Harvard Students Plan to Watch Over Polling Places in November

AP ^ | Mar.16, 2004

[nuconvert]

Harvard Students Plan to Watch Over Polling Places in November

Mar 16, 2004

By Jay Lindsay/ Associated Press Writer

BOSTON (AP) - A group founded by Harvard law students announced plans Tuesday to send observers to 49 states this November to help ensure voters in the fall election are not improperly turned away from the polls. The group, called Just Democracy, plans to dispatch at least 1,000 students from across the country to polls in every state with a law school, which includes all but Alaska.

Student leaders want to help ease the bureaucratic mistakes or ignorance of the law they say were to blame for much of the confusion in the disputed 2000 presidential election.

They plan to enlist a mix of Republican, Democratic and independent volunteers to watch over polls on Nov. 2.

"We're not in this for the presidential election," said group founder Becca O'Brien. "We're in this because we believe every vote should count."

The group says students may be able to catch common errors at the polls before a voter is sent away, including simple problems involving changes of address or identification requirements.

Rules that govern observers' access to polls vary by state, so the group plans to work with election officials before November.

For instance, observers in Massachusetts are permitted to take notes by the table where voters check in but cannot speak to them until they have left the polling area, said Brian McNiff, a spokesman for the secretary of state.

[nuconvert]

Well, I'm relieved.

[cripplecreek]

Harvard students frighten me.

[saluki_in_ohio]

Gee, I feel soooooo much better now!

With the Future Landsharks of America ensuring free and fair elections, my vote will actually count!

[DBrow]

There are Republicans in Cambridge Massachusetts and they are going to make sure Kerry's election runs smoothly?

I suppose it is better than sending in the bluehats, but not by much.

[Vision Thing]

Harvard students frighten me.

Why? Is it because these particular Harvard students are stupid enough to think that Kerry voters in Massachusetts need protection at the polls?

[Bella]

Great idea..hope this is going on nationwide. :-)

[ladyinred]

I betcha they won't care if some people vote more than once, or vote from their graves, just as long as they vote! :-) (ludicrous, since the entire Florida fiasco was a put up job by the democrats!)

[maxwell]

I don't want some punk undergrad watching me vote.

Ain't these kids in college for a reason? What happened to pop quizzes?

[BikePacker]

I hope they save a few future attorneys to oversee the Military vote.

[LurkedLongEnough]

Will they get me a glass of water too?

[longtermmemmory]

Be very aware of the "provisional" ballot. These are used even where there is e-voting. People who claim they are entitled to vote can vote provisionally if their story checks out. HOWEVER, given the ease of illegals voting they will probably be given a pass.

They uses these ALOT now in Florida. In 2002 Miami-Dade ran out in certain precincts and had to have emergecy supplies rushed over.

[Starve The Beast]

"We're not in this for the presidential election," said group founder Becca O'Brien. "We're in this because we believe every vote should count."

Right, you bet.

I read about a bunch of hard-left lawyers who did this back in '02. They were deployed to states with key/close races, and went to polling places in conservative districts to cause trouble.

[Madame Dufarge]

"We're in this because we believe every vote should count."

Oh, please.

[lizma]

Maybe they need to study the technique used in Philadelphia. People were not only not turned away but but were welcomed back again and again.

What a bunch of self righteous little snits. They would do America more good if they would actually be studying something worthwhile.

[Starve The Beast]

Harvard students frighten me.

Why?

Well, for the same reason that those Hare Krishnas at the airport frighten me, or that moonies frighten me, or that a homeless guy muttering to himself on the street frightens me. I know they're all harmless, but crazy is scary.

[cripplecreek]

If you lived where i do you would be afraid of university students too. I have UofM students about 20 miles to the east and MSU students 20 miles to the north. Call it a crossroads of Michigan liberalism.

[Warrant]

How about everyone's vote only count's once, or the machine's don't end up out in a parking lot, are they going to help enforce those kind of things?

[Spyder]

Harvard students frighten me.

No kidding. Their recruitment brochure to our daughter went straight in the trash when we read their commentary about ROTC (which was that it was available at MIT but they discouraged students from participating because it violated their principles of anti-discrimination).

[jonascord]

It should be interesting when they get to Chicago. I'll bet it will be the the first time a Crimson wound up two months later in the trunk of his car with a .22 behind the ear at the O'Hare long term parking...

[zygoat]

In other words, the indoctrinated suburbanites shall be infesting the urban vote parlors, in the first and only visit to the 'hood in their pampered lives, in order to assist in the buying and manufacture of democrat ballots.

[Buck W.]

"...the indoctrinated suburbanites shall be infesting the urban vote parlors..."

I'm reminded of the scene in Vacation in which theFamily Truckster is diverted off the highway into a ghetto, and Chevy Chase says, "Say, Homes"...

[Drango]

This is good. Jimmy Carter has been running around the globe making sure elections were fair...Now he has someone to hand the gig over to.

[Kirkwood]

Why not Alaska?

[nuconvert]

It's too chilly.

[AF68]

I suspect that these future shysters will be well supplied with cigarettes and booze for the winos and bag ladies to ensure that every vote counts.

[DBrow]

Madame, there is an important difference between a vote and a ballot.

Sure, every vote should be counted, but as Algore tried in Florida, not every ballot becomes a vote!

So absentee ballots from conservative neighborhoods or the military get challenged and thrown out, while provisional ballots from dem strongholds are admitted without question, then we can still claim that every vote was counted.