Voting Rights Activists Warn Of Chaos On Election Day

LA Times:

Counting down to an election day expected to draw a record-shattering turnout, voting-rights watchdogs are sounding the alarm that a repeat of the Florida fiasco of 2000 could occur in any of a dozen battleground states.

Lawsuits are already flying in many of these states.

...

The flood of millions of first-time voters could lead to crowded and contentious polling places across the country, triggering last-minute identity checks that could deny ballots to those whose names or addresses don't match other government records.

Read the whole story: LA Times

Comments

[scordsdu]

I want to Lead this country! This is shameful that there should exists problems with voting. This isn't a genius issue or even challenging for a Democracy. This is a Common Sense(Thomas Paine)1776 issue about Freedoms and Liberties of the People. Third World Countries and Totalitarian Governments have voting troubles.

[tonyj1600]

Tom Ryan explains what could happen on Nov 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGF-HEd6XnA&fmt=18

[Kerra52]

WHY is this not reported AS A SERIES on the MSM TV networks?

They should have updated reports DAILY.

What kind of country do we live in that the only ones who are reporting this are liberal blogs and liberal radio show hosts????

[Kerra52]

HOPEFULLY there is some help

Just in time for the elections, the Pima County, Arizona, Election Integrity Committee has developed computer tools to examine election databases created by the Diebold/Premier system. The EI group is offering to examine data from any jurisdiction in the country that uses Diebold's faulty GEMS (Global Election Management System). GEMS will tabulate about half the votes on November 4.

read here
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6587

And pass this website on to everyone. http://www.bradblog.com

The most info you will find on current voting suppression in the US.
http://www.bradblog.com

[Kerra52]

TPM has a page that has info on all the states and how the GOP is disenfranchising voters and if and how the dems fight back for the voters.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/republican_voter_suppression_a.php

[KaAp]

I voted on Tuesday in Orlando ... I went to the supervisor of elections office ... the wait was not too bad ... I asked if there was a receipt for my vote ---- I told the poll worker I was still paranoid after 2000 ... she looked at me quizzically ...
What did I see? After voting some people visibly crying (especially older African Americans) knowing the enormity of what they had just done ... I started crying too, and then my husband ... it was emotional --- wow

[bola47]

and the republicans want to force their brand of democracy on the rest of the world. no wonder we are considered a joke in large parts of the world. suppress the vote is the new republican slogan.

[wm1066]

Here in Minnesota we don't have early voting like in other states so the 4th is going to be really busy. And the State has not been active in getting new polling judges so you have alot of older people doing the work, and the state is making them work a 16 hour day. Talk about a perscription for disastor. Don't get me wrong these older people are great but they do have their limits. So on the 4th if you have to wait don't take it out on ther poll workers.

[Phil Waste]

America has been voting over 200 years and still can't get it right. I smell a rat!!!!!

The voting system has to overhauled and any who have tampered must go to jail.

Big fines and disqualification of canidates if cheating occurs.

Paper trail a must. How hard can it be?

[BassMent]

Ya know Phil, when it comes to ballot design, it's not hard at all to do it right. We have a wicked simple ballot here in RI. It's made out of paper. Each candidate's name has a broken arrow next to it like this: --- ---> It's a big, bold arrow, you can't miss it. You take a thick black permanent marker and you connect the arrow halves pointing to the candidate you want to vote for. All candidates for a particular office are on the same page. Ballot initiatives are on a separate page. It could not be simpler.

But it could be more complicated, especially when the folks in charge of designing the complexity into a ballot have figured out that they can leverage this to their candidate's advantage.

So, aside from having poll watchers in battleground states watching for disenfranchisement, we should also have people at the polls in states with misleading ballots explaining to everyone in line how to complete the ballot properly and not accidentally disenfranchise themselves.

Then, after the election, the people who designed the bad ballots should be tried for election fraud and imprisoned.

[ajax2]

DNC should have a two pronged attack. First law suits to bankrupt the corrupt counties and secondly boots on the ground to facilitate and protect voters.

[Felicty]

Many of us voted early.


Is there a way to check whether our vote was "flipped" over to the McCain filth?

[Mainer36]

Just the way Rethugs want it.

[got2Bkidding]

If they are going to steal 10 million votes, we need to turn out an extra 20 million. Get out and vote. Vote early if possible. Don't let something happening on the 4th stop your vote from being counted. Most early voting sites in FL are open on Saturdays, some on Sundays. They are now open 7-7. Vote early!

I voted early. I waited in line for less than an hour. Some people in SFL are waiting up to 4 hours. Maybe the longer and weekend hours will help. But there are a lot of people who are voting early. Be one of them!

[anti-imperialist]

Our country's voting system is one of the biggest sources of frustration for me. Our neighbor to the north manages to vote and have those votes counted in ONE day with virtually no problems! How?

BY USING PAPER BALLOTS AND #2 PENCILS!!!

Yes, that's right. People fill in their own paper ballots and then put them in the voting box themselves. Couldn't be simpler.

And imagine how many extra voting polls could be paid for with the millions of dollars allotted for voting machines! With all those extra polls, and hey, maybe voting on a weekend instead of a Tuesday (!!), people wouldn't have to stand in line for 7 and 8 hours to exercise their right to vote.

How this simple, simple fix continually alludes the people in charge of voting process is MIND-BOGGLING! A 5-year-old could figure this out!

I call SHENANIGANS!!!!

[idealist100]

Another stolen election would be catastrophic for this country.

Ohio - where the Triad organization is ONCE AGAIN responsible for the computer logistics for 55 counties - will be the most likely Republican target. In 2004, this is the company that responded to reports that voting feedback from machines in the field showed some serious anomolies -- and how did they respond? By rushing out and seizing all of the hard-drives in question, which, to this day, have not had any forensic analysis done on them.

So...pleas­e...please­...everybo­dy let Ohio and Triad know that we are watching them this time.

An election being stolen through use of sophisticated computer programming is a much bigger issue and concern than whether or not Obama wins. (that probably sounds like hyperbole, but really, much as I hope he wins....a permanently dismantled democratic system is the more serious concern)