Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
Tea-leaves from The Murfreesboro Post in Tennessee…
Some voters have complained of long lines in Smyrna and La Verge. Bill Butler a blogger out of Nashville (bill.butler.net) wrote he waited two hours to vote on the first day of voting.
“I would much rather our poll workers be accurate than speed up the line because some people are waiting,” [Elections administrator Hooper] Penuel said.
Butler said the hold up was caused by slow computers to validate the voter’s registration and that it only took a few minutes to actually vote.
“Most depressing was watching only two of the five voting machines in use because of the slow registration validation process,” Bulter wrote.
This is 3,292 voters voting in one day in six early voting sites and lines up to two hours long. What are they going to do on Election Day?
There is something very wrong here.
Just like in the movie “Recount” where the Republicans instructed their ballot counters to slow down the process and challenge every ballot so the recount would not be completed in time, these e-registration computers are going to unnaturally delay the voting process. It’s a passive way of ensuring fewer votes are cast (especially when the inevitable “sorry, I know you’re already in line but we have to close the polls” happens”).
I’ve seen on DKos already that the Sheriff in Milwaukee, WI has sent out a recruiting letter to off-duty cops, firefighters and security personnel to volunteer to “patrol” the polling places. Active and passive voter suppression will be in full effect unless we document EVERYTHING that happens at the polls. It’s amazing how much people dislike being on camera when they’re doing something illegal.
PS Great show on KPFK today, Brad. Really interesting and informative chat with the guy from ACORN. And it looks like the Obama campaign stepped up today with a SEVEN page letter to AG Mukasey about all the ACORN and voter suppression stuff. Nice to see some backbone, finally.
I wonder, would it help if there was a national “sick day” come November 4th..? I think that election day should be a two day process..on the weekend or at the very least a “national one-day holliday”…If we have to take a “sick-day” to vote…make it count, vote for a change (especially in our elections process!)..lets get this Democracy back on track…(some one suggested declaring the GOP a terrorist organization..maybe food for thought..LOL)
This will be the seen far and wide on election day.
It doesn’t matter how many new voters we have registered. How many we “get out the vote” for. Every voter will be delayed in some matter to create lines, anger voters and cause people to give up and go home.
I will also predict we will see some threats or violent acts in democratic leaning precincts that just happen to shut things down.
I was walking through the court house the other day and some woman was complaining about how some “radical creeps” were “shoving their video cameras in the poll worker’s faces”.
I’d love to actually be there with a camera recording the “radical creeps” to see just how “in their faces” those cameras got… I’m guessing that being in the same room pointed at the worker is being called “in their faces” in most instances.
It will never cease to amaze me how the right wing despises government, but says “trust us, everything is being done on the up and up”.
Savantster~!
By all means! DO get out your video camera, or cell phone, and get the reactions of election officials while they are being filmed for the record. Then upload it to: http://www.videothevote.org or over at youtube’s/ PBS’s first ever groundbreaking election year citizen documentation:
http://www.youtube.com/user/videoyourvote
Get it on the record. Report it. Circulate it.
You’re exactly right–no one likes being caught on tape while they’re up to no good. And this year it just might make all the difference….
(Incredible to see and hear you everywhere, Brad. Great work and thank you so much for the VTV bump on MEET THE BLOGGERS!!!)