( – promoted by Jack McCullough)
Democratic Secretary of State candidate Jim Condos is denouncing what appears to be planned voter intimidation initiatives on Election Day. He has called upon his Republican opponent, Jason Gibbs, a member of the Vermont Tea Party Patriots, to do the same.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that Tea Party members are being instructed to approach and “question any individual voter at the polls whom they suspect of being ineligible” to vote. The Voting Rights and Elections Project at New York University stated that these “private efforts to police the polls create a real risk of vote suppression,” and that “people need to know that any form of discrimination, intimidation, or challenge to voters without adequate basis is illegal or improper.”
The Burlington Free Press reported on Monday that the Vermont Tea Party (also known as the Green Mountain Patriots) will hold a training session to instruct its members in “poll watching” on Election Day. This training session is part of a nationwide movement of Tea Party groups organizing similar efforts in other states. The Vermont Tea Party is affiliated with the Tea Party Patriots, a national organization.
Jason Gibbs is a member of Vermont Tea Party Patriots and supports the national Tea Party Patriots as well. He has also attended at least two different Tea Party events here in Vermont during his 2010 campaign.
“Vermonters have a fundamental right to go to the polls and cast their ballots without fear of intimidation or bullying,” Democratic candidate for Secretary of State Jim Condos said. “The Secretary of State’s chief responsibility is enforcing and ensuring citizen’s rights to a fair and open Democratic process. The fact that my opponent is associating himself with the Vermont Tea Party and other national groups that are planning to interfere with the voting process should raise serious concerns about his ability to fairly and impartially oversee Vermont’s elections. I call on Mr. Gibbs to immediately denounce these groups and their plan to question voters at the polls.
“This is just one more example of how my opponent and I differ in our basic approach to government and citizens rights. I fully support efforts to encourage and involve more people in the voting process, such as early voting and Election Day registration. I will also fight hard to protect Vermont’s election process and to ensure that special interests do not dominate our political system, by working with Vermont’s citizens and legislature to enforce reasonable and realistic campaign contribution limits. My opponent, Mr. Gibbs does not support these positive election reforms.”
“Why would anyone commit voter fraud?”
http://www.slate.com/id/2272405/
Gibbs is a tea party guy? Someone should show him the South Park episode featuring “the ginger kids” so he’ll understand better what it’s like to be persecuted against like the Americans some of these tea partiers are targeting at polling places.
I appreciate that this connection is being made. Saying Gibbs is a “member” of the tea party is problematic, as those are often loose associations, but insofar as one can be a member, he probably is, just based on this screen grab I got from their facebook page:
So yeah, he’s at the very least cozying up with people who embrace – possibly even engage in – voter intimidation, which should be anathema to anyone who has any respect for the office of Secretary of State at all (and we should all be very afraid of someone with those associations getting into that position).
But I have to take issue with one piece of what Condos says. He overdoes (potentially it to his own detriment) when he then makes the leap to suggesting “poll watching” is an insidious activity, or that it somehow equates to voter intimidation. He does this at the risk of being accused of bombast or ignorance, neither of which do him any good. “Poll watching” is just the practice of checking your get out the vote list against the election day clerk’s checkoff of who has actually voted, so you know who among your supporters needs an extra reminder or some help getting to the polls.
The last thing organizers need is for the basic practice of “poll watching” to be conflated with “voter intimidation.” Oy.
I’ve always thought I’d like to charter a bus for these tea party types and take them on field trips to Detroit, east LA or Anacostia, DC.
Put on their revolutionary war hats and wrap up in a don’t tread on me flag and let them spread their good words right to people they are so afraid of.
these motherfuckers try this at my polling place! My friends and I will give them such a pinch!
No, seriously, they better not try that weak-ass shit in front of us. They will be very sad.
Be interesting to see if they actually do challenge potential voters on election day here in vt. Guess we’d better be ready for them.