Information on Voting in Oklahoma in Light of New Rules

If you're an Oklahoma voter who plans on voting in the 2012 Presidential Election, the state has enacted new rules that will directly effect you and your ability to vote. While Oklahoma's new voter law isn't that different from that of other states, here's what you need to know to make voting day as smooth as possible:

1. If you vote at the polls, you will be required to show a government issued photo ID before you will be allowed to cast your ballot. However, and some poll workers may not know this, your official voter registration card will also suffice in the absence of a photo ID.  If you do not have either of those documents, you will be allowed to cast a provisional ballot.
   
2. Voters wishing to cast absentee ballots will need to file an application with their county election board by 5:00pm on October 31st. They will then mail you an absentee ballot and ballot envelope. You will be required to have your ballot notarized and mail it back by the November 6th election.
   
   
3. Early voting will happen early in the month of November. Call your county election board for early voting polling locations. They will probably be different from your official polling place.

We've received a few emails concerning the ballot notarization requirement for absentee ballots. According to Bryan Newell with the ACLU of Oklahoma, notaries are prohibited from charging to notarize an absentee ballot. However, some notaries may still try to charge. If they do, you can argue with them or find another notary who knows the rules.

Also, if you cast a provisional ballot, make sure that the information you place on the ballot exactly matches what is on your voter registration card. If it doesn't, your ballot may be discarded and not counted.

If you experience any problems on voting day and believe your rights have been violated, we suggest you contact the ACLU of Oklahoma and talk to them. They can be reached online at www.acluok.org or by phone at (405) 524-8511.

Third Party Presidential Debate

You won't hear their names at the debates and, for the most part, the mainstream media has chosen to ignore them too. But, for people tired of the two party stranglehold that the Republicans and Democrats hold on the United States, there are many other choices besides Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.

Gary Johnson, Dr. Jill Stein, Rocky Anderson, and Virgil Goode, joined Free and Equal's Cristina Tobin and international television legend Larry King last night for "The Third Party Debate". The debate focused on internet submitted questions concerning foreign policy, US debt, education, and other burning topics high on the minds of most Americans today.

The above video is the complete debate. Additionally, Free and Equal will hold another debate on October 30th in Washington DC and are asking voters to visit their website and vote for the candidates they want to see included.

Actor Ben Affleck is OK with TSA Sexual Assault

Apparently, being groped in inappropriate ways is alright with actor Ben Affleck.  The actor recently joined the dicussion panel on the popular HBO show "Real Time with Bill Maher" where, in a retort to conservative guest Ann Coulter, Affleck said "so they grab your dick a little bit, it's not the end of the world".

In the video (linked above) Mr. Affleck also notes that 'they (the terrorists) want to kill us" and that the intrusive TSA pat downs are keeping us safe even though recent evidence shows that the pat downs do little to actually contribute to airline safety and not a single act of terror has been discovered or stopped because of them.

Would Affleck still be so accepting if he were being stopped on the street by random cops and fondled? Would it be overly intrusive then? If so, why is it acceptable for TSA to do it?

Green Party Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidate Arrested at Obama/Romney Debates

In a continuing effort to block third party candidates access to the US Presidential debates, Green Party candidates Dr. Jill Stein and her running mate, Cheri Honkala, were arrested yesterday around 2:00pm ET while peacefully protesting being excluded from the debate even though the pair enjoy being listed on 85% of state ballots.

While some have stated it is 'not becoming' of a candidate for President to get arrested, I would argue that it is refreshing to see a candidate who cares so much about the future of this country that they are willing to put their freedom and their reputation on the line to defend that which they believe to be right.  Moreover, one could wonder why the two parties are so afraid of third parties that they are willing to resort to dirty tricks and secret agreements to keep them out of the public eye and off of the debate stage.

It should also be noted that Dr. Stein and Ms. Honkala are not the only viable candidates to be barred from debating Barack Obama and Mitt Ronmey. Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, who is listed on 48 out of 50 state ballots, has also been excluded even though he was included in the very first debate of the election cycle.

Third parties make the two-parties nervous. They know Americans want a choice and they are more determined than ever to keep the stranglehold they have around the necks of American voters.

Virginia GOP Caught Destroying Voter Registration Forms

Editors Note: This story is reprinted a blog called "Not Larry Sabato" and seems to be accurate from all of the research we've done. However, we are following this story closely and will amend this article as more information becomes available. If you have information regarding this incident, please contact us and let us know.

On Monday I saw a really interesting story coming out of Harrisonburg on Facebook:

"I just saw a guy throw a bag of trash in my cardboard dumpster and speed off. I went to get the bag and throw it in the trash dumpster. In the bag was a folder containing FILLED OUT VIRGINIA VOTER REGISTRATION FORMS!! I called the Harrisonburg Registrars office and they sent the police who said they really didn't know what to do in a case like this because its never happened before. The police took the forms and left. I'm really concerned because today is the last day in Virginia to register to vote and if these forms are tied up while trying to figure out what to do, will these people be allowed to vote??? I'm tagging you Lowell since I thought you might want to follow up on this. I spoke with Debbie at the Harrisonburg office and police spoke with Doug at the Rockingham county registrars office"

Who would drive up to a dumpster on the registration deadline day to throw away completed voter registration forms and why?
 

The car that drove up was a black Toyota Camry with Pennsylvania license plates.  Who would be in the Valley from Pennsylvania and have a bunch of completed voter registration forms that they wanted to destroy?

Once this story hit Facebook, a number of people pointed out to the person who witnessed this crime that the state GOP "Victory Office" was just a couple blocks away.  Yesterday afternoon, guess what car was parked in front of the office?

Yep, a black Toyota Camry from Pennsylvania.

Police are investigating and the local media has begun reporting on this story.  The Sheriff (a Republican) has said the person who destroyed the forms was a different person than who collected them.  NBC29 also reports that the Sheriff will decide if this is a criminal case today.

Uh.... how can attempting to throw completed voter registration forms in the dumpster *not* be a criminal case?

More to come on here soon, including whether this was a paid GOP staffer and perhaps what his motives were?  Were these people that identified as Democrats when they were filling out forms and the GOP decided to destroy them?  What other motives could there be?

Either way, I bet this guy from Pennsylvania is going to be spending a lot more time in Virginia than he planned on, hopefully in one of our prisons.

 

Introducing "The Copyright Club" or "How I got Kicked off the Internet"

By the end of the year, several major national Internet Service Providers (ISP's), combing forces with motion picture and music organizations, will roll out an new Internet policing system designed to penalize and 'educate' subscribers who download or share copyrighted material. The new system, called "The Copyright Alert System" or CAS does not rely on any existing laws and ISP participation is completely voluntary.

It's interesting to note that most of the ISP's taking part in CAS also have vast media holdings and will directly financally benefit from stopping subscribers from downloading content for free.

Under the new system, users will be flagged and warned each time they're found downloading or sharing copyrighted materials. After the sixth warning, the subscriber might face being dropped from the ISP entirely in addition to any legal actions the rights holder may pursue. This creates a dangerous system that forces every user to become a network security expert to assure infringment isn't happening on their connection and discorages users from sharing their wireless connections openly (something else the ISP's have taken aim at recently) for fear that it might be used to download content.

The Anonymous Collective has taken aim at ISP's who've chosen to take part in the effort and has posted a good summary of what the CAS system is and how it works here.

Political Dissent Banned in Oklahoma

Voters in Oklahoma who feel disconnected from the two major political parties won't have the chance to vote for any alternatives this November. That's because Oklahoma is one of the strictest and most locked down states for Presidential ballot access in the nation.

In order to secure ballot access in Oklahoma, a political party must submit a petition signed by at least 5% of qualified voters who voted in the last election. In 2012, that amounted to a little over 51,000 signatures.

Unfortunately, the only third party that managed to secure ballot access in the state this year was the Americans Elect party. Unfortunately, they decided not to run a candidate and the national party successfully stopped the state electors from running the Libertarian Party candidate, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, on the AE ticket.

To add to the difficulty in securing ballot access, Oklahoma does not recognize write-in candidates on any election  ballot nor does the state allow Independents to be listed on the presidential ballot, effectively locking down the ballot two only two major parties: the Republicans and the Democrats.

But voters are not taking the insult sitting down. Fourth District Congressional Candidate RJ Harris organized and led a massive 'rally for ballot access' on October 8th at the State Capitol and protests are being planned around the state for election day. Oklahoma voters are angry and rightfully so. They are only being allowed to vote their conscience if it agrees with the current de facto monopoly on government and voices falling outside of that narrow realm are ignored.

Both the Oklahoma Libertarian Party and Americans Elect Oklahoma have filed suites challenging their ballot exclusion with the Oklahoma Supreme Court and been denied relief.