Discrimination at U.S. Polls Now 'Subtler, More Creative'

[Shallah Kali]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040825/pl_nm/campaign_voting_dc

The statement said the report, by the NAACP and People for the American Way Foundation, found that the kinds of voter intimidation found in the past -- discriminatory literacy tests, poll taxes and physical violence -- have been supplanted by other methods, including:


-- a plan in Kentucky to place "vote challengers" in African-American precincts during the upcoming elections;


-- the use of armed, plainclothes officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to question elderly black voters in Orlando as part of a state investigation of voting irregularities in the city's 2003 mayoral race, which critics said intimidated black voters, potentially suppressing this year's turnout;


-- the barring of Native Americans from voting in South Dakota's June primary after they were challenged to provide photo identification, which is not required by state or federal law.

[ochazuke]

1. The country has lost its status as a democracy.

It's a banana republic. This stuff is no different from the old grandfather clause, literacy tests, etc.

If this November's election is stolen, all of us will have to march on Washington. We'd better start thinking about it now.

Clear your calendar.

[mom cat]

2. Done. I keep a bag packed just in case I need to get there quick.

[ochazuke]

5. jp?

Are you in Japan?

I was in Japan during the coup de tat of 2002. I had been hearing that bush was ahead in the polls all the way up to election day, so I avoided watching the results.

When I was at a restaurant in Kanazawa, a map came on the screen and I saw that Gore had taken New Mexico and some other crucial states. I got excited and called home. My mom said "something's funny in Florida."

She got THAT right.

[cally]

3. We have to stop this

Let's put these folks in jail instead of 'settling'. The operatives who do this are criminals.

[Terran]

4. WTF is a "vote challenger"?

Sounds very sinister. Maybe these vote challengers need to be challenged themselves on their authority to be doing whatver it is they're doing.

And some people actually wonder why liberals and progressives are so angry these days...

[Shallah Kali]

7. Vote Challengers pick out people and challenge their right to vote

It is a way to intimidate voters.

[Shallah Kali]

8. article on gop using white vote challengers in mostly black precints

Some in GOP urge party chief to quit
Vote challenger plan is opposed
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/08/03ky/B1-gop08030-4809.html

Last November the party used Republicans from across the county to watch voting in 18 predominantly Democratic districts — most of them with large numbers of black voters.

(snip)

Burrell said the party's use of challengers has hurt his election bid because young African Americans he is recruiting to vote said they won't vote if they will be confronted at the polls.

Mary Hardin, who had served as a Republican poll worker for 13 years, said in an interview she was angry that she was replaced last November in a western Louisville precinct by a white Republican who doesn't live in the area.

She said she visited several precincts to see who was working and was surprised to see white Republicans in virtually all of the locations. "None of the white workers lived anywhere near the West End," she said.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. High praise for the NAACP, PFAW, and AFL-CIO, working in 12 states:

"The AFL-CIO, which represents some 13 million workers in 60 labor unions, plans to work in 12 states where the 2004 presidential election is expected to be close, calling attention to changes in election procedures, voter education and possible technical problems.

The labor federation will focus on communities in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington state and Wisconsin."


These revelations are revolting -- this is not America!