Some Calif. latinos receive letter warning them not to vote

Source:

seattletimes.nwsource.com


According to the seatle times it was naturalized citizens that ones that got most of the letters.
Immigrants who trun naturalized citizen's are registered to vote.

Another source:
www.nytimes.com...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called the letter racist and urged Bill Lockyer, the California attorney general, to prosecute those responsible with a hate crime. A collection of other civil rights groups also called on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to investigate the letter as a violation of federal voting laws.

Your opinion? if this turns out to be true, it will be a new low.

Mod Edit: Link format edited. Please review this post.

[edit on 19-10-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]

If anyone who is allowed to vote falls for this, I don't think they would be an informed voter in the first place.

It's just like Republicans vote on Tuesday, and Democrats on Wednesdays. Every election cycle portions of Democrats fall for this old trick. I pulled it off myself it 2004 on some co-workers!

Originally posted by RRconservative
If anyone who is allowed to vote falls for this, I don't think they would be an informed voter in the first place.

It's just like Republicans vote on Tuesday, and Democrats on Wednesdays. Every election cycle portions of Democrats fall for this old trick. I pulled it off myself it 2004 on some co-workers!

I cant belive some of your co-workers fell for this.

But how about if you were to tell them that if a democrat voting on tuesday might face a fine for not obeying the law? I wonder how many more/less of you co-workers would fall for this?

Originally posted by RRconservative
It's just like Republicans vote on Tuesday, and Democrats on Wednesdays. Every election cycle portions of Democrats fall for this old trick. I pulled it off myself it 2004 on some co-workers!

That's sad, but I hope you laughed and told the poor idiots the truth afterward. It's one thing have some fun at the expense of those who aren't very well grounded in reality, but quite another to try and disenfranchise the stupid- especially considering that generally we can rely on the stupid to disenfranchise themselves without any deception.


As for the letter, it's quite possibly another fine example of stupid people doing political harm to themselves. I would speculate that the letter was written by someone of mediocre intelligence who intended to spread the fact that illegal immigrants cannot vote, and probably felt quite clever for concieving such an act of vigilantism because it was intended to be true and totally legal... except, as idiots are prone to doing, I suspect this person failed to consider ramifications to taking shortcuts and also failed to properly articulate him/herself. The result is that instead of legally reminding illegals that they should not vote, this person sent the letter to many people who may infact be citizens which falsely threatened them with consequences regardless of their citizenship status. That, of course, is illegal.

I'm not saying for certain that the intent was not malicious, but my humble opinion is that this letter is a disasterous error. Never the less, there will and should be consequences. Ignorance is no excuse: a dumbass will get busted just as quick as a smartass.

Word is out now that the letter has been traced back to Republican congressional hopeful Tan Nguyen, who says it was an act of a rogue staffer, although even his own party expresses suspicions that he was directly involved. Caught it on Olberman just before work this afternoon.

Fox surprisingly is running the story, but only as an AP wire burried at the bottom of their US section. It actually was quite a bit beneath "naked driver kills pedestrian".

Originally posted by The Vagabond
Word is out now that the letter has been traced back to Republican congressional hopeful Tan Nguyen,

No relation. Heck its not even spelled the same.

who says it was an act of a rogue staffer,

Damn those rogue staffers!!! *shakes fist*

I bet Nguyen will swear to 'route out this evildoer' at teh first oppurtunity, but for now he has to focus on the election.

Originally posted by Nygdan
I bet Nguyen will swear to 'route out this evildoer' at teh first oppurtunity, but for now he has to focus on the election.

Actually your evil twin claims to have already fired the offender. Either he's the fastest gun in politics or he already knew who it was, probably because he remembered who he told to do it.

My 2 cents on this issue is that it is exactly racist. How did they determine who to send this letter to? It seems like they picked hispanic surnames off the voting rolls and sent a "scare" letter to make them worry whether they were legal to vote or not.

Granted if you can sway an individual away from voting they are probably not the most informed voter out there. But still they have a fundamental right to vote as a naturalized citizen. They may have immigrated at an older age or been here many years before they became naturalized ... many have a limited understanding about what American rights are ... it's sad someone would focus on hispanics to send this letter to ... why not just send it to all registered voters in the county? The fact that this went out to hispanics only is what makes it a hate crime.

It's up to the registrar of voters in each county in California to determine if someone is eligible to vote in elections. If there are questions as to someone's nationality or legal status they can request birth certificates, INS documents or whatever they need to confirm the person is here legally and is a citizen. If someone out there feels that somehow there is a large number of illegitimate hispanics voting (which I don't think is the case) then they need to gather evidence that the registrar of voters is being lax in their procedures.

A republican who is racist? No, perish the thought...

Anyways, guy got caught, and says he already fired the "rogue" staffer. if by rogue you mean a gopher, a yes sir, a follower. Sad what republicans do to win an election. At least demoncrats just smear their opponents with the truth with a spin. Yes this guy voted to give tax breaks to oil companies but it was attached to a bill to also cut taxes for medical companies.

This reminds me of the Jim Doyle case from Wisconsin and how he did not know his main stooge had broke the law for him. Now she is in jail for 18 months.

Originally posted by HoorahUSMC
Yes this guy voted to give tax breaks to oil companies but it was attached to a bill to also cut taxes for medical companies.

Um, Tan Nguyen voted to give tax breaks to oil companies, or am I misunderstanding you? I only ask because as far as I know, Tan D. Nguyen has never held an elected office, which raises a bit of a question as to where such a record came from.