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YouTubeLouisiana Weekly wrote Voting Rights advocates say America is unprepared for massive turnout Nov. 4By Hazel Trice Edney, NNPA Editor-in-Chief
May 19, 2008
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - Record turnouts at polling places across the nation during the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton battle for the Democratic nomination have revealed a continuation of serious flaws in America's electoral process that could cause a fiasco Nov. 4, according to a non-partisan report.
"The report demonstrates that most of the state and county and local election machinery was unprepared for a real heavy turnout," says Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, a primary partner in the Election Protection Coalition that has manned voter protection hotlines since January. "It really demonstrates that our democracy has deep fault lines and is not being administered well...We are not prepared. We actively count on a low voter turn out and count on voter apathy."
The 15-page, "Election Protection 2008 Primary Report", jointly compiled and distributed by the Lawyers Committee and the National Campaign for Fair Elections, says lawyers and other volunteers who manned voter question and complaint hotlines over the past five months fielded more than 5,000 calls that include complaints and charges revealing everything from serious mechanical flaws to apparent intentional shenanigans and voter intimidation at the polls.
Few problems have occurred in affluent areas, but they are mainly happening in low income, Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Because Black voters typically cast 90 percent of their ballots for Democrats, mishaps at the polls could cause another Election 2000-styled fiasco in the event of a close race between the Democratic nominee and Republican John McCain.
Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion
America is unprepared for massive turnout Nov. 4
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lazyfish
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Posted 3 years ago # -
pixlfarmer
Dublin
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Awesome. Can't wait to stand in line for 6+ hours to vote like I did in 2004. Hopefully Blackwell's absence will help to somewhat alleviate these sorts of issues in Ohio. Honestly though the problems cited in this article seem more like a few incompetent poll workers rather than the sort of organized voter suppression we saw.
Posted 3 years ago # -
lazyfish
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pixlfarmer wrote Awesome. Can't wait to stand in line for 6+ hours to vote like I did in 2004. Hopefully Blackwell's absence will help to somewhat alleviate these sorts of issues in Ohio. Honestly though the problems cited in this article seem more like a few incompetent poll workers rather than the sort of organized voter suppression we saw.
True, I hope early voting really takes hold and the lines will be less long....it does not look like the ballot will be any less long. Remember all the bond issues in 04, looks like the 2012 bonds are on the 08 ballot, the school levies, the sick day campaign. Here's hoping Brunners office is more competent than Blackwells, or was that the problem with Blackwell that he was too competent if corrupt?
Posted 3 years ago # -
gramarye
In Exile
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I'm definitely voting early. I honestly don't understand why that hasn't become the dominant method of voting. Far less total time investment, far greater window of time in which to make that investment. Maybe people worry about packets getting lost in the mail, but that's really rare.
Posted 3 years ago # -
CaD
Dublin'ish
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Everyone shouldnt be allowed to vote anyway.
You should have to pass a certain IQ test level or something.
Too many people are easily swayed by stupid things, as simple as a pretty sign outside.
Seriously...somehow we need to make it so that you have to pass some 'political stupidity check' before getting your voter card.
Posted 3 years ago # -
blammo
in the shadow of the wonder of bread
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CaD wrote Everyone shouldnt be allowed to vote anyway.
You should have to pass a certain IQ test level or something.
Too many people are easily swayed by stupid things, as simple as a pretty sign outside.
Seriously...somehow we need to make it so that you have to pass some 'political stupidity check' before getting your voter card.
you may have just negated your voting privileges
Posted 3 years ago # -
osulew
My house...in the middle of my street
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blammo wrote
CaD wrote Everyone shouldnt be allowed to vote anyway.
You should have to pass a certain IQ test level or something.
Too many people are easily swayed by stupid things, as simple as a pretty sign outside.
Seriously...somehow we need to make it so that you have to pass some 'political stupidity check' before getting your voter card.
you may have just negated your voting privileges
unfortunately it didn't negate his internet posting privileges...
Posted 3 years ago # -
Coremodels
Really close to Explorer's Club.
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CaD wrote Everyone shouldnt be allowed to vote anyway.
You should have to pass a certain IQ test level or something.
Too many people are easily swayed by stupid things, as simple as a pretty sign outside.
Seriously...somehow we need to make it so that you have to pass some 'political stupidity check' before getting your voter card.
We had those, they were called Jim Crow Laws.
As I recall, they didn't work out to be a real proud moment in our nation's history...
Posted 3 years ago # -
Bear
The woods
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CaD wrote Everyone shouldnt be allowed to vote anyway.
You should have to pass a certain IQ test level or something.
Too many people are easily swayed by stupid things, as simple as a pretty sign outside.
Seriously...somehow we need to make it so that you have to pass some 'political stupidity check' before getting your voter card.
I have no doubt that that would be a popular idea, for the very reason that you mention in your third paragraph. It might ultimately, however, be more rewarding to retain the principle of democratic governance and make it work better by putting in the effort necessary to ensure that the population is sufficiently well educated and informed to make good choices.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Daz
Tweeting about some totally unimportant event
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Coremodels wrote
CaD wrote Everyone shouldnt be allowed to vote anyway.
You should have to pass a certain IQ test level or something.
Too many people are easily swayed by stupid things, as simple as a pretty sign outside.
Seriously...somehow we need to make it so that you have to pass some 'political stupidity check' before getting your voter card.
We had those, they were called Jim Crow Laws.
As I recall, they didn't work out to be a real proud moment in our nation's history...
Beat me to it.
Posted 3 years ago # -
gramarye
In Exile
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Fifteenth Amendment, Nineteenth Amendment, repeal of property ownership requirements, literacy tests, etc. ... what the heck we were thinking, anyway? :P
I'm not even all that firm a believer in "one person, one vote," actually, but the notion of having to take a test to vote is definitely not the way I'd change things. The way we've got isn't the way I'd design a constitution, but it is the Constitution we've got.
Posted 3 years ago #
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