[Now UPDATED at bottom with comment from Philadelphia’s election chief, City Commissioner Stephanie Singer .]
Okay, this one is quite troubling. It’s being reported that long time voters in Philadelphia have been showing up to vote today, only to find out that they are not on the voting rolls anymore at all.
In the bargain, “large numbers” of voters are being forced to vote on provisional ballots which may, or may not be counted later.
This is beyond the reports we’ve seen all day of voters being forced to vote provisionally after inaccurate instructions that they must have a Photo ID to vote. These are long time voters, who have voted for many years in the same place, simply missing from the rolls.
Does this indicate a larger problem than we can even know about yet in Pennsylvania? Here’s the details…
“We think it’s a real concern,” said a staffer at The Committee of Seventy, which monitors elections in Philadelphia. Voter ID, he says, is “not the central problem in Philadelphia today: [it’s] the messy administration of this election. The phones are just ringing off the hook. We’re fielding calls about people who are not in the polling books.”
Some poll workers are not even instructing people that they can file provisional ballots, and other voters are reportedly just walking away in frustration.
…
“Their names are not in the books,” says Gwen Howard, a clerk who has worked this precinct (32 ward, 15th division) for years. “Something different. Some have [registration] cards and are not in the books. And you know they come every four years…They were pretty upset.”
…
“This is something we’ve never seen before,” says Democratic 23rd ward committeewoman and poll watcher Lisa Starks, emphasizing that the names of even long time voters are not showing up.
…
That’s what happened to 27-year old Jesse Seitel at 52nd and Willow.
“I had the registration that had been sent to me and it had my name and street address on it,” he says. “I got there and my name wasn’t in the book.” Seitel is angry. “It was total bullshit.”
Again, there have been a number of troubling reports about Photo ID issues across PA today as well, as we’d predicted would be the case. But we’re trying to sort that out, and hope to get to something on that soon, if possible.
UPDATE 4:48pm PT: Philadelphia’s election chief, City Commissioner Stephanie Singer respond to our request to confirm the problem, and replied via Twitter to say: “Tomorrow we’ll track down exactly what happened. Today we’re ensuring all can vote, by provisional if necessary.”
She adds: “Every registered phila voter’s ballot cast in phila today will be counted.”
All I can say at this point is that if Romney does win states like PA and MI and OH under these circumstances, there is NO FREAKING WAY that his win can be considered legitimate. NO. FREAKING. WAY.
And then we need to consider what comes next.
Something similar happening in Mississippi…
The Mississippi NAACP and Hinds County Circuit Clerk’s office are pointing fingers at each other over an unknown number of missing voter-registration forms.
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com...rations-hinds/
I suppose it’s a little late for the I told you so’s, but Brad has been warning citizens for months to check on your registration. If you learn you’ve been purged — and it sounds very much like that is what occurred here — Election Day is too late.
The critical feature, should Romney defy the pre-election poll numbers, is that Obama cannot concede. He must insist on following up with provisional ballots, and an investigation should immediately be launched by the DOJ to determine whether a deliberate (unlawful) purge occurred, irrespective of whether Obama comes out on top.
why did my comment go to “moderation”
Same problem in Lackawanna County (Scranton area) for me. My husband and I both registered. His name was on the rolls, mine was not. This is in Archbald Borough. Had to drive all the way to Scranton to find out why. I was told that my name was probably on the “supplemental list” that was also sent out… but that the poll workers apparently didn’t bother to check.
Luckily, they let me cast my vote at the Scranton Elections Board office. But how many others are on “Supplemental Lists” that no one is checking??
but, but, Fox “News” saw a Black Panther this morning so everything else is null and void.
http://crooksandliars.com/news-...us-new-black-p
Obama takes PA, but what impact will this have on local races?
I saw this today at the poll where I worked as an election judge. 90% of the time these voters were taken off the rolls because they had been inactive. In this area, if 2 federal elections have taken place without their active vote, they were purged. The other 10% was a combination of changed addresses (within the same area) where the update was recorded with them being given a ballot, & those that were just at the wrong polling place where they were directed to the proper location.
Btw, I worked in Jackson County, Missouri.