See below for a rather breathtaking “Round-up of Problems Facing Voters Nationwide”, such as registration backlogs, illegal voting roll purges, deceptive practices and dirty tricks, etc., now plaguing American voters across the country with just 17 days left before our country’s biggest election ever.
All of that, while Fox “News” (whose asked me to come on live tomorrow, Sunday, at 2:40pm PT, btw, along with my old friend John Fund “for balance”) continues to misreport, alarm and deceive their viewers in regard to the GOP’s phony ACORN “voter fraud” fraud. Unfortunately, it’s not just Fox who is irresponsibly and dangerously misreporting that scam — though they seem to have made a small cottage industry out of it of late — CNN and MSNBC have been filed loads of equally inaccurate and misleading reports on it as well.
But take a look at the “Round-up” below, sent this afternoon via email by the 866ourvote.org Election Protection coalition of non-partisan election watchdogs. And keep in mind that their summary below doesn’t even mention the myriad electronic voting issues we’ve been reporting here of late — touch-screen votes flipping, paper ballot electronic tabulators that can’t count correctly or that add thousands of “phantom votes” or that drop thousands of real ones etc. — cropping up, yet again, across the country…
A Round-up of Problems Facing Voters Nationwide
Voter registration application backlogs.
The unprecedented registration and get-out-the-vote efforts by both parties, along with the historic nature of this election, promise to elicit a record number of voters on Election Day. Mountains of new voter registrations are causing backlogs in voter data entry – which partisans are using as reasons to keep these applicants from making it onto the rolls, as we’ve just seen in Ohio. Backlogs often force local election offices to send out verification and polling place information late or not at all.
In Colorado: election officials are struggling to verify thousands of voter registration forms before October 20 when early voting opens. In Georgia: a week ago, in DeKalb County about 30,000 registrations were sitting in boxes waiting to be entered. In New York, in Dutchess County, officials are telling voters that if their backlogged registrations aren’t processed in time, they should request a court order to vote. In Alabama, a controversy is raging over who can be registered, contributing to the backlog of requests.
Allegations of voter registration fraud.
The recent controversy over ACORN ‘s voter registration program emphasizes the critical need for a comprehensive system to handle the quadrennial crush of registration applications. We currently have effective systems in place for flagging duplicate and ineligible applications, but the burdens created by this deadline-driven process could be eliminated with smart, federal voter registration reform.
Several opinion writers and editorial boards across the country have weighed in on the issue, skeptical of the partisan nature of the allegations. Many offer a pragmatic approach to dealing with these accusations, including articles in the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, GateHouse News Service and the Baltimore Sun.
No match, no vote.
Under our current patchwork of election laws, each state (and sometimes each county) has a different way of comparing voter lists to state databases to make sure rolls are “clean” and updated, These matching requirements could mean that a simple misspelling or misplaced hyphen could knock tens of thousands of eligible voters off the rolls.
In Florida: a controversial “no-match” law has taken effect, calling into question the validity of several thousand voters’ registrations filed after September 8. In Ohio: the United States Supreme Court rejected attempts by the Ohio Republican Party to require that Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner provide access to a database of voters whose registration information does not match state records. The decision protects 200,000 newly registered Ohioans. The Social Security Administration has sent requests to six states – Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio – asking that they investigate whether improper social security number checks are being run on newly registered voters.
In Arizona, a disabled veteran filed a lawsuit saying he was deprived of his right to vote last year because the military ID he presented did not include his address. Although he should have been allowed to file a provisional ballot, poll workers forbid him from doing so.
Poorly designed application forms.
About 6,400 new voters in Colorado may not be allowed to cast regular ballots on Election Day because they failed to check a box on a voter registration form. Voting rights groups have asked the state to accept registration applications that contain all necessary identifying information, but lack a checkmark in a superfluous box. Currently, the state is considering these applications “incomplete.”
Earlier this month, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to reverse her ruling and direct election boards to accept absentee ballots that lacked one checkmark on ballot applications sent from Republican John McCain’s campaign.
Purging.
The true impact of purging legitimate voters from the polls may not be known until people are turned away on Election Day, but we already know of instances where purging is taking place. For example, in Michigan, a federal judge ordered Secretary of State Terry Lynn Land to restore more than 1,500 Michigan voters to the rolls who were illegally purged based on undeliverable mail or because they applied for a driver’s license in another state.
In Georgia, a coalition of civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, claiming her office is possibly purging thousands of voters based on challenges to citizenship although federal law prohibits such activity less than 90 days before the election.
Deceptive practices.
Following allegations that a Michigan Republican county chairman said the party will challenge the voting status of homeowners facing foreclosure, officials in Ohio, Maryland, Illinois, Nevada and elsewhere were forced to quickly reassure their constituents that foreclosure does not exclude voters from participating in the election. In Indiana, Marion County GOP Chairman Tom John said he would not rule out challenging the votes of individuals whose homes had been foreclosed.
Students are also the victims of misinformation and deceptive practices. Students at Drexel University in Pennsylvania reported seeing flyers around campus that warned students that police would be at the polls on Election Day, arresting anyone with a prior offense, including unpaid parking tickets. Old Dominion University students registered to vote in Virginia received questionnaires from Norfolk election officials asking for tax, driver’s license and vehicle registration information. This came on the heels of similar misinformation by the local election board in Blacksburg, which warned that Virginia Tech students could lose scholarships and impact their parents’ tax status if they registered at their campus address.
Lack of standard rules confuse voters.
Georgia residents who mailed in their voter registration applications received official letters that incorrectly stated ID requirements.
These are just a few examples of the many problems facing voters in the days leading up to Election Day.
Ya think Fox wants to talk with me about any of the above tomorrow, other than the ACORN nonsense? We pose questions, you decide.
Ewwww, you’re going on Fox News?
I guess it is politics as usual for the GOP
Good luck getting a whole sentence in, Brad 🙂
Ed Schultz finally had enough of the ceaseless, typical Rethuglican-style interruptions & walked off. Good for him.
All these voting problems along with all the rest of our country’s problems came about with the [stolen] rethuglican one-party rule starting mid-90s.
They wanted so desperately to have it all their way for 30 years, they finally got it and look what they’ve done!!! ‘Nuff said, I guess.
Thank you for this outstanding compilation. I have diligently jotted and copiously noted. Will post it everywhere I can still get it up to post.
BRAD on FOX?! It’s like a dream but a dream I know is a dream while I’m dreaming it! Go get ’em, my cherished E.I. P.I…you’re the voter’s best voice.
Try to keep your sense of humor/ treat it like you’re perfecting burlesque. Loud burlesque.
Jeannie Dean, please add this link to your collection:
LA Times 10-18-08
Voters Say They Were Duped Into Registering As Republicans
Ah~! Kira–you Wonder Woman! Yes, thank you…
I’ve been meaning to find that all day.
I want that story to go viral … why isn’t the media talking about this story?
If people are re-registered in a different party, without their knowledge, they won’t be able to vote in the Primary Election for the party they think they are registered with. Wouldn’t that be a Felony?
Righto! Seems good ol YPM has perfected the black art voter slamming and LYING about it. Also read they were flagged for doing the same thing in San Bernardino, (close to San Fran) several weeks ago.
And as FLORIDIOT pointed out in another thread, not only does this bogus registration effort inflate the Repub’s impossible numbers and thereby decrease the perception of election manipulation, not only does this dubious practice
cause the voter to be disenfranchised for the next primary without their knowledge (and yes, even tho’ I’m still learning Cali election law I would think that would HAVE to be a Felony);
but it could also be used as a way to get a handle on the number of votes they need to “microtarget” and/ or “flip”.
Kira, I noted with interest the line in the article, “(the firm) has denied any wrongdoing and says it has never been charged with a crime.”
You’re dead right: then it’s time~!
You got it, Jeannie – I totally agree.
I was surprised the LA Times reported it and more surprised they didn’t end the article with a last paragraph that knocked the wind out of the story – like most articles we’ve been reading for the last miserable 8 years of the bush dictatorship.
Jeannie, I’m hitting the hay so haven’t studied this legalese – maybe you can look at it & see if it’s the one:
1973gg–10. Criminal penalties
A person, including an election official, who in any election for Federal office—
(1) knowingly and willfully intimidates, threatens, or coerces, or attempts to intimidate, threaten, or coerce, any person for—
(A) registering to vote, or voting, or attempting to register or vote;
(B) urging or aiding any person to register to vote, to vote, or to attempt to register or vote; or
(C) exercising any right under this subchapter; or
(2) knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by—
(A) the procurement or submission of voter registration applications that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held; or
(B) the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held,
shall be fined in accordance with title 18 (which fines shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury, miscellaneous receipts (pursuant to section 3302 of title 31), notwithstanding any other law), or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
Hmm…well, I’m no lawyer, but section 2 and 2a seems pretty darn clear to me. Unless, and I’ll look into it, there’s some freaky loophole in CA law, or unless YPM can prove they UNKNOWINGLY falsified voter registrations, then it would seem like this is definitely a no-no with real penalties…
That is, of course, if you have a willing prosecutor/ D.A./ or state election official with a heart of gold and a blood lust for teaching punks a lesson.
…possible. It is HOLLYWOOD, after all.