Phoenix Mayor calls for independent federal probe over Arizona primary voting mess

[kgnu_fan]

http://boingboing.net/2016/03/23/phoenix-mayor-calls-for-indepe.html

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton wants the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the possibility that Maricopa County elections officials illegally put fewer presidential primary polling locations in areas where voters are mostly poor or not white.

[NWCorona]

2. Unlike some people on this thread

I want the Republicans investigated.

This crap needs to change!

This isn't about Bernie.

[FlatBaroque]

4. Right now, the entire political establishment is deathly afraid of President Sanders

That includes Republicrats and Depublicans.

[NWCorona]

5. Yup!

More status quo please!

[kgnu_fan]

7. Yup!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. Maybe HRC will get more votes as she ran strongest in heavily Latino areas

http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/arizona

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. Maybe. Let the chips fall where they will in a fair election - but maybe not....

I would like to see a detailed analysis of how voters, in different groups, voted on election day vs how they voted if they voted early. From what I've seen o far Sanders narrowly won election day voters while Clinton easily won early voters. These problems fell mostly on the former.

[brooklynite]

11. Let's assume, for the sake of discussion, that there's a variation in voting patterns...

...why wasn't Sanders organized enough to bank early voters as well?

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. I don't buy that logic

Early voting has its pros and cons, but it is just a means toward the end of helping people exercise their right to vote. If election campaigns reach voters enough to motivate them to go out on election day and vote, that is mission accomplished. It is blaming the victim to say that someone who stood on line for hours, but then finally had to leave without voting rather than lose their job, should have voted early instead rather than vote on election day. And it is a mockery of election law to move the goal posts to say a campaign is failing if it turns out voters on Election Day rather than weeks before.

[brooklynite]

14. "It is blaming the victim"

No, it is blaming the campaign; Sanders knew there was a Republican Secretary of State running the election, and should have known why kind of stunts the Republicans could play on Election Day. Principle is nice, but politics deals with reality.

[Tom Rinaldo]

22. No. Sanders is, politically, the new kid on the block compared to Clinton

There has been a pattern all election season of him having to campaign hard in person inside a state to familiarize an electorate with him, compared to the far more better known political commodity that is Hillary Clinton. Time and time again momentum in states moves toward Sanders as he concentrates his campaign appearances in a state prior to its election day. He closes the gap in polls in the last week. He outperfoms polls because he wins late deciders. It would be politically foolish for Sanders to urge across the board early voting given that dynamic. Many of his supporters on election day would not have voted for him had they cast their ballots one, two, or three weeks earlier than they actually did.

Yes it is blaming the victim to say that a campaign itself should not try to turn out voters on election day itself.

[Bluenorthwest]

24. This is not really a one off, all about our favorites issue.

This is from 2012:
How Native Voters Are Routinely Disenfranchised in Arizona

From voter ID laws to inaccessible polling stations, Native voters in Arizona face a cascading series of hurdles to participating in the November election.
"Arizona's Apache County is obscuring the collective power of the Native vote in an unprecedented way. The County, which has previously violated the Voting Rights Act, has inaccurately placed more than 500 people who attempted to register on a list that could permanently purge these would-be voters from the rolls. And most, if not all, of those affected are Navajo."

This is from Monday:
Voting Rights 2016: Native Americans Struggle To Overcome Barriers Ahead Of Arizona Elections
"The Navajo Nation reservation, the largest concentrated population of American Indians in the United States, is tucked into Arizona's northwest corner. Stretching across 27,000 square miles of mesas, shrubs and sand, the reservation is largely rural, often without internet access, paved roads or street signs. Employment and education rates are far below the national average, and very few people own vehicles. If residents on the reservation ever need to drive to their county seat — say, to register to vote or to cast an early-voting ballot — the journey could easily take them four hours."
http://www.ibtimes.com/voting-rights-2016-native-americans-struggle-overcome-barriers-ahead-arizona-2340458

This is from yesterday:
Arizona primary: Maricopa County had one polling site for every 21,000 voters
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/03/22/live-arizona-primary-coverage-presidential-preference-election/82096726/


So years of this ongoing battle with Republican election suppression tactics. There is a right side and a wrong side and it has nothing to do with who won or who lost a specific contest. Nothing at all.

Wise up. With either candidate we need November to be a fair and accessible election. I'm sure you agree.

[morningfog]

13. What difference does it make?

Every vote(r) should count. Regardless of whether it was by early vote or day of.

[panader0]

18. Please tell me what HRC's comments are about the voter suppresion in Az?

[kgnu_fan]

10. Kick

[TexasTowelie]

23. The only thing though is that exit polls

do not reflect the votes made during early voting. Since early voters represented a large proportion of the population and were more demographically aligned with Clinton it negates the validity of the exit polls.

[jillan]

15. I didn't see this, I posted it too.

The more the merrier

[sadoldgirl]

16. This needs to be kept up in the news,

because it may, just may force Arizona to open
all former poll offices for the GE.

Small hope, but better than resignation.

[Uncle Joe]

17. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kgnu_fan.

[pantsonfire]

19. This is huge! nt

[kgnu_fan]

20. kick

[amborin]

21. good to hear

[Stevepol]

25. How about investigating the disappearance of the Dems

who were Independents who switched to the Dem Party to vote for Bernie.

How about the Dems who suddenly became Independents (or remained Independents as above)?

And who hacked Bernie's supporters list? Did they target individuals on that list?