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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBiggest... News... Ever... NAACP visits a polling station
The big splash headline at Townhall.com is BREAKING: NAACP Takes Over Houston Polling Station.
Not surprisingly, the story is less exciting than the headline, and sourced entirely to one of the crackpots from True the Vote.
Cool story, bro.
It will be amusing to hear the electoral official's version of the story. (Is being black intrinsically considered politiking? The story goes on to talk about the propriety of wearing NAACP tee-shirts. Is that forbidden? Is an NAACP shirt considered equivalent to an Obama shirt? I don't know much about these things.)
Also, always look for the passive voice... at one point the article says the NAACP people "were instructed to" do something, but did not. Instructed by whom?
...
"I went to the polling supervisor and let her know that it was not appropriate that they were in the building handing out water. She ignored me. I repeated my statement. She told me that she would handle it. She did nothing. I then went to the assistant supervisor and he stood up, walked over to another table and then sat down. I then walked into the waiting room and they were reloading another dolly with more cases of water," Rockford said in a True the Vote incident report. After handing out water and advocating for President Obama, the NAACP members started handpicking and moving people to the front of a long voting line inside the polling place according to the incident report. After multiple complaints from voters about the line cutting, Rockford received a phone call from downtown telling her to stand down.
All of the sudden one of the clerks, Dayan Cohen, said that someone wanted to speak to me on the phone. It was someone from downtown. I got on the phone and she said she was from downtown and that I needed to stand down and that it was okay for the NAACP to be within 100 ft. and they could hand out water. I told her that the NAACP was inside the building, wearing the NAACP clothing and caps and were handing out water and moving people from the back of the lines to the front of the lines, Rockford said.
At this point, NAACP members were instructed to turn their clothing inside out, which they refused to do and said they werent going to stop their actions inside the polling place. Their behavior and actions to move people to the front of the line continued for the rest of the evening. Texas State Representative Sylvester Turner, a former Texas NAACP leader, was also seen outside the building talking with voters.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/11/03/breaking_naacp_takes_over_polling_station_advocates_for_president_obama_at_houston_polling_location
SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)and campaigning, cool. If they were inside, not cool. And if they were moving people ahead in the line, also not cool.
Not saying any of this happened, saying "if".
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)the classic exaggerated anecdote that I am skeptical. Whenever it gets to the line jumping subject the article becomes hazy.
e are left to believe that they were jumping people in line and that the poll workers were fine with it, and the supervisor from downtown was cool with it, which sounds unlikely to me.
But I certainly agree it would be improper, if true as characterized.
SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)And even if there were line jumping, it can be legitimate, if done by poll workers.
I was an election officer in Fairfax County, VA in 2008, in a heavily Democratic precinct. Lines were incredibly long, and the setup was such that there was a single line into the room where the check in table and voting booths were. The check-in tables were set up A-G, H-L, etc. "Popular" last name letter lines would be packed, while U-Z sat empty, so we would go through the line, starting at the front, looking for people whose last names started with U-Z, just to get the overall line moving faster.
Granted, some voters got pretty pissed, even though we explained that what were doing didn't hold them up in the least. But overall, it made the line move faster.
bluestate10
(10,942 posts)be angry and yelling about it, they weren't. My guess that election officials were actually moving elderly and physically challenged people forward to allow the to vote then leave to be more comfortable, and other voters in line were ok with that. People get moved ahead in all types of lines, I have been moved ahead in airline flight lines before and I have seen other people moved ahead of me.
Zen Democrat
(5,901 posts)Pay no attention. If they stumbled across a fact, they'd change it.
what does the NAACP stand for? Oh right, the advancement of colored people. They are doing what they have doing for decades. Protecting the rights of colored people against people who want to suppress their rights. I guess that means you know who.
LTR
(13,227 posts)Tea bagger logic : Three black guys = NAACP = Black Panthers = Nation of Islam.
Buncha scared tighty whitey righties.