Tea Party backed group "True the Vote" plans to train 1 million volunteers into "poll watchers" - Polidicks

[QUOTE]As Nov. 6 approaches, the efforts of True the Vote, a Texas anti-voter fraud group recently profiled by the New York Times, are gaining national attention. [URL="http://votingrights.news21.com/article/election-fraud/"]Despite scant evidence of voter fraud[/URL], the group is laser-focused on weeding it out. It has pushed for voter-ID laws, voter roll purges and other controversial voting-related measures in a host of states. (Here is our guide to the voter ID controversy, where we note that evidence on both sides of the issue is lacking.) True the Vote also has promised to deliver 1 million volunteer poll watchers on Election Day, though its resources appear to be quite modest. Given its annual summits featuring conservative speakers and its hand in spurring voter integrity projects around the country, we thought we’d take a closer look at this activist group. [B]The basics [/B] True the Vote is a grassroots initiative spun out of a Houston, Texas-based Tea Party organization called King Street Patriots. Its focus is on training volunteers to serve as poll watchers on Election Day and inspecting voter registration rolls for hints of inconsistency to flag to elections officials. The group believes that citizen vigilance is necessary to protect elections from corruption and fraud. Its leader, Catherine Engelbrecht, a former poll worker and suburban Texas mom, has repeatedly emphasized the group’s nonpartisanship. “This has absolutely nothing to do with race or creed or color or party or politics, it’s about principle,” Engelbrecht said earlier this year in an interview to NRA News, a channel of the National Rifle Association. But many of the group’s tactics have come under fire for intimidating would-be voters and raising the specter of voter suppression. True the Vote has been backed mainly by Republican lawmakers and opposed by voting advocates that warn of minority disenfranchisement. True the Vote did not respond to ProPublica’s request for comment about these allegations. Last year, True the Vote and King Street Patriots jointly released a blueprint for legislation to change voter registration rules. The guide’s recommendations included requiring photo ID to vote, increasing penalties for forged or otherwise fraudulent voter registration applications, prohibiting same-day voter registration, allowing recording devices inside polling precincts and designating English as the “official language of Texas and the only language used on ballots.” [B]What about funding? [/B] So far, there hasn’t been much. According to True the Vote’s tax forms, the group raised $65,000 in 2010 and $137,000 in 2011. While much of the money has come from anonymous donors, the New York Times reported that True the Vote received a $35,000 donation in 2011 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a Wisconsin-based organization known to award grants to conservative groups. According to the Times, True the Vote had to return the donation because it was given on the condition that the group’s application for tax-exempt status was approved by the IRS, which has not happened yet. We’ve asked True the Vote about this donation and it didn’t respond to a request for comment. [B]It’s really going to have 1 million volunteers on Election Day? [/B] That is the goal, says Engelbrecht, the organization’s chief: To “train, mobilize, and merge a million new election workers into the 2012 process,” according to remarks she made last August during a panel hosted by the conservative group Judicial Watch. But it’s unclear how many volunteers True the Vote actually has. While True the Vote initially focused on Harris County, Texas – the nation’s third-largest voting district – they say they’ve since expanded into 35 states. Michael Power, a True the Vote volunteer in Alabama contacted by ProPublica from a Tea Party Patriots group web page, said that his work involves looking out for “voters who are registered at non-residential properties, vacant lots, those types of things,” or reporting fellow poll workers “who might be improperly influencing a person’s ballot.” According to Power, voter rolls are purchased from the state, but also from “various companies that assemble records from the state,” a strategy outlined here in this profile by ColorLines Magazine. In interviews, Engelbrecht often discusses her observations as a poll worker during the 2008 election as her “Eureka” moment. In that year, ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, became caught up in a controversy over collecting phony voter registration applications. In recent months, True the Vote has taken up the mantle of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which requires states to maintain their voter registration rolls by removing the deceased, convicted felons or otherwise ineligible voters from their lists. (In February, a Pew Center on the States report found that 1.8 million dead people are still included on voter rolls while 2.75 million people are registered in more than one state.) True the Vote has sent letters to 160 counties around the country alleging they have failed to update their voter rolls, according to “Bullies at the Ballot Box,” a report by liberal groups Common Cause and Demos that is critical of True the Vote’s methods. Through its attorneys, True the Vote has demanded a correction and retraction of the report, which it says contains “misleading information” and “false and defamatory statements.” [B]Partnerships [/B] True the Vote has helped get out its name by partnering with larger, more prominent organizations. It has co-sponsored events with Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group backed by the billionaire Koch brothers and collaborated with other nonprofits such as Tea Party Patriots in places from Colorado to Alabama to host “Election Integrity” fundraisers and recruitment events. Its mission also strongly resembles that of Republican-led political action committee Madison Project’s Code Red USA, which works on “participating in election integrity efforts, and/or participating in cross community engagement.” Engelbrecht told the New York Times that her group has no connection to Code Red USA. [B]Connections to the Tea Party King Street Patriots [/B] True the Vote is often referred to as an offshoot of King Street Patriots. The two share leadership: Catherine Engelbrecht, her husband, Bryan Engelbrecht, and a person named Dianne Josephs are all listed as directors on both groups’ tax forms. But a True the Vote spokesman told us that despite these connections, the group keeps separate accounting structures and staff from King Street Patriots. That is relevant because True the Vote is seeking tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, which is for charitable or educational organizations that can only engage in a limited amount of lobbying and can’t support or oppose candidates for elected office. King Street Patriots, by contrast, is a 501(c)(4) social welfare group, meaning it can engage in an unlimited amount of political lobbying, as long as that is not its primary purpose (the definition of which is extremely murky, as ProPublica’s recent investigation into dark money groups detailed). While it’s common for c4 groups to have separate charitable arms—The Sierra Club and National Rifle Association are examples of this—they must keep their financial accounting separate, said Lloyd Mayer, a law professor specializing in nonprofits and election law at Notre Dame Law School. “It can even share a name, but it has to have its own money. That’s the key thing,” Mayer said. According to a tax filing King Street Patriots provided to ProPublica, the group received $140,722 in donations in 2010. It’s received an extension on its 2011 tax filing. [B]‘Verify the Recall’ [/B] Earlier this year, thousands of True the Vote volunteers got involved in the Wisconsin recall election through an initiative, “Verify the Recall,” that sought to identify illegitimate signatures on a petition to remove Republican Gov. Scott Walker from office. Using its own methodology, True the Vote concluded that more than 63,000 signatures were ineligible. It also identified 2,590 names that were “potentially false” based on a predetermined list of names the group believed would be used fraudulently on the petition. Organizers declined to share this list with state officials. The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, a non-partisan state regulatory agency consisting of six former state judge appointees, later discounted much of the group’s findings and methodology, concluding they were “significantly less accurate, complete, and reliable than the review and analysis completed by the G.A.B.” and that they “would not have survived legal challenge.” [B]True the Vote’s Lawsuits [/B] Earlier this year, True the Vote teamed up with Judicial Watch to sue elections officials in Ohio and Indiana for their alleged failure to clean up their voter rolls. In June, the group filed a motion for intervention in a lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice to halt the Florida voter purge. Should the purge stop, the group argued, “registered voter members may have their votes cancelled out or diluted by unlawful ballots cast in the names of unlawfully present aliens.” Florida elections officials originally identified up to 2,600 non-citizens registered to vote in the state. But it turns out the number was actually a lot smaller. Recently, the state reached a partial agreement with voting rights groups, agreeing to notify these flagged voters that they’ll remain eligible to vote in November. [B]2010 election controversy [/B] In 2010, the Department of Justice launched a probe of alleged voter intimidation efforts by True the Vote poll watchers during the midterm elections in districts near Houston. That year, a national voter hotline received more than 200 calls alleging voter intimidation – as well as other election snafus – from several states, Texas included. It’s unclear to what extent True the Vote was responsible for those complaints. The Justice Department investigation didn’t proceed any further. True the Vote didn’t respond to our questions about the episode.[/QUOTE] [url]http://sandiegofreepress.org/2012/09/a-reading-guide-to-true-the-vote-the-controversial-voter-fraud-watchdog/#.UGgE_TxJI-i[/url] These are the same people who claimed a woman was not allowed to vote [URL="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ohio-voting-fight-20120927,0,811761.story"]because she lived in an apartment [/URL]

It's funny because they're the ones doing all the fraud.

[QUOTE=Diago21;37854189]It's funny because they're the ones doing all the fraud.[/QUOTE] I know right, without all that fraud they would have never won the 2008 election.

[QUOTE]It's hard to imagine a more dangerous scenario than that of hundreds of thousands of self-righteous suburban wingnuts showing up in poor and minority neighborhoods to hassle would-be voters, with Fox News cameras on hand to record any random examples of Solid Citizens experiencing resistance from annoyed locals. And if we head towards Election Day with Obama still enjoying a clear lead in the polls, you have to figure True the Vote's shock troops will be loaded for bear, viewing themselves as the last desperate defenders of "their" country against the barbaric hordes of looters and baby-killers who are already plotting to herd them into concentration camps during Obama's second term, after they close the churches and shut down radio talk shows. At a minimum, we can expect "poll-watchers" to come up with enough "documented" example of "voter fraud" to support a general post-election effort to de-legitimize the results.[/QUOTE] :v:

Yeah this needs to not happen. If this were backed by a legitimate group that we could be sure would adequately train its 'watchers' to actually do something useful instead of just being self-righteous assholes, then it wouldn't be a problem. But we can't always get what we want, can we?

Gee, it's so unlike the GOP leadership to cheat, lie and scheme in order to win an election.

[QUOTE=thirty9th;37858214] If this were backed by a legitimate group that we could be sure would adequately train its 'watchers' to actually do something useful instead of just being self-righteous assholes, then it wouldn't be a problem.[/QUOTE] it would actually still be a problem seeing as how voter-fraud isn't an issue in the US but voting being an overly complicated and bureaucratic process which disenfranchises certain segments of the population [i]is[/i]

red_herring.txt

this is [i]totally[/i] different from that time the black panthers justifiably 'monitored' voters because _____

[QUOTE=cccritical;37859367]this is [i]totally[/i] different from that time the black panthers justifiably 'monitored' voters because _____[/QUOTE] you see, two black panthers in an incident that was largely overblown is the same as this because

Why are people rating the opening post funny? This isn't funny, it's fucking terrifying.

[QUOTE=cccritical;37859367]this is [i]totally[/i] different from that time the black panthers justifiably 'monitored' voters because _____[/QUOTE] Well, it's only the same if you think 2=1,000,000

Yes, harass voters at the booth if they look like different from you, that'll save the day

[QUOTE=Ybbats;37858973]Gee, it's so unlike the GOP leadership to cheat, lie and scheme in order to win an election.[/QUOTE] tea party=/= republican leadership They're extremists to say the least.

[QUOTE=Wealth + Taste;37864164]tea party=/= republican leadership They're extremists to say the least.[/QUOTE] i'm sorry i couldn't hear you over republican legislators throughout the country passing voter suppression laws

[QUOTE=Wealth + Taste;37864164]tea party=/= republican leadership They're extremists to say the least.[/QUOTE] The majority of tea partiers are republicans, dozens of republicans riding on tea party support were elected last congressional election. Therefore the tea party is part of the republican leadership.

"True" the vote? Errghhhh people turning adjectives into verbs.

[QUOTE=Wealth + Taste;37864164]tea party=/= republican leadership They're extremists to say the least.[/QUOTE] sorry did you miss the numerous tea-party republicans being elected into congress and the republican party constantly pandering to and appeasing the tea party

It's funny because the United States has some of the lowest cases of voter fraud out of any democratic nation. [QUOTE=Splarg!;37864913]"True" the vote? Errghhhh people turning adjectives into verbs.[/QUOTE] Hey if you need an action in a pinch, just verbify it. Welcome to English.

[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;37865376]It's funny because the United States has some of the lowest cases of voter fraud out of any democratic nation. [/QUOTE] It's usually not reported.

[QUOTE=Ardosos;37865384]It's usually not reported.[/QUOTE] yes it is

[QUOTE=Kopimi;37865406]yes it is[/QUOTE] And multiple studies have been done that prove that voter fraud is pretty minimal.

[QUOTE=Kopimi;37865406]yes it is[/QUOTE] 2008 would like a word with you.

[QUOTE=Ardosos;37865436]2008 would like a word with you.[/QUOTE] is this going to be about ACORN i bet it's going to be about ACORN

[QUOTE=Ardosos;37865436]2008 would like a word with you.[/QUOTE] no it wouldn't (hint: this is your cue to actually prove something instead of just making smug self serving bullshit posts that assume your point is common knowledge)

[QUOTE=Kopimi;37865461]no it wouldn't (hint: this is your cue to actually prove something instead of just making smug self serving bullshit posts that assume your point is common knowledge)[/QUOTE] Upon further research it was just the primary, my mistake.

[QUOTE=Ardosos;37865436]2008 would like a word with you.[/QUOTE] To which I respond "Watch out for that huge earthquake off the coast of japan!"

[QUOTE=Ardosos;37865486]Upon further research it was just the primary, my mistake.[/QUOTE] i bet it wasn't even in person voter fraud

[QUOTE=Habsburg;37865494]To which I respond "Watch out for that huge earthquake off the coast of japan!"[/QUOTE]I think it would be fun to spoil Bin Laden's death for them.

tl;dr They go to strip clubs and watch the hookers pole dance