she cares for. Mr. Dennard has no legs below his knees and is partially blind. He says that his daughter did nothing wrong, and that he successfully voted for the candidates of his choice. ?All she did was help me?just as she helps me with almost everything,? Mr. Dennard tells VICE. ?I knew who I wanted to vote for, and I signed the ballot myself.?

Quote:

Witnesses called by the state to testify against Lula Smart in the 2013 case also expressed concerns that the investigation aimed to intimidate. ?When y?all came to my house... y?all just kept coming and harassing me. I know who I voted for, and I voted and I thought I was through with that.? Patricia Little, a longtime Quitman resident, told the courtroom in reference to the state?s investigators. ?Y?all making me not even want to vote no more.?

Bessie Hamilton, Lula Smart?s godmother, was also named on Smart?s indictment as a victim of her alleged voter fraud. When called to testify against Smart, Hamilton said that GBI investigators actively intimidated her when they arrived unannounced at the doctor?s office where she worked. Hamilton told the courtroom that the investigators brought her into an unused break room and told her she had recently been in danger of incarceration, apparently in regard to the primary election. She then signed a statement that the investigators had written for her, even though she was too frightened to properly review its contents.

Quote:

As the GBI began its investigation, a number of the town?s prominent whites publicly questioned the increasing use of absentee voting. ?It?s the absentee ballots,? Claude Butler, a just-defeated county commissioner told a local news agency after the July primary election. ?They have gone rampant here in our county. And it's unethical, and it's unconstitutional."

Quote:

Nearly four years since the group?s mug shots became a fixture of the local news, many of the Quitman 10 + 2 still lack basic facts of the cases against them. For all but two of the accused, the prosecution has given no word as to when, if ever, they will see their day in court. (One member of the group, Latashia Head, died in 2012.)

Quote:

Voter fraud is of particular interest to Governor Deal, who once said he pushed for Georgia?s voter ID law despite complaints of disenfranchisement from what he called ?ghetto grandmothers."

Quote:

During both mistrials, a number of alleged victims waited a week for their turn to testify against Smart in a back room of the courthouse, but never got their chance. Robby Christian was among those who waited. An entire felony count against Lula Smart relies on the state?s assertion that she criminally handled Christian?s ballot. He sees things differently. ?They got the wrong folks? these people haven?t done anything wrong," Christian says. ?I know how to fill out my ballot and that?s what I did. Then I put it in my own mailbox?because that?s my right.?

Quote:

?It?s BS,? Errol Cobb Sr., another witness called by the prosecution, tells me. He says he voted successfully?and without meddling?for exactly the candidates of his choice in the 2010 election. ?I get a letter from the state saying I?m a witness against Lula Smart?for what? All I know is it?s a lie. Bottom line. She?s never brought me anything about voting. I?ve only seen that girl twice in the past five years. Racism?s all it is.?

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Kraichgauer
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19 Jul 2014, 12:54 am

For anyone who says voter disenfranchisement and racism aren't problems anymore should be made to read about this case.
And as far as voting by mail is somehow morally wrong and undemocratic - as one white Georgian conservative claimed - I'd like to point out that mailing in our ballots is how voting is commonly done here in Washington state.

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19 Jul 2014, 8:18 am

Kraichgauer wrote:

Yeah, your right. Voter suppression is an epidemic of Biblical proportions, everywhere of course but Washington state.
It's so bad that Obama was elected TWICE.
:roll:

Next...

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TheGoggles
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19 Jul 2014, 8:36 am

Raptor wrote:

your .

"You're"

Also, nice b8 m8.

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19 Jul 2014, 8:42 am

:roll:

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beneficii
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19 Jul 2014, 9:14 am

Sounds to me the Feds need to get involved in this civil rights issue.

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19 Jul 2014, 9:35 am

Quote:

On the morning of December 21, 2010, Lula Smart was preparing to leave for her job at Sears when she heard a firm knock at her front door. An array of law enforcement vehicles had amassed outside, and armed officers were fanning out around her house. Before that day, Smart had no rap sheet to speak of, only a master?s degree in criminal justice earned earlier that year. While she enjoyed her work in retail, Smart hoped to transition into a job more like that of her unannounced visitors, who would read her a dizzying list of felony voting fraud charges that amounted to more than 100 years in prison. Handcuffed, Smart soon met nine other incarcerated African Americans who had participated in a vigorous get-out-the-vote campaign ahead of an election the previous month. Three of those jailed had been elected to the local school board.

Without even considering whether or not the voter fraud charges are valid, it's this BS of calling in der einsatzgruppen for ANY felony warrant that's a growing problem in itself. To me this disturbing practice of the cops going tactical at the drop of a hat is actually the bigger problem.

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Kraichgauer
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19 Jul 2014, 1:01 pm

Raptor wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

Yeah, your right. Voter suppression is an epidemic of Biblical proportions, everywhere of course but Washington state.
It's so bad that Obama was elected TWICE.
:roll:

Next...

Not that forces of conservatism hadn't tried to deny Obama a second term with specious claims of voter fraud. Now, they want to nullify any further progressive political victories by stepping on the black vote by making a select few suffer in public view.
You can't tell me you don't see through these bullsh*t prosecutions in Georgia for what they are.

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19 Jul 2014, 1:46 pm

Kraichgauer wrote:

Raptor wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

Yeah, your right. Voter suppression is an epidemic of Biblical proportions, everywhere of course but Washington state.
It's so bad that Obama was elected TWICE.
:roll:

Next...

Seems like if they had better voter ID laws the bulk of that problem might go away.
Personally, I don't believe there's a significant number of voter fraud cases to justify voter ID laws, BUT on the other hand I don't see a requirement for voter ID's to be the infringement you and yours claim it to be.
Likewise, I don't believe there's a significant number of gun related crimes to justify having to produce ID and pay for a NICS check for each purchse, BUT on the other hand I don't see the requirement for it be the infringement some claim it to be.

The difference between you and I here:
You believe voting is an absolute right but dismiss the right to bear arms as totally insignificant and passé.
I believe both are rights that are best left not f*cked with.
In this case I'm more of a liberal in the classical sense than you pretend to be.

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Kraichgauer
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19 Jul 2014, 2:09 pm

Raptor wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

Raptor wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

Yeah, your right. Voter suppression is an epidemic of Biblical proportions, everywhere of course but Washington state.
It's so bad that Obama was elected TWICE.
:roll:

Next...

The only reason why I hold voting rights above gun rights is because we're a civil society based on laws. We make changes with the ballot, not the bullet. I can see the need for personal and home protection, but not for making change in government.
And I have no problem with voter ID, as long as those ID's are distributed free of charge to voters - as we have here in Washington. It's when the cost of the ID's become the equivalent of a poll tax to disenfranchise poor and minority voters that I have a problem with.
And in closing - as classical liberals were by today's standards conservatives, I'll grant that you fit that definition better than me.

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19 Jul 2014, 4:34 pm

/\ he'll to pay when I get back to my 'puter.....

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19 Jul 2014, 6:49 pm

Raptor wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

Raptor wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

Yeah, your right. Voter suppression is an epidemic of Biblical proportions, everywhere of course but Washington state.
It's so bad that Obama was elected TWICE.
:roll:

Next...

Kraichgauer wrote:

The only reason why I hold voting rights above gun rights is because we're a civil society based on laws. We make changes with the ballot, not the bullet.

Who said anything about overthrowing the goveremnt? You're just full of straw men and dodges today, arent you?

Quote:

I can see the need for personal and home protection, but not for making change in government.

WOW! You said that on your own without Dox having to take up two pages laboriously beating it out of you?! I"m going to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming.

Quote:

And I have no problem with voter ID, as long as those ID's are distributed free of charge to voters - as we have here in Washington. It's when the cost of the ID's become the equivalent of a poll tax to disenfranchise poor and minority voters that I have a problem with.

It still costs to create and issue voter ID cards just like it costs money for a carry permit which cost the individual out of pocket.

Quote:

And in closing - as classical liberals were by today's standards conservatives, I'll grant that you fit that definition better than me.

By liberal in the classical sense I didnt mean classical liberalism by definition but instead not being so selective about rights like social liberalism is guilty of.
Either way, what's wrong with classical liberalism that you don't feel the need to out-do me?

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Kraichgauer
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19 Jul 2014, 8:50 pm

The burden of providing voter identification is spread out over the whole electorate, thus isn't even noticed, whereas putting that burden on poor voters amounts to a poll tax. And the only reason for a poll tax to exist is to keep "undesirables" from voting.

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20 Jul 2014, 11:26 am

Kraichgauer wrote:

You still think conservatives (including me) are actually so evil as to overtly devise a plan to keep the untermenschen away from the polls.
Whatever..... :roll:

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Kraichgauer
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20 Jul 2014, 3:16 pm

Raptor wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

You still think conservatives (including me) are actually so evil as to overtly devise a plan to keep the untermenschen away from the polls.
Whatever..... :roll:

I never said you, but it's obvious that in areas where conservatism is associated with past racial discrimination - such as in Georgia - it's hard not to come to that conclusion when something as in this article happens.

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sonofghandi
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21 Jul 2014, 6:42 am

Raptor wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

You still think conservatives (including me) are actually so evil as to overtly devise a plan to keep the untermenschen away from the polls.
Whatever..... :roll:

I think many Republican lawmakers have. Some have even openly admitted it. Although I think for most of those do it based more on the voter demographics, I am certain there are some who do it based more on skin pigmentation demographics.

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