Make sure your vote counts!

Republicans are trying to suppress votes; don't let them!

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  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 crush of registration applications.  Effective systems are currently in place for flagging duplicate and ineligible applications, but burdens created by this deadline-driven process could be eliminated with smart, federal voter registration reform.

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. Read 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. However, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, John McCain’s Southwest Ohio campaign chairman, has subpoenaed registration records for about 40 percent of the 671 voters who registered and cast a ballot between Sept. 30, when early voting began and Oct. 6, the deadline for voter registration.

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 considers 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 purging already 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. 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 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 warning 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.

According to Election Protection, these are just a few examples of problems facing voters in the days leading up to Election Day. For more information, or if you would like to speak to a voting rights expert, please contact Debra Greenspan at 202-741-5573 or Stacie Miller at 202-662-8317.

Also, The Miami Herald offers tips to combat vote fraud tricks.

Meanwhile, the Obama camp connects the Department of Justice's Acorn probe to the US Attorneys firing scandal. Read more here. Also see Keith Olbermann's report about the collaborative effort among the White House, Republicans and the McCain-Palin campaign to suppress voters' rights in the presidential election.

With all these difficulties in exercising one's right to vote, it's a wonder the US is ever called upon as an independent observer in "free and fair elections" in other countries. Do you think the UN and other countries will observe our election for fairness?

If you encounter problems in registering to vote or in casting your vote at the polls, please contact Election Protection at 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683).

P.S. Here's a story to make all "real Americans" (as opposed to the "fake Americans" the McCain campaign keep discussing) proud. Photo of Sen. Barack Obama at rally Saturday in St. Louis - attended by 100,000 people! - courtesy of Daily Kos.

Comments

[stephanie]

Voted! Done! Now off to spend a few volunteer hours on the phones....

[jeanie]

Certainly the Michigan rulings have been getting lots of play here, but it was disheartening to learn of so many others.

[rochambeau]

Before we moved,
we got it all together........
just in case!!!

xox
C

[Brenda Kula]

It would take a mighty mac truck to keep me from voting early tomorrow, the first day of early voting here. And I'm so happy about Colin Powell's statement today!
Brenda

[tangobaby]

Like Christina, I'm so grateful to you for providing all of these links and information. I also feel so fortunate to live in a place where McCain wouldn't even bother placing one of those phone calls to me, but it still astounds me that after everything he said in the last debate, his campaign would still run its nastiness. I'm sad to know that someone I know is being harrassed like that.

Seeing that photo in the Daily KOS was good for my spirit today. Thank you, St. Louis!

[Kamsin]

Most of my American friends and colleagues here in Japan seem to have already voted. Mostly for Obama. But as an outsider I find it both strange and frustrating that America seems to hold itself up as the model of freedom and fairness to the rest of the world when misinformation, corruption and general mud-slinging are just as rife as anywhere else.

[dutchbaby]

Dear Tara,

I come to you via tangobaby, bird tweets, and others in the neighborhood.

I'm so glad you posted this very important information. It is so sad that a this post is not about a banana republic but from the USA. How far we have fallen. I admire you for staying passionately involved even though you are abroad.

Thank you for a great post!

[Christina]

This is truly a wonderful thing you are doing by spreading the word. Our votes must be counted. We can't take for granted that just because we are doing our part, everyone else is doing theirs.

I woke up to that Milwaukee Journal article this week and got one of those automated b.s calls from the McCain campaign talking crap 3 days later. Yikes! I won't say I want to get away from it all, not until after my vote is in, but after that, I am almost sure a vacation will be needed. : )