From the St. Petersburg Times…
The piece, paid for by the Republican National Committee and authorized by McCain, tells voters it is seeking to double-check their “unconfirmed” party affiliations while asking for money. A letter signed by McCain tells the Democrats: “We have you registered as a Republican.”
“I was a little bit shocked and a little bit surprised,” said recipient Bill Smith, 81, of Tampa, who calls himself a lifelong Democrat and has been registered at his current address since 2000.
…
The RNC declined to discuss the mailer, which Democrats said has landed in five counties: Duval, Hillsborough, Collier, Miami-Dade and Escambia.
The article goes on to note that FL’s Republican SoS Kurt Browning believes the mailing is “confusing” and “unfortunate”, but does not note whether or not he plans to do anything about it. We’re not holding our breath. Neither are we holding it for Democrats down there to do much about it either.
The mailings sent to registered Democrats appear to be classic “caging” letters, marked as “Do Not Forward”, so that they will then be returned to the GOP if there is any problem with delivery. Those returned letters will likely then be used as a basis to challenge the legitimacy of those particular voters on Election Day….
Letters returned as undeliverable can be compiled into “challenge lists” of unverifiable addresses and can be used to challenge voters’ eligibility during early voting or on Election Day. The vote suppression technique is known as “vote caging.”
Aside from the troubling points spelled out above, and amplified by former Republican vote-rigger Allen Raymond last night on MSNBC (Allen suggests this effort will be done everywhere by the GOP this year), there’s this disconcerting comment from the supposedly Democratic Party chair in Hillsborough County:
You “don’t understand their logic,” Mr. Steinberg? What rock have you been living under? The same one Dems in the U.S. Congress have been living under, in regard to the practice of vote caging, perhaps? The same one that Bob Woodward and the Washington Post have been inexcusably living under?
If so, Dahlia Lithwick’s Slate article from last year, explaining the practice, — “What the heck is vote caging, and why should we care?” — filed after the issue finally reared its ugly head before a largely-clueless Democratic U.S. House Judiciary sub-committee, needs to be mandatory reading for every Democrat, and every member of the media. Right now.
Suffice to say, Steinberg’s comment does not inspire confidence that Dems have any clue what they’re up against this year, as we noted in some detail on Monday.
These fuckers should be in jail.
Bamboo, call me.. Seriously. Ask Brad for my Number. There’s a reason I want you to call.
Until the director of the Florida RNC is sued or jailed, these actions will continue. The DNC, Obama needs their legal eagles on this immediately, in every applicable state. The RNC is accountable for their parties actions.
Cause for concern.
Way to go, Brad. At least your readers know that the Florida Democratic Party has done everything that it can to make sure that the Neo-cons stay in power.
Project Vote Count is going to try to make sure that the Neo-cons get caught if they try to steal the Congressional elections in Floriduh again this year.
I was impressed by the Obama campaign’s quick lawsuit in Michigan to stop vote caging, and I hope they do the same wherever the GOP thugs pul their juvenile shit. He should also be suing the vote machine companies, to get them off their game and to get some discovery started.
Do you have a copy of the mailer? A journalist, David Rosenfeld forwarded one of the mailers to me, and it had a “USA Non Profit” stamp on it.
I spoke with some Florida activists and they said the postal authorities said this wasn’t enough postage to get the mailer returned.
The mailer has what it calls a “Party Affiliation Voter Registratio Card” and it identifies the voter as a Republican.
The card lists a “voter id” number as well.
On the card it says “please return by Sept 11th”
There’s also a letter, which urges the voter to turn in the form etc, and says “We have you down as a republican, living in the Naples area of Florida. Is that right?”
It goes on to say: “I have sent you a copy of your RNC File Card for confirmation.”
I guess the bottom line is – do some or all of these mailers have first class postage?
Are my friends in Florida wrong about the postage on this mailer I’ve seen, that has the “non profit” stamp on it?
Please advise
Hmmmmm – if the RNC is using non-profit postage, it better be registered as a 501c3 organization. I frankly do NOT believe that any Political Party qualifies. Someone may be breaking some serious law, here. But then – what do you expect from the Rover Boys? Respect for the law has never been a sentence in their playbook.
Brad,
Isn’t “using the mails to defraud” a Federal offense?
Those stupid bastards should be jailed.
Maybe the Democrats don’t want to win any elections?
I live in DeSoto Co. and received one in the mail. I crossed out where they had me as a republican voter and wrote in “just another republican lie” and was going to send it back but changed my mind and threw it away. It was sent in a prepaid envelope.
Send back the empty pre-paid envelope as they will have to pay postage for every one they get back.