Butthole Bandits 7 and a throwback to Jim Crowe

[Lemur]

Why are Democrat operatives trying to subvert the election process? Oh, wait ...

A campaign worker linked to a controversial Republican consulting firm has been arrested in Virginia and charged with throwing voter registration forms into a dumpster.

The suspect, Colin Small, 31, was described by a local law enforcement official as a "supervisor" in a Republican Party financed operation to register voters in Rockingham County in rural Virginia, a key swing state in the Nov. 6 election. He was arrested after a local business owner in the same Harrisonburg, Va., shopping center where the local GOP campaign headquarters is located spotted Small tossing a bag into the trash, according to a statement Thursday by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s office. The bag was later found to contain eight voter registration forms, it said. The arrest was reported Thursday night by WWBT-TV in Richmond.

... Move Along, Nothing to See Here, No Republican Would Mind if an Obama Relative Bought the Voting Machines for Swing States, and Anyone Who Says Different is a Conspiracy Nut ...

Tagg Romney, the son of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has purchased electronic voting machines that will be used in the 2012 elections in Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, Washington and Colorado.

"Late last month, Gerry Bello and Bob Fitrakis at FreePress.org broke the story of the Mitt Romney/Bain Capital investment team involved in H.I.G. Capital which, in July of 2011, completed a "strategic investment" to take over a fair share of the Austin-based e-voting machine company Hart Intercivic," according to independent journalist Brad Friedman.

But Friedman is not the only one to discover the connection between the Romney family, Bain Capital, and ownership of voting machines.

Truth out reports: "Through a closely held equity fund called Solamere, Mitt Romney and his wife, son and brother are major investors in an investment firm called H.I.G. Capital. H.I.G. in turn holds a majority share and three out of five board members in Hart Intercivic, a company that owns the notoriously faulty electronic voting machines that will count the ballots in swing state Ohio November 7. Hart machines will also be used elsewhere in the United States.

In other words, a candidate for the presidency of the United States, and his brother, wife and son, have a straight-line financial interest in the voting machines that could decide this fall's election. These machines cannot be monitored by the public. But they will help decide who "owns" the White House."

Both The Nation and New York Times confirm the connection between the Romney family, Solamere and the Bain Capital investment in the voting machine company, Hart Intercivic, whose board of directors serve H.I.G. Capital.

[rvg]

Tagg Romney, the son of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has purchased electronic voting machines that will be used in the 2012 elections in Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, Washington and Colorado.

Why isn't this front page news on every network?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

They invested a relatively small amount of money in H.I.G capital:

H.I.G. Capital – Private Equity – A $3.5 billion platform focusing on leveraged buyouts, management buyouts and leveraged recapitalizations of established and profitable manufacturing and service companies as well as growth capital investments in less mature companies.

Who owns part of the voter machine company. In no way shape or form is this Tagg Romney "buying voter machines".

This is low grade conspiracy theory stuff.

[Strike For The South]

BUT ROMNEY IS BUISNESS

HE HAS TO PLAY DIRTTY

[Sasaki Kojiro]

BUT ROMNEY IS BUISNESS

HE HAS TO PLAY DIRTTY

47% OF OHIO VOTERS HAVE PENSION FUNDS HANDLED BY THE X.Y.Z CAPITAL FUND

ROMNEY ALSO HAS INVESTMENTS IN THIS FUND, THEREFORE HE CONTROLS THEM

HE HAS BINDERS FULL OF THEIR NAMES

THE NEW YORK TIMES CONFIRMS that romney has investments

[Lemur]

Oh, and the Virginia DA is refusing to prosecute the fella who was caught dumping voter registrations. Lovely stuff.

As for the voting machines, and who sits on the boards of the private companies that manufacture and maintain them, I think this blogger summed it up well.

[W]e're reminded of the dangers of the privatization of our once-public electoral system. The company's ties to Romney aren't the only disturbing ones we've seen with similar companies over the years. The fact is, that nobody other than the public should have any sort of control of our elections. The proprietary voting systems now in use in all 50 states, whether owned by Romney associates, a George W. Bush associate (as with Diebold in 2004) or even a company tied to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez (as with Sequoia Voting Systems which blatantly lied about that tie to public officials, and the Canadian firm Dominion which purchased Sequoia and also immediately lied about the fact that Intellectual Property of their voting systems used all across the U.S. is still owned by the Venezuelan firm), continue to be a grave threat to American democracy and confidence in U.S. Elections.

[Major Robert Dump]

Please go back to paper voting.

There is no reason not to use paper voting.

I cannot take any argument about costs of paper voting seriously when Senators and Reps have staffs of 25 people, office budgets in the millions, and they sit on their asses all day and manage not to pass any laws. I cannot take talks of costs of paper voting seriously when we pay an illiterate guy in Afghanistan 7k USD to build some concrete steps from a porch to the sidewalk. I cannot take talks of costs of paper voting seriously when the fat lady at the Sam Houston dining facility who uses the clicker to do headcount for chow makes $20 an hour.

I mean, of all the things we should be willing to accept a higher cost for, one would think it would be to hold free and fair elections. I seem to recall something in a class once that said that stuff was important.