UPDATED 3:11 p.m. with a press release from Kris Kobach
What does the term “caging voters” mean to you?
Democrats in Kansas have gone ballistic over a quotation in a Republican year-in-review newsletter e-mailed to party activists by state Chairman Kris Kobach.
The quote: “To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!”
But Democrats say “caging” carries a negative connotation. The Blue Tide Rising blog called it "coordinated voter suppression:"
With one type of caging, a political party sends registered mail to addresses of registered voters. If the mail is returned as undeliverable — because, for example, the voter refuses to sign for it, the voter isn't present for delivery, or the voter is homeless — the party uses that fact to challenge the registration, arguing that because the voter could not be reached at the address, the registration is fraudulent.
Such left-leaning blogs have fueled anger over the e-mail among Democratic Party faithful nationwide. Take, for example, Democrat George Henson, a professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
“The irony is," Henson said, "Kobach is a constitutional law professor at UMKC School of Law. The shame is, Kansas Republicans chose an extremist affiliated with far-right fringe groups to lead their party. Admittedly, Kobach is an attractive man, but his tactics represent the ugliest side of Republican politics.”
So, Republicans, is some nefarious voter suppression scheme under way?
Absolutely not, responded Kobach.
Christian Morgan, the state GOP’s executive director, admitted to a poor choice of words but denied the existence of any voter suppression campaign.
First, Morgan said, caging by one definition involves direct mail. The Republican effort referenced by Kobach does not. He described it as a face-to-face effort to identify Republican voters and the issues important to them and then get them to the polls on election day.
“We’re trying increase voter turnout, not suppress it,” Morgan said.
He added that only election officials — and not party officials — can challenge a ballot in Kansas.
“Why would we even undertake such a thing when only election officials can challenge a voter’s qualifications?” he said. “This is much to do about nothing.”
UPDATE: The Lawrence Journal-World has more.
UPDATE 2: Kobach has sent out a press release on the matter, saying, "This lunatic theory is right up there with the left wing’s conspiracy theory that George W. Bush staged the attacks of September 11th to help him get reelected."
Click on the attachment below for the full press release.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Kobach retort.doc | 29.5 KB |
Why don't the Republicans.....
give the people something they could hold their hat onto such as honesty, integrity, character, ethics, etc. They then would not have to be worrying about identifying "their" people and catering to them - they would be getting more votes than they would need. The people are looking for so very little - among them is common sense, jobs, security, answers to the health care crisis, immigration, etc. It is all of the greed and corruption that keeps our nation from reaching our dreams of living in peace with stable living conditions - all the political parties need to be putting standards in place within their parties.