"Voter Fraud" warning billboards pop up in poor/minority neighborhoods

[Matthias]

http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/...3#.UICyvhyooho

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolit...-stir-backlash

I saw one of these signs by the university I go to in a poor black neighborhood, which says that voter fraud is a crime (as if anyone didn't know that) and the consequences for committing it.

What's curious is that there are almost no cases of in person voter fraud, so why a group (the group that put these up is anonymous) would spend money on a non-existent problem is strange. Why this group would only put these billboards in minority and poor neighborhoods is stranger. Actually, it's kinda breathtakingly blunt how bigoted this group is, and seeing that billboard made my blood boil.

This is a staggeringly obvious case of voter intimidation based on racial/class lines. What's really sad is that some group is spending money to intimidate the people who have the least amount of political power and are the most disadvantaged in society.

I think this is a very good example that conservative efforts to "divide and conquer" work. Bankers can still screw over the general populace with lax regulations in place, but who are conservatives suspicious of? Poor minorities.

It's 2012 and these conservartive culture/race/class wars continue. Will the continuation of the "southern strategy" started by Nixon ever fade away? I think these billboards are a literal sign that they still work and are still an important part of Republican political strategy.

[motiv-8]

Oh good, paid for by a "Private Family Foundation." There's only about 115,000 of those, so that's helpful. Somebody using their tax haven as a source for political activism.

[Phier]

This is silly, and a complete waste of money, those signs belong in the Union Halls.

[motiv-8]

This is silly, and a complete waste of money, those signs belong in the Union Halls.

Or maybe in Virginia GOP offices, if we're going to be petty and irrelevant.

[Phier]

Or maybe in Virginia GOP offices, if we're going to be petty and irrelevant.

Or perhaps Arkansas Democrats if we want to talk a real convicted offense by multiple members of a political party and not some guy.

Shall we continue to play this game or should we end it here?

[removeduser_487563287433]

Or perhaps Arkansas Democrats if we want to talk a real convicted offense by multiple members of a political party and not some guy.

Shall we continue to play this game or should we end it here?

Sounds like the lot of you have been a bunch of from a foreign perspective.

[justicar5]

This is silly, and a complete waste of money, those signs belong in the Union Halls.

In the board room of the Koch brothers, and every other CEO's house who tries to intimidate his staff into donating to certain parties and voting for them. If the sign doesn't fit, then the CEO can sleep under it, hypothermia is good for the soul. Or you could just prosecute for treason the CEOs and Board members of the companies that force political donations from people..but that will never happen.

[Col. Tartleton]

In the board room of the Koch brothers, and every other CEO's house who tries to intimidate his staff into donating to certain parties and voting for them. If the sign doesn't fit, then the CEO can sleep under it, hypothermia is good for the soul. Or you could just prosecute for treason the CEOs and Board members of the companies that force political donations from people..but that will never happen.

The Koch brothers are great people. They're Libertarians.

[justicar5]

The Koch brothers are great people. They're Libertarians.

The same libertarian party that wants to reintroduce chattel slavery? Yes.. great people. http://cog.kent.edu/lib/Philmore1/Philmore1.htm The Libertarian case for slavery can be found at that link. I'm surprised the Kochs don't have a home grown terror network to enforce slavery and the total domination of the corporations on the population (Hell they probably do, just not activated yet, mass murder is the perfect capitalist exercise, just ask I G Farben, Royla Dutch Shell, United Fruit, the contras etc etc)

[Thorn777]

The Koch brothers are great people. They're Libertarians.

U know. John Locke. One of the great liberatarian philoshpical godfathers also had a job. He was a colonial admin in Georgia The Peach State and made discussing politics illegal there.

Thats liberalillyism for ya. Only to the gullible masses its that great alternative. For the interests at heart, its always been just profit and controll. But I guess you even like that.

[Matthias]

Honestly, I don't think these signs will stop many people from going to the polls, but what they represent, a clearly bigoted worldview, is what is so troubling. The fact that money is being spent on keeping poor minorities down, on stripping them of political power they already don't have near enough of in relation to the percentage of population they are, is just mind boggling.

And worse still, they are only mimicking official Republican strategy, given the efforts in Republican run states to suddenly go after "voter fraud" with laws that won't actually stop a non-existent problem and will in fact only make it harder for people that usually vote Democrat to vote.

[removeduser_4536284751384]

Honestly, I don't think these signs will stop many people from going to the polls, but what they represent, a clearly bigoted worldview, is what is so troubling. The fact that money is being spent on keeping poor minorities down, on stripping them of political power they already don't have near enough of in relation to the percentage of population they are, is just mind boggling.

I am having trouble understanding how these signs will influence the how, for who, why or any other aspect of the people who see them's vote. Nor do I understand how it keeps anyone down or strips anyone of political power.

To me this thread is as ridiculous as that one were Simon Cashmere claiming you shouldn't vote democrat because some guy painted his own unique interpretation of the American flag. I like your posts most of the time but the claims you make about the effects of these signs are just insane.

[justicar5]

I am having trouble understanding how these signs will influence the how, for who, why or any other aspect of the people who see them's vote. Nor do I understand how it keeps anyone down or strips anyone of political power.

To me this thread is as ridiculous as that one were Simon Cashmere claiming you shouldn't vote democrat because some guy painted his own unique interpretation of the American flag. I like your posts most of the time but the claims you make about the effects of these signs are just insane.

They are implying: if you vote we will come for you, call it voter fraud and lock you away, don't you dare vote!

[Gaidin]

There are better things to worry about than posters that tell you a crime is a crime. Go look up the election posters in Arizona that tell you the election is on the 6th in English, but on the 8th in Spanish.

[removeduser_4536284751384]

They are implying: if you vote we will come for you, call it voter fraud and lock you away, don't you dare vote!

well, as that's impossible, I don't see how that can be implied. Gaidin's one sounds way worse.

[s.rwitt]

well, as that's impossible, I don't see how that can be implied. Gaidin's one sounds way worse.

Easy, when you're operating under extreme paranoia with a healthy mix of a complete misunderstanding of American politcs and the US in general.

[Col. Tartleton]

http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/...3#.UICyvhyooho

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolit...-stir-backlash

I saw one of these signs by the university I go to in a poor black neighborhood, which says that voter fraud is a crime (as if anyone didn't know that) and the consequences for committing it.

What's curious is that there are almost no cases of in person voter fraud, so why a group (the group that put these up is anonymous) would spend money on a non-existent problem is strange. Why this group would only put these billboards in minority and poor neighborhoods is stranger. Actually, it's kinda breathtakingly blunt how bigoted this group is, and seeing that billboard made my blood boil.

Or maybe you're seeing racism because you're a racist.

This is a staggeringly obvious case of voter intimidation based on racial/class lines. What's really sad is that some group is spending money to intimidate the people who have the least amount of political power and are the most disadvantaged in society.

"This sign that says J Walkers will be prosecuted is prejudiced against blacks."

I think this is a very good example that conservative efforts to "divide and conquer" work. Bankers can still screw over the general populace with lax regulations in place, but who are conservatives suspicious of? Poor minorities.

What do you want them to regulate?

It's 2012 and these conservartive culture/race/class wars continue. Will the continuation of the "southern strategy" started by Nixon ever fade away? I think these billboards are a literal sign that they still work and are still an important part of Republican political strategy.

There was no Republican Southern strategy. It was a Democratic Northern Strategy to stop being racist and start throwing money at minority groups because white racism was running out and black poverty wasn't going anywhere.

The Republicans didn't start winning the south the way they do now until the Clinton Era. I don't know what this myth is. The Dixiecrats finally faded out in the 1990s. Southern Republicans aren't any more racist than southern democrats.

Republicans can and do elect blacks to office in white areas. What they struggle to do is elect blacks in black areas because of democratic pandering. It has nothing to do with race.

[removeduser_487563287433]

In reality this just represents good media buying. I myself buy media targeted at BMEs (Black and Ethnic Minorities) for a variety of reasons. The British Heart Foundation, for example, will target Asians as they are more likely to suffer from heart disease.

[s.rwitt]

Obama and the democrats spend the past year mindlessly droning on about the people paying the majority of the taxes not paying their fair share while using Romney's wealth to score irrelevant political points and then Mathias tries to frame the class warfare nonsense as a strictly Republican strategy...awesome.

[Matthias]

Obama and the democrats spend the past year mindlessly droning on about the people paying the majority of the taxes not paying their fair share while using Romney's wealth to score irrelevant political points and then Mathias tries to frame the class warfare nonsense as a strictly Republican strategy...awesome.

"This OP topic makes me feel uncomfortable, so I'll ignore the topic and create some strawmen of the OP while I'm at it"

Or maybe you're seeing racism because you're a racist.

I said bigoted, and I'm seeing it because these billboards are only put in poor/minority communities. You don't see these billboards popping up in the suburbs for a reason.

This... isn't a class war issue. Ethnic minorities, unless I am mistaken, are more likely to victims of voting fraud in the United States of America. That is a problem to be overcome, and media has its place for that.

You are mistaken in the sense that these billboards are aimed at voters committing voter fraud, not the systemic sort of fraud once popular in the south perpetrated by local and state governments and which have indeed disenfranchised minority voters over history. That is called voter suppression though, and is another issue seperate from voter fraud.

There was no Republican Southern strategy.

You must live in some fantasy land to believe that. The head of the RNC has already apologized for it (though they still use it) and Republican political operatives from the past have expounded in painful detail about it. Sorry to burst your bubble.