The plan to destroy an Obama second term (and let's be honest, the goal here is to wreck the political system so thoroughly as the Disloyal Opposition that a Democrat will never be elected again) requires the basis of illegitimacy. Americans have to be convinced that even though Barack Obama was elected, that he cheated in order to win. The campaign to establish such "cheating", that is "allowing certain groups in certain districts to vote
without treating them like criminals", begins with the odious True The Vote movement.
Their goal in 2012 is to train observers to "document voter irregularities" in precincts across the country, in an effort to establish that strict national laws must be put in place in order to limit how you can vote, when you can vote, and most importantly,
who is allowed to vote.
Brentin Mock at Colorlines takes a closer look at the group's emergence on the national stage.
True the Vote’s emergence wasn’t an isolated event. Its rapid rise
occurred in harmony with hundreds of other Tea Party groups across the
nation, dozens of which exist in Texas alone and many of which have been
“empowered” by True the Vote for “election integrity” kibitzing. It has
plugged itself into an existing infrastructure of influential far right
organizations hellbent on criminalizing abortion, banishing gun
control, repealing the Affordable Care Act—and now, on intimidating
would-be voters.
These alliances have helped expand True the Vote’s range of influence
over election activities. Today it boasts having trainees in 35 states,
people who’ll spot “irregularities” and chalk them up as “fraud” and
then use that tally to justify new voting restrictions. As one strategy,
the group buys voter rolls from states and counties, then disseminates
the lists to thousands of largely unsupervised volunteers, who are urged
to submit to election officials names from the rolls that may be
improperly registered.
The group has involved itself in every high-stakes electoral drama
this year, from the Wisconsin governor recall election to Florida’s
controversial “non-citizen” purging. True the Vote now turns its
attention to the main event this fall, gearing up for an Election Day
showdown that its leaders hope will establish voter fraud, rather than
voter suppression as a dire threat to democracy.
And that's the key, using contacts provided by the heavy conservative hitters on the right: the Heritage Foundation, the Koch Brothers, right-to-life groups, and more in order to get in touch with and train sympathetic election officials to "stop fraud".
These relationships with elected officials are perhaps the most
troubling ones in the impressive national network that True the Vote has
since built. The group claims non-partisanship, which is an important
assertion to avoid legal entanglement. But that’s dubious given its
affiliations and activities.
True the Vote encourages recruits to “build relationships with
election administrators” because “they control the access to the vote,”
as [True The Vote elections coordinator Bill] Ouren told a gathering in Houston. In 2010, the group was able to get
a list of voter registration data from Republican Harris County
registrar Leo Vasquez, who reportedly refused the same to the Democratic
Party, for which the party sued. When the King Street Patriots
submitted to him their list of fraudulent actions they claimed to see at
the polls, Vasquez accepted them without verification and held a press
conference with [True The Vote Founder Catherine] Engelbrecht asserting Harris County polls were “under a
systemic and organized attack.”
Control who counts the votes, control the election. Best case scenario, they manage to help manufacture a Romney win. Worst case, they set up the narrative to render an Obama term illegitimate with the cry of "voter fraud!" and tighten the laws to make it easier next time. They're playing the long game, and there's nothing on the Democratic side that comes close.
These guys are the real threat to our democracy, period.
