Conservative Group Photoshops Out Minorities In Mailer Opposing Pro-Voting Legislation

[angka]

Source: ThinkProgress

A conservative group connected to Colorado’s Secretary of State has been sending political mailers — including a picture of a darker-skinned woman whose face was digitally removed and replaced with a white woman’s face — in an attempt to oppose a landmark voting bill that may soon become law...

Secretary of State Scott Gessler, a frequent speaker at True The Vote events who uses his perch to warn about the supposed threat of voter fraud, is leading opposition to the bill, which is supported by a number of Republican County Clerks and the Colorado County Clerks Association.

Now, a dark money group named the “Citizens for Free and Fair Elections”, which lists its address as that of Gessler’s former firm, the Hackstaff Law Group, is sending out photoshopped mailers in an attempt to pressure the election clerks into switching their position.



Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/04/23/1909661/anti-voting-mailer/

[AtheistCrusader]

1. Why? I mean, for what purpose?

It doesn't even make any sense.

[Journeyman]

5. Kind of odd, too, that the image is not viewable on the Getty Image website. . .

It ran originally in a newspaper article. The voters were Virginians. Wouldn't it be a hoot if it proves that the Colorado group lifted the photo from the newspaper article, and the image is licensed by Getty "for editorial purposes" only?

That would compound the trouble with their amateur Photoshop job and put it clearly in the category of a crime.

A fella can hope, right?


But ultimately, AC, I agree with you: Why? What purpose did this hackery serve?

[kathysart_decoration]

35. And the purpose is...

The purpose in doing this is to attempt to make it look as though they aren't being racist. They are, so it would appear, trying to prevent people from voting fraudulently - without making it look racist. They are, they would say, not discriminating against black people. These people are white.

[Skittles]

2. so, they made them twins?

I don't understand

[El Shaman]

15. It's through the magic of

Photocloning!!

[yellowcanine]

29. Maybe they are teaching out to the white twin vote.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Racists. Hack photoshop job by Hackstaff. It's the same woman twice; that's how cheap they are. nt

[Control-Z]

4. It looks like they got a 7 year old

to do the Photoshopping. (My apologies to the 7 year old kids who do know how to Photoshop. I know there are probably quite a few of you out there who could have done a far better job.)

[hrmjustin]

12. You don't think republicans are capable of this?

[SoapBox]

6. Another, in a long line of WTF?, moments for the PukeBaggers.

[Liberal Veteran]

7. Someone should photoshop everyone in the crowd to have that face.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. This one would be better...

[tblue37]

8. How lazy! They didn't even bother to get a picture

of a different white woman. They just photoshopped in a copy of the face of the same white woman who was already in the pic, to the right (our left) of the woman who was photoshopped out.

[MADem]

28. All those white women look alike, perhaps???

for the irony-impaired...

[AAO]

9. They misspoke, er, misphotoshoped.

[Ash_F]

10. They also completely removed the head of a black man behind her

See the full image in the link.

Why? This needs to go viral.

[angka]

18. Agreed.

From the low quality photoshopping to the blatantly racist motives, I've never seen anything quite like it.

[octothorpe]

21. Holy shit, you're right...

I'm having a very hard time understanding their motivation. I don't even 'understand' why someone who hates minorities would do that. Think they'll make any statement on why they thought this was a good idea? I'm curious how they attempt to justify it.

[Ash_F]

33. I think the line was supposed to represent "legitimate" voters...

...waiting in line, in person, to vote. "Legitimate" as in *hint-hint-wink-wink-youknowwhatwemean*

[tblue]

32. Tall guy in a dark hoodie

Shame on these racists!!!

[geomon666]

13. lmao! You can't make this shit up. n/t

[sakabatou]

14. Racism out in the open?

[cyberswede]

16. OMG!

That is the worst photoshop job I've ever seen!

[MrModerate]

17. His firm was named "Hackstaff"? Oy vey. n/t

[TygrBright]

19. Setting aside the "WTF?" factor, that is some CHEESY Photoshoppin'... n/t

[octothorpe]

20. That's incredibly fucked up...

Doesn't make any sense either. I'd like to see how the idiot who came up with this idea tries to explain it.

[geckosfeet]

23. Same woman's face twice in the photo on the left.

Can't believe that they actually tried this high school photoshop job.

[neffernin]

24. Perhaps they were trying to not offend minorities

as the caption for the picture denotes that the people in the line are criminals. Boy did that backfire (like going to a rap concert in blackface in order to fit in). Either way, it's hard to argue that this isn't propaganda... I mean in the last 20-30 years other than voter supression by the GOP how much voter fraud has there truly been?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/2012fraud.asp

Having a hard time finding any real fraud other than the mailer linked to in OP.

[0rganism]

25. reminds me of

[yellowcanine]

31. Or this one.....

[MrScorpio]

26. It's so obvious…

They know what they're doing is wrong, hence the way that they've photoshopped the people of color out from the original source photo. They're afraid that someone will correctly point out that their efforts to restrict the vote is just another way to restrict people of color of having ACCESS to their right to vote.

It's a tacit admission that they're nothing more than racist scumbags.

Welcome to the New Jim Crow.

[Sunlei]

27. Even the romney campaigns photoshopped a bunch of their stuff. Rs never honest about anything.

[yellowcanine]

30. They might be in trouble with the owner of the image also.

If they did pay for the privilege of using it it is doubtful they had permission to alter the image. My guess is that they did not have permission to use the image, let alone alter it.

[Nine]

34. And the photoshopped bit is not some tiny part of the image.

Before I opened the link, I was expecting a big crowd shot. Nope. The photoshopped bit is front and center and quite large. How did they ever think they would get away with it? Even if I hadn't been looking for it, I think my eye would have gone right to it.

[Alcibiades]

36. They tipped their hand

Their real goal is to disappear everyone who is not white from the electorate, and so that's what they do in their picture of voters.