Lawsuit seeks to ban GOP poll monitors in black districts

The Cincinnati Enquirer ^ | 11/1/03 | Mike Torralba

[yankeedame]

Suit protests GOP poll monitors in black districts

By Mike Torralba
The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE,KY - Seeking to bar Republican vote challengers from their precincts, residents of predominantly black voting districts filed lawsuits in state and federal court on Friday.

The Kentucky American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the five plaintiffs, claims the Jefferson County Republican Party's planned use of challengers is a political tactic to reduce voter turnout in the largely Democratic districts. The ACLU claims the GOP plan targets black voters in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.

The lawsuits, filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court and U.S. District Court, name county GOP chairman Jack Richardson IV as the defendant. They seek injunctions against the placement of the challengers.

Political parties have the option of placing two challengers at any precinct on Election Day, according to state law. Their job is to question a voter's eligibility if they suspect the voter is ineligible. They aren't allowed to confront the voter directly.

Richardson could not immediately be reached for comment.

But state GOP chairwoman Ellen Williams denied claims that black neighborhoods were targeted.

"The challengers are in west Louisville because we were not successful in recruiting Republican volunteer poll workers in those precincts," she said.

Registered poll workers must live in the areas covered by their precincts. Challengers face no such requirement, Williams said, allowing them to stand in as poll workers if the need arises. Nearly all the challengers registered for Tuesday's election live outside their assigned precincts in the west end.

With just one full business day before the election, Kentucky ACLU general counsel David Friedman said he did not know whether an injunction will be issued in time. But he said legal action would not end when the polls close.

"Regardless of what happens - whether we block it Tuesday or not - this is an issue that does not go away on Tuesday," Friedman said.

A hearing was scheduled for Monday in Jefferson County Circuit Court.

The ACLU, the local NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus and other groups say the practice is intended to discourage people from voting.

"I have a strong feeling that these tactics will backfire," U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat and chairman of the black caucus, said in a statement. "We need to work on ways to expand the electorate, not suppress it."

[FreedomPoster]

Just damn. So they want to be free to continue to stuff the ballot boxes without any oversight, I guess.

[TheConservator]

The ACLU, the local NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus and other groups say the practice is intended to discourage ineligible people from voting.

Can't have that now, can we?

This is truly outrageous.

[KC_Conspirator]

The only thing this does is stop the vote fraud and keep dems from stealing elections and threatening democracy like they did in 2000.

[Senator Goldwater]

Having GOP monitors would greatly reduce the turnout of deceased voters, so the ACLU has a point.

[gitmo]

There should be poll watchers in every precinct.

[truthandlife]

FReepers Against Voter Fraud (Great Links to what the Democrats are really doing)

[upchuck]

Outrageous.

Political parties have the option of placing two challengers at any precinct on Election Day, according to state law. Their job is to question a voter's eligibility if they suspect the voter is ineligible. They aren't allowed to confront the voter directly.

So, do I understand this right? These race baiters are filing suite because the Republicans are following the law? BWAHAHAHAHAHA. Whiners!

Damned RATS must have awfully thin skin if they feel intimidated by someone who can't even talk to them.

[headsonpikes]

Dead voters are notoriously shy!

[Enterprise]

Yeah, an honest election. I wonder if the RATS will ever approve of such a concept.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Thank you for the ping list!

It's like an oil slick of waste that bubbling to the surface.

[Gumption]

Yeah, they're dead not stupid.

[upchuck]

Pardon me for ranting and maybe singing to the choir a little. But I have posted numerous times how important it is to get conservative judges on the bench. If these guyz get a lib judge, they may get away with this travesty of justice. The judge will facilitate their breaking state law. And by the time all the whooping and hollering is over the election will be history and the RATS may have won some close ones by deception.

It really is all about the judges.

[dix]

Thanks, I will read this when I get home tonight.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Voter suppression works for me, if it's those who shouldn't be voting whose votes are suppressed.

Try this: Park a plain white Crown Victoria outside the voting place of your choice, and leave it there throughout election day. Inside the car, a guy with sunglasses and a cell phone. That's all. He doesn't even have to get out of the car. Would-be voters who have violated their paroles, or who are late on their child support, or who have arrest warrents out on them, or who simply have guilty consciences and/or paranoia won't want to risk being seen by someone who just might be in an unmarked police car.

[Lunatic Fringe]

OK, can we ban Democrat poll watchers from predominantly white, conservative, upper-class precincts now?

[painter]

"The ACLU, the local NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus and other groups say the practice is intended to discourage
people from voting.".....MORE THAN ONCE!!!!

[FreedomPoster]

I like the way you think.

[rushmom]

Democrats don't need poll watchers. Republicans don't cheat.

[longtermmemmory]

If the ACLU was really so concerned they would send their own pollwatchers under the auspices of the Democrat party. Leftists.