Cranking Up The Old Eagle Eye
by digby
GOP vote suppression 2010:
Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk caught on tape discussing his plan to send "voter integrity" squads to four predominantly African-American Chicago neighborhoods on election day. Kirk calls them "vulnerable precincts ... where the other side might be tempted to jigger the numbers somewhat.
Well, that's not a big surprise is it? It's how they roll.
This is a November 1,1966 Miami News story called "Vote Officials Warned. 'Beware of foul-ups at the polls like 1964':
"In the 1964 general election, Goldwater backers helped create the greatest foul-up in election history through the wholesale challenge of prospective voters. Effects of the slowdown were felt from Key West to Pensacola, especially in Dade County.
It was part of the GOP's "Operation Eagle Eye" which the Democrats charged was an effort to cut the Democratic vote in big population centers."...
"Operation Eagle Eye," national Republican officials said, was to make sure that people not qualified or registered properly were not permitted to vote. The Democrats charged, however, that it was designed to intimidate minority voters.
Mrs Englander said today, "I'm told attempts will be made to confuse our Negro voters and other minority groups. This could materially affect the vote for Bob High (Democratic nominee for Governor) and all the other Democratic nominees."
It's embarrassing that Democrats have allowed this nonsense to continue all this time. It's been out there and obvious for decades. And to make matters even worse, they have allowed the Republicans to not only engage in this methodical intimidation, they've enabled them to simultaneously gin up pseudo-scandals about "voter fraud" based upon sloppy voter rolls that has never been shown to result in any kind of systematic election fraud. It's political malpractice at this point.
If you're interested in the gazillion pieces I've written on this subject, you can look here.
h/t to Rick Perlstein
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