"Bad New Days for Voting Rights"

[mzmolly]

Now tell me why our elected Democratic Officials are not taking this issue on vigorously!


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/opinion/18SUN1.html

"Today, in Bennett County, S.D., Indians say they have to contend with poll workers who make fun of their names, election officials who make it hard for them to register and — most ominously — a wave of false voter fraud charges that have been made against them, which they regard as harassment. Jo Colombe, a Rosebud Sioux tribal council member, said that when she worked as a poll watcher in a recent election she was accused of fraud simply for taking a bathroom break. When she returned, she said, white poll watchers charged her with copying the names of Indians who had not yet voted, and taking them out to Indians waiting in the parking lot. In January, prosecutors dropped a highly publicized case against another Indian woman, Rebecca Red Earth-Villeda.

With South Dakota's senior senator, Tom Daschle, running in another hotly contested race this year, Indians are bracing for more trouble at the polls. Many Indians feel their situation is similar to other so-called ballot integrity efforts over the last few decades. In the 1986 Louisiana Senate race, for instance, Republicans began a purge of tens of thousands of voters. An internal party document made clear that the goal was to "keep the black vote down." In North Carolina's 1990 Senate race, Jesse Helms supporters mailed 125,000 postcards to predominantly black voting precincts, misleading voters about residency requirements and warning that misstatements to voting officials could mean five years in prison.

More recently, Republican poll watchers in the 2002 Arkansas Senate election took photos of blacks as they voted, an intimidation tactic that has been used in other parts of the country. In last fall's Kentucky governor's race, Republicans announced plans to challenge voters in 59 predominantly black precincts. After the N.A.A.C.P. objected, the program was scaled back. And this year, a local Texas prosecutor threatened to arrest students at historically black Prairie View A&M if they tried to vote from their campus addresses, which the law allows them to do. He backed down when he was sued.

Intimidation of Hispanic voters has often focused on immigration matters. In one case that caused an uproar in California in 1988, Republicans hired uniformed security officers to serve as "poll guards" in Latino precincts in Orange County."

Why aren't we in court over these atrocities?! :wtf:

I realize that we are taking up the *paper trail* issue, but our elected officials need to act on this as well and they need to do it NOW.

[mzmolly]

1. Kick

:kick:

[ellie]

2. That this continues

to this day is fucking insane! Where is the outrage? I pray for the day the repubic party is no more, collapsing under the weight of its arrogance.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Unreal, isn't it?

Will this country ever grow up?

[redqueen]

3. And people wonder why many support Nader

Get a clue!

FOUR sponsors for Graham's bill. STILL!

:mad:

Why people think the American people are not being played for fools by elected reps on BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE is beyond me.

[mzmolly]

11. I think the Dems *are* the fools at times ...

I don't even think they realize what needs to be done, and that is pathetic.

I have voted Dem in every election since I was 19, and the coming election is no exception, but I agree with you, average person feels abandon by BOTH parties ... and this is ONE reason why.

[High Sierra Buck]

4. Seems to me the article you cite are court trials already

So my point is, it would appear someone is taking a stance since these atrocities appear to be in court.

[redqueen]

6. The court is not taking a stance, they're upholding the law

The politicians need to make it plain that the laws need reform, so that so many cannot be so easily disenfranchised.

Things like Holt's and Graham's bill, for instance. THOSE are the type of things that too few democrats seem to give a crap about.

[mzmolly]

8. Indeed.

The articles author made some suggestions.

Federal and state officials, party leaders and voters themselves should act now to ensure that this loathsome and undemocratic trend stops. To achieve this:

¶The Republican and Democratic party chairmen should publicly commit not to single out minority voters for intimidation, and to get this message out to party workers at every level.

¶The National Association of Secretaries of State, and individual secretaries of state and state election officers, should state publicly that they will be on the lookout for minority vote suppression, and that they will deal with it strictly.

¶The Department of Justice, which has lately seemed more focused on voter fraud than minority voter intimidation, should explain how it intends to discharge its legal duty to protect minorities from discrimination in voting.

¶Prosecutors should vigorously pursue anyone involved in vote suppression; this is rarely done now. And its victims should bring civil lawsuits, to make those who engage in it pay.

Experts are predicting that this year's election will be among the most hard fought in decades. The people who play a leadership role in it should be making clear, well in advance of Election Day, that minority vote suppression will not be tolerated."

I have added one:

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEEDS TO ACT AS WATCH DOGS, POINTING OUT WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE PAST, AND ENACTING LEGISLATION TO PREVENT IT FROM HAPPENING AGAIN.

What can WE do folks?!

[mzmolly]

7. Can you be more specific?

I read the article and there is nothing I saw that indicates we are doing anything of the sort.

[Virginian]

9. Just a little comment

Poll Workers are supposed to be totally impartial while working.
Poll Watchers represent a political party.

If a poll watcher wants to take names and call them to encourage them to vote, they can do that, but not from the polling place. Often, they have their own book of names they bring with them. I can keep them from using a cell phone in the same room where voting is taking place, but I can't control what they do once they leave the premises.

Poll Watchers (R) gave me a lecture after I attempted to encourage voters to use an entrance to the polling place that was closer to the rooms where the voting was taking place. They had set up tables 40 feet from the main entrance and didn't want the voters to use a different entrance even though the different entrance was closer from parking to voting booth. Near closing time, a voter came in through the main entrance and acted as if he were angry about the confusion over which entrance to use. The only way he could have been confused is if the poll watchers were attempting to confuse him as none of the poll workers was outside directing voters at that time.

My goal as a poll worker is for the number of votes to equal the number of voters. The voters are counted as their names are checked against the poll-book. All votes are counted, even the "non-votes."

[mzmolly]

10. *sigh*

:(

I am thankful for "poll workers" like yourself, thanks for all you do. I will be registering voters in MN this year to do my part. :hi: