Hypocrisy, arrogance, fake championing of voter rights
Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett
“...We see setbacks for democratic institutions, the rule of law, and
electoral processes,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lectured
last week before the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
member-countries in Vilnius, Lithuania.
“[W]hen authorities fail to prosecute those who attack people for
exercising their rights or exposing abuses,” Clinton said, “they subvert
justice and undermine the people’s confidence in their governments.
“… [W]e have seen in many places, and most recently in the Duma
elections in Russia, elections that are neither free nor fair have the same
effect. We have serious concerns about the conduct of those elections.…[T]he
preliminary report by the OSCE cites election day attempts to stuff ballot
boxes, manipulate voter lists, and other troubling practices.
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| Russia and Vilnius, Lithuania |
“The Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve the right to have
their voices heard and their votes counted. And that means they deserve fair,
free, transparent elections and leaders who are accountable to them.”
U.S. voters burned
Where was Hillary Clinton when her country was violating voting rights
law and suppressing voters’ expression of their right to vote for whom they
chose?
In the United States, there has been widespread voter suppression for
many years without a peep from Clinton.
The voting and elections watchdog group
Black Box Voting has found these voting rights and vote suppression issues:
‘Shorting’ voting
machines in targeted areas, forcing voters to wait in line for hours • Last-minute
switching of targeted polling places without adequate notice Purging and ‘caging’
manipulations with voter registration lists: Purging valid voters and targeting
specific groups for special or unfair purges …
Wikipedia describes the suppression of voter rights known as “caging” a
tactic that is both legal and illegal in the United States, depending upon
state of residence.
Caging is a method
of challenging the registration status of voters potentially to prevent them
from voting in an election. Caging refers to the practice of sending direct
mail to addressees on the voter rolls, compiling a list of addressees from
which the mail is returned undelivered; and, on the grounds that the voters do
not legally reside at registered addresses, using that list to purge or
challenge voters’ registrations.
This typically
results in voters’ having their votes thrown out or submitted by using provisional
ballots, which require further registration confirmation.
U.S. Election 2008 
Unlawful actions in six states, according to a New York Times’ review
of state records, led to widespread voter purges, which could have [had] impact
on the 2008 elections. Some of the actions were apparently the result of
mistakes by the states’ handling of voter registrations and files as they tried
to comply with a 2002 federal law related to running elections. While neither
party was singled out, because the Democratic Party registered more new voters
this year, Democratic voters were more adversely affected by such actions of
state officials.
Montana 2008
On October 5, 2008 the Republican (but elected on the Democratic
ticket) Lt. Governor of Montana, John Bohlinger, accused the Montana Republican
Party of vote caging to purge 6,000 voters from three counties which trend
Democratic. These purges included decorated war veterans and active duty
soldiers.
Michigan
Michigan’s Republican Secretary of State was found purging voters from
voting rolls when voter ID cards were returned as undeliverable. In the court
challenge, the federal judge ordered the state to reinstate the voters.
December 2007 Kansas
Kansas GOP Chair Kris Kobach sent an email boasting, ‘[T]o date, the
Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the
previous two years!’
Florida
Republicans sent out fundraising mailers to voters in five Florida
counties: Duval, Hillsborough, Collier, Miami-Dade and Escambia, with ‘do not
forward’ on the letters.
The mailers included inaccurate Voter ID numbers and ostensibly
confirmed with voters they were registered as Republican. The RNC declined to
discuss the mailer with the St. Petersburg Times. A representative denied the
mailing had anything to do with caging.
Two top Florida elections officials, both Republicans, faulted the GOP
mailing, calling it ‘confusing and ‘unfortunate’ because of a potential to
undermine voter confidence by making them question the accuracy of their
registrations.
California
Reports of voter caging emerged in Northern California when letters
marked ‘do not forward’ were sent to Democrats with fake voter ID numbers. The
description of the letters matches the letters that were sent out in Florida… Many
details on the letters were false; for example, the letters referred to a Voter
Identification Division but RNC personnel said they had no such department. The
RNC did not return calls from a news organization regarding the letters.
Black Box Voting, in its latest report, continues a litany of voting
rights breaches in the United States.
Among the frequent examples of suppression are: Voter intimidation • Traffic blockages
obstructing or delaying access to targeted polling places • Inappropriate
police activity or harassment around polling places • Inconsistent procedures
for provisional ballots (provisional ballots are available to voters who have
reason to believe they are registered but their names do not appear on the
rolls on Election Day) • Obstructive procedures, such as requiring poll workers
to get permission by phone from busy election-day elections headquarters before
offering a provisional ballot thus preventing eligible voters from voting • Candidate
name not appearing on some ballots (especially a problem in touch-screen areas,
where the computer programming for the touch-screen ‘ballot’ is not as
carefully checked as the printed paper ballots) • Late polls openings
Coast to coast, the Wikipedia article continues
California
According to court testimony in a 2004 [U.S.] case, 23-count embezzler
Jeffrey Dean gained access to both voter databases and remote access into
several California elections systems. He had obtained contracts as a vendor for
the Vote Remote absentee vote-processing system, and was accessing and
adjusting California data from his location in the Seattle area.
New York
In another incident, a laptop containing sensitive information was
stolen from the Diebold ballot printing plant that processes absentee ballots.
This division had access to nearly 1 million King County voter registrations,
including the social security numbers of King County residents.
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| Russian State Duma |
Rodhan’s rhetoric is rich indeed
A senior Russian official described HRC’s statements as “strange.”
NATO expert Rick Rozoff said pointedly the United States is in no position
to criticize Russian elections. In an interview after Clinton’s December 6
statements, Rozoff told Voice of Russia journalist John Robles, “Regardless of
what the actual details are about the recently concluded Duma elections (parliamentary
elections) in Russia, the statements emanating from Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and others are arrogant to a degree.
“If the situation were reversed and Russian and other major political
figures in other nations commented similarly on U.S. elections, which are not
without their flaws, I hope, there would be as strong as possible protests from
the State Department and the White House.”
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s statements — “presuming to speak on behalf of
the Russian people, stating that Russian voters deserve ‘a full investigation
of electoral fraud and manipulation’” are coming from “somebody who is from the
Chicago suburb of Park Ridge.Moreover, like her commander-in-chief, Barack Obama — who is from Chicago and is a product of the Chicago political machine — she is hardly in a position to complain about electoral fraud and manipulation and ballot box stuffing. They are products of the political machine that all but invented the process.”
Rick Rozoff said he had spoken with Chicagoans who had lived in the
former Soviet Union who talked about the fact that when elections were
held, election days were on holidays so that people were off work and could not
only vote but could participate in the political process, including in the
polling place.” This, he said, “is not a luxury accorded to
Americans,” though many in the U.S. brag that the country is “the model for
democratic processes, including elections…”
He concluded that U.S. State Secretary “is concerned about Russian ‘democracy’
as Washington’s plans for building a ring of missile ‘defense’ systems
encircling Russia continue full steam ahead — whether that country ‘likes it or
not.’”
 |
| Russia |
The Russian Ministry is reported saying, “We expect the U.S. side to
refrain from unfriendly statements running counter to the general positive
vector of our bilateral relations. … Pointing to a ‘very low voter turnout at
[U.S.] elections at all levels,’ the Ministry noted that the U.S. election
system can hardly be considered ‘a paragon of openness and fairness.’
Therefore, the statement continued, U.S.
executive authorities should focus their analysis on the reasons for this
situation and ways to improve it.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described Clinton’s remarks as ‘disrespectful’
and urged the U.S. Secretary not to use the rostrum of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation as a means to court voters and obtain political points
ahead of the U.S. presidential elections but “to utter criticism in the format
of a dialogue.”
The Foreign Ministry concluded, “Russian citizens have made their
choice by taking an active part in the vote. Only they have the right to define
the country’s future regardless of someone’s biased accounts and politicized recipes.”
Today in
U.S. History: The year 2000, the Supreme Court of the United States effectively
awarded the U.S. presidency to George W. Bush, ruling that a fair recount of
ballots in Florida could not be performed by the deadline for certifying
the state’s electors. [Britannica]
Sources and notes
“U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesperson REMARKS Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton OSCE First Plenary Session, December 6, 2011,
LitExpo Conference Center, Vilnius, Lithuania, MC.DEL/31/11, 6 December 2011,
Original: ENGLISH
“Clinton: Russia elections ‘neither free nor fair,’” http://en.rian.ru/world/20111206/169399214.html
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/presskit.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caging_(voter_suppression)
“U.S not in a position to
criticize Russian elections – expert,” Interview: Clinton Lectures Russia On
Elections, NATO Chief On Missiles Voice of Russia, December 8, 2011 (John
Robles, Audio interview with Rick Rozoff, the manager of the Stop NATO website
and mailing list and a contributing writer to Global Research.ca), http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/interview-clinton-lectures-russia-on-elections-nato-chief-on-missiles/
“Clinton Lectures Russia On Elections, NATO Chief On Missiles,” http://www.voltairenet.org/Clinton-Lectures-Russia-On
“Clinton, who had
previously chastised Russia’s State Duma elections, stepped up the rhetoric
while speaking at an Organization for Security and Cooperation, OSCE,
ministerial meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Tuesday … She was quoted as
saying by Reuters ‘When authorities fail to prosecute those who attack people
for exercising their rights or exposing abuses, they subvert justice and
undermine the people’s confidence in their governments.’ She went on to say, ‘As
we have seen in many places, and most recently in the Duma elections in Russia,
elections that are neither free nor fair have the same effect.’”
“Russia Slams U.S. Over Criticism of Duma Elections,” December 7, 2011,
http://tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=7448
“U.S. comments about Russian polls ‘unacceptable’” — Foreign Ministry Russia,
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20111206/169419272.htm
“Clinton’s Russia election statement ‘disrespectful’ – Lavrov,”
December 7, 2011,
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/12/07/61775269.html
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