It turns out Anthony Gemma isn’t the only one using allegations of voter fraud to prop up his political agenda. Local tea party groups are doing so too, using both his tactics and his allegations, under the auspices of True the Vote.
“True the Vote’s plan is to scrutinize the validity of voter registration rolls and voters who appear at the polls,” according to an article in today’s New York Times. “Among those in their cross hairs: noncitizens who are registered to vote, those without proper identification, others who may be registered twice, and dead people.”
This all sounds well and good but read further into the story and you’ll find True the Vote is doing much more than just looking for voter fraud. Here’s what the Times reports about True the Votes efforts in the Wisconsin recall vote:
True the Vote began working in Wisconsin in 2011, the same year it received a $35,000 grant from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which is based in Wisconsin and is a major backer of conservative causes, including Americans for Prosperity. The foundation’s president and chief executive, Michael Grebe, was Mr. Walker’s campaign chairman for his 2010 campaign and for the recall election, which he won.
The accountability board concluded that about 900,000 signatures were valid and, in a memorandum reviewing True the Vote’s work, criticized its methods. For example: Mary Lee Smith signed her name Mary L. Smith and was deemed ineligible by the group.
Signatures deemed “out of state” included 13 from Milwaukee and three from Madison. The group’s software would not recognize abbreviations, so Wisconsin addresses like Stevens Point were flagged if “Pt.” was used on the petition. Signatures were struck for lack of a ZIP code.
It’s pretty clear True the Vote has political motivations outside of cleaning up voter rolls. According to the Times, “it grew out of a Tea Party group, King Street Patriots, that [was] founded in Texas. An examination shows that it has worked closely with a variety of well-financed organizations, many unabashed in their desire to defeat President Obama.”
So why should Rhode Islanders care?
Because the local incarnation of the Tea Party is using True the Vote methodology to scrutinize elections here too.
This from the Ocean State Tea Party in Action’s August newsletter:
Marina Peterson of East Bay Patriots, is heading up a project to clean up voter rolls. The work must be done within the next couple of weeks. The work can be done on your own time, in your own home with the use of a computer. Help identify potential voter problems – people registered at commercial properties or vacant lots, numerous people registered at one address, etc.
If you want to be part of a movement that helps protect the vote of the individual and stops the fraudulent casting of votes, then please sign up at www.truethevote.org/volunteer/. The cost to register is $25. Ocean State Tea Party in Action will reimburse you for this cost.
The idiocy of the new RI voter ID law is almost beyond comprehension. Not only is it intrinsicly a bad idea, but it made fraudulent voting WAY easier. The law made it easier to vote with an absentee ballot – and absenttee ballots don’t require any Id, and of course don’t even require a person to show up at the polls and attempt to commit voter fraud in person. I really have yet to hear anyone demonstrate that voter fraud is or has been an issue in RI (but, knowing RI politics, I am open to the idea that it exists), but I do know that the stupid law the bubmling Democrats in the Assembly just enacted is probably going to make the problem (if it exists) worse.
As for True the Vote and all that type of thing, they are anti-democracy haters and need to be stopped.
Sorry, I fail to see why the current ID law is “idiotic” – having been a poll worker all day in the recent primary I would say almost all the voters were enthusaistic about the law as they thought it was reasonable to have an ID of some sort in order to vote. It gave them more confidence in the election results, which is a good thing. With the wide range of IDs that were valid, the extensive outreach of our Secretary of State, and the opportuity for provisional voting if no satisfactory ID is produced (we only had one such case in almost 600 voters), its hard to see how any legitimate voter in RI can be denied their right to vote. I could be very different in WI (or TX where NPR reported a NRA id is valid there, but not a university id!)
I agree absentee voting, a separate issue, could be a problem, as is registering with an invalid address (we have a rumor in NP that at least one of our elected officials actually lives out of town)