Son of RFK Exposes GOP Election Maneuvering

Block the Vote - RFK Jr. Article in Rolling Stone Details GOP Vote Suppression Scheme.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - NoVoterLeftBehind.net (NVLB) founder Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is the co-author of a major article in the new issue of Rolling Stone detailing the underhanded tactics that Republicans are now using to deny the right to vote to tens of thousands of Americans. Cited as a major resource in the article, NoVoterLeftBehind.net, is now accepting donations and volunteers to fight back against the GOP campaign to steal the 2008 election. Titled “Block the Vote,” the Rolling Stone story (issue 1064) is available online at rollingstone.com/politics/story/23638322/block_the_vote.

As the article notes: “Contributing editor Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is one of the nation's leading voting-rights advocates. His article ‘Was the 2004 Election Stolen?’ sparked widespread scrutiny of vote tampering. Greg Palast, who broke the story on Florida's illegal voter purges in the 2000 election, is the author of ‘The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.’ For more information, visit No Voter Left Behind (www.NoVoterLeftBehind.net) and Steal Back Your Vote.”

As RFK Jr. and Palast note in the Rolling Stone article: “In state after state, Republican operatives — the party's elite commandos of bare-knuckle politics — are wielding new federal legislation to systematically disenfranchise Democrats.

If this year's race is as close as the past two elections, the GOP's nationwide campaign could be large enough to determine the presidency in November … Since 2003, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, at least 2.7 million new voters have had their applications to register rejected. In addition, at least 1.6 million votes were never counted in the 2004 election — and the commission's own data suggests that the real number could be twice as high.

To purge registration rolls and discard ballots, partisan election officials used a wide range of pretexts, from ‘unreadability’ to changes in a voter's signature. And this year, thanks to new provisions of the Help America Vote Act, the number of discounted votes could surge even higher.” Launched on August 29, 2008, NoVoterLeftBehind.net is a project of Democrats for America’s Future (www.americasdemocrats.org).

In his appeal to Democrats launching NoVoterLeftBehind.net, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote: “No more 2000s and 2004s! … The Republican Party mounted a coordinated, criminal campaign to steal the 2004 Presidential election -- and it worked. Now, as another election approaches, you and I need to stand together to make absolutely certain it doesn’t happen again … We need your support to raise the funds now to make sure that ‘no voter is left behind’ on Election Day!” NoVoterLeftBehind.net has been highly visible on the national scene since its launch in August 2008.

On October 15th, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former lieutenant governor of the state of Maryland and a member of the board of advisors of NoVoterLeftBehind.net, warned that the ongoing Republican attack on the lawful voter registration efforts of ACORN is a “desperate smokescreen maneuver” masking an extensive coast-to-coast GOP push to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters through a wide range of vote suppression tactics.

In a news release, Kennedy Townsend outlined more than half a dozen GOP voter suppression efforts taking place from coast to coast. On October 8, 2008, three leading former elected officials from Maryland, Illinois and Oregon called on every state attorney general and every state election head to come out publicly against any “lose your home, lose your vote” strategy that might be used to keep home foreclosure victims from exercising their right to vote.

Organized by NoVoterLeftBehind.net, the outreach effort was undertaken by: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend; Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, former U.S. Senator from the state of Illinois and a 2004 presidential candidate; and Barbara Roberts, former governor of Oregon and also a onetime Oregon Secretary of State.

In a September 17, 2008 news release, Donald Fowler, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a member of the NoVoterLeftBehind.net board of advisors, emphasized the four things every American going through home mortgage foreclosure needs to know about their vote in the face of an expected “lose your home, lose your vote” vote suppression campaign by the GOP.

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Anonymous October 22, 2008 10:54 pm (Pacific time)

Good Grief!, you are an idiot. ACORN is about voter registration fraud, which almost always gets caught before it turns into voting fraud. And, even if a few slipped through, how do those numbers in any way compare to the number of purged or suppressed voters that have been reported by every government and watch-dog organization for this, and past, elections? I would suggest turning off Fox, and trying to understand the subject matter, before spilling your garbage on the Internet.

Henry Ruark October 22, 2008 1:24 pm (Pacific time)

GOP-ster: Re Bay of Pigs, ck out Wpedia report; shows CIA incompetent planning and execution real reason for resolution there. Also indicates beginnings of Kennedy policies leading on to containment and Cold War, thus avoiding Big Bang. SO, sir, where's your version re K "failures","inexperience" as you so blithely charged ?

Henry Clay Ruark October 22, 2008 10:23 am (Pacific time)

GOP-er et al: You wrote:"...but I have not smeared anyone, I have just presented the facts." Obviously you simply consider whatever you state as "fact". For me, yours is political pandering smear=job. Re offshore tax haven, that's GOP-law from long ago built to corporate specs. Did you name and denigrate any GOPsters also so hiding from taxes, either individuals or company cliques ? Recent fed/agency shows very high tax avoidance by corporations but you dont protest that... Re lifestyle, your resentment and envy shows all too obviously, ye that's American Dream emphasized by GOP vs the realities now in the world. Re Bay of Pigs, history shows it was Kennedy patience and courage that resolved that one without Big Bang --and opened Cold War containment policy paying off for decades. What you DID do was distort and pervert fact for political purpose --that's pandering, sir, in case you have doubts in recognizing your own actions here.

GOP Pawn October 21, 2008 9:06 am (Pacific time)

Hundreds of thousands of families have lost sons and daughters during wars, why should the Kennedys be more important than any other individual?. How many have left a human being in a car to drown while you wait to sober up? How about the over $500+ million Ted Kennedy kept squirreled away in a Guam bank to reduce exposure to the higher tax rates we all pay? Then when that little secret was about to get out he helped pass legislation to avoid getting away with not paying those taxes but with a "grandfather clause" that left him immune! The Kennedy's are no different tham almost all other politicans, but what JFK showed us is that via his inexperience he almost got us into a nuclear war, but by luck and the grace of God the world lucked out. Experience counts, luck is fine, but you can't count on it! But back to RFK Jr., this guy is your typical limosine liberal flying around in private jets and staying in 5 star hotels telling us to minimize are energy consumption and cut back. While I agree that is what we all should do it is people like him and Gore who live very piggish lifestyles. I am glad the poster said dissent is okay, but I have not smeared anyone, I have just presented the facts. Regarding planning attacks the Bay of Pigs comes to mind, and when it comes to yachting I believe the Kennedys win the prize there.But it's their oppressive use of power to stop wind turbines that would sully their view that was the proverbial straw for me.

Henry Ruark October 20, 2008 6:47 pm (Pacific time)

Good Grief !: Right on, sir, just the right touch from your appreciation of the family that lost a son to assassination. Where were you during that period ? In fact, this family has long ago proven their care for not only the nation, but the little people in it, too, by their actions while governing instead of cutting stock coupons, yachting, or planning preemptive attack on some other nation. I know from personal experience with both Palast ahd Kennedy; how close did you ever get ?? Palast is one of the most honored investigative reporters. On what basis of similar work do you care to criticize him ? By the way, what's your background and political affiliation, sir ? Must be strong to compel such a revealing remark. Dissent here is always welcome, but smear for political pandering is not.

Glen October 20, 2008 4:09 pm (Pacific time)

The title should be "Son of RFK" right. Typo.

Ed: Yeah...Thanks Glen

Good Grief! October 20, 2008 1:27 pm (Pacific time)

This site has finally gone to the left of the KOS. Not one article about ACORN, but to see an article from junior (his Dad[RFK]had Joe McCarthy has a GodFather to one of his other children) who flies around in private jets and than stops Wind Turbines from be constructed in eyesight of the Kennedy compound so as not to block their view. Do you think these people really care about you?

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Son of RFK Exposes GOP Election Maneuvering

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