Court Denies Effort to Suppress Votes

The 1st Congressional Race and many of the down ballot statewide races are close enough to make Governor Bill Richardson and his state Democratic Party more than a little bit nervous. So, what do they do? Redouble their Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts? Get more volunteers knocking on doors? Fill those phone banks?

no, No and NO.

Instead, they decide to file for a court ordered injunction to try and shutdown the Republican GOTV efforts because some volunteer(s) mistakenly gave out the wrong polling information. Thankfully, the judge saw this filing for what it was – an effort to stop GOP momentum. The judge refused to play along and aid the Democratic powers that be in their endeavor to further tilt the scales in their favor.

That’s right, the Democrats’ legal tomfoolery came right on the heels of concerted efforts to severely hamper early voting by Republicans by placing the vast majority of voting locations in comfortably Democratic districts. Then by adding insult to injury and refusing to provide an adequate number of voting booths at these polling locations.

Think about it.

Now that we have these wonderful paper ballots, a “voting booth” is nothing more than a card table with a privacy enclosure. Is there any legitimate reason not to have dozens of these at every polling location? No. Plus, what’s the deal with not providing enough chairs for everyone to sit down and vote?

But, let’s get to the kicker of the whole thing. Yesterday the Richardson Campaign put out a statement that said in part:

All voters should be warned that false information is being spread in an apparent desperate attempt to win the election through confusing and potentially illegal actions.

And…

Senator Jeff Bingaman said, “Governor Richardson and I call on the U.S. Attorney to investigate these incidents to determine whether there has been a violation of federal election laws.”

Will Senator Bingaman and Governor Richardson also be calling on the U.S. Attorney to investigate this:

Though the [Richardson Campaign] mailer had our address on it, it wasn’t sent to my wife or me. It was addressed to someone named Vanessa Gonzales.

As far as I know, no one by that name has ever lived at this house, even before we owned it, and there is certainly not currently anyone with that name who is registered to vote at this location.

The mailer also has a section that is supposed to help Vanessa find her polling place. It says her voting location is Riverside Elementary School in Sunland Park, almost 50 miles from my home.

Yeah, I didn’t think so.