Posted on 09/22/2004 9:28:39 AM PDT by Hi Heels
Millions Blocked from Voting in U.S. Election
48 minutes ago Add Politics to My Yahoo!
By Alan Elsner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Millions of U.S. citizens, including a disproportionate number of black voters, will be blocked from voting in the Nov. 2 presidential election because of legal barriers, faulty procedures or dirty tricks, according to civil rights and legal experts.
The largest category of those legally disenfranchised consists of almost 5 million former felons who have served prison sentences and been deprived of the right to vote under laws that have roots in the post-Civil War 19th century and were aimed at preventing black Americans from voting.
But millions of other votes in the 2000 presidential election were lost due to clerical and administrative errors while civil rights organizations have cataloged numerous tactics aimed at suppressing black voter turnout. Polls consistently find that black Americans overwhelmingly vote for Democrats.
"There are individuals and officials who are actively trying to stop people from voting who they think will vote against their party and that nearly always means stopping black people from voting Democratic," said Mary Frances Berry, head of the U.S. Commission on Human Rights.
Vicky Beasley, a field officer for People for the American Way, listed some of the ways voters have been "discouraged" from voting.
"In elections in Baltimore in 2002 and in Georgia last year, black voters were sent fliers saying anyone who hadn't paid utility bills or had outstanding parking tickets or were behind on their rent would be arrested at polling stations. It happens in every election cycle," she said.
In a mayoral election in Philadelphia last year, people pretending to be plainclothes police officers stood outside some polling stations asking people to identify themselves. There have also been reports of mysterious people videotaping people waiting in line to vote in black neighborhoods.
Minority voters may be deterred from voting simply by election officials demanding to see drivers' licenses before handing them a ballot, according to Spencer Overton, who teaches law at George Washington University. The federal government does not require people to produce a photo identification unless they are first-time voters who registered by mail.
"African Americans are four to five times less likely than whites to have a photo ID," Overton said at a recent briefing on minority disenfranchisement.
Courtenay Strickland of the Americans Civil Liberties Union testified to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights last week that at a primary election in Florida last month, many people were wrongly turned away when they could not produce identification.
BLACKS' BALLOTS REJECTED
The commission, in a report earlier this year, said that in Florida, where President Bush (news - web sites) won a bitterly disputed election in 2000 by 537 votes, black voters had been 10 times more likely than non-black voters to have their ballots rejected and were often prevented from voting because their names were erroneously purged from registration lists.
Additionally, Florida is one of 14 states that prohibit ex-felons from voting. Seven percent of the electorate but 16 percent of black voters in that state are disenfranchised.
In other swing states, 4.6 percent of voters in Iowa, but 25 percent of blacks, were disenfranchised in 2000 as ex-felons. In Nevada, it was 4.8 percent of all voters but 17 percent of blacks; in New Mexico, 6.2 percent of all voters but 25 percent of blacks.
In total, 13 percent of all black men are disenfranchised due to a felony conviction, according to the Commission on Civil Rights.
"This has a huge effect on elections but also on black communities which see their political clout diluted. No one has yet explained to me how letting ex-felons who have served their sentences into polling booths hurts anyone," said Jessie Allen of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.
Penda Hair, co-director of the Advancement Project, which seeks to ensure fair multiracial elections, recently reported that registrars across the country often claimed not to have received voter registration forms or rejected them for technical reasons that could have been corrected easily before voting day if the applicant had known there was a problem.
Beasley said that many voters who had registered recently in swing states were likely to find their names would not be on the rolls when they showed up on Election Day.
"There is very widespread delay in the swing states because there have been massive registration drives among minorities and those applications are not being processed quickly enough," she said.
Back in the middle ages, in HS Government class we were taught, that in the State of Texas if you were convicted of a felony (and not pardoned) you were stripped of the right(s) to:
1. Serve in the Military.
2. Keep and arm bears.
3. Vote.
If you were deceased you also forfeit these rights.
I guess times-be-a-changin though.
BS, pure and simple from the liberal leftist communist demoncRATS.
Not to worry.
Once we get socialism, no one will be left out, as the state will vote for us all, for the greater good.
If you thought AP, CBS, and the New York Slimes were biased, think again. Reuters makes them look like conservative news organizations.
Awww ain't it a cryin' shame?
PAW is one of the most hardline leftwing pressure groups around. They ignore an even larger group of U.S. citizens who are denied the right to vote...because, for no fault of their own, they haven't passed their 18th birthday. Many of them are black or members of other minorities. More racism.
If the democrats had their way, "disenfrancised" would vote based on their "constituency". Based on census and sampling data, there is X number of blacks in this or that city. If they had all voted, they would have voted for Democrats A & B and not Republican or Independent C & D.
This is what the Florida recount was about. It was to lay the groundwork for future elections that could be contested based on low voter turn-out. IOW, if the voters are unhappy with the choices, the Dems could go to court and have them vote "their conscience" by dictate.
Not much different than Putkin selecting the candidate to be approved!
Florida doesn't prohibit felons from voting. Jeb Bush eliminated this exclusion because an accurate list could not be drawn up.
Perhaps this rule applies only to this election, but it's the only one we've got at the moment.
Shoulda thought about that before committing a crime...
Comes from Reuters doesn't it? Naturally it is a RATmedia lie.
Ohio is one.
Actually, I think a reformed felon that can prove that he/she is truly a better person and doesn't get convicted of anything again should be considered to have voting rights restored after say 10 years.
Rules....the things law breakers just don't seem to understand.....
Rule #1 You must have a valid ID in order to vote...this is to protect your vote from vote fraud canceling it out...
Dear voters:
Believe it or not, there are some people who are not supposed to vote...dead people,illegal aliens,felons and other non-U.S. citizens for example...
If someone does not have a valid picture ID....or is unwilling to apply and obtain one...that person might be one of these involved in vote fraud.
Protect your right to vote...
go get a photo ID
imo
And thanks to Bush's signing of CFR, conservative options to respond have been limited.
Alot of people want to avoid discussing the military vote. Lots of clerks actually admitted during the last election that they don't normally count the military absentee votes unless the vote is close in county elections. My guess is that 10 percent of the military vote is never counted. Personally, it ought to be a federal crime, with at least 12 months in prison if any election clerk fails to count a miltary absentee vote.
I also have a problem with mentally impaired people voting. If Grandma is nuts and out of it...she shouldn't have the right to vote. Its kinda simple....either of sound mind...or else not. And I have a problem with all these absentee votes too. If you are in the hospital...then fine...if in the miltary or living outside of the US...then fine...but thats it. We have way too many people voting absentee in 3 or 4 elections...and getting away with it. Its illegal but we haven't been able to catch them. We need congress to put claws into voting fraud.
Did you say this was from Yahoo! or the DNC?
Maybe the author also thinks convicted felons that have served their sentence ought to be able to buy firearms, too
This "reporter" failed to mention the voter fraud that goes on among the Democrats. The voter "drives" where they submit voter registration cards through a 3rd party, then have them all sent back to the 3rd party. The 3rd party group uses these to pick people up on buses, hands them a card and tells them how to vote.
Don't forget the "for a pack of cigarettes" voter last time around.
Voting cannot be done on the honor system. Rules have to be followed...and we all know how liberals feel about following any rules of any kind.
They do if they're dead.
Gosh, tens of millions age 0-17 are also unable to vote.
As are illegals.
As are non-citizens.
Oh, the humanity.
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