blackprof.com: Protecting Your Right to Vote

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Voter suppression and election irregularities could determine which party controls Congress. Look for problems in tight U.S. Senate and House races in Virginia, Missouri, Tennessee, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Indiana.

I predict that some voters will face a variety of barriers at the polls, including: long lines (although not nearly as long as in 2004); poll challengers; incomplete registration rolls; and faulty new electronic voting machines.

Misinformation & confusion threaten voters. Some candidates and election officials intentionally or mistakenly give misleading information to voters. For example, one-third of American voters will be voting for the first time on new voting machines, and many pollworkers are uncomfortable with these machines. One candidate sent misleading letters to Latinos telling them they cannot vote if they are immigrants (in fact, naturalized U.S. citizens can vote). Georgia state officials send out notices that photo ID is required to vote, even though voters without photo ID could vote because a court struck down the photo ID requirement.

Fear and pessimism threaten to suppress the vote. When voters succumb to this fear, they walk right into the trap of politicians who maintain power by driving down voter turnout. The best way to ensure that your vote will not count is to decide to stay home.

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHT: 1) ID: Bring photo ID or several forms of non-photo identification when you go to vote (utility bills, bank statements). But go to vote even if you don’t have ID, because most states have a process for those without ID to vote. 2) Don’t use a provisional ballot unless you absolutely must, because these ballots are sometimes thrown out. 3) If you have problems, call 866-OUR-VOTE for help. 4) After you’ve voted, if you had problems please fill out the form below.

Comments

It's not 1956 any more, Spencer. I'm sorry, but you were born too late to be part of the big marches and rallies for civil rights. You can't make a time machine of wishful thinking and go back there.

There aren't people standing at the voting booths with truncheons keeping the blacks away. The voter registration system is broken. It allows non-citizens to vote. We have 12 million illegals in this country, most with forged documents, all of which constitute sufficient proof of residency to register to vote. This problem utterly dominates our election system mess.

It's not debatable. It simply is. If you want to live in 1956 instead of 2006, that's your choice. Don't expect a whole lot of sympathy from the rest of the country. We're not in your particular time warp.

Posted by: K T Cat | November 6, 2006 09:15 AM

I am excited to see how voting tomarrow goes. This will be the first time that I will be voting as an Ohio resident and since I live Downtown Cincinnati (which is predominantly African American) I wonder how many problems I will face. I plan to blog about my experience so look for it. namjablog.blogspot.com

Posted by: Cincinnati NAMjA | November 6, 2006 10:10 AM

How odd to portray Spencer as "wishful" that it was 1956. No, nobody today is threatening to beat African-American voters; instead, the powers that be simply (1) understaff and underfund those precincts, leading to lines of well over 1 hour to vote (long enough that many working people have to leave without voting) and (2) bar folks from voting if their names appear on "felon lists" that are known to be overinclusive (as in Florida, where names appeared on the felon exclusion list if they were merely similar enough to the names of felons).

In short, the success of the civil right movement has been to switch the methods of disenfranchisement from formal exclusion to more subtle methods of intentional and negligent exclusion. Those subtler methods are less effective than formal apartheid, sure -- but they're quite good at suppressing Af-Am turnout by a few points.

And yes, the sort of fraud Spencer recounts (false statemnts on mass-distributed blyers, "you can't vote if XYZ") is terribly common in various cites; I've seen it in Milwaukee 2004, and it's occurred in Baltimore and other cities as well.

So it's not 1956 any longer, but it's not the wonderful world you wishfully portray where everything is fine and we don't need to worry about racial inequities any longer.

Posted by: Scott Moss | November 6, 2006 11:18 AM

Two more points for KT Cat:

(1) You wrote, "There aren't people standing at the voting booths with truncheons keeping the blacks away." Spencer never said that. Debates a remuch more informative and meaningful what we discuss what actually has been said, not what your fictional straw man said.

(2) You close your discussion about "illegals" voting by saying, "This problem utterly dominates our election system mess. It's not debatable. It simply is." It's funny how you (a) mischaracterize what Spencer said to debunk it as an out-of-date conspiracy theory, but then (b) insist without any facts that it is "not debaable" that your preferred conspiracy theory (illegals voting) "utterly dominates our election system mess." I'm sure you didn't even see the inconsistency there, but it sure it obvious from the outside.

Posted by: Scott Moss | November 6, 2006 11:25 AM

Actually, it's CT Kat who's in a time warp. He's stuck in the stale state of denial about voter suppression whose existence whites have been denying since its advent.

Regarding voting by illegals, it may come as a surprise to CT, but many jurisdictions permit non-citizens to vote in local elections. As for those non-citizens who are here illegally, it strains credulity--even the low threshold of credulity for CT's posts--to suppose that illegals are rushing to the polls to aid and abet their discovery and eventual deportation.

Posted by: black realist | November 6, 2006 12:47 PM

Some actual examples of voter suppression in VA:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/6/1717/68014

Posted by: Scott Moss | November 6, 2006 06:39 PM

I wonder of KT Cat is even registered to vote. Voter suppression efforts are real and are happening today. In MD, the GOP issued instructions to its poll watchers to "challenge every voter". Of course, this will take place only at democratic precincts which include minority districts. They wouldn't think of challenging a conservatively dressed white male, but they will be out in force "challenging" any Black person they think they can get away with challenging without getting a beat down (like they were in Detroit in 2004). This same thing happened Black precincts in Ohio and Michigan in 2004. They also send out false information to Black neighborhoods telling people that they can't vote if they have unpaid tickets or child support or that the precinct has closed or that the election is on a different date. Don't be surprised if you here reports of scuffles with these poll watchers and poll watchers with broken car windows and flattened tires at some polling places tomorrow. The racist party that claims it wants Black votes will be out in force attempting to suppress Black votes. No its not 1956, its 2006 and unfortunately, the same B.S. is going on.

Posted by: cmoney | November 6, 2006 09:08 PM

There are 12 million illegal aliens in the country. Document fraud is pervasive. It's the responsiblity of citizens to protect their democracy. If that means you need to suck it up and deal with improved voter ID methods, then you owe it to the country to do it, not pretend that 12 million potential foreign voters don't exist.

Posted by: K T Cat | November 6, 2006 11:36 PM

I took this photo at a Special Olympics event hosted and staffed by students from an evangelical Christian school of mostly white students. It's a good bet that most of them came from families where the parents belonged to that "racist party."

Darn racists! Next thing you know, there will be photos like this. And then where will Andrew Young and his Asian-hating apologists be?

Thank goodness you have the ability to carefully filter the news so that only certain kinds of evil behavior get reported. You still can do that, right? After all, as soon as people see stories like a bunch of white, Catholic high school students from Nebraska who volunteer to drive down to New Orleans and help out after Katrina, your whole world view of political opponents as racists is screwed.

Posted by: K T Cat | November 7, 2006 12:38 AM

KT Cat, you're showing your ignorance--and hence your futility on this site--by chanting the same platitudes instead of engaging factual arguments.

Posted by: black realist | November 7, 2006 09:22 AM

sorry, Black Realist
I live in California and KT is right.

I have had a felony conviction on my record for nearly 15 years and I have never missed an election day.

I vote because if they don't stop me from doing it "eeFFF" them.

I know of several families of people that mobilized to Vote Mayor Villaragossa who were not citizens and while we all thought it was funny when he won we laughed because it shows what a fraud our voting system is.

The Factual argument is that as long as you have a working address, you can vote. In LA they aren't allowed to ask you for ID....

Do I care who wins an election, No not really.

In my defense for voting as a felon. How is it rational to remove a persons right to vote in a silly ass election because they made a prior mistake and DID THEIR TIME FOR IT??

The whole system needs an overhaul to comply with todays time.

P.S. Even in IRAQ they take a Thumb print HMMMMM
maybe thats the right idea??

Posted by: Nipsey Washington | November 7, 2006 03:12 PM

KT Cat, Just as I predicted, Republican operatives (homeless people bussed in from Philadelphia) were handing out fliers with false and misleading information to voters at majority Black precincts. Also calls were being made from anonymous sources telling people in minority areas that the polling location had changed and telling election judges that they had been reassigned. This happened in MD and VA. There were other acts of voter suppression in VA that were so egregious that the FBI was called in to investigate. Voter suppression efforts are still the rule in 2006. Watch the news tomorrow, theer is much more of this to come.

Posted by: cmoney | November 7, 2006 09:56 PM

A hungry belly has no ears... Ursula

Posted by: Ursula | November 22, 2006 04:06 AM

Posted by: Ursula | November 22, 2006 04:07 AM

To have a finger in the pie... Barnard

Posted by: Barnard | November 22, 2006 04:13 AM

In the country of the blind one-eyed man is a king... Vincent

Posted by: Vincent | November 24, 2006 04:21 PM