And in other news, the ACLU demanded a return to a completely segrated society, with Whites not being allowed to go into Black neighborhoods, and Blacks not being able to go into White areas...
< /MOCKING >
Posted on 11/01/2003 8:35:59 AM PST by yankeedame
Suit protests GOP poll monitors in black districts
By Mike Torralba
The Associated Press
LOUISVILLE,KY - Seeking to bar Republican vote challengers from their precincts, residents of predominantly black voting districts filed lawsuits in state and federal court on Friday.
The Kentucky American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the five plaintiffs, claims the Jefferson County Republican Party's planned use of challengers is a political tactic to reduce voter turnout in the largely Democratic districts. The ACLU claims the GOP plan targets black voters in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.
The lawsuits, filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court and U.S. District Court, name county GOP chairman Jack Richardson IV as the defendant. They seek injunctions against the placement of the challengers.
Political parties have the option of placing two challengers at any precinct on Election Day, according to state law. Their job is to question a voter's eligibility if they suspect the voter is ineligible. They aren't allowed to confront the voter directly.
Richardson could not immediately be reached for comment.
But state GOP chairwoman Ellen Williams denied claims that black neighborhoods were targeted.
"The challengers are in west Louisville because we were not successful in recruiting Republican volunteer poll workers in those precincts," she said.
Registered poll workers must live in the areas covered by their precincts. Challengers face no such requirement, Williams said, allowing them to stand in as poll workers if the need arises. Nearly all the challengers registered for Tuesday's election live outside their assigned precincts in the west end.
With just one full business day before the election, Kentucky ACLU general counsel David Friedman said he did not know whether an injunction will be issued in time. But he said legal action would not end when the polls close.
"Regardless of what happens - whether we block it Tuesday or not - this is an issue that does not go away on Tuesday," Friedman said.
A hearing was scheduled for Monday in Jefferson County Circuit Court.
The ACLU, the local NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus and other groups say the practice is intended to discourage people from voting.
"I have a strong feeling that these tactics will backfire," U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat and chairman of the black caucus, said in a statement. "We need to work on ways to expand the electorate, not suppress it."
And in other news, the ACLU demanded a return to a completely segrated society, with Whites not being allowed to go into Black neighborhoods, and Blacks not being able to go into White areas...
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Whatever gaseous noise they wish to make about this, the activity they are engaged in here is brazenly partisan politics.
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I was assigned to an almost-all-black precinct (one elderly white couple voted that day; there were about 220 black voters). Representatives of the Democrats were there as well, and civility prevailed throughout. There's not a hell of a lot a poll monitor could do. At the time (no idea whether it's still the case), prospective voters didn't have to show ID; just give their name and address. If the information given matched the records the officials had, the person was allowed to vote. My associate and I turned away six voters, as I recall. Two of them were at the wrong precinct, and were probably legit, so they were sent to the proper polling place some blocks away. The other four were not registered. I'm sure they simply went to another precinct where no monitors were present, and voted illegally, with a $5 reward in pocket, which was the going rate at the time.
The voters tended to arrive in groups of six to ten, as many were shuttled to the polling place by St. Somebody AME Zion Church. Most clutched diagrams of the voting machine's face plate, with the Democrat ticket circled in red. Perfectly legal, of course, but disturbing that so many were illiterate and nonconversant in the issues.
Predictably, the Democrat Gubernatorial candidate and the Democrat Senate candidate carried that precinct by almost identical margins. Something like 214-5 and 213-4, as I recall. (Republicans won both races statewide, by the way.)
But here's what alarmed me most about the whole process -- even more than the attempt to vote by the four non-registered people. Also on the ballot was a referendum, I believe to change the Sheriff's term from two years to four years. The local Dems had no position on the question, so neither "Yes" nor "No" was circled on the voting machine diagram the great majority of the voters carried. And not being told how to vote... they didn't. Fewer than 20 of the 220 or so voters in that precinct voted on the referendum.
Overt corruption, in the form of voting by those who are not registered, is a cause for great concern, it should go without saying. But at least there's a way of challenging these would-be voters. Voting by the stupid, the ignorant, and the paid-off is a larger problem, and one without an obvious solution.
Gee, can we have Democrat poll monitors excluded from white distrcits?
Just a matter of time before they start suing to have repulican VOTERS barred from all districts.
Don't forget the box of donuts! ;-)
Mmmmmmm! Dooooooonuts!
Hey Bob Barr, what's a greater danger? -- A few items that need to be changed in the Patriot act *OR* the long litany of trash the ACLU incessantly defends?
It's the usual ludicrous claptrap.
How does the presence of "challengers" at the polls "discourage people from voting?"
The question is HOW?
Over the years, every time I have seen this kind of charge made, it has NEVER been explained.
HOW is voting discouraged?
Can anybody offer a clue, since these corrupt race-hustling organizations the NAACP and the ACLU certainly never have.
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It's my understanding that the ACLU Foundation, which is a 501(c)(3) corp and which claims that donations to it are tax-deductible, is the arm of the ACLU that conducts its litigation.