Keep an eye on  H D T V [Hold down the Vote] efforts by the GOP. The tactics for Election Day have depended on intimidation, fear, lies, discrimination and – adding a modern twist – technology.

In the NJ race for governor in 1981 between Tom Kean (Sr.) and James Florio, intimidation earned the GOP a Justice Dept admonition and consent decree following Kean, Sr. taking a lead of 1,797 votes out of 2.2 million cast –the narrowest win in NJ history– only after the GOP's "ballot security task force" (BSTF) posted illegal signs and hired off-duty policemen to walk the polls, exclusively in the minority areas of Newark and Trenton. The off-duty officers wore revolvers and BSTF armbands.

The signs offered a reward of $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone violating New Jersey election laws. The RNC posted the signs in violation of state law . . . . hired an "army of workers," including off-duty county deputy sheriffs and local policemen to patrol the targeted black and Hispanic polling places. The off-duty law enforcement workers prominently displayed revolvers, two-way radios, and BSTF armbands. They challenged voters at the polls, stopping and questioning prospective voters, and refusing to allow prospective voters to enter polling places.

Though "Kean trailed consistently in the polls," (NJ Newark Star-Ledger) he eked out a 1/10 of a percent margin.

Since the DoJ order, the RNC has switched methods. To deny a voter the ballot relies now on (1) VoterID, and (2) central databases –sold by contractors to the states– that mechanically lose and purge voters.

The databases are built by vendors Covansys, Accenture, ES&S, Diebold/DIMS, Unisys, PCC Tech and Saber Consulting. Below, the campaign gifts(+party leanings) of the companies that build the voter databases.