Hey, What Do You Mean I Can’t Vote?

I am amazed everyday I listen to talk radio and hear the stories of voter fraud being talked about.

Yet all I hear about on mainstream media is the story about the voter registration group ACORN. I find this ACORN obsession by the Republicans interesting considering that people like Governor Crist of Florida, once on Sen. McCain’s short list to be his Vice-Presidential running mate, says this is a Republican scare tactic. Even as the Republican National Convention was holding a conference call with the press to try and link Sen. Barack Obama to ACORN, Crist was in Florida telling reporters,

”I think that there’s probably less [fraud] than is being discussed. As we’re coming into the closing days of any campaign, there are some who enjoy chaos.”

It is only on very special occasions that I would agree with Republican Governor Crist, this is one of them. This whole thing is a ruse to keep the American people distracted while the Republicans are trying to have hundreds of thousands of voters purged from the records. Why are they doing this. Sen. Barack Obama and his team have been very successful in registering tons of new voter. So if the Republicans can purge more that have signed up in certain battleground states and create chaos at the polls on election day. This chaos will mean not only will some people not get to vote or be forced to cast provisional ballots, but others will leave before casting their vote because the lines are too long and there are too many problems. Understand that the rosters being challenged are in primarily Democratic areas.

In September of this year the The U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund released a report called Vanishing Voters:Why Registered Voters Fall Off the Rolls. In it they talk about the definition and purpose of the National Voter Registration Act that Congress passed in 1993:

Its primary purpose was to open up the voter registration process and enhance democratic participation. The law had several aims, but among them was protecting Americans from being carelessly or purposefully excluded from voting by being improperly dropped from voting rolls. Specifically, the NVRA established two clear and simple directives regarding the maintenance of voter rolls:
1. Election administrators may systematically remove ineligible voters from voter rolls at any time except within 90 days of a federal election.
2. Election administrators must notify voters that they will be dropped from the rolls if the administrators believe that the voters have moved to another precinct.

Some of the most disturbing findings of the study show that after 13 years of this law being in place over 50% seem unaware of it.

1. Seventeen states do not have laws, regulations or systems in place to properly implement the NVRA’s 90-day ban on voter List maintenance. There is no apparent pattern to the states that lack these protections, and they cross both political and geographic boundaries.
2. Eight states claim that there is no deadline beyond which voters cannot be systematically dropped from the rolls, a direct contradiction of the terms of the NVRA.
3. Four states have their own deadlines written into state law — all of which are less than the federally mandated 90 days.

In addition, we found that nine states do not have the proper systems in place for notifying voters who have been removed from the rolls if they are believed to have moved out of the precinct.

Another study that came out at the end of September from the Brennan Center for Justice, a non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on fundamental issues of democracy and justice. In this study they found three very recent examples where purging of voter records led to some major errors:

• In Mississippi earlier this year, a local election official discovered that another official had wrongly purged 10,000 voters from her home computer just a week before the presidential primary.
• In Muscogee, Georgia this year, a county official purged 700 people from the voter lists, supposedly because they were ineligible to vote due to criminal convictions. The list included people who had never even received a parking ticket.
• In Louisiana, including areas hit hard by hurricanes, officials purged approximately 21,000 voters, ostensibly for registering to vote in another state. A voter could avoid removal if she provided proof that the registration was canceled in the other state, documentation not available to voters who never actually registered anywhere else.

Some of these examples are examples of a new political tactic called voter caging. The Brennan Center report goes on to say the following about voter caging

Voter caging has been demonstrated to produce grossly inaccurate results and has threatened to disenfranchise thousands of legitimately registered voters. The history of voter caging is littered with examples of political operatives targeting poor and minority neighborhoods where mail delivery might be less reliable or where voters are believed to be threatening to certain political interests. In 1986, for example, the Republican National Committee (“RNC”) hired a vendor to conduct a voter caging effort in at least three states, intending to purge voters residing in primarily African American neighborhoods. Unearthed in subsequent litigation, an RNC internal memorandum discussing the targeting of Louisiana voters stated the goal of the voter caging program:

I would guess that this program will eliminate at least 60-80,000 folks from the rolls . . . If it’s a close race, which I’m assuming it is, this could really keep the black vote down considerably.

Computerized voter registration lists now make it possible for thousands of voters to be disenfranchised with a single keystroke. In more modern times, reports of intended voter caging efforts have surfaced in Ohio, Michigan, and Virginia. Because voters who are victims of caging cannot cast a regular ballot, purges of this kind pose a significant threat to the completeness of voter registration lists, and ultimately, to the legitimacy of our nation’s elections.

Which brings us right up to now. On October 14th a federal appeals court is requiring the disclosure of lists of voters whose names did not match those on government databases to be turned over tomorrow. This could force over 200,000 voters to be blocked on election day. They may be challenged at the polls and forced to vote on a provisional ballot. These ballots are not always counted and the voter will not know if their vote was counted or not. The Ohio Attorney General has filed an appeal with the United States Supreme Court.

This is not the only state being looked at. Their have been reports of Republicans using caging techniques in Florida and Michigan (where the Obama campaign actually filed a lawsuit to try and stop the tactics).

With hundreds of thousands of voters being stripped of their right to vote, something this country prides itself on and goes and fights wars in other countries so they can have the same democratic elections we enjoy, why is this not talked about more that ACORN or William Ayers? How is it that while McCain is campaigning on a slogan of “Country First” his party is trying to silence hundreds of thousands of Americans. Oh right because they probably aren’t going to vote for him. How can I trust a party that is constantly trying to silence the poor and minorities of this country. Continue to check with your Secretary of Sate election offices where you live. Fight to make sure you and your neighbors vote is heard on Nov. 4th. If for some reason you do face a problem on election day don’t give up stay and fight for your right to vote. This election is to important and they will not steal it from us if we stay focused and strong.

Lezzymom has two kids and a wonderful partner. Her political commentary has appeared on C-Span and CSPAN.org. Visit her Lezzymom blog for more of her insights.