Harry Hope wrote:

From The Los Angeles Times, 9/12/06:
=

By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writer


PHOENIX --

Little noticed by voters, a nationwide melee has broken out pitting
liberal and conservative groups in a duel over new laws that could
determine who wins close elections in November and beyond.

=20
Yep..
And after running the gamut and jumping through all the hoops there's
one final problem..
=20
Then there's all of those funky black programmable voting machines.
=20
PS: Has anyone here bothered to sign up as a poll watcher?

In alt.politics.usa.republican Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

: From The Los Angeles Times, 9/12/06:
:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-voting12sep12,0,2159643,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

: By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writer


: PHOENIX --

: Little noticed by voters, a nationwide melee has broken out pitting
: liberal and conservative groups in a duel over new laws that could
: determine who wins close elections in November and beyond.

: The dispute, which is being fought in disparate and often half-empty
: courtrooms in as many as nine states, concerns new state laws and
: rules backed primarily by Republicans that require people to show
: photo identification in order to vote and, in some cases, proof of
: citizenship and identification when registering to vote.

: One measure prompted the League of Women Voters to halt its voter
: registration drives in Florida out of fear of facing criminal
: penalties.

: That law, and a similar provision in Ohio that threatened voter
: registration drives by other groups, was blocked in recent weeks by
: federal courts.

: The legal battle reflects a deep partisan divide, with Republicans
: arguing that the new requirements are needed to prevent voting fraud
: and boost confidence in election results, and Democrats charging that
: they disenfranchise seniors, minorities, students and others who tend
: to vote Democratic.

: Hundreds of thousands of votes are potentially at stake in some of the
: most contested congressional races this year and the 2008 race for the
: White House, making the court cases the latest battle in a broader war
: over election policies that has been raging since the 2000 Florida
: recount.

: One example of the skirmishing came late last month in a federal
: courtroom in Phoenix, where a Navajo leader, occasionally speaking in
: his tribal language, testified that thousands of his people would lose
: their right to cast ballots under a new Arizona law that requires
: voters to present a photo ID or other proof of identity at the polls.

: The leader, Leonard Gorman, testified that many Navajo who spend their
: lives herding sheep in remote areas cannot fulfill the new
: requirements because they do not drive, nor do they have mailboxes or
: even the utility bills that are accepted as alternative forms of
: identification under the new law.

: "This is very burdensome to the elders," Gorman told U.S. District
: Judge Roslyn Silver.

: The provision had been approved by Republican lawmakers and vetoed by
: Arizona's Democratic governor before conservative activists included
: it as part of a broad anti-immigration initiative passed by voters in
: 2004.

: Gorman was describing a highly localized, narrow slice of the
: electorate -- about 60,000 voting-age adults living on the
: reservation.

: But Native Americans tend to vote for Democrats.

: And in a closely fought state, the votes of a handful of Navajo could
: be decisive.

: In 2004, President Bush won a neighboring state, New Mexico, by just
: 6,000 ballots, and his 537-vote margin in Florida four years earlier
: prompted both parties to develop finely tuned get-out-the-vote
: procedures designed to enlist every voter they could.

: Republicans had great success enacting new laws after 2004, winning
: voter identification requirements in Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri
: and the city of Albuquerque as well as the Arizona law, while adding
: the voter registration restrictions in Ohio and Florida.

: In some states, the legal wrangling has prompted creative efforts to
: guard against constitutional challenges.

: Missouri has deployed mobile units in vans to issue identification to
: the elderly, responding to complaints that photo ID is costly or hard
: to obtain for some voters.

: Wisconsin's Democratic governor has vetoed voter identification
: legislation approved by the Republican-led Legislature, and the
: Michigan Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on the
: constitutionality of a 1996 state law that has never been enforced but
: would require photo ID at the polls.

: Pennsylvania's Republican-led Legislature approved a voter
: identification requirement, but it was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Ed
: Rendell.

: Across the country, the strategy on each side is being engineered by
: national groups that say they are nonpartisan but that are
: ideologically aligned with either the Republican or Democratic
: parties.

: The leading conservative group is the American Center for Voting
: Rights, an organization created last year that lobbied for many of the
: new laws and now coordinates the legal strategy to defend them from
: challenges.

: The group's primary lawyer is Mark "Thor" Hearne, a St. Louis-based
: veteran of the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential race who
: served as national election law counsel for President Bush's 2004
: reelection campaign.

: The opposing side is somewhat less centralized, with cases being
: brought by several groups, among them People for the American Way, the
: Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the American Civil
: Liberties Union and the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform
: Now (ACORN).

: These groups share strategy and have formed a coalition called the
: National Network on State Election Reform.

: The Democratic National Committee has supported lawsuits in some
: states, and officials say the party is intensifying its efforts to
: combat the new laws.

: The party's national chairman, Howard Dean, last month announced a
: drive to recruit 7,500 pro bono lawyers and law students to assist in
: an "election protection program."

: In court so far, challenges to the voter identification laws have met
: with mixed results.

: Judges have halted two versions of the Georgia law, but a law has been
: upheld in Indiana.

: Challenges are pending elsewhere.

: "With voter ID and registration, this is where the current battles
: over election practices are now being fought," said Dan Tokaji, an
: Ohio State University law professor who publishes the election-law
: blog Equal Vote.

: _________________________________________________________


What's wrong are you looney tune brain dead loser lib dems afraid that
the laws requiring an ID will take away your wetback vote?

In alt.politics.usa.republican Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

: From The Los Angeles Times, 9/12/06:
:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-voting12sep12,0,2159643,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

: By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writer


: PHOENIX --

: Little noticed by voters, a nationwide melee has broken out pitting
: liberal and conservative groups in a duel over new laws that could
: determine who wins close elections in November and beyond.

: The dispute, which is being fought in disparate and often half-empty
: courtrooms in as many as nine states, concerns new state laws and
: rules backed primarily by Republicans that require people to show
: photo identification in order to vote and, in some cases, proof of
: citizenship and identification when registering to vote.

: One measure prompted the League of Women Voters to halt its voter
: registration drives in Florida out of fear of facing criminal
: penalties.

: That law, and a similar provision in Ohio that threatened voter
: registration drives by other groups, was blocked in recent weeks by
: federal courts.

: The legal battle reflects a deep partisan divide, with Republicans
: arguing that the new requirements are needed to prevent voting fraud
: and boost confidence in election results, and Democrats charging that
: they disenfranchise seniors, minorities, students and others who tend
: to vote Democratic.

: Hundreds of thousands of votes are potentially at stake in some of the
: most contested congressional races this year and the 2008 race for the
: White House, making the court cases the latest battle in a broader war
: over election policies that has been raging since the 2000 Florida
: recount.

: One example of the skirmishing came late last month in a federal
: courtroom in Phoenix, where a Navajo leader, occasionally speaking in
: his tribal language, testified that thousands of his people would lose
: their right to cast ballots under a new Arizona law that requires
: voters to present a photo ID or other proof of identity at the polls.

: The leader, Leonard Gorman, testified that many Navajo who spend their
: lives herding sheep in remote areas cannot fulfill the new
: requirements because they do not drive, nor do they have mailboxes or
: even the utility bills that are accepted as alternative forms of
: identification under the new law.

: "This is very burdensome to the elders," Gorman told U.S. District
: Judge Roslyn Silver.

: The provision had been approved by Republican lawmakers and vetoed by
: Arizona's Democratic governor before conservative activists included
: it as part of a broad anti-immigration initiative passed by voters in
: 2004.

: Gorman was describing a highly localized, narrow slice of the
: electorate -- about 60,000 voting-age adults living on the
: reservation.

: But Native Americans tend to vote for Democrats.

: And in a closely fought state, the votes of a handful of Navajo could
: be decisive.

: In 2004, President Bush won a neighboring state, New Mexico, by just
: 6,000 ballots, and his 537-vote margin in Florida four years earlier
: prompted both parties to develop finely tuned get-out-the-vote
: procedures designed to enlist every voter they could.

: Republicans had great success enacting new laws after 2004, winning
: voter identification requirements in Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri
: and the city of Albuquerque as well as the Arizona law, while adding
: the voter registration restrictions in Ohio and Florida.

: In some states, the legal wrangling has prompted creative efforts to
: guard against constitutional challenges.

: Missouri has deployed mobile units in vans to issue identification to
: the elderly, responding to complaints that photo ID is costly or hard
: to obtain for some voters.

: Wisconsin's Democratic governor has vetoed voter identification
: legislation approved by the Republican-led Legislature, and the
: Michigan Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on the
: constitutionality of a 1996 state law that has never been enforced but
: would require photo ID at the polls.

: Pennsylvania's Republican-led Legislature approved a voter
: identification requirement, but it was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Ed
: Rendell.

: Across the country, the strategy on each side is being engineered by
: national groups that say they are nonpartisan but that are
: ideologically aligned with either the Republican or Democratic
: parties.

: The leading conservative group is the American Center for Voting
: Rights, an organization created last year that lobbied for many of the
: new laws and now coordinates the legal strategy to defend them from
: challenges.

: The group's primary lawyer is Mark "Thor" Hearne, a St. Louis-based
: veteran of the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential race who
: served as national election law counsel for President Bush's 2004
: reelection campaign.

: The opposing side is somewhat less centralized, with cases being
: brought by several groups, among them People for the American Way, the
: Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the American Civil
: Liberties Union and the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform
: Now (ACORN).

: These groups share strategy and have formed a coalition called the
: National Network on State Election Reform.

: The Democratic National Committee has supported lawsuits in some
: states, and officials say the party is intensifying its efforts to
: combat the new laws.

: The party's national chairman, Howard Dean, last month announced a
: drive to recruit 7,500 pro bono lawyers and law students to assist in
: an "election protection program."

: In court so far, challenges to the voter identification laws have met
: with mixed results.

: Judges have halted two versions of the Georgia law, but a law has been
: upheld in Indiana.

: Challenges are pending elsewhere.

: "With voter ID and registration, this is where the current battles
: over election practices are now being fought," said Dan Tokaji, an
: Ohio State University law professor who publishes the election-law
: blog Equal Vote.

: _________________________________________________________


What's wrong are you looney tune brain dead loser lib dems afraid that
the laws requiring an ID will take away your wetback vote?