Entries tagged as voter disenfranchisement
Tuesday, November 4. 2008
Tonight's blog is a last minute reminder to voters everywhere in the United States. Voters, please be prepared before you go to the polls. If you want to make sure your vote counts, then go to the correct polling place. Know your state's voter ID requirements, and if your state doesn't require ID, you might want to bring some anyway, in case there are voter roll problems. If you have a problem voting, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE. They have trained staff to answer your questions, supply help, and document the problems. You can see those reports as they happen, at OURVOTELIVE.
Thursday, October 23. 2008
This is taking software independence to an all new level. There's a surprise ending to this movie but you'll just have to watch it yourself.
Saturday, October 11. 2008
Several online sites are assisting voters by helping them complete their voter registration forms, even down to giving the voters the address to send them in to after printing. The problem - these sites got their information from the EAC, the United States Federal Elections Assistance Commission. And the EAC got it wrong. Under "where to mail voter registration form" the EAC indicates the states' elections office, when in most states, the registration form needs to be sent to the voters' County Board of Elections. Many states' deadline to register has already passed. From Facing South. Wednesday, October 08, 2008 In the rush to help new voters register this year, it seems that the McCain and Obama campaigns, as well as at least one other group aimed at young voters -- Rock the Vote -- have been giving out the wrong voter registration information.
What's more, the bad instructions came from the United States Election Commission website -- and voters in 37 states could be affected. ...But the US Election Commission website, on which the others are based, gives the state secretary of state's office or equivalent -- at odds with the proper instructions in 37 states.
According to the HuffPost, states with the wrong information include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. Voter registration has ended in 19 of those states.
For an example of what could happen, there's Louisiana: In Louisiana, the Secretary of State's Web site and literature specifically warns against sending the forms there, in underlined letters. It directs that they be sent to the parish (county) registrar.
A Louisiana Secretary of State employee said the forms addressed there would be forwarded to the proper registrar, but there was no guarantee they would get there in time to be processed for the presidential election.
But Obama campaign representatives in Louisiana, who realized the error this week, said they planned to contact the office, hoping to assure that incorrectly addressed forms were released to the proper registrar's offices in time.
BIG hat tip to Facing South, known for their investigative reporting. Book mark their site and check for their next work. We hope that state election officials will get these registration forms delivered to the appropriate county offices, but some forms surely won't make it in time.
Friday, October 10. 2008
So.....the election officials in Rensselaer County New York made an spelling "error"??? Would you believe that three (3) separate people proofed these ballots? At the expense of the candidate and voters, paid servants of the taxpayers couldn't handle the task of spelling the last name of the Presidential frontrunner correctly? Has the rhetoric from a campaign spilled over into the elections office? Ya think? I wonder, can these idiots spell the name of their own county? Rensselaer? Election officials on both sides of aisle insist error on absentee ballots was a typo By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer Friday, October 10, 2008 TROY — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's last name is spelled "Osama" on hundreds of absentee ballots mailed out this week to voters in Rensselaer County.
...Is it a Freudian slip, intentional act or a mistake? Voters are sure to have opinions, and one pol pointed out that the letters 's' and 'b' are not exactly keyboard neighbors. But even the county Democratic election commissioner is apologizing for what he calls a terrible mistake. McDonough said the absentee ballots went out to voters in Brunswick, Nassau, Sand Lake, Schaghticoke and Schodack with the error. ...''It's a little suspicious and at least grossly incompetent,'' the voter said. "If I crossed out the name and wrote in the right spelling my ballot would be invalid."
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Thursday, October 9. 2008
Oops. He told ya wrong! The Larimer County elections dept has been giving voters the wrong information about postage costs to mail in their ballots. The head elections official, Scott Doyle says he is working with the post office to try to prevent ballots from being returned to sender.  Mail-in ballot postage cost 59 cents, not 42 cents Return to sender ...“It has come to my attention this morning (Oct. 6) that the calculations determining the postage for returning a mail-in ballot by mail to our office were incorrect,” said Doyle. “In fact, the postage for returning a mail-in ballot is 59 cents, rather than the 42 cents stated in our earlier press release. ...This early catch also allows us to work with the post office prior to their receiving any returned ballots, to ensure all ballots are delivered to our office properly.” ...“I regret any inconvenience this may have caused Larimer County voters.” Larimer County Colorado Elections Clerk Scott Doyle on putting wrong postage advisory on absentee ballots.
Tuesday, October 7. 2008
Marybeth Kuznik, Executive Director of VotePA warns "Plan On Long Lines In Bucks Co, PA". In her testimony to PA lawmakers, she warned that officials that state there will not be enough voting machines in counties using paperless computerized machines. The state is basing its estimates on the use of lever machines, instead of considering the fact that it takes much longer vote on computerized machines. The Intelligencer backs this up in an article today. Is Bucks County more concerned about their own convenience and budget, instead of making sure that all voters can cast a ballot? Bucks County did not purchase enough machines, probably because they chose the more expensive electronic machines. Buck's electronic machines cost from 5-10 times more optical scanners. Bucks County's Election Director Deena Deen isn't sure how many machines Bucks County will need in November, but thinks the county would need 808 machines. The county currently has 765. But the state Elections Commissioner Chet Harhut recommended that counties using like Bucks that use the Danaher electronic machines should have one machine per 350 voters. Deen plans to allocate half as many machines as that in most cases. According to today's Philadelphia Intellgencier: Dean said polling places with 1,400 or fewer voters need two machines, 1,401 to 1,900 voters mean three machines and more than 1,900 voters require four machines.
Marybeth Kuznik, Executive Director of VotePA issues a dire warning about circumstance on the ground in PA: "Plan On Long Lines In Bucks Co, PA". Yes, we are expecting long lines in a lot of places in Pennsylvania next month. With fifty of our most populous counties are using DREs (all without VVPAT, btw) and with many of these counties having purchased machines based on an excessively high recommended voter-to-machine ratio, we know this will happen. My own county, Westmoreland (suburban Pittsburgh) is likely to be one place this will occur, but there are many more counties that will probably be affected.
Continue reading "Pennsylvania election nightmare: Long lines await voters in several counties"
Monday, October 6. 2008
Florida's last minute and selective enforcement of Florida's "No Match No Vote" law §97.053(6) F.S violates the Equal Protection clause of the 14th amendment. The law is only being applied to a certain class of voters - the newest voters - only those registering after Sept 8. The 10.7 million voters who registered before September 8 will not have to leap the arbitrary hurdles and barriers to voting. More than 7000 would-be voters have now been snared by Florida's decision to start enforcement of the controversial "no-match" voter ID law last month. Florida is throwing up every barrier they can for the newly engaged voters. Unlike 45 other states, Florida won't let you clear up the matching problem ON election day, by simply showing your ID. Voter ID is required in order to vote, yet Florida won't let you use it to prove your identity on election day! Florida says you have to either miss work or make a special trip before the election, or get stuck with a crappy provisional ballot and clear up the problem AFTER the election. A recent report by the Advancement Project outlines how states like Florida and Ohio had disenfranchised voters by over using provisional ballots, ballots which often don't count! Provisional ballots are not counted on election night, but for many, the election is considered over. Further, at least 30% of provisional ballots end up being rejected. The problem - The "No Match No Vote" law orders that a registrant provide either a drivers license or the last four digits of their social security number, and then the Elections dept tries to match that against the DMV or the Social Security databases. Often as high as 20% fail to match using their social security number. 45 other states wisely either never adopted the "no match no vote" law, or abandoned it. In his Oped Even the unverified can vote Florida SOS Kurt Browning misleads the public into thinking that enforcing Florida's "No Match No Vote" law will not disenfranchise any voters. Many through no fault of their own will fail to match. Reference: Amendment 14 - Citizenship Rights. Ratified 7/9/1868.
Continue reading "Florida's No Match No Vote Law Violates Equal Protection Clause of Constitution"
Thursday, October 2. 2008
Tests run yesterday in Palm Beach County Florida show there is a real problem with their voting machines. The optical scan machines, made by Sequoia, can't count the same ballots the same way two times in a row! They get a different count each time. Washington DC, another customer of Sequoia, is also having trouble with their voting machines, high speed optical scanners. Earlier this month, "DC's machines somehow managed to inflate the vote totals in some races by more than 100 percent, making up thousands of write-in votes and adding thousands of votes to the totals of candidates on the ballot." according to Government Computer News. Pierce County Washington found problems with their Sequoia precinct optical scanners and could not allow them to be used to count their Instant Runoff Voting ballots. San Francisco uses the same machines for IRV. What can be done to protect the voters in these districts, come November? Palm Beach County's ballot-counting machines off by dozens in tests Rejected under-votes and over-votes tallied; totals off by dozens By Brian Haas | South Florida Sun-Sentinel October 2, 2008 Palm Beach County's high-speed ballot counting machines couldn't count the same ballots the same way twice in tests performed Wednesday evening. As part of a challenge to a disputed judicial race, elections officials tested two Sequoia 400-C counting machines to see how they handled ballots they previously rejected as either over- or under-votes. Wednesday's tests were simple. Election workers took 262 ballots previously rejected by the machines as over- or under-votes in the judicial race and ran them through two machines. All of them should have been rejected again in the tests.
That didn't happen.
On the first two tests of 160 ballots, the machines accepted three ballots as good votes. On tests on 102 more ballots that should have been rejected, the machines first accepted 13 ballots as good votes and then 90 on a second run....more at the link
Sequoia officials did not attend the testing. It would be too embarrassing and they would be asked to explain everything.
Related:
Continue reading "Test Shows Palm Beach Voting Machines Not Accurate!"
Wednesday, October 1. 2008
CBS had a piece on their nightly news that addressed the issue of people who have
been wrongfully removed from voting rolls because of the exact matching
requirement of HAVA. There is no transparency in how these voters are removed from the rolls. Worse, 19 states are ignoring the federal ban against purging in the 90 day lead up to the election, which means disenfranchising more voters. CBS has two video interviews up on the site, "Vanishing Voters" and "Voter Purging". Red Flag On Purging Voter Rolls CBS Evening News Investigates Little-Known, Problem-Ridden Process That Could Endanger Your Vote NEW YORK, Sept. 30, 2008 (CBS) This story was written by Investigative Producer Pia Malbran. ...States and counties regularly update their voter registration rolls for accuracy, removing people who have moved, died, or committed a felony. It is known as "voter purging."
But, the new report by the non-partisan public policy and law institute, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law provides troubling new insight into the process. There are no national standards and as a result, the cleaning up of voter rolls is not as precise as it should be and eligible voters are often wrongly removed.
The Brennan report calls the nationwide process "chaotic," "shrouded in secrecy", "riddled with inaccuracies", "prone to error" and "vulnerable to manipulation." ..."Officials are making tons of errors, and voters aren't given a chance to correct the errors," he said.
Waldman also says some voters will show up on Nov. 4 who are supposed to be registered to vote and will be told they are not listed that way. If that happens, he says, “don't take 'no' for an answer. Cast a provisional ballot and call a voter hotline.” .... Read the Brennan Center report on voter purges ...more at the link
Marybeth Kuznik, Director of VotePA is worried about the voting systems in Pennsylvania. She has good reason to be. In 2004, in Pennsylvania, 7 or 8 out of every 10 votes for President were thrown away in 41 precincts. Thanks to alot of hard work of Pennsylvania activists, two voting systems were decertified. Unfortunately, the state has certified some different yet also unreliable voting systems to take their place. Marybeth, who is in the movie Uncounted, tells why you should see this movie, and why more of us need to host viewings of this movie: Here in Pennsylvania, we have been using "UNCOUNTED" to grow our
organization with new sign-ups for mailing lists, etc.
If this film can get citizens who otherwise wouldn't be aware of
those problems to get involved and put pressure on our officials that
results in improvement, it will have done us all a great service. To
that end, we are doing everything we can to get as many screenings as
we can.
Pennsylvania has decertified two DRE systems since 2004 -- Unilect
and WINvote....
Continue reading "Activist in "Uncounted" Movie Says Pennsylvania Voting Systems in Trouble"
Tuesday, September 30. 2008
The great thing about the 1-866-OUR-VOTE hotline is that you will get a live person to help you on election day. This hotline also coordinates with many others, so there is no need to worry about duplicate efforts. All you need to remember is 1-866-OUR-VOTE and www.866OURVOTE.org . You can get help at the hotline, and you can share your voting experiences at the website. This helps identify problems and trouble spots. Nation's Largest Election Protection Coalition Launches Hotline, Website By Kat Zambon, electionline.org. Posted September 29, 2008. More than 100 partner organizations prepare to help voters for November With record voter turnout expected at the polls this November, the Election Protection coalition, which includes the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Rock the Vote say they have prepared the largest and most comprehensive election watch effort ever undertaken. "We’re confident that we can help millions of Americans overcome obstacles to make sure their votes count," said Jonah Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections, part of the Lawyers’ Committee. The primary tool will be a toll-free phone number, 1-866-OUR-VOTE (and its Spanish counterpart 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA), a nonpartisan confidential voter services hotline.... more at the link
Common Cause is worried that the internet will be used for dirty tricks and deceptive election information. They are asking that you report any misleading or deceptive emails or websites to them so that they can track and expose these scams. Please pass this on. We've already seen how misinformation spread over the Internet can have an impact on the political campaign: the emails falsely claiming Obama is a Muslim; fake Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani websites with misleading statements; a website offering to register people to vote for $9.95, a process that is free; and the head of the NAACP having to release a statement that an email listing "10 Reasons Not to Vote for Hillary Clinton" supposedly authored by him was a hoax.
Will we see similar online misinformation campaigns regarding how to vote, who can vote, where to vote, and when to vote?
Think about how fast rumors and misinformation can circulate on the Internet. We can't afford to have this year's election called into question because of online dirty tricks.
If you see a website or receive an email with questionable voting information between now and Election Day, please let us know about it.
We're on the lookout for:
* Emails that appear to be from the Secretary of State or other election official, advocacy organizations, or some other supposed authority that contains false information about the voting process.
* Spoofed election administrator, government or advocacy organization websites with misinformation on the voting process.
* False information about how, when or where to vote spread through social networking sites like Facebook.
We're not looking for:
* Emails containing false information about a candidate, his/her record, or his/her policies.
Please let us know about any online deceptive practices that you see by going to www.commoncause.org/DeceptivePractices or forwarding suspect email messages to DeceptivePractices2008@gmail.com. And please share this message with your friends.
Monday, September 29. 2008
Ohio voters will get to both register and vote in person during a one week period through October 6 thanks to a ruling by the State Supreme Court AND a Federal Judge. This is a huge improvement in access for voters who 4 years ago faced waiting in line for as long as 13 hours! The State Supreme Court voted 4-3 that SOS Brunner was right and the early voting and registration was constitutional. This is a bi partisan vote, given that the 6 of the state justices were republican, and 1 was Democrat. U.S. District Judge George ruled that party poll observers must be allowed during early voting in the state's 88 counties. Brunner appealed that decision to a federal court in Cincinnati. State, federal courts uphold early voting in Ohio By STEPHEN MAJORS Monday, September 29, 2008 State and federal courts cleared the way Monday for a weeklong period in which new voters can register and cast an absentee ballot on the same day in Ohio, a defeat for Republicans who challenged it. The early voting window, which begins Tuesday, became a partisan battle in this swing state where President Bush narrowly clinched re-election in 2004. The court decisions were a victory for Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat who was criticized by Republicans for telling county election boards to allow same-day registration and voting through Oct. 6. "This ruling is a victory for all Ohio voters," Brunner said in a statement. "It should send a message to the forces of confusion and chaos that our top goal must be protecting Ohioans' voting rights." The Ohio Republican Party didn't say if it would appeal....
Friday, September 26. 2008
Florida SOS Kurt Browning puts lipstick on a pig in his Oped Even the unverified can vote Browning is talking about decision to enforce the "No Match No Vote" law during the last few weeks of voter registration. The "No Match No Vote" law orders that a registrant provide either a drivers license or the last four digits of their social security number, and then the Elections dept tries to match that against the DMV or the Social Security databases. By waiting until the last minute, Florida makes it harder for voters who don't match - to clear up the bureaucratic mess. The law will only apply to the newest voters - only those registering after Sept 8 are singled out for this database "verification". Many through no fault of their own will fail to match. The law won't apply to the 10.7 million voters who registered before September 8. Arbitrary? Unfair? Bad Law? Exactly! Boneheaded! 45 other states either never adopted the "no match no vote" law, or abandoned it. Browning says that no one is disenfranchised because the those who didn't get the matching problem cleared up can always vote a "provisional ballot". What Browning doesn't tell you is that provisional ballots are not counted on election day, in fact often arent counted for several days, or that as many as 30% are rejected and not counted. He didn't mention the recent report by the Advancement Project outlining how states like Florida and Ohio had disenfranchised voters by over using provisional ballots, ballots which often don't count! Funny, Florida will let you clear this up BEFORE the election, or up to 2 days AFTER the election, but WON"T let you clear it up ON election day. Your ID is not good enough! But you must have it or you can't vote! Hipocrisy anyone? Aribitrary law, anyone.
Continue reading "Florida's "No Match No Vote" Law Targets Newest Voters"
Thursday, September 25. 2008
Provisional Voting – Fail Safe or Placebo?
““Our investigation reveals that instead of functioning as a fail-safe means of voting, provisional voting often creates a serious risk of disenfranchisement,” Elizabeth Westfall, Voter Protection Program deputy director, Advancement Project. The Advancement Project just issued a report on how Provisional ballots, rather than helping voters, may in some cases be disenfranchising thousands of voters. The report focuses on Florida and Ohio in particular, noting that there was an over use or perhaps an inappropriate use of provisional ballots in those states. In some states (Florida is one) a provisional ballot only counts if the voter is at the “right” precinct. In those cases, giving a voter who is at the wrong precinct a provisional ballot will disenfranchise them. Many voters could vote a regular ballot instead of accepting a provisional ballot, if all they needed to do was go to the correct polling place or perhaps bring ID. Few voters realize that a provisional ballot will not be counted on election night, and will have to be reviewed and approved before it can be counted. Not all will be approved, and the rate of approval varies by state. Advancement Project Report Shows Provisional Ballots May Disenfranchise Voters September 24, 2008 (September 24, 2008, WASHINGTON DC) — Today, Advancement Project, a leading voter protection organization, released “Provisional Voting: Fail-Safe Voting or Trapdoor to Disenfranchising Voters.”...
Continue reading "Report: Provisional Ballots May Disenfranchise Voters"
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