voter disenfranchisement

Update: From William Wilson, Orangeburg County Branch President, NAACP. Apparently this problem was foreseen and the NAACP received assurances that these students would be able to vote.

“I presented to the Legislative Delegation my concern about people not getting their registration cards when we knew we registered them in a timely manner, including absentee ballots, etc. The other concern I presented to them was the situation at SC State and Calflin University. They had those students not voting on campus, which was Ward 4, although they confirmed that Ward 4 was on campus. With all those students that registered and changed their registration to Orangeberg County, they assured me the problem had been taken care of. Today we’re experiencing all kinds of problems, they’re not on the books, sending them to other polling places, and telling them to vote by provisional ballot.

We stopped the provisional ballot voting real early, but still they’re often not on the books and these kids are getting real frustrated. Now we’re trying to get these kids out of their dorms to come back and vote.

The issue is that the ones that get their registration cards, they put the school’s address on the cards, and not the PO box or dorm street address. On some they have the school’s address and they’re the ones having problems. According to the county’s Voter Registration Director, Howard Jackson, a batch of those registrations were sent to Columbia to be keyed into the system. If that is the case, the election commission in Columbia would not have a clue about the geographic location of the students, which may be the nucleus of the problem. The problem is what they have on the books for the students and what they have on the registration card is two different addresses.

We challenged it, and now they’re being sent to another precinct, or they’re being told to go to the Voter Registration office to vote. We’re trying to locate these students and transport them to the Voter Registration office. The issue is…some of them don’t even have their cards. All day long we’ve been transporting students down to the office to get their cards, once they had verified they were actually registered to vote.

I’m really proud of these kids for standing in long lines in the rain, etc, and being so determined to vote. But this is a letdown to them when they get up there to vote and are told they have to go somewhere else to vote. This is what the Legislative Delegation told me would not be a problem.”

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From the NAACP Youth and College Division:

From: Alethea Howard, NAACP Youth and College Division
404-428-8597

South Carolina State – polling site was never set up
Students being redirected to Howard E Middle School

- Enterprise Rental Car helping shuttle students back and forth

- Howard E Middle School is closer than first location they were redirected to, Whitaker Elementary, which is a 30 min drive away

From: Mr Akeem Brown, Political Action Chair for South Carolina NAACP Youth and College Division – ON LOCATION AT SC STATE
803-347-3160

"I'm here at SC State in the Fine Arts Center. Students were deterred because when they went to Smith Hammond Middleton Center (SHM), where they were told to go to vote on campus, they were told they have to go to Howard E Middle School or Whitaker Elementary School.

NAACP is working on shuttling students back and forth, preferably to Howard E Middle School or to the election office to cast provisional ballots. We're doing whatever we can to make sure they cast a regular ballot and not a provisional ballot.

Right now the NAACP Branch President is meeting with Howard Jackson, a local election official, to get the situation solved. We don't want anyone to get students to cast provisional ballots. Once people get to polling places they are finding that they ARE on the rolls.

They were told they could vote on campus at SMH. What's confusing is that the school across the yard, Claflin University, their students are able to vote at SMH. We're trying to figure out who gave the SC State students the information that their polling place was on campus."

These schools are located in Orangeburg, SC

Lawyer – William Wilson, branch president working with Lawyers Committee and EP Colaition
Sharon Daniels - documentarian

Update II: This is also confirmed in Montana. While most people won't be fooled by this, the influx of first time voters, many connected to the election via Obama's text program, and reports of long lines conveyed by these texts, could depress turnout.

Update: Florida is confirmed and the message is much the same as that from the George Mason email. No word on where these are originating.
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Stories are beginning to break that young voters - particularly students - are receiving fraudulent emails and text messages that provide misinformation about the day, time and location that students should vote.

Ben Smith reports on an email sent to George Mason University students:

A George Mason University student forwards over a pair of emails that went out to the student body of the Virginia school:

First:

-----Original Message-----
From: ANNOUNCE04-L on behalf of Office of the Provost
Sent: Tue 11/4/2008 1:16 AM
To: ANNOUNCE04-L@mail04.gmu.edu
Subject: Election Day Update

To the Mason Community:

Please note that election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost

And then:

-----Original Message-----
From: Office of the Provost on behalf of Office of the Provost
Sent: Tue 11/4/2008 8:08 AM
To: PROVOSTOFFICE-L@mail04.gmu.edu
Subject: Urgent Voting Information

Dear Colleagues,

It has come to my attention early this morning that a message was hacked into the system fraudulently stating that election day has been moved. I am sure everybody realizes this is a hoax, it is also a serious offense and we are looking into it. Please be reminded that election day is today, November 4th.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost

In Austin and Houston, young voters are receiving text messages saying that Obama supporters should vote tomorrow do to long lines.

I'm also hearing - and various people are working to confirm - that young voters in Florida and Montana are receiving similar text messages. I'll update you when we get confirmation on this.

See Luke Russert's special report that aired on the Today Show this morning featuring Matthew Segal of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment.

From last night's Rachel Maddow show, Matthew Segal from the Student Association for Voter Empowerment making the rounds on the talk shows spreading his message of youth power and the disproportionate disenfranchisement they face year after year.

Please note, the assumption that seniors vote more than youth was disproved in 2006 when young voters 18-29 surpassed the 65+ voters.

Our favorite Student Voting Rights advocate Matthew Segal of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment battled out unfair ID Laws on Fox's Morning show this AM.

Oh what a difference some perspective makes. Ben Smith, bless him, has a great picture on Politico this great picture

And includes these little tid-bits

"The beleaguered Democratic-leaning community group Acorn sends over this photograph: John McCain, in March of 2006, sitting beside Florida Rep. Kendrick Meek at an event Acorn co-sponsored in Florida.

The immigration event, which other photos show was packed with red-shirted Acorn member, was co-sponsored by the local Catholic Archdiocese, the SEIU, and other groups.

McCain, still spiting much of his party on immigration at the time, was the headliner.

Bertha Lewis, Acorn's chief organizer, said in a statement that came with the photo, “It has deeply saddened us to see Senator McCain abandon his historic support for ACORN and our efforts to support the goals of low-income Americans."

”We are sure that the extremists he is trying to get into a froth will be even more excited to learn that John McCain stood shoulder to shoulder with ACORN, at an ACORN co-sponsored event, to promote immigration reform," she said."

Then there is this:

Matthew Segal from SAVE sent me this video of a debate that his organization the Student Association for Voter Empowerment had with the College Republicans three months ago. In the debate, Segal remembered that the GOP was attacking ACORN spreading the same misinformation they are today. As you can see in the short clip the allegations are thrown out there, and Segal corrects the record for what ACORN really does.

The conservative republican blog Political Party Poop (despite not being able to come up with a polite name for their blog) is attacking me for my account of the truth behind the attacks against ACORN in swing states across the country.

Interestingly the site does not refute any of the accusations and clearifications on election laws that I present in my argument. Instead it continues to call me names and point fingers at ACORN.

Much like the leader of their party, the law and the facts are inconsequential.

New evidence that this is a partisan ploy to disenfranchise thousands of voters in swing states is surfacing every few hours. Notably, this piece which talks about the Ohio Sheriff I mentioned in yesterday's post. The Sheriff has now been told that he is not allowed to follow students and ask them about their voter registration. Seems this is "unlawful intimidation" which is protected under the Voting Rights Act and National Voter Registration Act.

"Fischer, a Republican, told reporters in Ohio that he was launching an investigation into concerns about college students who took advantage of a week-long window in Ohio this fall where they could register to vote and then submit an in-person absentee ballot."

MSNBC reported on this but neglected to mention election laws and ACORN following them.... The piece quotes Doug Lewis, the executive director of the nonpartisan National Association of Election Officials who "testified before the House Judiciary Committee last month."

“This unfettered, unbounded, unregulated use of third-party registrations, where they sit on those registrations right until the end and try to turn them all in at the very last minute — it just screws up the system,” Lewis told the committee. “It disenfranchises voters. It's one of those things that just is frustrating to us as elections officials.”

Lewis added that in his years as an election official he has seen both Democrats and Republicans “dumping in” new voter registration cards at the last minute before a state’s voter registration deadline. “The problem is that these groups all think that they're going to surprise the other campaign with how many people they've registered.”

One should note that the National Association of Election Officials is an unfettered, unbound, unregulated, third party organization. If you read Mr. Lewis's testimony from 2007 (pdf) before the Senate Committee you'll find further need for concern. Mr. Lewis believes that election laws should never be the concern of the federal government because states have so many different laws and as such, regulations should be left up to Election Officials to handle. No disrespect to Mr. Lewis, but we've tried that... it doesn't seem to be working. It also wouldn't allow for regulation of people who believe that 3rd party voter registration is a bad idea.

Now, if we just had universal voter registration, that would certainly solve everything. Can we get the GOP on record of supporting this in efforts to avoid fraud?

To see the whole story on this see previous blog here

Friday Night on Larry King both conservatives Joe "Pags" Pagliarulo and Jonah Goldberg say that ACORN is lying about their actions in registering voters.

Once again - ACORN is required by law to turn in every voter registration form. They flag the ones they believe are not real or accurate, and ACORN stated before this video was cut that they went so far as to communicate to these BOE's what was going on.

The ACORN spokesperson also said that every two weeks ACORN turns in voter registration forms, so the fact that these folks are just now coming out with there being "problems" is suspect because the most recent registration documents are only the last two weeks - so how is it that they have such HUGE stacks of people from way back when that they are only NOW beginning to talk about?

UPDATE: Now John McCain's campaign is attacking Obama for being associated with ACORN

UPDATE II: Please also see Friday night's Larry King, I'm working on getting the actual statement ACORN gave in the interview, but here's the post, spin. Stephanie is right on the money.

All day the mainstream news has been reporting the so-called Voter Fraud on the part of ACORN that has registered over 1.2 million people to vote in low income areas of the country.

THE FACTS: - all people who do voter registration are REQUIRED BY LAW to turn in the forms that they receive, whether they are valid or not.

What ACORN does when they register someone to vote is then turn around and verify that the person is who they say they are. When the person can't be found ACORN then flags them as suspicious. When they turn them into boards of elections (which again they are require to do) those suspicious ones are flagged so BOE's can deal with them accordingly.

Where the controversy comes in is that this is all a grand voter suppression tactic being used to scare those same low income voters that have been registered by ACORN from voting because they think that their registration might not be valid. If you notice... these are being contested in very close swing states as part of a Republican ploy to slow down the process and scare low income voters.

The Facts: If Donald Duck did in fact register to vote - and by some miracle showed up on the voter rolls, the only way he would be able to vote as a newly registered voter is by showing up on election day and showing valid ID to verify he is who he say he is and lives at the address he lives at. Conducting this kind of "fraud" on a large scale would be impossible.

In Ohio the county is a rich republican leaning county where it is Republicans who are the ones raising the issue

"Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer and representatives of County Prosecutor Stephen Haller have contacted the local Board of Elections asking for the voter registration cards of everyone who voted during the six-day window, which ended Monday.

Haller is the former law partner of Mike DeWine, the former Republican senator who is chairing presidential nominee John McCain's Ohio campaign." The AP Reports

Here is a video from Fox News today where McCain is trying to scare voters

As with Ohio, the raid on Missouri was also a scam. Read up on the election protection site BradBlog who quotes the ACORN midwest director

"It's par for the course," [Ordower] said. "When you're doing more registrations than anyone else in the country, some don't want low-income people being empowered to vote. There are pretty targeted attacks on us, but we're proud to be out there doing the patriotic thing getting people registered to vote."

Republicans are among ACORN's loudest critics. At a campaign stop in Bethlehem, Pa., supporters of John McCain interrupted his remarks Wednesday by shouting, "No more ACORN."

PLEASE GET THE FACTS STRAIGHT!

ACORN verifies every single registration form, and when they can't, they flag them as potentially fraudulent before turning them into officials, as they are required by law!

Progress Illinois debunks the CNN Report here