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EXPLOSIVE: "Romney Campaign Training Poll Watchers To Mislead Voters"

therehastobeaway @THTBAW

Daily Kos: EXPLOSIVE: "Romney Campaign Training Poll Watchers To Mislead Voters" dailykos.com/story/2012/10/… via @dailykos #Wisconsin #GOTV
30 Oct 12

This is just unconscionable. What is happening to our democracy?

Mitt Romney, the man who's willing to blatantly lie to Ohio about Jeep jobs, to the point where workers are calling their auto unions in panic, is also behind efforts to conscientiously curb people's voting rights:

From ThinkProgress: EXCLUSIVE: Romney Campaign Training Poll Watchers To Mislead Voters In Wisconsin

Mitt Romney’s campaign has been training poll watchers in Wisconsin with highly misleading — and sometimes downright false — information about voters’ rights.

Documents from a recent Romney poll watcher training obtained by ThinkProgress contain several misleading or untrue claims about the rights of Wisconsin voters. A source passed along the following packet of documents, which was distributed to volunteers at a Romney campaign training in Racine on October 25th. In total, six such trainings were held across the state in the past two weeks.

I have no idea how this is legal or why the Department of Justice isn't all over this already. But what I do know is that it's sickening that journalists across the country are dropping witty political puns on Twitter and RTing newsy tweets by the bucketloads but are too busy to report more widely on Romney's grotesque voting rights violations. Here are more misleading claims from the training brochure in question:

CLAIM: Any “person [who] has been convicted of treason, a felony, or bribery” isn’t eligible to vote. (Page 10)

FACT: Once a person who has been convicted of a felony completes his or her sentence, including probation and fines, that person is eligible to vote.
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CLAIM: Page 16 lists 10 items as “The ONLY Acceptable Forms of “Proof of Residency”.

FACT: The list used is incomplete. There are many other documents people can use to prove residency that are not included, such as letters from public schools, student loan papers, correspondence with a Native American tribe in Wisconsin, vehicle registration, and food stamp correspondances. In addition, the list fails to mention that homeless voters may use an affidavit from a public or private social service agency as proof of residency.
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CLAIM: “If a handicapped voter is unable to come into the polls to vote, an assistant can deliver the ballot to the voter if the CEI verifies the elector’s proof of residency.” (Page 19)

FACT: Under Wisconsin law, the CEI (Chief Election Inspector) does not have to verify proof of residency so long as the voter is registered.
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CLAIM: “Election Observers should not assist [voters].” (Page 20)

FACT: A voter can ask for assistance from anyone, including a poll watcher, so long as the voter initiates the request and does not engage in electioneering.

You can view or download the full Romney Volunteer Observer Training manual here.

Like skin desensitized to continuous beatings, we are becoming desensitized to Mitt Romney's incredible, pernicious lying. He has learned that there are no consequences (for a right-of-center rich white man?) for failing to release his tax returns, failing to stop using context-free quotes, failing to stop regurgitating debunked Jeep story lies, failing to stand up to rapists and racists openly, failing to go on the record about his FEMA stance, or failing to end suppression of your right to fucking vote.

The Fourth Estate is failing us. This is RIDICULOUS.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/30/1152491/-EXPLOSIVE-Romney-Campaign-Training-Poll-Watchers-To-Mislead-Voters