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Montana GOP Targets WWII Hero in Voter Challenge
Last week, we noted the announcement by the Montana Republican party that it's challenging the voter registrations of over 6000 voters, mostly in Democratic-leaning counties.
The GOP has presented the move as an effort to combat fraud. For all the challenged voters, says the party, there were discrepancies between the address under which they registered to vote, and a U.S. postal service address database.
But two registered Montana voters, along with the state Democratic party, this morning filed suit with a federal court to stop the challenges, calling the GOP move "a transparent and very likely unsuccessful attempt" to discourage voters from turning out.
It's already clear that the list of challenged voters includes a good number of people who are hardly prime suspects for voter fraud.
In an opinion piece published yesterday in the Montana Standard, the state's GOP lieutenant governor, John Bohlinger, noted that one voter who's being challenged is Frank St. Pierre, a World War II veteran who helped save thousands of Allied troops in Dunkirk, and happened to move across town recently*. Bohlinger called the effort to challenge St. Pierre "an utter disgrace."
And as we told you earlier today, the list also includes Kevin Furey, a former Democratic state representative who's an army reserve officer about to deploy to Kuwait. (The GOP has since backed down on that one.)
Also appearing on the list are Matt Gouras of the Associated Press, who has been covering the presidential race in Montana, and Alden Downing, a former reporter for the local NBC affiliate who's now serving as communications director for GOP gubernatorial candidate Roy Brown. That's according to Matt Singer, who heads Forward Montana, a progressive activist group based in Missoula that obtained a copy of challenged voters in Missoula county -- and appears on it himself. (This afternoon, the group unveiled a website that allows users to search the lists of challenged voters from Missoula and Lewis and Clark counties. Additional counties will be added as the information becomes available, said Singer.)
On Saturday, John Brueggeman, a Republican state legislator, spoke out against the challenges, telling the Great Falls Tribune: "I can't think we'll do anything but irreparable harm to our party" with independent voters who may be targeted.
But that same day, the state GOP chair informed a local paper that the voter-challenge party is just getting started. "These counties are the beginning, not the end," Jake Eaton told the Billings Gazette. "We're looking at this across the state."
* This sentence has been corrected from an earlier version.
Josh
Zachary
This is the disgraceful sort of nonsense we don't need in this country. There are far more people disenfranchised by these 'Grand' Ole Party efforts than those who actually commit voter fraud.
People have to have ID at the voting location anyway, and if there's a problem with information, an affidavit can be signed, allowing that person to vote.
October 6, 2008 7:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Treason. No different than what Mugabe did a few months ago.
October 6, 2008 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. This is pathetic. The party of whiners has now decided to go illegal.
This kind of thing really only influences close races, so nationally Obama ought to be fine (expect more things of this tune in swing states, though). But what's going to happen to the state races in MT without these 6000?
October 6, 2008 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Montana Republicans are in fine form I see. Our GOP is generally to the right of Attila the Hun, but this really surprised me. They must really be terrified, despite the most recent polls showing a 10 point lead for McCain. Of course it is increasingly looking like a total Democratic rout at the state level.
October 6, 2008 7:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
1. I don't who "Frank St. Pierre" is, but I can guarantee you that there is NO person who has ever been a "ten time Medal of Honor" recipient. Nineteen individuals have been awarded MOH twice and Marine Corp General Smedley Bulter was awarded two MOH and the Marine Corp equivalent in China, thus "qualifying" as an equivalent three time awardee. In any event, there were no American soldiers at the Battle of Dunkirk, which took place before U.S. entry into WWII.
In addition, the name of Frank St. Pierre does not seem to be listed on the official MOH site, http://www.history.army.mil/moh.html.
October 6, 2008 8:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know who Frank St. Pierre is either, and I agree that it's unlikely he won 10 Medals of Honor. However, a brief search turns up an interview with him 3 years where he describes being the Royal Canadian Navy in 1938 and this page shows some sort of medal to "ST. PIERRE, Francis, Able Seaman" in 1940:
http://www.rcnvr.com/S%20-%20RCN%20-%20WW2.php
Just because he didn't serve in the US forces, doesn't make him any less a WWII hero.
October 6, 2008 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Valley Forge:
I knew Frank St. Pierre when I was a girl, and like many Americans, including my father, he was in the fighting before Pearl Harbor. My dad was on Atlantic escort duty in 1940.
St. Pierre (the name is French, and as I recall, his family was from Canada) might have joined the French or British forces.
If St. Pierre was evacuating French and British troops from Dunkirk, he'd be in line for of medals from those countries ... not our MOH, but easily a few from each country.
But those SLEAZY JERKS! I hope Frank whaps them with his cane ... several times.
October 30, 2008 7:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to pick nits, but ten time Medal of Honor winner??
As both veteran and historian, I must point out the inherent silliness there.
October 6, 2008 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Montana GOP's mistake was to let people actually look at the list of people whose franchise they were trying to deny. Much more effective to spring it on people at the polling station, where there's no chance to counter-attack, and where there's no provable written list of who got challenged. Another good thing early voting is doing for us all, I guess.
October 6, 2008 9:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, something seems a bit fishy. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society has no listing for anyone of this name and no one has ever received a citation for ten.
October 6, 2008 9:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I also got stuck on the 10 time medal of honor reference. I assume he won 10 medals of some kind, but there are only 100 living MoH recipients, and only 26 of them received their medal for service in WWII. By the way, if you're concerned that the term war hero as used to describe a US Senator is being tarnished in the presidential race, there are 2 currently living MoH recipients who have been elected to the US Senate (both democrats, one of whom still serves): Senator Daniel Inouye and former Senator Joseph R. "Bob" Kerrey.
October 6, 2008 10:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I too am a 10-time Medal of Honor winner- but I had it set to easy and used cheat codes
October 7, 2008 12:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
The award he won was "Mentioned in Dispatches" which is given to Canadian military members who performed a noteworthy action (i.e., mentioned by name in official reports).
Wiki says there is one person who was honored 9 times that way and another 8, but St. Pierre isn't listed as a high multiple recipient.
October 7, 2008 7:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
As a Butte Native, you can see the Repubs are targeting counties that lean democratic, Missoula County, Butte-Silver bow county, Lewis and Clark counties, glacier county, these are democratic counties. There in lies the problem with what the R's are doing, and it will hurt them in Montana. I believe Francis St. Pierre has received 10 medals, which Bollinger, a Republican sees as medals of honor, but not the Medal of Honor. It isn't a big deal, the big deal is the R's are trying to squelch votes in a heavily republican state, and why is that? Montana hasn't gone Blue in years, maybe since Johnson in 64, so what exactly are they worried about??? Hmmm makes me think the polling in MT isn't looking good for the R's!!!
Good, they deserve it.
October 7, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
I can't believe I'm living in America any more when the GOP can make an attempt to suppress voter registration. To think they'd pull these stunts in order to keep voter turnout low is something I'd expect to see in Iran or Venezuela; certainly NOT her in the USA.
If they can't get away with this now - and they certainly shouldn't be allowed to - what's next? Will they hire attack dogs to sic the voters when they attempt to enter their neighborhood polling place? How about fire hoses so they can blast voters going into their voting booths?
What has our country become? How can ANYONE be allowed to even entertain the idea of voter suppression, let alone actually make some headway in doing so? It's unforgivable and they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, for stomping on our rights as citizens of the United States of America!
We should at least remember their names and vote them out of office when their turn comes around for re-election!
October 7, 2008 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink