Countdown to Desperation

Voter fraud is a disgusting thing. In this country, which was founded on the basic principle of granting every citizen a voice, to see anyone from any party attempting to prevent American citizens from voting, or trying to manipulate votes to achieve different results is just revolting. And I think we all know that, which is why the McCain campaign's accusation that Obama has ties to the grassroots group ACORN, and that ACORN is attempting to hijack the election, has been taken so seriously. Which is to say that it has been taken seriously at all. If we, as a nation, did not have a deeply ingrained aversion to voter fraud, we would have simply laughed McCain and his entire campaign clear out of the race. After all, for a group like ACORN to pull off that sort of massive vote tampering, they would have to either exponentially increase their numbers and funding virtually overnight, or move their efforts to a smaller country, like Tobago. But McCain's accusation was deemed newsworthy, which proves that Americans hate voter fraud.

That's why it is so infuriating to come across stories like this. A phony flier claiming to be from the Virginia Board of Elections has been distributed around the area of Hampton Roads, VA. This flier states that, in order to deal with the massive number of people expected to vote in this election (something that American polling places have not had to deal with in a while), Republicans will be allowed to vote on November 4th, like normal Americans, and Democrats will kindly wait to vote until November 5th. This, of course, is a lie. It is a blatant attempt to purge voters - specifically Democratic voters. But then, it's always specifically Democratic voters.

If you think really hard, you may recall that back in 2000, the Presidential election had a bit of a, well, let's say snafu, in that it failed to elect a President. Fast forward to scandals and controversy, fast forward to the rest of the country getting pissed at Florida, fast forward to Secretary of State Katherine Harris becoming a household name (hey, a totally unqualified state politician rising to prominence by giving the Republican candidate a crucial boost... prescient, don't you think?), fast forward to eight years of economic decline, unjust wars, rising crime rates, and all around crappiness. Given the controversy that surrounded the days after the election, and the ransacking of the country that occurred in the years that followed, it has been all too easy to forget that lousy things happened before the 2000 election, too. Voter purging, for instance.

A flier was distributed in the days leading up to the 2000 election which read, "Come out to Vote November 6. Before you Come out to vote - Pay your parking tickets, motor vehicle tickets, your rent, and most important, ANY WARRANTS." It may be telling to point out that this flier was distributed in primarily black neighborhoods. It may also be telling to point out that black people tend to vote Democrat, as the Democratic party has a habit of not treating black people like shit, or at least, not as much as the GOP. It may be especially telling to remind you that the election in 2000 was on November 5th.

That was voter purging, using fear, lies, and a healthy dose of racism. A similar tactic appeared in key battleground states during the 2004 election. I can't comment on whether these heinous tactics made a big difference in 2004, since John Kerry was not exactly a rallying figure, but in 2000, when the election was decided on fewer than 600 votes, it can be fairly said that these repugnant tactics won the election for George W. Bush and the Republicans.

Of course, tactics like these only work if you let them. In a perfect world, people would see a sign that says that the Virginia Board of Elections has moved the election to November 5th for all Democrats and say to themselves, "Wait a minute! The Virginia Board of Elections doesn't have that kind of power! Why, this must be a fraud!" Particularly since the phony flier is filled with spelling and grammatical errors. ("Follwing" is not a word, though it may be a Pokemon). Likewise, in a perfect world, voters in 2000 would have seen the fliers and said, "Wait a minute! Elections are held by the government, so it's conceivable that they might have access to my parking ticket, motor vehicle ticket, and warrant information. But how the hell would they know anything about my rent? This must be a fraud." Of course, in a perfect world I suppose there wouldn't be fliers like these in the first place.

The point is, we don't live in a perfect world. We live in one where people don't always intuit the true purpose behind everything they see, and where people don't always read every sign closely. We live in a world where people can be intimidated through fear and threats. We live in a world where people get dates confused, and where people trust that any notice bearing the seal of a government office must have come from an actual government office. That's because we also live in a world where most people assume that other people would not try to mess with their right to vote, since, as we discussed earlier, voter fraud is not something that Americans take lightly.

Fliers like the one in Virginia are acts of desperation by people who would rather strip their fellow countrymen of their fundamental rights than see Barack Obama in the White House. And I hate to cast aspersions on any large group, but you never see fliers like this trying to tell rich white conservatives that the capital gains tax will double unless they show up to vote on November 5th. This sort of thing is always targetted at people who are likely to vote Democratic. And here it was targetted at Democrats in a state that has a chance of going to the Democrats for the first time in many years. Not exactly coincidental.

I know it is unlikely that we will ever find out who was behind the flier in Virginia. It's a shame, though, because I would love to see the person or persons responsible caught and punished for their crime. We can call it voter fraud, or vote tampering, or voter purging, but really, it's treason. It's betraying the fundemental values that make America America. I'm not talking about baseball or apple pie or being suspicious of Mexicans, I'm talking about one person, one vote. What happened in Virginia is not going to be the last scandal we hear about before this election is over. People who have every right to vote will be turned away on election day. People's votes will be lost, uncounted, or tallied for the wrong candidate. Wouldn't it be great if, just this once, every county election official, every crooked pollster, and every run-of-the-mill jackass who tried to stop people from exercising the right to cast a vote for the candidate they actually want to vote for was rounded up and convicted of treason? It would be quite a few years before anyone tried to mess with elections again, I can guarantee you that much. That wouldn't be a perfect world, but it might be a little bit closer.