Blockers Disrupt Petition Gatherers
Friends,
Today is Presidential Primary Day in Michigan and the voting precincts in Grand Rapids are a war zone. Not between Mitt and McCain, Huckabee and Paul, but between citizens collecting signatures for the recall of State Representative Robert Dean (D-Grand Rapids) and the organized, paid, liberal 'blockers' hell-bent on stopping voters from signing the recall petitions.
Blockers were already at the polls when the Dean-recall volunteers arrived this morning to collect petition signatures. And they are nasty! One senior citizen who tried to sign the recall petitions was yelled at by blockers who told her that she was "breaking the law and signing an illegal petition". These same blockers followed the senior voter to her car, taking repeated, close-up snapshots with a camera and demanding that she produce photo identification to them (the blockers). Police were called, and (as I write this) are trying to sort things out.
The blockers' primary tactic is to lie. First by claiming that Robert Dean didn't vote for any tax increases, and then by telling potential signers that the petitions are illegal and that they are committing a crime by signing. The blockers continue to harass citizens attempting to sign by getting right-up into the signers faces with a camera and taking multiple photos of the citizen's face. Their tactics would be the envy of a third-world dictator attempting to suppress democracy at the polls.
And that is EXACTLY what the blockers are determined to do: suppress citizens' democratic involvement in their constitutional right to engage in the petition and recall process.
Another type of blocker was at the polls today. These blockers were there to discourage voters from signing any Right to Work (RTW) petition that unions thought might be organized at voting locations. These blockers encountered no Right to Work petitioners, and were, at first, confused and mildly entertained by the recall blockers' engagements with recall signature gatherers. Until they witnessed the unvarnished vitriol spewing from the recall blockers toward voters who attempted to sign petitions. I am told by several of the recall petitioners that the RTW blockers have sided with recall petitioners at the polls, after being appalled at the aggressive, grotesque behavior of the recall blockers.
I don't know how many of the 8,700 signatures needed to force a recall election for Rep. Robert Dean will be collected today. It depends on overall election turnout in Grand Rapids, how long petition gatherers can withstand the cold and snow, and how well these petition gatherers and Grand Rapids voters can fend-off the offensive blockers who seek to undermine civility and even democracy itself.
Today is Presidential Primary Day in Michigan and the voting precincts in Grand Rapids are a war zone. Not between Mitt and McCain, Huckabee and Paul, but between citizens collecting signatures for the recall of State Representative Robert Dean (D-Grand Rapids) and the organized, paid, liberal 'blockers' hell-bent on stopping voters from signing the recall petitions.
Blockers were already at the polls when the Dean-recall volunteers arrived this morning to collect petition signatures. And they are nasty! One senior citizen who tried to sign the recall petitions was yelled at by blockers who told her that she was "breaking the law and signing an illegal petition". These same blockers followed the senior voter to her car, taking repeated, close-up snapshots with a camera and demanding that she produce photo identification to them (the blockers). Police were called, and (as I write this) are trying to sort things out.
The blockers' primary tactic is to lie. First by claiming that Robert Dean didn't vote for any tax increases, and then by telling potential signers that the petitions are illegal and that they are committing a crime by signing. The blockers continue to harass citizens attempting to sign by getting right-up into the signers faces with a camera and taking multiple photos of the citizen's face. Their tactics would be the envy of a third-world dictator attempting to suppress democracy at the polls.
And that is EXACTLY what the blockers are determined to do: suppress citizens' democratic involvement in their constitutional right to engage in the petition and recall process.
Another type of blocker was at the polls today. These blockers were there to discourage voters from signing any Right to Work (RTW) petition that unions thought might be organized at voting locations. These blockers encountered no Right to Work petitioners, and were, at first, confused and mildly entertained by the recall blockers' engagements with recall signature gatherers. Until they witnessed the unvarnished vitriol spewing from the recall blockers toward voters who attempted to sign petitions. I am told by several of the recall petitioners that the RTW blockers have sided with recall petitioners at the polls, after being appalled at the aggressive, grotesque behavior of the recall blockers.
I don't know how many of the 8,700 signatures needed to force a recall election for Rep. Robert Dean will be collected today. It depends on overall election turnout in Grand Rapids, how long petition gatherers can withstand the cold and snow, and how well these petition gatherers and Grand Rapids voters can fend-off the offensive blockers who seek to undermine civility and even democracy itself.
posted by Leon Drolet at
1:55 PM
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