
UPDATE: Laura Ingraham has asked her listeners to call the Dem Voter protection hotline -- and they are now being flooded with calls from crank callers. Please call Laura and tell her what you think about this: 800.876.4123. You can e-mail her here. Apparently, voter intimidation and fraud are a joke to Laura Ingraham. Let's let her know that it is no joke.
UPDATE #2: More on Laura Ingraham: "caller indicated she is running a tape of Bill Clinton over and over saying "call 1-888 Dem Vote to report problems" -- and then making fun of him, thus producing a spike in crank calls to the number" Protecting voter integrity is no joke. And I am not laughing. If anyone has audio of this, I'd love it.
________________________
The corporate media has jumped on yesterday's reports of the NRCC robocall blitz. Not surprisingly, repeated phone calls from recorded messages slamming people...are really irritating. And people are pissed. Let's hope they take it out on the Republican party today -- these tactics deserve a rebuke, not a reward.
From the WaPo:
An Ohio woman, who did not leave her name, called The Washington Post in tears yesterday, saying she could not keep her phone line open to hospice workers caring for her terminally ill mother because of nonstop political robo-calls.Pamela Lorenz, a retired nurse in Roseville, Calif., called her own experience "harassment as far as I'm concerned" and said, "If I were voting right now, the opponent who's doing this, he'd be off my list for throwing that much trash."
Hour after hour and day after day for two weeks, Lorenz's home has received the same NRCC recorded message attacking Charlie Brown, the Democrat who is challenging Rep. John T. Doolittle (R) in a hard-fought battle in northeastern California. "It is a recorder calling," Lorenz said. "I can't call it back to get them to stop."
The NYTimes has even more.
The calls are part of a telephone blitz that the Republican Party has unleashed in several dozen races that are likely to determine control of the House in Tuesday’s elections. And the repeat calls to the same homes have set off a new furor over campaign tactics, with the Democrats claiming the calls violate federal communications rules and are tantamount to harassment....Democratic leaders contend that the messages violate federal rules that require groups making automated calls to identify themselves at the outset. And the National Republican Congressional Committee, which has financed the calls, agreed on Sunday to quit making some of them in New Hampshire, where a state law limits who can receive computerized phone messages....
Federal filings indicate that the [NRCC] has spent about $2 million on phone calls in the last week.
Shameful. Expected from a desperate bunch of cornered smarm merchants...but still shameful. Send them a message. Get out there and vote!
For a cheery update this morning in the face of all these phone calls, Howie has a link to Nate's latest video interview with Charlie Brown. Go Charlie -- kick some Doolittle boo-tay today! And in my in-box, I just got a heads up that the latest polling from yesterday had Vic Wulsin up by three against Mean Jean. Here's hoping. What's the news from your district? How did voting go for you?
And if you have trouble voting, try these numbers:
1-888-DEM-VOTE for the DNC's voter hotline — this will get you directly to DNC lawyers and others to help with fraud issues.
Election Protection's 1-866-OUR-VOTE has live operators who can address some problems over the phone and dispatch lawyers on the ground, if necessary.
Common Cause's 1-866-MYVOTE-1 can help people find their polling place.
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Hurrah!
Today is the day to get out some justice!
christmas early
I’ll be heading out to vote in a bit. They’ve moved my voting place since last time, was a sleepy little township site, have to go in to the “city” this time. Have been using punch cards to date, not sure what’s in store for today. No chance to boost a progressive over a reactionary today, no senate seats are open, and my Dem congressman is running unopposed. Yay for the county clerk race!
We (out west) who are about to vote salute you!
So delicious to vote in the early morning. Even more delicious to try to vote Ahnold out of office.
Back to the phone bank! Moveon.org appears to have run out of people to call in Ohio, so now it’s on to PA.
When I got home last night, there were only 3 ‘messages’ on my machine that I wasn’t expecting. They were all blank cause the electronic system for calling can’t operate correctly with automated voice mail system. I’ve had surprisingly relatively few calls in the past few days.
We’ll see how voting goes tonight at the poll. I should be casting my vote by 6pm CST. The county auditor took pains to release a statement about touch screen voting process today. Her statement was that they’ve got the control cards under watch at all times, so no need to worry about tampering. The touch screens here don’t have a paper trail. I hope my polling place has stuck with the optical scanners, where you do have a paper trail.
Superb photo accompaniment!
There’s a whiff of desperation here, and I’m pleased that (some of) the traditional media has picked up on it.
catfood at 8 — thanks. I’ve been saving that picture up for just such an occasion. *g*
“I just got a heads up that the latest polling from yesterday had Vic Wulsin up by three against Mean Jean.”
Details, please. Like–not to be too pushy but–NOW!
Because we are in the top tenth of one-percent of Red districts nationally and if Jean (admittedly an easy target)goes down at the hands of a political neophyte (albeit an incredibly talented and engaging one) like Wulsin, as we say in our state motto, “with God all things are possible.”
EPU’d in the “karma” thread:
egregious @ #57 has the best Northern Virginia exit polling anecdote I’ve read. If that’s your typical Webb-friendly precinct, we are gonna see some macacakarma…..
EPU’d…….
??? Question re. expected heavy traffic at the Lake later in the day ????
Would it be appropriate to notify newbies on the availability of WindCatPond ?
Well, lookie here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9i-_3TiN9g
President Clinton at the Webb rally last nite:
http://www.raisingkaine.com/sh.....aryId=5872
For the poll watchers among us, this site, run by a progressive (and therefore possibly biassed toward the blue) compiles independent polls, and produces from them a averaged rating and consequent projection, for races across the nation. He’s seeing 51 Dem seats. I’m not counting my chickens (too often we end up with turkeys.)
http://www.electoral-vote.com:2006/
Notify, what it is?
Waccamaw @ 13
T-
I saw Steve Sinton at the intersection of Johnson Ferry & Roswell Rd in Cobb on Sunday. He looked like he was very busy trying to keep up waving at people that honked as they drove by. First candidate I’ve ever actually seen in that part of town.
Ditto on the photo .
Start the fund right now to sue those bastards, take every nickel they got .
when do we get exit poll results
I’m going to be away from my desk for a few hours. Before Trex exhorted us to calm down (late night FDL) I had scheduled one of my acupuncture sessions for the middle of the day today to try to take my mind off the excitement for a bit. I don’t think it is going to work.
Speaking of Mean Jean, I had one person this morning tell me that they’re straight Republican voters in her house, but this time they were voting for Wulsin. I was heartened by this. It heartened me. And no, my phone has run out of batteries, so I’m stuck here waiting for it to recharge.
Pachacutec @ 14
Deny that motherfucker.
Rainy day here in Georgia but the polls in Roswell are busy I live with a block of three of them and the traffic is steady. This is the first time I have ever had to wait for a booth and that is a good sign.
Hi Waccamaw! Thank you for reminding me of WindCatPond!
Courts have struck down ID requirements in several states, but Missouri’s chief elections official, Robin Carnahan, said she was still asked three times to show a photo ID, despite a court ruling striking the requirement down there.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eln_voting_problems
OK, this is rich: our other Cincinnati gooper congressman, Steve Chabot from OH-1 ALSO had problems voting today. Forgot his gooper-mandated ID to vote.
http://frontier.cincinnati.com.....m-poll.asp
What say we elect some INTELLIGENT people like Victoria Wulsin and John Cranley to Congress, ‘Nati?
Check out Howie’s latest:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspo.....ready.html
me to me @
20
For an answer to your question, please read this: http://online.wsj.com/public/a.....71106.html
Brian Lehrer of WNYC now down-playing the robo-calling and rethug voter suppression efforts. And to think when he left Nice Polite Republican’s On The Media show the quality of the show actually went down.
Raven -
www.windcatpond.blogspot.com = link used in the past for alternative FDL home when traffic was reallllllly heavy. Was hoping for response from mods or other who might know if repeat usage planned.
me to me @
20
When we move to Ukraina….
Pachacutec @ 28
That’s where I read this:
Heh.
klyde @ 30
Brian Lehrer is a faux iberal.
raven @
17
It is a blog run by cbl, one of FDL’s regular commemters: http://windcatpond.blogspot.com/
Re Windcatpond - there was a comment last night from the person who started that site about getting it ready for tonight, should we need it. I have used it at various times. Don’t need permission, just if you can’t get on this site for minutes or more, try there and leave a message. Someone will respond. And usually with 15 minutes or so FDL is back up and blasting the truth to all.
Hey, Pfiff!
Where ya been, girl? We’ll have to catch up on sewing news…….right after Dems get thru’ taking back our country.
frogger at 11 — sorry, can’t reveal any more details than that — but it comes from a very well placed, credible source. Obviously, any poll taken the last few weeks is suspect — things are always WAY too volatile in the last few weeks of a campaign — but that one made me smile. One of my goals this cycle has been a Mean Jean butt kicking, and I think Vic Wulsin is such an awesome candidate.
I saw it on Olberman, and a verbally hard to decipher reference on CNN.
Is it being covered by the ~6 media outlets who is doing this?
I voted on paper, the tabulator was broken so I put it in the locked box. They said when the boss gets there they will fix it. They had (I -assume- they will check) the number of people who voted by checking their name on the registry.
This is in NH.
If it was computer voting there was no way any of the people there had more than meger computer skills.
They said that lots of people had turned out so far. This was a 7:01am, so I assume the polls had opened at 6am.
I stopped by windcatpond this morning and left a message at the end of the latest comments. Basically saying CBL was going to get ready for overflow traffic from here
ifwhen it got slammed.Something to think about and watch for tonight:
Given that voting systems have been proven hackable, given that some probability-savvy observers found the 2004 discrepancies between exit polls and final results larger than the normal margin of error (most especially in the 11 swing states), given that the Republican party has demonstrated that they view democracy as warfare (robocalls anyone?)…
Keep an eye on any polling info you find today, especially exit polls in close races, and compare it tabulated results.
My internal optimist hopes today is the day America finally crosses the tipping point back toward rule-by-sanity.
My internal pessimist says that if I thought like those in power (win-at-any-price), and if I could influence a race by illegal, electronic, untraceable means, I would.
I think my internal optimist will prevail in the overall results, and that my pessimist may be right in the case of a few races. But, alas, with the current voting technology, we’ll never know.
That’s where they think they’re going to win it (also close to HQ).
Cherokee county is a wasteland.
JF @ 18
percy @ 41
Which may be why Rove was so unconcerned– just a wee bit o’ tampering here and there, and they’ll be covered, no troubles.
OK, I’m heading up to Norwalk to do what needs done, especially during the dinner-hour voting rush. Remember, a vote for Ned is a vote against the status joe.
Here’s another thing that is happening….. As related to me through a different type of board… “My mom went to pick up an absentee ballot for her SO that is currently in Afghanistan and was told that he could only vote in Presidential elections.” While it may be too late to get an absentee ballot for this election….the rest has to be completely false.
My old-fashioned lever voting machine was busted (only one in the polling place that was), and I voted on a paper ballot. I see nothing wrong with that system.
And I was exit polled. I looked at the letterhead that had all the television company logos on it, pointed to the Fox logo (along with CNN, ABC, etc.), and asked the guy how it could be a “nonpartisan” poll.
Just needed to be a wiseass, is all.
scroll down this link from Steve until you see
“Resources” in red
http://stevegilliard.blogspot......-vote.html
while you savor the list, remember there’s even more resources out there - NAACP, ABA, our own lhp and small platoons like hers everywhere today - believe the first youtubes are already up, DOJ is monitoring in 22 states, and various States Atty Gen. and Secty’s of State have their own eyeballs on the ground
which leads to this -
http://home.comcast.net/~paullehrman/bushtime.gif
percy @ 41
If you thought you could steal the election by Diebold, you wouldn’t put together a coordinated phone vote-suppression campaign. It’s too obvious, too traceable–even the MSM managed to trace it in under two days. Too many people are going to pay too much money in fines, and some even go to jail. You wouldn’t take a chance like that unless you had no other options.
Waccamaw, I look forward to catching up! CNN International begins coverage at 1:00am our time, so I’m ging to try to pull an all-nighter to catch our favorite bloggers :)
A big thank you to all the hard work the moderators do for us!
watertiger @ 46
It’s a damned good question. I have not failed to notice that changes in pollsters’ sampling proportions in recent years have accompanied increasing corporate media ownership and have tended to bias results in the GOP’s favor. This is not coincidence, and it’s why I’m down on any reading of a poll that takes the numbers at face value and ignores the internals.
EvilDrPuma @ 50
What I also found repulsive about the poll was that it was putting out feelers for a Hillary vs. Ghouliani ‘08 race. They so want it to happen.
just in case . . .
http://windcatpond.blogspot.com/
MWaahhaaaahhhaaaa, Good one.
Spew alert next time please?
Pfifferling @ 49
hi pfiff!
it’s been quite some time since we were on at the same time. i’ll let you take the late shift tonight. i expect to be up around five, though. too much to do at work this week to stay up.
i’ve got my fingers crossed and sending those good vibes across the pond. a thousand thanks to all the front line ‘lakers…..
watertiger @ 51
Disgusting. And, I hope, tough luck for them. I can do without a 2008 Clash of the Triangulators.
I just got back from voting for Charlie Brown. As usual in my very suburban, Republican, well-funded district, there was no line, the people were cheerful, and the skies were blue. My polling place is a local elementary school, and I even got walked across the crosswalk by a school crossing guard! I was the 67th person to vote. All was lovely until I put my ballot into the optical scanner; I had a slight sinking feeling as I watched the machine eat my votes. It isn’t right that we should have even one doubt about the integrity of the apparatus. At least this time none of the poll workers said “Oh, a Democrat!” dismissively when I asked for my ballot.
Meanwhile, I heard on the radio that in Nevada County (also part of CA-04) for some reason the absentee ballots won’t be counted for a few days. I have no idea what that’s about.
I usually vote in the a.m. on the way to work (”I love the smell of ballots in the morning”), but today it’s going to be late afternoon in order to accompany newish U.S. citizen madame punaise to vote for the second time (the first was Arnie’s sham proposotions last fall).
Mystery Pollster Mark Blumenthal has a very good primer on the state of exit polling in 2006.
Shorter MP: Little if any polling on House races, because of the wild gerrymandered districts. Senate and Gov races will have early results at 5PM, but TAKE THEM WITH A LARGE GRAIN OF SALT!
Laura Ingraham has asked her listeners to call the Dem Voter protection hotline — and they are now being flooded with calls from crank callers. Please call Laura and tell her what you think about this: 800.876.4123.
Wow, Chris Jansing just had a great piece on turncoat Lieberman on MSNBC. I was expecting all kind of repetition of his faux-”centrist” nonsense but she was very clear about the fact that he usually votes with the GOP on key issues and he’s been threatening to stab Democrats in the back.
Nice.
Christy, btw -
Totally . perfect . photo …..missing only a huge steaming turd ; )
Jane Hamsher @ 60
Nice indeed, but why not a week ago? Or two?
Waccamaw @ 61
I have a hard time seeing Dick Cheney stuffing a phone booth, even in his college days.
Hi Fahrender! When you wake up, it will be a bright new day.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 59
There really isn’t enough room in Hell. Satan’s going to have to think about expanding.
On hold - any suggestions on how to get through the screener. Calling Mike Stark.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 59
Per CNN -
SC governor turned away from polls for lack of proper voter ID card. Talk about karma; ain’t it a hoot?
EvilDrPuma @ 62
Because they’re betting Joe will win and so if he does, they have already laid the groundwork to interpret the whole midterms as a victory for the GOP and genius Rove who courted Lieberman.
watertiger @ 65
He’s working on it.
Interesting..No Republican signs or campaign workers at my polling place in Little Rock. There were about a dozen Dems.
Professor Foland @ 48
Prof - went to get coffee. Actually it’s the robocall stuff which surprises me, because it is traceable. Perhaps a better model is spam or Nigerian e-scams. My sense is that if something nefarious is easy, with little risk of getting caught, someone will do it.
And that’s the scary thing about electronic vote tampering: it is not at all necessarily traceable. Here’s one example, video from Princeton prof Edward Felton demonstrating how easy it is to hack a single voting machine:
http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/voting/
I’m not prone toward conspiracy theories, and I haven’t yet seen evidence that convinces me it has happened for sure, but the security weaknesses built into the current system in combination with the ethics (or lack thereof) in evidence from the right wing makes me uneasy.
Pfifferling @ 64
could there be even one country in the world whose citizens will be unhappy if the democrats take over congress? can anybody name just one?
Pachacutec @ 68
Sorry…I really did mean that to be a rhetorical question.
fahrender @ 72
I hear the terrorists will be overjoyed. :-P
Steve @ 70
No surprise there. They’re all at pay phones with a bag of quarters, making annoying phone calls….
My bad.
Peterr @
58
One other important point to consider, quoting an excerpt from Mark Blumenthal’s comments for which you provided a link:
Shit. The show ended.
I was gonna blast ‘em.
fahrender @ 72
Yes. Myanmar.
Christy,
Can Ingraham be brought up on charges for voter suppression?
Pachacutec @ 76
No, no…if I had really wanted to make that clear, I could have made it sillier.
Nice indeed, but why not a week ago? Or two?
or, in the case of Pastor Ted, tweaks ago
punaise @ 82
You’re such a card. You should be dealt with. :-P
new thread re Laura I - and it’s been hopping for a while!
(Gonna be running hard today, everyone!)
Typing this while phonebanking.
Getting complaints from 1 in 10 callers in Michigan about excessive calls.
Overheard at local coffee-donut shop this morning that one person had 14 calls on their answering machine.
Also running into problems with entire phone exchanges being busy.
There will need to be legislation about this.
Now back to calls…
Peterr @
84
Never mind.
(What happened to my “edit this comment” button?)
montag @
79
do you mean the government or the people?
Help! Forgot to close a tag, and can’t edit!
Preview is my friend.
Preview is my friend.
Preview is my friend.
EvilDrPuma @ 83
you gotta know when to hold ‘em, and know when to vote Dem :~)
I wish we could all vote on *impeachment* today, like they are in Berkeley.
Just to send a big ole personal FU to GWB.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 59
I have a better idea, call the police.
Wow, Nasal Nellie Ingraham is a real nasty person.
Jenny from the Blog @ 90
I’m collecting “on behalf ofs” before I vote today. Consider yourself represented in Berkeley!
Punaise -
Thank yew!
Got to my polling place and found it had been moved . . . about 4 feet. They had combined precincts and mine was the next table. Pollworkers were saying this was the heaviest turnout they could remember including Presidential elections. No senatorial races here. Just the governorship (I rather guiltly voted Green because I think both the Republican and Democratic candidates are going to be viewing the world from behind bars someday.) and the race for Representative (a progressive against a Bushbot). My township even had referenda on a pullout from Iraq and impeachment of Bush. Those two were really hard to decide.
everyone puleeze use Christy’s update link above and take the time to e mail that tool Ingraham
anyone know where she is broadcasting from ? that State’s AG and SOS should be apprised of what’s she’s doing - same with FCC, DOJ, and FEC
. . .anyone have a working email address for David Gregory @ NBC ? I understand he has a special affinity for Ms. Ingraham*g*
Checkin’ in…
Hubby & I just voted. Live in a formerly quiet little N.E. OH township now rapidly being overrun by ‘burb-sprawl.
Turnout today is H-U-G-E! Never saw so many people voting - bigger than any previous prez. election even.
4 precincts vote in one cute little town hall.
Looked as if each twp. was alloted 3-4 machines. All Diebold, all touch-screen with attached, enclosed, printed paper ballot that you can check over and proof-read after you’ve voted. We’ve used them once before. All appeared to be working smoothly. But ALL of the machines were always in use during the time we were there, with more people continuing to arrive, and the parking lot outside JAMMED to overflowing.
Didn’t see any poll-”watchers”, but the normal crew of poll-workers were doing their usual smooth, efficient job of managing the record crowd. Even they were AMAZED at the turnout. They said they were trained to check I.D., but they’d been told it was o.k. not to bother, if they personally knew the voter. We showed ‘em i.d. anyway, & were relieved to see they weren’t required to write down I.D. #s or anything like that (a personal peeve of mine! since Board of Elections then turns around and sells lists, I don’t like to have any more on those lists than I have to, in this day & age of I.D. Theft!)
I noticed evidence they hadn’t updated their lists in awhile.
Our son moved his voting address to another location several years ago, and he’s still listed - even though he votes regularly at his new address.
Saw one lady standing with a poll-worker who was calling the county BoE office (?), because they didn’t find her name on the list of registered voters. Glad to see the poll-worker had a cell-phone handy to check on that, but don’t know how the problem was resolved.
In other words, basically busy but boring in our neck of the woods. Even so, I’ll be very interested to see our local results, because there’s been so much change in the population recently. Big new housing developments (mostly those things my hubby calls “starter-castles”), huge increase in the school-age-child population, and several(!) BIG new fundamentalist churches built just in last few years.
Still shaking from having to vote on that Diebold monster, even if it appeared to be behaving itself! *shudder*
Over & out from n.e.OH ;->
Well, i tried calling Laura’s number and it was busy. Payback?
My email to Laura:
========
Had Enough?
========
my little missive to Laura Bora:
The Republican 25% Strategy of divide, suppress and conquer is simple. First, fire up the base with red meat issues, while using the proven conservative “distribution” channel of churches and single issue advocacy groups to get them to the polls. Second, drive down the participation of potential Democratic and independent voters through curbs on registration, onerous new ID requirements, and polling place eligibility challenges. Last but certainly not least for the Republican party of Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman, when in doubt, just cheat.
For the full story, see:
“Divide, Suppress and Conquer: The GOP’s 25% Strategy for 2006.”
Great story from TPM on someone whose name you’ll recognize choosing a paper ballot this morning:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c.....010906.php
Who would one call to report Laura Ingraham to the authorities? Wouldn’t this count as messing with voting?
I tried calling too but it was busy. So here’s my e-mail.
“How should we descibe your encouraging prank calls to a line intended to help voters vote?
Juvenile? Undemocratic? Illegal?
Why don’t you want to give people a fair opportunity to vote? Would you prefer a dictatorship?”
arc parser @ 104
That’s a lot nicer than the 30 I sent.
Laura’s show went off at noon EST.
I was on hold and got dropped.