TPMDC
Report: Police Called To NY-23 Polling Sites...To Deal With Rowdy Hoffman-Backers
Eric Kleefeld | November 3, 2009, 1:30PM
NY-23 Candidate Doug Hoffman (Conservative)
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We now have a report of on-the-ground mischief in NY-23, the sort of interference that Republicans have been warning about for today. The catch: Democrats are claiming that the mischief is coming from supporters of the Conservative candidate, Doug Hoffman.
The New York Daily News reports that police were called to polling sites in St. Lawrence County, a Democratic area in the district, to deal with some rowdy Hoffman-backers.
Former state Democratic chairwoman June O'Neill claimed that Hoffman-supporters are "yelling anti-choice stuff at voters" near the polls, that a woman involved said she was a "commissioner" -- and is allegedly from Texas -- and wouldn't leave the polling site. "This is not the way we roll in the North Country," O'Neill quipped.
The county's Republican election commissioner Debbie Pahler (each county in New York has two election commissioners, one Democrat and one Republican) confirmed to the paper that the police were called, but said that this was a routine matter of people electioneering within the 100-feet boundary around a polling site. "If people are electioneering within the marker and don't stop when we ask them to, our inspectors are instructed to call law enforcement to assist them. I don't think anybody was arrested."
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VivaAmerica!
November 3, 2009 1:48 PM
My gut tells me that in 2010, we will also see this type of behavior at the polls.
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jet
November 3, 2009 2:31 PM in reply to VivaAmerica!
BREAKING:
Video of Teabaggers getting busted
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi9hgqZr6fs
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dal
November 3, 2009 3:35 PM in reply to jet
ha! awesome!
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rbeats
November 3, 2009 1:59 PM
Intimidation just like the Taliban intimidate.
Thugs.
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Steaming Pile
November 3, 2009 2:16 PM in reply to rbeats
Or the Nazis.
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fsudirectory
November 3, 2009 2:01 PM
At least they can't claim its the Black Panthers scaring nice white people this time around
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redtickbeer
November 3, 2009 2:04 PM in reply to fsudirectory
I've heard they're part of the New Black Panter's Angry White Women Auxiliary
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Walter Mitty
November 3, 2009 2:08 PM
This kind of stuff would probably backfire.
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Matt Jones
November 3, 2009 2:09 PM
I was REALLY hoping that this sort of thing wouldn't happen. An absence of teabagger-powered voter intimidation would have show I'm just being paranoid when I see them as the new brownshirts.
Unfortunately, they seemed determined to grow up into real fascists, probably while holding "HCR is Fascism" signs.
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_jonny_5_
November 3, 2009 2:15 PM
Every step of the way National Repubs have (at least tacitly) encouraged the Joe Wilson/ Repub Taliban.
I fear you are right.
That said the country didn't like what it was seeing at the McCain/Palin rallies late in the election season last lear, so while I fear you are right about the behavior, I think it will have a negative effect on their party.
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mistersnrub
November 3, 2009 2:18 PM
Real freedom-loving Americans...
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Seapost
November 3, 2009 2:19 PM
How is it that batshit crazy people can afford to get from Texas to upstate New York anyway? The ones around here eat out of dumpsters. Maybe a Glenn Beck "scholarship?"
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realist
November 3, 2009 2:28 PM
Is Hoffman so fiscally conservative he won't use toothpaste?
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jeffgee
November 3, 2009 5:49 PM in reply to realist
That is one ugly mug.
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slb
November 3, 2009 6:37 PM in reply to realist
He should use Pepsodent; that's a value brand these days, and he could really use that I.M.P.
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ajw93
November 3, 2009 2:28 PM
I'm amazed that people from Texas (batshit crazy or no) who find themselves in the North Country on November 3 are able to do anything at all....wouldn't they freeze?
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realist
November 3, 2009 2:29 PM
Is Hoffman so fiscally conservative he won't use toothpaste?
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lousgirl84
November 3, 2009 5:10 PM in reply to realist
One scary dude isn't he and yes he needs some crest white strips
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hollywood
November 3, 2009 2:35 PM
When the Supreme Court appointed Bush president even though Gore had 500,000 more votes nationally and Florida was still trying to count, I realized for the first time in my life that right wingers do not simply have different policy ideas, they do not respect democracy period.
Republican party thugs like Karl Rove do not give a shit about fair elections at all. They will lie, cheat, and steal any election any where any time. They are truly the enemies of democracy. They are the enemy within.
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johnmccsf
November 3, 2009 2:42 PM
Carpetbaggers from the Republic of Tejas
Kay Bailey is so DONE for
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Susan from 29
November 3, 2009 2:43 PM
Wow, this so sounds like it was ripped from the pages of Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here. It is rather frightening to see this behavior moved from reproductive clinics to the polling stations.
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Marioth
November 3, 2009 5:19 PM
If we cannot win by strength of argument (e.g. the Obama caucuses brilliance) we must win by intimidation and purge.
I call for more of this. It will speed up the schism.
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jeffgee
November 3, 2009 5:46 PM
95% of the money Hoffman got was from outside of the district and flowed in during the last week, causing DeDe to drop out. NY-23 should be appalled.
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