Vote suppression is becoming a GOP Establishment obsession.
New examples, seems like, every day.
Actual names have been changed or withheld in the following.
From: withheld
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2012 2:13 PM
To: withheld
Subject: Jesse’s voter registration
Dear [Experienced delegate],
Jesse registered successfully online, printed the confirmation page and then called the Auditor’s office. They told him they did not have a stamp to give verification to his completed form, but suggested he call the Republican Party to determine if he could caucus. The woman who answered said it is a rule of the Washington State Republican Party to require voter registration by February 5th. We missed the date!
"It is so sad you won't be able to participate."
She apologized and shared our disappointment. She said she wished that weren’t the rule.
Ted and Jesse will be at your office this evening and our family will be attending the caucus in the morning. Jesse and Martha are interested in observing the process.
Thank you for guiding us through this. We look forward to learning lots more.
Lisa W.
phone withheld
——————————————————————————–
response from [experienced delegate]:
NOT TRUE! The rules are attached. There is no rule which disallows him from Caucusing! The caucus is bound by the rules attached! He simply certifies that he is Republican and will not caucus as Dem, etc.The latest the party tried was saying Feb 27th! I hadn’t heard Feb 5th for a while.
The rules state that any registered voter is allowed to caucus… period!
I am responding under another email but wanted to get this one off! DO NOT ASK THE PARTY THESE QUESTIONS! They are not giving correct information but misinforming voters! They are really worried that Paul might bring in many new Republicans… they cannot abide that , and that is one of the symptoms of which I wrote!
There is already a big flap in King county over rules violations. I will have more instructions for you. But, remember, you are the ones who know the law, and the rules! Go to the caucus and CAUCUS, including your son! If the party has an objection they can raise it at the credentials level!
More info coming. Sorry for the disjointed email.
For liberty and the rule of law,
[Experienced Delegate]
email withheld
In the current Republican Party, mostly peopled by RINO’s there seems to be an unspoken covenantal committment that any candidate will do except Ron Paul. He must be denied any opportunity to win at all costs. The other candidates, in one form or another are nothing more than big-gvernment Republicans who will offer no real change to the status quo–and that’s what the Party wants–no change in the status quo. I think they’d much rather have Obama back than to have Ron Paul win. That way they could pretend to oppose Obama and have a chance to sound “conservative” for another four years.
The auditor isn’t allowing registrations therefore unregistered voters are not allowed to vote. What am I missing here?
I heard the auditor wasn’t allowing registrations because there were school levy votes in feb. and they couldn’t process them in a timely fashion. Are you saying the auditor is colluding with the gop?
“Jesse” successfully registered to vote. The Auditor was no problem. The woman at the County GOP, however, said he couldn’t caucus because it was “too late.” That was a lie. Any registered voter can caucus by fully signing in at the caucus.
What about the 1,500 voters locked out of the Benton County, Kennewick caucus?
POLITICS: Local GOP apologizes for turning 1,500 away from caucuses in Kennewick
By Michelle Dupler, Tri-City Herald staff writer
Michelle Dupler, Tri-City Herald staff writer Tri-City Herald
Kennewick About 1,500 people were turned away from pooled Benton County caucuses in Kennewick by event organizers after rooms at the Three Rivers Convention Center reached capacity this morning.
Some potential caucus voters said they arrived at 9 a.m. to find the large hallways at the convention center packed to the rafters and were told no more people could enter the caucus rooms.
Ray Swenson, a Richland lawyer, criticized local GOP officials for poor organization and said the results today should be invalidated.
“I think it’s illegal,” Swenson shouted to a gathered crowd, many of whom were filming him with cell phone cameras. “The Republican party leadership is taking away our freedom.”
Swenson told the Herald he may file a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the caucus results.
“I think it’s unconstitutional,” he said. “Our right to vote is the most fundamental right in the Constitution. … This is exactly equal to walking into a polling place and being told, ‘We’ve run out of ballots. We didn’t expect this many people. Go home.’”
Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/03/03/1849623/politics-hundreds-turned-away.html#storylink=cpy
Be there by 10am or you ain’t getting in too!
We were told we couldn’t go into a caucous here in Whatcom Co because it was 5 minutes after ten. I can’t find a rule anywhere that the doors close at 10 and re-open at 12 according to the precint officer! And I’m not a Ron Paul person, I just wanted to do my civic duty. Parking was difficult, the lot was muddy, and I was on crutches. The doors Close? How ridiculous. Our freedoms are being stipped away and the enemy is not only “THEM”.
Janet,
Please file a formal challenge to the caucus delegation. They acted, not as you may suppose, enforcing stupid rules, but in violation of the rules. If you are in doubt as to the procedure, write me, Doug@TheReaganWing.com, and put the words “CHALLENGE” followed by your Legislative Dictrict number, in the SUBJECT line in all caps.
If the facts are as reported, the entire delegation of each precinct caucus that turned people away must be refused credentials to the County Convention. If Benton County does not so act, their entire County (if there is anything left) must be denied any delegates to the State Convention.
That Republican Party officials could blunder this badly is emblematic of the corrupt autocratic mindset that permeates the GOP’s unprincipled pragmatists. They do not understand delegated authority. They do not understand that they are SUBJECT to rules. They think that “rules” are their tools of subjugation of others.
These minions of corruption must be expunged from the Party. The Party has needed to do it for decades. The patience of Providence is running short. Not much time is left to make reforms before the disassembly of the party, itself, reaches cloture.
These ARE the facts. I was one of the 1500, and I arrived at 9 a.m. Rule 4 of the WSRP Caucus & Convention Manual states: “Each precinct committee officer shall be responsible for obtaining a location and making
necessary arrangements for a precinct caucus ….. The location must be within a reasonable distance to the precinct, and of reasonable public access. “Reasonable” means that any Republican wishing to attend shall not be hindered as a matter of purpose.”
When they told us to go home, I didn’t. I made my way through the justifiably angry crowd, into the conference room, found my precinct table, and participated. I was not allowed to take part in the straw poll since I had not been “certified”, but ended up getting the table full of Romney people to elect me as 2nd Alternate. Better than nothing! There was also pressure from the County Chairman to COMPLETE the election of delgates prior to 11:30, which is contrary to Rule 13, which says you have to START the election by 11:30.
I thought it was the Democrats who tried to scare away voters, not the GOP. Now I know how it feels….I have seen democracy FAIL.
David McClain
Kennewick
If I had been the Chair of that Benton County Caucus, I would have gone to a number of precincts and ask them to decamp to another location. Either someone’s home, Denny’s, the local park, a hotel or office conference room. You could have empowered each precinct leader to go hold that caucus somewhere else that could accommodate them. Then you could have told the people where to relocate to their new location and they could have signed them in there and they could have voted. It is amazing how many people would have stepped up to help this happen, as people pull together in any crisis. Then the precincts that couldn’t find an alternative could have stayed and there would have been room for them.
They would have closed the doors to the people who wanted to vote over my dead body had I been the Chair. That chair should be removed. His only job was to FACILITATE the ability of the people to vote and he failed miserably.
Many people hold individual caucuses. If the party had dispersed them a little more, there would have been plenty of room for everyone to vote. This idea that you have to crowd everyone into one big hall is stupid. It is easier, however, to control things when you get everyone in one big room, which is why King County decided to disallow home caucusing.
Keepusfree,
When did King County start doing this? you see I saw a picture this morning of Kirby Wilbur and it indicated he was at his home holding a caucus yesterday. In fact a picture of him as it was described. Look I believe what you’re saying, but king county has always been known for making exceptions to rules when it suits their needs.
Phil,
The hypocrisy of King County, in letting Kirby hold a caucus at his home as he has always done, and taking that right away (a right PCOs have held for a hundred years) from the “peons,” is OBVIOUS. But their nefarious intent, while discernible, is less obvious.
We looked at a credentials challenge based on the discrimination and decided against it, however, because the fig-leaf Kirby and Lori are wearing is the fact that the caucus Kirby was holding (or says he was holding) in his own home was a “pooled” caucus — with more than one caucus in the house simultaneously. I wonder who Lori appointed as the temporary chair? ;)
In Whatcom county, it is documented that a person arrived after 11AM, possibly after 11:30 AM, stating that his family was “sick”. The person found his way ‘miraculously’ to the exact separated caucus, without talking to the pooled caucus chair, and asked to join in even after the first round of voting had completed. The pooled caucus chair came over and said it would be up to the body to vote and allow the new arrival to caucus with the rest. They did.
[This was the same chair who had turned away a voter who had his January receipt from the Secretary of State's office in his hand, but whose name did not appear in the GOP database in the pooled caucus chair's computer!]
What was interesting said the reporting person, was that up to then the caucus was nearly divided in voting with only one of five being elected by narrow margin each of the eventual five rounds it took to complete!
Could a call have been made to get another caucus voter to help stem the tide of Paul delegates?
Another instance was reported from the GOP office counting process: a team of two was going through a precincts sign-in sheets and verifying the total of straw votes listed on that precinct’s tally sheet … after going through the list again, they had to change the number of Paul votes from 2, up to 13, and decrease the number of Romney votes from 6 down to 4!
in another case, the apparently grammatical/punctuation challenged counters felt that ‘ditto’ marks did not comport with their understanding of the party rules, and that one need to write in the full name of their candidate. The punctuation challenged counters thought the caucus attendee was somehow required to use a straight line or question mark if undecided…
In any case, they were certain that the party did not allow ditto marks and were in the process of deleting those “Ron Paul’ ditto votes, before being grudgingly made to accept standard English punctuation!
It seems that arbitrary power abounded. One PCO spent every moment lamenting that he was unable to enjoy the state basketball championships, and continually found new inventions to circumvent the rules. his language, poor demeanor about the pain of time wasting caucuses, his complaints that the rules should be changed to do away with majority elections of delegates versus plurality, the foolishness of secret ballots, and constant moaning and rolling of the eyes, cannot be less characterized than a shame to his country, and to the meaning of the flag under which so few have given so much for so many!
His understanding of the constitution can best be summarized by his answer when told of the unconstitutionality of the drug wars not backed by constitutional amendment, and when asked if there should also be an anti alcohol act… you know, like prohibition again… to that he said, ‘no way, I like to drink beer’!
It is time to prepare for Ron Paul constitutional PCO’s!
It would be helpful, JSB, to attach NAMES to these events, particularly those responsible for violating Republican Rules, notably, this pooled caucus chair.