Voting rights center says voters may be prevented from casting ballots

[Pirate Smile]

Voting rights center says voters may be prevented from casting ballots

By James Rosen
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Leaders of a voting-rights center that successfully sued Florida, Washington, Ohio and other states over their election laws said Wednesday that tens of thousands of eligible voters will be prevented from casting ballots in November.

Michael Waldman, executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School, said federal and state voting changes since the disputed 2000 presidential election have produced new threats to eligible voters.

Several states have overreacted to the 2002 Help America Vote Act, passed by Congress to prevent a repeat of the 2000 stalemate, by passing draconian laws and imposing rigid regulations on voter registration, Waldman said.

"Most of the significant voter suppression in this country happens not on Election Day, but before Election Day," he said.

Waldman cited serious problems in a dozen states:
.....
"These are not merely bad practices," Waldman said. "They are illegal. They violate the Constitution or they violate (federal) election law."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15511911.htm

[havocmom]

1. GOP will be pulling some very nasty tricks in high;y DEM areas

Palast on how GOP stole right to vote from black troops:
http://www.gregpalast.com/massacre-of-the-buffalo-soldiers

havocmom blast from the past on why we need to fear more of same
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1443718

There will be wholesale loss of right to vote this year, mark my word.

Think DEMs should get on phone in their local areas and check NOW to make sure they haven't already been scrubbed from voter roll. There will be enough new outrages come election day. Be proactive and check now to make sure you are still on list of elegible voters.

Think about all the laptops that have gone missing. Put it together with the fact that GOP has sent mail to folks they KNEW weren't home then used that returned mail to challange absentee ballots.

They are gonna steal this one the old fashioned way. They know we are on to their machines.

[Roy]

4. The sick part that I will never understand...

Why don't the Dem party look into any of this stuff instead of just agreeing with the Repubs that the people who raise these concerns are crack pots??????????????

It's crap like this that makes one wonder, why bother going to the polls and wasting a whole day standing in line. When the people you support will not even consider the vast evidence that your vote may never be cast or counted.

I just don't get it!!!

[havocmom]

5. Some in bed with same corporate interests?

And, are ya old enough to remember J. Edgar and all the files he kept on ALL the pols? With wiretaps and all of today's technology, blackmail has probably reached a zenith.

My personal theory, admittedly unprovable at present, is that Cheney probably has more direct ways to threaten any really dangerous rebels among the politicians of either party. The junta rules by using fear. Most fear is imaginary. Some fear is warranted.

My theory goes beyond Wellstone and the warning we give truth tellers to 'stay outta small planes'. My theory is spoken only to those I know and trust, but not on a public forum. But consider, through invasions abroad, malfeasance and neglect at home, tens of thousands of people have died. Cheney has much to answer to. He is unlikely to be willing to answer to any of it. What would his limits be? Limits? Cheney?

[Roy]

10. Lots of people Dying is the legacy of almost every..

republican president. I am 61 and yes I have seen all of the desparate, dirty and illegal tactics od the GOP.

[havocmom]

11. Roy, you and I should sit a spell on the porch and chat

Between the two of us, we could write a book and do some damage to the stinkers.

[Roy]

20. Would love it! N/T

[bvar22]

15. Don't forget the Weaponized Anthrax attacks...

..on the Democratic Party leadership after 9-11.

Those TERRORISTS are still as FREE and FORGOTTEN by the CorpoMedia and the Republican Government.

[havocmom]

16. Don't worry. MY theory goes WAY beyond those threats

How much nuclear material is missing world-wide? Plame was trying to keep track of movement of such items. Who shut her down? Would only brown terrorists be interested in such items? Hardly. There are no nations, only Corporations and independents. Wars are now all about power, not boundaries.

I don't think Cheney suffers with any inhibitions in doing whatever it takes to maintain control. Most people on the Hill do have inhibitions. Cheney wins.

[snappyturtle]

13. "There will be a wholesale loss of right to vote this year...." been there

yesterday! Long story short: My husband and I went to vote in our normal voting place and were not allowed to vote. We live within the city limits of a small northern MN town and were informed we should have received absentee ballots......we are one of many small towns who have opted for this voting method.We are out of state alot and I guess this happened during one of those times. Nothing in the newspaper about the mail in ballots though for this primary election. The place we went to vote is in the city fire hall and is the township's (of which we are in)voting place! One of the women behind the table at check-in told me, "Primaries aren't that important anyway." I answered: "They're important to me" and walked out. They subsequently told my husband to go to city hall to complain.....which he did. The city clerk laughed!!!
and said:"I guess you don't get to vote." We were steamed by this point.

A couple of hours later we heard on MPR that there was a lot of trouble "up north" with this mail in ballot option and people who did not get to vote could go to their county auditors office (ours 25 miles away) and vote. We did.......but how many did not? could not? We both voted in the 2004 presidential election in the firehall.....makes me wonder if we were nullified after we left that day. We had driven two hard days....1500 miles to make that one. I give up.

We filled out forms at the county auditor's office for absentee ballots for the November election....this way we know the top dog in our neck of the country got our applications. They also got really "excited" (nervous type) when we told them what had happened.

[havocmom]

17. Get thy to an ACLU lawyer! And contact the DNC NOW

This was only a test. The actual emergency will be in Nov. and it will be too late if we let them do this to American Citizens.

Let me guess... highly DEM demographics in your area? That's where it happens most, amazing isn't it?

[snappyturtle]

18. Oddly enough

this area goes repuke! My husband and I are highly vociferous in our opinions and people know that......it's a v-e-r-y small town! I have to get out of here and ask town's people if they got THEIR ballots to see if it was a "selective" action, if you get my drift. MN had the lowest primary turnout ever......and this was the state with the highest turnout in the 2004 presidential election. Democrats had some choices to make in this election but the Independents and repukes either ran uncontested or with little choice so that may be the reason. I will stay on top of this.

The county auditor told us what to look for in the mail before the actual ballot arrives: a verification of correct address! So we'll see. I WILL stay on top of this. We need each and every vote.

[havocmom]

19. Glad to see you are curious if it was 'selective'

;) Smart cookie.

I live in an extremely GOP dominated area. That has advantages, as their party assumes anyone in my zip code is a sheep. They call and send all sorts of things. And I pass them along to people who need a headsup as to what they need to address :evilgrin:

oh, and you have mail

[madeline_con]

2. Would someoneexplain how...

being able to prove one's identity is a bad thing at the polls?

If I.D. weren't required, couldn't ballots be cast fraudulently, voting for whomever the perpetrator of the fraud wanted elected? I could arrive at the polling place and be told I'd already voted.

What am I not understanding here?

[havocmom]

6. I agree with you. There are plenty of wingers who would like to claim

to be you or I and vote in out stead. So long as states have reasonable requirements for what constitutes acceptable ID, it seems like a good thing.

[Vincardog]

9. How many instances of VOTE fraud have you heard of? ELECTION FRAUD

is the problem. A lot of black people who were not allowed into hospitals can not prove their identity. How about the poor folks who don't need or want a Driver's license? This is just JIM CROW and POLL TAXES AGAIN.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

12. Also, what is the cost-benefit ratio for the supposed "vote fraud" ID

requirements? How many legitimate voters would be disfranchised for each instance of voter impersonation prevented?

Since the proven number of voters EVER impersonated at the polls is zero, the cost-benefit ratio is -- INFINITY!

[wildeyed]

14. Because there is absolutely no evidence that voter fraud is a problem.

About 10% of the people who voted in 04 didn't have traditoinal ID, if I recall correctly. So in the absense of any documented problem and because it would disenfranchise tens of thousands of people from the political process, these voter ID laws are a very bad idea.

Here is an article about the issue in GA. It is a bit out of date, but does a good job outlining a lot of the problems with this type of legislation.

http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=77344

[ShockediSay]

3. Prevented from voting? I smell more of Karl Rove nt

[ProgressiveEconomist]

8. This was the handiwork of Consigliere Jim Baker on the Carter-Baker

Commission in 2005. Jimmy Carter rolled over -- again -- and allowed Commission recomendations in 2005 to include "Voter ID". With no mandatory standards for states to follow -- thanks to the 2001 Carter-Ford Commission -- state legislatures are free to implement tricky Republican schemes to suppress voting among poor, carless, frequently-mobile urbanites who tend to vote Democratic. See http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/13/145049/554 .

[havocmom]

7. Real fear, because it has already happened: GOP using info

on which voters in mostly DEM districts will be away from home. They sent a bunch of first class letters to home addresses of black troops deployed overseas (gee, how'd they get that information?)

They put DO NOT FORWARD on the envelopes. When the mail came back undelivered, they used it as 'proof' that those soldiers absentee ballots should be thrown out. And it worked. THEY send troops away then steal their right to vote.

http://www.gregpalast.com/massacre-of-the-buffalo-soldiers

Think about all the laptops that have gone missing this year - all the data on vets, active military, people STILL without homes in NOLA and a whole lotta federal employees.

Having to show an ID is a relatively minor inconvenience compared to what the GOP is probably gonna pull this fall.