Rachel Maddow Deconstructs Debbie Georgatos, Whose Video Also Makes Cooper's 'RidicuList'

Patriotsunite

Voter fraud is institutionalized in Dallas County. The firing of an impartial Election Administrator in January has sealed our fate. You may not comprehend the need for stopping voter fraud. Ask Eastern European countries which awakened to their country overrun from within by communists in the bureaucracies controlling the votes. That is what this is about. If you think not, it is Soros who funds 'voter registration' and buys elections for Secretary of State positions for it is those who count the votes that control the election. This is not about illegals. This is about a little law that requires the county to publish the names of those requesting mail in ballots. Precinct chairman show up to 'help' them vote, then sell to the highest bidder. Political campaigns in Dallas include paying off black ministers who pay people to vote. You who inherit a corrupt system will be the ones who pay because you do not understand or care. This is not a partisan matter. You should know and care about Venezuelan voting machines being imported here which are pre-set to give majority of votes to one candidate. Anyone who gets a hand out from the government must have an ID so get over that. In person fraud evidence HAS been hand delivered to the Attorney General of Texas. No action has been taken, no doubt for political reasons. In 2012 every precinct judge is required to be a Republican. Contact www.truethevote.org to learn how to do the job and stop voter fraud.

Raughammer

I wish houston was not such a giant blue hole!

TracyClinton

to Phelps: We know from our republican-controlled state government via the legislative board that does economic analysis of every bill that comes out of committee that in-person voter fraud amounts to "five (5) or less" people a year. I may be an outlier statistically, but I'm pretty sure I can think of 5 legal U.S. citizens in Dallas County that are likely to run into problems with the new voter requirements. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that this new law is even more of a headache in rural counties where there's even less convenient access to a DPS office to petition for a (sort of) free state ID.

"I don't get the "huge expenditures" that Maddow was claiming about Voter ID implementation. How much does it cost to look at something for 3 seconds a voter?"The cost is not in checking ID, willfully ignorant Phelps, but in providing free state-issued IDs and spending millions on PSAs and awareness campaigns because this allegedly simple, reasonable change in long-standing election law is not that simple. (For those of you who may be as confused as Phelps, you have to provide a free option for state-issued photo IDs because we don't have a requirement in this country that all legal citizens must own current state-issued photo IDs. If all people have to pay for ID to vote, that amounts to a "poll tax" which is illegally discriminatory. Plus, local governments have to spend money updating their training and reference materials for poll judges and clerks. Now then, "huge expenditures" may seem hyperbolic for a few paltry MILLIONS of dollars in a budget of a few billion dollars, but these are "huge expenditures" to address a problem of "five (5) or less" people in Texas.

"Honestly, the protestations against Voter ID are telling to me... ...Poor people? They have to have ID to cash welfare checks. The elderly? They have to have ID to cash Social Security checks. Who are all these poor and old people who don't have IDs (and therefore receive no benefits?)"Your protestations are pretty telling to me, as a matter of fact. There's not quite that many elderly lining up to cash checks in an electronic banking society. "Poor people?" How about we consider people enduring economic hardship both short-term or long-term, and those people enduring hardship because of natural disaster? Some of them are receiving benefits and some are not. Some have expired IDs that aren't allowed at polls. Some have moved for job opportunities and have valid out-of-state IDs that are invalid for voting under "Voter ID", but have current utility bills that would work under current law. There are hundreds of people every year in Texas that have to rebuild their lives after natural disaster who have lost their identity papers. It's can be a tricky, laborious thing to rebuild your proof of identity from scratch for the average person.

3rd Wheel Marketing

Yeah, they have ID to cash welfare checks & to buy their Thunderbird at the liquor store!

Funny, right wingers get all squirrelly about ID cards unless it might keep a "damn, dirty Mexican" from voting.

Registering to vote is a pain in the ass and this is just one more hurdle to keep people from participating in the process. In this digital age, the fact that we cannot register to vote the day of the election is (to be blunt) on purpose.

Tom L (No, Not That L)

Damn. I saw the "Super Massive Blue Hole" graphic and hoped that maybe the super massive Trinity River money hole had finally gotten some national attention.

governmentcheese

Reading the Morning News gives insight to voter fraud. There have recently been a number of voters arrested for fraud. To ignore the problem makes you complicit.

Lee

Can you point to an article. Most of what I read says that they issue is in the process for absentee ballots, which is limited, not in people going to vote fraudently at the polls. Even the Attorney General of Texas could not find any significant issue of voter fraud at the polls.

TracyClinton

I agree with Lee. There were several Democrat legislators that acknowledged that real voting reform has to focus on mail-in ballots. In-person voter fraud amounts to less than "five (5) or fewer" people a year in Texas.

How many elections in Texas come down to five or fewer votes spread all over Texas? NONE.

Sam_Merten

Anderson Cooper too:

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/vid...

Montemalone

I suppose an upshot to Fritz Lang's montage is that people will know that Dallas is not the complete ass-backwards hellhole that the rest of the state is. It's a blue hole.

Phelps

Racist.

Cliff Dweller

It was not Fritz Lang's Metropolis, it was Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times.

whackedupside

Nah, that's Lang's Metropolis. I watched it last week and those scenes are from that film.

Montemalone

Should have paid more attention in that film class.

Montemalone

Some of my best friends are Smurfs, asshole.The racists are Georgatos and her party, and her implications that voting Dem is only for non rich white folks.

Grumpy

I don't know whose position has less credibility. Georgatos's stance on voter fraud or Maddow's claim that photo ID requirements make it 'way harder to vote'. Same old same old from both sides.

Guest

A lot of people don't have valid DLs because they got caught up in that Driver Responsibility Surcharge thing. Something like 1.2 million drivers currently have their licenses suspended or revoked over their failure to pay these surcharges (and in the past, at least some of the people who failed to pay the fines didn't because the private company in charge of collecting the fines failed to even notify them that they had surcharges to pay).

So, that's 1.2 million people who can't vote until their licenses are reinstated, even though there's nothing in the Constitution that says that failure to pay a second fine for a traffic violation being grounds for losing your right to vote.

Same with anyone who's DL has been suspended or revoked for any reason. Expired DLs can be used for 60 days after the expiration date, but the law, as written, doesn't allow suspended or revoked DLs be used for identification purposes.

And there are 77 counties in Texas without a DPS center to get one of these non-DL IDs, and, since these people don't have DLs, getting to an out-of-county DPS office can be difficult.

And, since the Legislature stripped out the free ID part of the legislation, the requirement effectively adds a poll tax (a Texas ID has a $16 fee).

I've said before that it's hard for me to get worked up about this legislation since it doesn't affect me, but there are potential problems that may get it hung up in a long and costly court battle (which, I guess, is fine. I guess we can just fire more DPS troopers to make up the cost of defending the law in court).

TracyClinton

I know it's hard to believe, but the "Voter ID" law addresses an issue to the tune of 2 million dollars in just the first year that our own Republican-led state government has quietly stated involves "five (5) or less" people a year in the state of Texas. FIVE.

It may surprise you, but there are thousands of people in Texas - maybe even tens of thousands of people at any given time - that are LEGAL citizens and have voted for years that will run afoul of this law because they live without a current government-issued photo ID. That sounds crazy, but you'd be amazed how easy it is to live that way if you're retired, don't drive, and lived on a fixed income that's automatically deposited. That sounds crazy, but you'd be amazed at how many people are in a state of extended transiency because of economic hardship, so they're having to move around to find work or find someplace cheap to live and the only thing current about them is a birth certificate or utility bill.

One more thing that might sound crazy to a comfy Dallas suburbanite: Thousands of legal U.S. citizens in Texas don't have even inconvenient access to a DPS office to petition for a (sort of) free state photo ID.

Rachel Maddow and others could be more specific and clear when they talk about "Voter ID" laws making it "way harder to vote". These laws don't make it harder for you and me to vote. These laws do make it harder for people that are my grandparents age to vote. (I have a sneaking suspicion that they wouldn't vote the way I'd prefer, but I'd like them to not be disenfranchised just the same.) These laws do make it harder for legal U.S. citizens enduring hardship due to the economy or natural disasters. The most galling thing is that these laws make it harder for thousands and thousands of Texans to participate in an essential part of democracy who are often struggling already, and this is done to the tune of millions of dollars in order to fix a problem perpetrated by "five (5) or less" people a year in Texas.

I have a hard time brushing this off as "same old, same old" bullshit partisan hackery on both sides. I see this as a scared Republican "solution" to throw unnecessary hurdles in front of legal voters who the Republican leadership doesn't want to vote.

Montemalone

AND, you have to be pre-registered with your name on a list to vote. They don't just let you walk in and cast a ballot. To register, they already verify who you are and where you live. They check you off that list once you take a ballot.If anything, we should eliminate mail in votes and early votes and anything other than in person on the day votes.We'll see what effect THAT has on election results.

Montemalone

Well Tracy, I guess it's just part of the Gay Agenda.We're so close to World Domination. The soldiers won't have time to vote since now that we've eliminated DADT, they'll be too busy fucking in the barracks.

Jason

I'm sorry for not putting forth one valid discussion point to this voter fraud issue, which I am highly incensed about. (Although, TracyClinton nailed it on the head) But, I just want to second TracyClinton in trying to find out why you are un-American and un-Patriotic.

Don't forget: Vote Perry/Palin/Bachman in 2012!

TracyClinton

Your plan disenfranchises every soldier serving overseas. Why do you hate our soldiers?

Your plan disenfranchises every voting-age legal citizen who has to be out of town on election day. Why do you hate voting-age legal citizens who have to travel?

Your plan disenfranchises every voting-age legal citizen who struggles to work full time and raise a family and may miss a one-day-only election. Why do you hate voting-age legal citizens who struggle to work full time and raise a family?

Phelps

Well, it's put-up-or-shut-up time for the Republican side. If Voter ID is actually enforced, and there isn't a significant difference in the numbers, then they are wrong. If the Dems start losing, but can't come up with giant piles of people who can say they wanted to vote, are eligible to vote, but couldn't, then fraud in the past sure seems likely.

I don't get the "huge expenditures" that Maddow was claiming about Voter ID implementation. How much does it cost to look at something for 3 seconds a voter?

Honestly, the protestations against Voter ID are telling to me. I honestly can't come up with someone who doesn't have an ID who wants to vote. Poor people? They have to have ID to cash welfare checks. The elderly? They have to have ID to cash Social Security checks. Who are all these poor and old people who don't have IDs (and therefore receive no benefits?)

Barryguitar

This bill does nothing. I can still compare the list of voters who voted to the list of registered voters, Pick out the ones who never vote, send off a request for absentee ballot, forge some signatures in the privacy of my own house, separate them by neighborhood sending them in on the same day to facilitate the ease of collecting them out of the mail or even before they get to the mail deliverer (if I have a contact within the elections office). Then I can fill them out giving preference to the candidates that I have agreed to "Harvest" votes for at a dollar a pop. While I walk the neighborhoods I can offer all the other people who actually did request a ballot to "carry" it to the mail for them. If I am ambitious I can steam open their envelope and check to make sure they voted the correct way, nullifying the votes I do not like or just junk the ballot if I don't like any of them. If I can somehow get an appointment to the signature validation committee, or someone on the committee who is on board with the fraud, then I am the one who validates my own cheating votes..........and if the local prosecutor is part of the team, I do not have to worry about being caught............this is what is called in the modern vernacular, "Community Organizing"............and its how a traitor got in the white house, and why we will never get rid of JWP.

Jason

Time to adjust your tinfoil hat. Looks like the clouds are breaking outside.

John_McKee

Obama was elected because it became obvious that Palin is a twit and McCain frankly didn't look like he still had all his marbles.

Do you really need a conspiracy to explain why people weren't jazzed to vote for a woman who can barely put together a coherent sentence or explain what newspaper she read?

lorlee

This from a Minnesota source where they are also considering the same proposal -

"Minnesota’s mandate is modeled on Indiana, which spent more than $10 million to provide IDs alone. Cost estimates for Minnesota have ranged from $17 to $80 million for free IDs, a federally-required provisional balloting system, educating citizens and election workers, increasing election judges and court costs to defend its constitutionality."

So in at least one state where it has been implemented -- it has significant costs. And Indiana is a lot smaller than Texas. Rather spend that money on teachers.

thefncrow

Voter ID requirements are expensive because they're only legal if the state is providing valid IDs free of charge to anyone who requests one. If you didn't provide free state IDs yet required such a state ID in order to vote, that amounts to a poll tax and is highly illegal.

Guest

I have a feeling that if someone needs some votes, they'll be there, ever notice how many votes are "found" during recounts? Between the illegals and the "misplaced" votes that people seem to find when they need them, i'm amazed anybody has any faith at all in the voting process.