07.28.08

What impact will displaced voters have on the 2008 election?

Posted in 2008 election, Elections, Voter ID, Voting Rights, displaced voters, voter registration, voter suppression, voting tagged , , , , , , , at 10:07 pm by bluebanshee

Overlooked in the discussions of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the bursting of the housing bubble is the plight of these formerly stable homeowners when it comes to being able to vote in the upcoming Presidential election.

The numbers of those who have lost their homes just this year is staggering.  Almost a million homes lost in the first six months of this year:

Foreclosures are up 120%. Some 220,000 homes were lost to repossession in the last quarter, and another 739,714 entered foreclosure in the first quarter. That’s one in every 171 American homes involved in what Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson euphemistically calls the “housing correction”….    http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2008/7/28/142127/083 Read the rest of this entry »

06.18.08

The votes not counted

Posted in Barack Obama, Elections, Voter ID, Voting Rights, paper ballots, politics, voter fraud, voter suppression, voting, voting machines tagged , , , , , at 10:13 pm by bluebanshee

Every election cycle in the U.S. there are votes that never get counted –but not because of computer glitches on paperless voting machines, as if often assumed. The computer glitches happen and no paper trail is there to give silent evidence of the missing votes. Much energy has been devoted to replacing paperless voting machines with systems that have a voter verified paper record without also considering the other source of missing votes.

What am I talking about? What other type of missing vote is there besides the ones lost inside the electronic world of computerized voting machines? The answer, of course is that the other type of votes that never get counted are the ones that never get cast. Tragically millions of votes are never cast in jurisdictions across America each election cycle for a wide variety of reasons –partisan dirty tricks, voter suppression, voter intimidation, purged voting rolls, misinformation campaigns targeted at certain groups of voters, or simply voting machine shortages in inner city precincts. It is these uncounted votes that never show up in the winning (or losing) margin but in close races can mean the difference between victory or defeat. Read the rest of this entry »

06.04.08

The GOP war on (Democrats) voting

Posted in DOJ, Democrats, Elections, Von Spakovsky, Voter ID, Voting Rights, politics, voter fraud, voter registration, voter suppression, voting tagged , , , , at 3:37 pm by bluebanshee

As previously noted on this blog, the Republican party has a long history of voter suppression, dating back at least as far as William Rehnquist’s activities in Arizona, long before he ascended to the U.S. Supreme Court. We have chronicled the effort by the Bush administration to foist Hans von Spakovsky on the Federal Election commission, an effort that, fortunately for American democracy, has come to an inglorious end with von Spakovsky’s withdrawal from consideration for the post.

One of the recent GOP tactics has been to push for legislation requiring voters to show ID in order to vote. To listen to many Republicans the greatest danger to the country is voter fraud, i.e., folks casting ballots they are not entitled to. Most often the boogie man is the specter of illegal aliens voting but no proof is ever offered. Read the rest of this entry »

02.18.08

Good news for voter registration drives in Ohio

Posted in Elections, Voter ID, Voting Rights, politics, voter registration tagged , , at 5:54 pm by bluebanshee

A federal judge Monday permanently blocked several voter registration requirements that raised a furor before the 2006 elections because many felt they unfairly hindered voter registration  drives.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/02/voter_registration_drives_will.html

This ruling might be misunderstood as relating to voter ID requirements but actually it pertains to rules that affect the ability of third-party groups like ACORN to conduct voter registration drives.

They required registration drive workers to register and to undergo training, to list detailed information on each registration form they help with and for every gatherer to turn in forms in person, not through an organizer.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen O’Malley blocked those rules permanently, agreeing with several voters rights groups that they go against the country’s desire to let as many people vote as possible. Read the rest of this entry »

‘People just really want to get their voice heard’

Posted in Barack Obama, Elections, Maryland voting, Voter ID, Voting Rights, election day registration tagged , , , , , , at 12:06 pm by bluebanshee

Eliminating unnecessary barriers for young voters 

Word came recently from Maryland that one barrier to voting by young citizens had been removed — at least in that state. The Washington Post headline says it all: “One Teen’s Campaign to Restore Voting Rights.”

Last month, Boltuck, along with her father and a sympathetic state senator, persuaded Maryland’s top legal minds to restore the right of suffrage to at least 50,000 teens who will turn 18 between the Feb. 12 primary and the Nov. 4 election. http://tinyurl.com/2pp3fl

Sarah Boltuck fought all the way to the state election board and then the attorney general’s office to attain the right to vote in the February Maryland primary. The problem that caused all the controversy was that the high school senior had not yet attained the age of 18 by the February primary date. But Boltuck would be 18 in time to vote in November and felt she should be able to participate in the process of selecting the candidates whose names would appear on the general election ballot come November.

“I thought that was one of my rights as a citizen of Maryland,” said Boltuck, who will be 18 in July. “I had assumed that when I registered to vote, it’d be no problem.”

She called attention to a little-noticed change in interpretation of state law. Maryland was one of nine states, including Virginia, that allowed 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they reached 18 by the general election. (The District does not.) But the Maryland State Board of Elections quietly halted the practice in December 2006 in response to a state court ruling. http://tinyurl.com/2pp3fl Read the rest of this entry »

01.12.08

Remembering ‘Being There’ … or why Chauncey Gardener could not vote in today’s America

Posted in Being There, Elections, Peter Sellers, Voter ID, Voting Rights, politics, voting tagged , , , , at 3:56 pm by bluebanshee

I have fond memories of the 1979 movie “Being There” starring Peter Sellers. It is a skillful dissection of politics and power where the audience is “in” on the joke from the beginning.

For those who aren’t familiar with this last Peter Sellers flick here’s a brief synopsis: the story revolves around Chance, a simple gardener who has spent his entire life with “the old man” in a big house where he tends the garden and watches TV. After the death of “the old man,” Chance, is evicted and wanders the streets of Washington D.C. where he encounters Rand, a wealthy business man. Rand takes Chance under his wing. Through a series of mis-understandings, Chance becomes known as Chauncey Gardener, whose utterances about gardening are interpreted as evidence of deep wisdom and understanding. Chauncey becomes a media darling who is touted by political power brokers to become the next president

So what does this movie have to do with politics today? Nothing, really — except that it illustrates the role of the media and political spinmeisters in creating a political candidate.

However, it also provides an interesting frame for thinking about citizenship and the demand for Real ID at every turn in our daily lives, including the vote in some states. Read the rest of this entry »