This is a banana republic type stunt, a blatant attempt to disenfranchise and disrupt. Why is this legal, how can it be called a democracy when partisan thugs can intimidate voters at the polls? This election cycle is absolutely disgusting.
Posts: 1769 | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote: You want my honest opinion? The US of A is just barely a democracy.
Of course it is. It's called a indirect democracy. If it were direct we, the people, would make the laws not vote on people who make the laws.
Posts: 312 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Intimidation at the polls. Sounds like something out of Zimbabwe, not the U.S.
Does anyone know how many impartial observers will be at the polls in those three states? I've been searching the news but all I could find was this article about the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe, who are sending 100 observers to cover the entire U.S.
posted
This is so amazingly unacceptable... Especially considering how hard people like my ancestored worked for their right to vote. But how can this corruption be stopped? Like it or not, the system is corrupt and I HATE it!
October 23, 2004 Big G.O.P. Bid to Challenge Voters at Polls in Key State By MICHAEL MOSS
epublican Party officials in Ohio took formal steps yesterday to place thousands of recruits inside polling places on Election Day to challenge the qualifications of voters they suspect are not eligible to cast ballots.
Party officials say their effort is necessary to guard against fraud arising from aggressive moves by the Democrats to register tens of thousands of new voters in Ohio, seen as one of the most pivotal battlegrounds in the Nov. 2 elections.
Election officials in other swing states, from Arizona to Wisconsin and Florida, say they are bracing for similar efforts by Republicans to challenge new voters at polling places, reflecting months of disputes over voting procedures and the anticipation of an election as close as the one in 2000.
Ohio election officials said they had never seen so large a drive to prepare for Election Day challenges. They said they were scrambling yesterday to be ready for disruptions in the voting process as well as alarm and complaints among voters. Some officials said they worried that the challenges could discourage or even frighten others waiting to vote.
Ohio Democrats were struggling to match the Republicans' move, which had been rumored for weeks. Both parties had until 4 p.m. to register people they had recruited to monitor the election. Republicans said they had enlisted 3,600 by the deadline, many in heavily Democratic urban neighborhoods of Cleveland, Dayton and other cities. Each recruit was to be paid $100.
The Democrats, who tend to benefit more than Republicans from large turnouts, said they had registered more than 2,000 recruits to try to protect legitimate voters rather than weed out ineligible ones.
Republican officials said they had no intention of disrupting voting but were concerned about the possibility of fraud involving thousands of newly registered Democrats.
"The organized left's efforts to, quote unquote, register voters - I call them ringers - have created these problems," said James P. Trakas, a Republican co-chairman in Cuyahoga County.
Both parties have waged huge campaigns in the battleground states to register millions of new voters, and the developments in Ohio provided an early glimpse of how those efforts may play out on Election Day.
Ohio election officials said that by state law, the parties' challengers would have to show "reasonable" justification for doubting the qualifications of a voter before asking a poll worker to question that person. And, the officials said, challenges could be made on four main grounds: whether the voter is a citizen, is at least 18, is a resident of the county and has lived in Ohio for the previous 30 days.
Elections officials in Ohio said they hoped the criteria would minimize the potential for disruption. But Democrats worry that the challenges will inevitably delay the process and frustrate the voters.
"Our concern is Republicans will be challenging in large numbers for the purpose of slowing down voting, because challenging takes a long time,'' said David Sullivan, the voter protection coordinator for the national Democratic Party in Ohio. "And creating long lines causes our people to leave without voting.''
The Republican challenges in Ohio have already begun. Yesterday, party officials submitted a list of about 35,000 registered voters whose mailing addresses, the Republicans said, were questionable. After registering, they said, each of the voters was mailed a notice, and in each case the notice was returned to election officials as undeliverable.
In Cuyahoga County alone, which includes the heavily Democratic neighborhoods of Cleveland, the Republican Party submitted more than 14,000 names of voters for county election officials to scrutinize for possible irregularities. The party said it had registered more than 1,400 people to challenge voters in that county.
Among the main swing states, only Ohio, Florida and Missouri require the parties to register poll watchers before Election Day; elsewhere, party observers can register on the day itself. In several states officials have alerted poll workers to expect a heightened interest by the parties in challenging voters. In some cases, poll workers, many of them elderly, have been given training to deal with any abusive challenging.
Mr. Trakas, the Republican co-chairman in Cuyahoga County, said the recruits would be equipped with lists of voters who the party suspects are not county residents or otherwise qualified to vote.
The recruits will be trained next week, said Mr. Trakas, who added that he had not decided whether to open the training sessions to the public or reporters. Among other things, he said, the recruits will be taught how to challenge mentally disabled voters who are assisted by anyone other than their legal guardians. In previous elections, he said, bus drivers who had taken group-home residents to polling places often helped them vote.
Reno Oradini, the Cuyahoga County election board attorney, said a challenge would in effect create impromptu courts at polling places as workers huddled to resolve a dispute and cause delays in voting. He said he was working with local election officials to find ways of preventing disruptions that could drive away impatient voters and reduce turnout.
State law varies widely on voter challenges. In Colorado, challenged voters can sign an oath that they are indeed qualified to vote; voters found to have lied could be prosecuted, but their votes would still be counted. In Wisconsin, it is the challenger who must sign an oath stating the grounds for a challenge.
"You need personal knowledge," said Kevin J. Kennedy, executive director of the Wisconsin State Elections Board. "You can't say they don't look American or don't speak English."
National election officials said yesterday that Election Day challenging had been done only sporadically by the parties over the years, mainly in highly contested races. In the bitterly contested 2000 presidential election, they said, challenges occurred mainly after Election Day.
The preparations for widespread challenging this year have alarmed some election officials.
"This creates chaos and confusion in the polling site," said R. Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election Center, an international association of election officials. But, he said, "most courts say it's permissible by state law and therefore can't be denied."
In Ohio, Republicans sought to play down any concern that their challenging would be disruptive.
"I suspect there will be challenges," said Robert T. Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. "But by and large, people will move through quickly. We want to make sure every eligible voter votes." He added, "99.9 percent will fly right by."
Challengers on both sides said they were uncertain about what to expect. Georgiana Nye, 56, a Dayton real estate broker who was registered by the Republicans as a challenger, said she wanted to help prevent fraud and would accept the $100 for the 13 hours of work and training.
For the Democrats in Dayton, Ronald Magoteaux, 57, a mechanical engineer, said he agreed to be a poll watcher out of concern for new voters. "I think it's sick that these Republicans are up to dirty tricks at the polls," Mr. Magoteaux said. "I believe thousands of votes were lost in 2000, and I want to make sure that doesn't happen in Ohio."
Democrats said they were racing to match the Republicans, precinct by precinct. In some cities, like Dayton, they registered more challengers than the Republicans, election officials said. But in Cuyahoga County, where the Republicans said they had registered 1,436 people to challenge voters, or one in every precinct, Democrats said they had signed up only about 300.
The parties are also preparing to battle over voter qualifications in Florida, where they had until last Tuesday to register challengers. In Fort Myers, Republicans named 100 watchers for the county's 171 precincts, up from 60 in 2000. But Democrats registered 300 watchers in the county, a sixfold increase.
Nader Loses Ohio Ballot Bid
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 22 (AP) - The Ohio Supreme Court on Friday rejected an effort by Ralph Nader to get his name on the ballot, most likely ending his chances in the state for the Nov. 2 election.
Mr. Nader wanted the court to force election boards to review their voter registration lists, a process he said could have led to the validation of petitions to place him on the ballot. The court ruled 6-1 against him.
James Dao contributed reporting from Ohio for this article, and Ford Fessenden and Anthony Smith from New York
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
There were lots of problems with fraudulent registering. Do you allow fraudulent votes simply to avoid looking intimidating? I don't see how having people making sure fraudulent votes are not cast is 'intimidation' unless of course you are someone trying to cast a fraudulent vote.
BTW. the USA is not a democracy. We are a constitution-based federal republic (with strong democratic traditions)
posted
I hope we are all expressing disgust for both sides? While the article makes the democrat side sound heroic, the fact is I doubt it will be a struggle for them to install their own. This is apparently something that is permitted in our system. I applaud Syn for including the blurb about Nader.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Why exactly is this a problem? Fraudulent registering of voters has a long and dark history in the voter fraud annals of history. It's also something allowed by the voter regulations - see the part where they have a mechanism for registering poll watchers.
So could someone please explain exactly how allowing candidates to observe polling places and try to ensure voters are legally registered is a bad thing? I understand it has something to do with intimidation, but what, exactly?.
posted
Why couldn't voter records be checked before the election? Compare the list against real estate records or something? Why install people to stand around polling places? And how, exactly, will they determine which voters to confront?
The early voting locations have (around here, anyway) become fight zones where supporters are free to hang around in front of the locations and harangue people coming in to vote. Apparently early voting doesn't carry the same restrictions against harrassment that the election day polls do.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Don't worry folks, this election is going to be decided by lawyers. That's right. You'll all be in good hands. Posts: 1592 | Registered: May 2000
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quote:The recruits will be trained next week, said Mr. Trakas, who added that he had not decided whether to open the training sessions to the public or reporters. Among other things, he said, the recruits will be taught how to challenge mentally disabled voters who are assisted by anyone other than their legal guardians. In previous elections, he said, bus drivers who had taken group-home residents to polling places often helped them vote.
I'm betting this would catch Stephen's eye, too.
Chris Bridges, this may be relevant:
quote:State law varies widely on voter challenges. In Colorado, challenged voters can sign an oath that they are indeed qualified to vote; voters found to have lied could be prosecuted, but their votes would still be counted. In Wisconsin, it is the challenger who must sign an oath stating the grounds for a challenge.
"You need personal knowledge," said Kevin J. Kennedy, executive director of the Wisconsin State Elections Board. "You can't say they don't look American or don't speak English."
Yay for Wisconsin. Another yay for Wisconsin, this time from the grassroots:
quote:Eliminate Voting Barriers For Disabled
Consider three facts. First, about 16 percent of Wisconsin's population is made up of people with disabilities and their allies, almost 800,000 people. Second, although the numbers have been going up, people with disabilities vote at rates about 15 percentage points lower than the general population. Third, when we do vote, one of every four voters with a disability identifies themselves primarily as a person with a disability - instead of, for example, a Democrat or Republican -- and evaluates candidates based on their position on disabilities issues. People with disabilities and their allies are a potent and largely untapped political force. ... This fall, a collaborative non-partisan effort spearheaded by the Wisconsin Coalition for Advocacy (WCA) and the Wisconsin Council on Developmental Disabilities (WCDD) set about to do just that. The Wisconsin Disability Vote project seeks to break down barriers that keep people with disabilities from the polls and to measurably increase turnout from the disabilities community on Nov. 2.
The project focuses in two areas:
* Voting rights -- a curriculum was developed and offered at six workshops around the state. People with disabilities and their allies learned about voting rights, barriers to voting and how to ensure equal access at polling places. City clerks spoke about the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and local efforts to ensure access. Experts offered practical advice on organizing and conducting get-out-the-vote drives.
* A targeted get-out-the-vote effort ...
The reasons people with disabilities don't vote range from the physical - basic access to the polling places is all-too-often limited - to cultural. Many people with disabilities do not feel as if they are a part of any community. Many are skeptical of their ability to influence the political process.
Voting does more than help elect officeholders. Through the act of voting, and through projects such as this one which help measure our participation, groups and individuals enfranchise themselves as active players in the world of ideas and in the arenas where policy decisions get made. On the issues that matter most to the lives of people with disabilities and their allies, we will fare better if more of us vote.
There are also over a hundred volunteers who will be going from polling place to polling place to assess for access and other problems as voting takes place.
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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