Friday, July 21, 2006
How to prevent an Election-Day meltdown: what you can do. In a related Huffington Post, I pointed to weaknesses in cooperation and outreach by groups working on these issues. And I reported on a little-known new Florida law that could lead to tens of thousands of voters being challenged at the polls and not having their votes counted:
You can read more about this critical issue at this Tompaine.com article:
TomPaine.com - Protecting The 2006 Vote
Here, for instance, is a state issue that's not getting enough attention from the leading national reform and civil rights groups. A new Florida law allows anybody, including GOP partisans, to challenge any voter's right to vote -- too often a person of color -- at the polling place for any spurious reason, just as the GOP did in Ohio in 2004, and that person will be forced to vote a provisional ballot that won't be counted until after a recount, if then. As a result, tens of thousands of Florida voters face being denied the vote by organized hordes of GOP stalwarts challenging voters in precincts heavy with liberal and minority voters. So far, there hasn't been any lawsuits filed to challenge the questionable law and no pro-active legal strategy has been devised to launch a counter-attack, such as referring such dubious challengers to local prosecutors for violating misdemeanor laws against vote suppression or threatening the right-wing and GOP groups plotting these challenge tactics with counter-lawsuits.
You can read more about this critical issue at this Tompaine.com article:
TomPaine.com - Protecting The 2006 Vote
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