The Koch brothers will stop at nothing to surpress the voice of the people

Original Link: http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/blog/2011/08/the-koch-brothers-will-stop-at-nothing-to-surpress-the-voice-of-the-people.html

By Brandon W.

The billionaire Koch brothers will stop at nothing to try and buy power in Wisconsin just so they can have their way with democracy. The latest proof of their attempts to deceive voters and grab political power comes from Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a group founded by the Koch brothers.

Americans for Prosperity was caught engaging in voter suppression in the most despicable fashion this week. The group sent out absentee ballots to voters in two recall districts encouraging voters to send the ballots to the city clerk by August 11^th. The problem is that anyone with an iota of political awareness knows the date for Senate recall elections is on August 9^th.

Local group officials have said that the ballots were only mailed out to AFP members and that the date was mistakenly changed to the 11^th. However, shortly after the ballots were sent out, those who recognized the phony election date filed a voter suppression complaint. Including one North Hudson man who stated that he felt he was targeted because he was a senior and a democrat.

While the AFP would like to play this off as a simple typo, letting this slide as a miscue is far too hard of a pill to swallow, mainly because this is not the first instance of deceitful tactics being used to derail democracy and the recall efforts in our state. Earlier in the summer GOP state officials ran fake democrats in primary elections, in an attempt to keep the real democratic recall candidates out of the general election. The Republican controlled legislature even went so far as to pass legislation that requires identification in order to vote, even though it is clear that many of the electorate do not have a government issued ID. That action was followed up by an attempt to close 10 DMV offices around the state.

One can only wonder how much the bar of ethical standards will be lowered in Wisconsin politics. Which is a scary thought, because clearly groups like AFP and the State Republicans will reach very far in order to suppress the voice of the people. Their focus is not in the best interest of Wisconsin residents, but on remaining in power and repaying those who got them there through political favors.