Only "minor problems" on Election Day? I guess if you care only that Obama got elected, that claim is true enough. But if we really care about American democracy, we have to face the fact that there giant problems nationwide, with countless would-be voters disenfranchised, and not just in such infamous locales as Ohio and South Florida.
Here's a very troubling email from Jean Kaczmarek, who co-directs the DuPage County Chapter of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project. Right there in Obama's own backyard, several hundred Democrats--that is, several hundred that we know of--found out on Election Day that they had been deleted from the voter rolls. As Jean notes here, the local media, although informed, has not reported this; and there appears to be no state authority in Illinois empowered to deal with it. Does the Democratic Party care? More important, do We the People care about our voting rights? MCM From Jean Kaczmarek: The DuPage Chapter of Illinois Ballot Integrity Project has been collecting hundreds of names and addresses of citizens who were not permitted to cast a vote during early voting and/or were issued a federal or provisional ballot on election day because they were not in the voter registration database. We've also collected at least a dozen affidavits of people who swear they've lived at the same address for a long time and regularly vote, but were "not in the system" in this election. Most troubling are people who served as election judges in the 2008 primary who found that they were no longer in the system. So far, we've collected over 350 names; my co-chair, Melisa Urda, and I have collected these names. No telling how many people were wrongfully purged from the database, we've heard that tens of thousands were either purged or had their status changed to "federal ballot only." It was very difficult for Melisa and me to witness people at polling places being told they could not vote because they were not in the system. I chased down voters in parking lots of polling places. At times, I was so overcome with emotion, I could barely articulate who I was and that I needed affidavits and why. EVERY CITIZEN I chased down on election day filled out and signed an affidavit. Only one of these citizens was Caucasian. I also educated election judges at about half a dozen polling places on election day to please tell voters casting provisional ballots that they had 48 hours to present their ID and supporting documentation at the Election Commission so that their ballot would count. None of the election judges were aware of this tidbit. Only a handful of provisional ballots are ever counted in DuPage County. I am not convinced that election judges later conveyed this information to voters. In fairness, election judges have a lot on their plates on election day. We have brought this to the attention of the local media, but so far, nothing has been reported. And so, these citizens have again fallen silently through the cracks. I anticipated major problems in this election with DuPage's voter registration database. We were aware that tens of thousands of confirmation notices of residence were sent out to voters over the past two years; any notices which were sent back deemed voters no longer resided at those addresses. We are concerned that some of these confirmation notices may not have included apartment numbers in the addresses. If no apartment numbers are listed, postal workers are unable to guarantee delivery to large complexes. Over the previous year, I literally begged the Illinois State Board of Elections and the Civil Rights Division of the Illinois Attorney General's office to take action. Neither entity would take action or responsibility. Between the primary and general elections of 2004, 84,000 people were purged from the database in DuPage County. New registrations brought the net loss to 66,000 people. Meanwhile, voter registration was breaking records nationwide. Following the 2000 general election, there were news reports of "thousands" turned away from polling places in DuPage County; this matter was never resolved.. Incredibly, there is no central authority for oversight of the Illinois' electoral process. No entity has enforcement power. The only oversight and enforcement done is on the local level with the exception of one county -- DuPage. By law, the DuPage County Election Commission is a separate entity from the county and has zero oversight. In addition, we know that voter registration applications were never processed or not processed quickly enough in 2008. I witnessed people at polling places on election day tell election judges that they had registered the previous month, yet their names were not in the poll books or the voter registration database. I also witnessed people who weren't in the system because of mis-spellings of their name or address. If the error was found, they were able to vote, but it's not always easy to root out a mis-spelled name or address, especially in the chaos of election day. Often the mis-spelled names were those of minority voters An immediate investigation is necessary to determine why so many people were not in the system or were given federal or provisional ballots in DuPage County, and to determine if voter caging took place. A court order is necessary to review the addresses of returned confirmation notices of residence. Jean Kaczmarek, co-chair Illinois Ballot Integrity Project, DuPage Chapter --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. 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