Arizonans Still Fighting Voter Suppression

[Willinois]

Arizonans Still Fighting Voter Suppression: Who Will Join Them?

Quote:Legendary Phoenix videographer Dennis Gilman released this short film on protests in Phoenix, demanding accountability and clarification on the extraordinary levels of provisional ballots and voting problems in Latino areas overseen by Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell. The final tallies, according to the Maricopa County office, is due on November 16.

They're asking for people who had trouble voting to step forward.

I was an election judge and there were about a dozen people who we either had to send to another precinct, vote provisional, or vote a federal only ballot. Mostly because people moved since they last voted and didn't update their registration. I don't get the impression that the county clerk was intentionally trying to suppress the vote. It's just how the restrictive voter laws work in Illinois. Multiply that by the thousands of precincts in Illinois and you're talking a margin that could make the difference in close races, like our Congressional race that was decided by 1,200 votes.

[sandnsea]

Federal only ballot? Does every state have that?

[Willinois]

(11-13-2012 01:35 PM)sandnsea Wrote:  Federal only ballot? Does every state have that?

I don't know. It's something Illinois started when Republican Jim Edgar was fighting motor voter laws. People who registered that way were only allowed to vote on federal offices. Now, it's used for people who moved within the county and didn't update their registration address.

[sandnsea]

(11-14-2012 09:09 AM)Willinois Wrote:  

(11-13-2012 01:35 PM)sandnsea Wrote:  Federal only ballot? Does every state have that?

I don't know. It's something Illinois started when Republican Jim Edgar was fighting motor voter laws. People who registered that way were only allowed to vote on federal offices. Now, it's used for people who moved within the county and didn't update their registration address.

What?!? Head spins. If these people spent half as much time trying to find solutions to our problems as they do concoting these scams to hurt the citizens, well who knows how well of we'd all be. That is completely a new one on me. And you know, IL is always one of those states you think you don't have to pay any attention to because it's all good there.

Using it for people who haven't updated their address is fine with me, a way for people to vote and not worry about wrong votes for wrong school board or whatever. I still don't know why people can't just plug an address in a computer and get the right ballot for chrissake. It's rocket science perhaps, but we can do that now!

[Willinois]

(11-14-2012 06:08 PM)sandnsea Wrote:  

(11-14-2012 09:09 AM)Willinois Wrote:  I don't know. It's something Illinois started when Republican Jim Edgar was fighting motor voter laws. People who registered that way were only allowed to vote on federal offices. Now, it's used for people who moved within the county and didn't update their registration address.

What?!? Head spins. If these people spent half as much time trying to find solutions to our problems as they do concoting these scams to hurt the citizens, well who knows how well of we'd all be. That is completely a new one on me. And you know, IL is always one of those states you think you don't have to pay any attention to because it's all good there.

Using it for people who haven't updated their address is fine with me, a way for people to vote and not worry about wrong votes for wrong school board or whatever. I still don't know why people can't just plug an address in a computer and get the right ballot for chrissake. It's rocket science perhaps, but we can do that now!

Illinois passed reforms a few years ago that at least made things better. Voter registration rules were ridiculously restrictive. It's a case where both Republicans and the Chicago machine had no interest in new voters showing up who they hadn't registered themselves.

I would love election day voter registration. At the very least there should be election day address updating for people who moved. It's a huge problem and I don't think anyone has attempted to find out how many people are effectively disenfranchised by those rules. I'm sure it was in the thousands this year in Illinois, if not tens of thousands.

[Myra]

Gabbie Giffords AZ seat was red on election night but the counting has pushed it blue. Ron Barber (D) is now 829 votes ahead. They are still counting.

Ann Kirkpatrick (D) won by 7,491.

[achieve]

Stand tough Arizona Dems.