DNC is crying wolf for voters

Denver Post ^ | October 18, 2004 | David Harsanyi

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Early voting begins today. So if you're uncertain about your registration status, if you feel villainous street merchants may have thrown out your forms, you should call and verify your standing.

If there is a problem, you can still fill out an emergency registration ballot.

There will be no excuses afterward.

Well, no valid excuses.

Through a concerted effort, the Colorado post-election waters have been muddied with slipshod restrictions on registration, potential voter fraud, and overtaxed election staffs that have had to readjust their procedures almost daily.

Undermine voter confidence? Mission accomplished.

But the worst is yet to come.

The Democratic National Committee's Colorado Election Day Manual urges voters to cry wolf with a "pre-emptive strike" against voter intimidation. In essence, the DNC has suggested voters fabricate claims of intimidation without a shred of proof.

Long ago, the DNC decided it was in its best interests to revive the urban myth of 2000's disenfranchisement in Florida. This despite an exhaustive investigation by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, led by a Democrat, that uncovered no evidence of voter intimidation, or voter harassment, or intentional or systematic disenfranchisement of black voters.

"I would have preferred 'proactive' over 'pre-emptive,"' admits state Democratic Party chairman Chris Gates, who believes this is more a case of poor wording than devious intent. "But I think that Republicans literally took one phrase in a 66-page document and misconstrued it. We don't apologize for the fact we are going to be very, very aggressively proactive about this."

The DNC manual goes further than just pro-action, recommending that Democrats "prime" minority leadership with talking points and urging them to "place stories in which minority leadership expresses concern about the threat of intimidation tactics."

Do minority leaders need priming from the DNC? Are minority leaders and voters able to think for themselves? Does the Colorado DNC believe that minority leaders, if they play along in this sham, are less gifted in making stuff up?

Gates doesn't feel a need to clarify a document he didn't write and hasn't seen in full. He also maintains that Colorado has historically run a clean election, distancing himself from the "apocalyptic" rhetoric of the election.

Others have taken considerable offense to the racially inflammatory undercurrent of the DNC directive.

Dawn Greenidge, a 38-year-old, politically active black woman, who would much rather be referred to as simply American, says she can do her own thinking, talking and voting.

"The only disenfranchising is if a person decides they don't want to vote," she says. "This is just a scare tactic. What they are trying to do is nullify our vote before we even give it by saying it's not going to count anyway."

Greenidge believes that it's demeaning to assume her position, that she's being used in something disingenuous to begin with.

"It's racist," she goes on. "The DNC didn't point to individuals; they didn't say all Americans should be aware of intimidation, or all citizens of Colorado should be aware of this. When they say minorities, instead of pointing out everyone, they are targeting races or groups to say, 'Well, you will suffer."'

Gates believes Republicans are just blowing this out of proportion because they are "fully aware that high voter turnout benefits Democrats." He claims that there is already "an effort to discourage people from voting."

Greenidge disagrees.

"This is what they're saying: If you go vote, something is going to happen. They are going to screw with your vote. It's not going to count," she says. "So in the end, they are the ones pre-emptively disenfranchising voters."

David Harsanyi's column appears Mondays and Thursdays. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com .