Posted on 11/03/2002 6:07:39 PM PST by sweetliberty
We have just returned to Budge's house to do the FReep report because there is a lot of information to report.
In attendance were Budge, Travelgirl, The Battman, parsifal, Don Frivoinai, sweetliberty, and another FReeper who, for reasons you will come to understand shortly, needs to remain anonymous until after the election.
We arrived at Budge's around noon to get everything set up for the maiden FReep of the Arkansas Hog Wild FReepers and the FReepmobile. We got to the site around quarter after 1 and finished up some signs and headed over to the convention center to await the arrival of XXX42 and his horde of Rats. There we were joined by several folks from the Hutchinson campaign and there were quite a few folks who came down from Mount Ida. There ended up being about 30 of us on the outside.
During the wait, we were informed of quite a few "questionable" things going on. For starters, there was one young man who is active with Tim Hutchinson's campaign who was threatened with arrest if he didn't leave the premises. He had done nothing to provoke this action other than they knew who he was. One of the FReepers who is a poll watcher was also threatened with arrest when she tried to go inside the convention center. Another young man who is a Hutchinson aide had a ticket to the event and because he had been seen talkiing to the "opposition" he was not allowed in, being told that it was a private event and they could exclude whoever they wanted to. There was also a group of black folks who were with us so this young man passed his ticket to one of the black guys, who removed all his campaign stuff and went in incognito, laughing saying that they'd never suspect a black guy. Will give you his report later.
Nobody would tell us what door Clinton would be entering by so we took a chance and hung out on one side of the building where they said the car would drive by. True to form, XXX42 was late by nearly an hour. But here is the great part. We were positioned between 2 entrances. One was a major side entrance. The other was a small, fenced-in service entrance by the garbage dumpsters. Well, guess which one he used. Think....which would be most appropriate. Yep, you guessed it. The snake slithered in through the garbage entrance. And he got a look at our signs. It was a classic moment in FReeperdom.
There was a whopping 500 people or so there for the "event". There were few enough people that there was a Jehovah's Witness convention going on in the building at the same time. When Clinton arrived the Jehovah's Witnesses started leaving. At that time we didn't realize that there was another event going on and Travelgirl and The Battman asked one of the cops on duty why everyone was leaving. He responded, "if Clinton entered a room, what would YOU do?" When the Jehovah's Witnesses left, the parking lot started clearing out.
Anyway, we may have to flesh in this post after we all get home because there is a lot to tell, but there is certain information that it is very important to get out there NOW! Back to our "spy". When he came out, he said they were running it like a church service, and the whole focus was on how the evil Republicans are trying to keep them from voting. They were saying that we have all the poll watchers this election to prevent THEM from voting. Now, here is the clencher. They were told that there would be attorneys posted at every precinct to prevent poll watchers from challenging ANY ballots. Now, mind you, one of our poll watchers has already had massive problems with them at the polls during early voting the past couple of weeks and has been advised to retain an attorney. They have had the sherriff remove her from the polls twice when she had done nothing inappropriate...only challenging ballots for improper or no ID. There is an all out campaign by these people to intimidate the poll watchers and then turn around and accuse us of voter intimidation. This is serious and at least one person has some legitimate fear. I can't really elaborate at this point. The reason we wanted to get this up right away is to get other FReepers on the case to get this publicized and contact appropriate media, political and legal sources to alert them that Republican poll watchers in this county are likely to be facing an organized, all-out Rat attack. Any help that FReepers can offer is needed!! Make phone calls, send letters. Whatever you can do. Post your ideas as well.
Please see update post #626 and several others following regarding NAACP going after FReeper poll watcher ("stop_the_rats)......potential lawsuits......McAuliffe made calls and is possibly involved...DEVELOPING.....
p.s.: Sorry if you've been double-pinged. (Please let me know via FReepmail if you are not interested in updates. Thanks)
Easy link: Hannity@foxnews.com
Budge has pinged quite a few; what I will do is send a direct link to #626 in the mass email I'm working up right now. It will go out in a while to editors, letters to editors, talk show hosts, and some others. It will get widely distributed.
Speaking for the rest of us, thank you!
I still haven't learned how to link to a specific post.
It is very simple really. It is simply a matter of contacting either the Republican headquarters or the campaign headquarters of a particular candidate. You are provided with a brief training session and given an affadavit authorizing you as a poll watcher which you present at the polls when you arrive. You are also provided with a packet of information on what you can and can't do.
One of the things that I find interesting is that in these "questionable" areas, not only in Arkansas, but other states as well, it is Republican poll watchers who are having complaints leveled at them. Now, this is interesting for two reasons. 1) The democrats are entitled to poll watchers under the same guidelines as the Republicans but in most cases that I am aware of, failed to provide any. Why? Hmmmmm.... 2)The vast majority of people going to the polls would likely not even know who they were or what their job was and most of those who did would not know if they were democrat or Republican. It is not like we wear a sign. The only ones who would know would likely be the poll workers themselves to whom the credentials are presented, so how come it is outsiders leveling the charges?
It's very easy Budge. Just click on the number of the post and when the page loads, copy and past the url from the address bar. :-)
Backhoe, thanks for helping get the word out!
Sweetliberty did an excellent job when posting STR's experience. However, as SL said in the #626 post, "Others can fill in what she might have missed."
STR then posted a very important addition when she stated (in # 662), "I think, one of the main points of interest in this story is, the person who put this story out, wasn't even there, he (Trey Ashcraft) is also the chairman of the democrat party in Jefferson County, which Alan C. did not report."
My point in this is, as horrible and frightening as STR's story is, to actually hear her side is unbelievable! There is so much that has been left out, so far.
688 posted on 11/10/2002 2:21 PM EST by Budge
Click on the "688" and the full web address will appear ( after a short delay ) in your browser's "address" box, and your browser will also take you to that reply.
You can either make a link with the a href stuff, manually... or you can do a simple "cheat" to get the html code.
Keep an Outlook Express "new mail" blank email box open ( minmized when you aren't working with it )... hilite, copy, and paste the web addy from the address box to there, go back and copy whatever text you need ( or just type your own description ) and then in the "new mail" box, hit the "source" tab-- there's the HTML. Copy & paste or store.
That is so true, RG! That is why we must start NOW to prevent this from happening next election. We only have two years to get the word out and organized!
I have to ask, now that the election is over, did you check their pulse? LOL!
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