Honest Voting

From the video “Caging List Blues” by the Singing News Network:

“Caging” is not merely a “direct-mail term” for separating addresses that “may be good versus addresses that may be bad,” as Monica Goodling tried to narrowly define. Caging has been used to target specific groups of people in various states like Arkansas to bump U.S. citizens from the voting rolls so they will have to vote by provisional ballot until their registration can be proven. Some states are better at properly counting provisional ballots than others.

The caging list in the picture above comes from one of 500 emails sent by Tim Griffin to GeorgeWBush.org in August 2004. Unfortunately for Griffin, he really wanted to send those emails to GeorgeWBush.com. The owner of GeorgeWBush.org sent those emails on to BBC reporter Greg Palast, who publicized the story that Griffin was involved with “caging” operations. These caging lists revealed that military personnel were among the voters targeted for possible removal from voting rolls.

More on Griffin: In December 2006, as a reward for his faithful service, then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, working with Karl Rove, removed U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins of Arkansas and replaced him with Griffin. This was technically an interim appointment, but Gonzales chose not to seek Senate confirmation for this and other U.S. attorney appointments, under a new provision in the March 2006 revision of the PATRIOT Act. Gonzales’ action angered Arkansas’ senators so much that they pushed for Gonzales’ resignation. In February 2007, after testimony in the resulting Congressional investigation that Cummins had been dismissed in order to put Griffin in the attorney job, Griffin announced he would not seek a permanent appointment to the post. On May 30, 2007, after Palast sent copies of Griffin’s 500 emails to the House Judiciary Committee, Griffin resigned as U.S. attorney.

So kids, don’t cage votes!

That’s one way in which caging lists can be used. But let’s not forget about a type of caging list that’s right out in the open. Take a look back at my post about vote suppression in Louisiana. Notice where Dennis A. DiMarco, the registrar of Jefferson Parish, says they’re going to send mail to registrants whose registrations have been called into question by the Democratic Party’s voter registration drive? Whereas in another parish the registrar says they’ll just telephone the voters to clear up any registration form errors? Which parish do you think will clear up registration issues more quickly, with fewer provisional ballots at polling time?

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