Posted on 11/04/2004 2:45:42 PM PST by machman
DETROIT — In an election already marred by provisional ballot challenges, numerous reports of voter discrimination from nonpartisan poll monitoring groups underline the possible flaws in the nation’s voting systems.
Further impeding the voting process were accounts from student polling volunteers who said that ballot challengers were intimidating voters, signifying how fierce partisanship of the election permeated polling sites.
Racial slurs from election workers, missing bilingual ballots and unwarranted demands to check voter identification turned away Asian American voters across the nation, according to reports by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Learning from the lessons of the 2000 election, Margaret Fung, executive director of the legal fund, said the organization prepared for possible breakdowns at polling sites by taking measures such as contacting polling sites with records of voter discrimination to ensure they had language interpreters and provisional ballots on hand.
Despite their efforts, Fung said their exit polls of Asian Americans in eight states indicated widespread instances of voter discrimination, leaving many of the voters feeling disenfranchised. Refusals by election officials to provide provisional ballots and voters directed to the wrong polling locations were just some of the incidents that hampered the Asian American vote.
“There were racist remarks in New York City — poll workers were blaming them for holding up the lines. One of them said, ‘You Oriental guys are taking too long to vote,’ ” she said.
Although the legal fund continues to tally its exiting poll surveys and has no firm estimate for the number of incidents, Fung said repeated requests from poll workers to check identification hindered the high turnout of Asian American voters.
With their patience worn thin by the inadequacy of their voting site, many simply left without voting, she said.
“At this point, I don’t know if this had any effect on the election, but the process still needs to be fixed since it’s showing that it still can prevent people (from exercising) their vote,” Fung said.
A polling site at Cleveland Middle School in Detroit suffered some of the same difficulties, as the site had no translated ballots for Arabic speakers and lacked any interpreters. Election officer Susie Johnson said she could only resort to explaining slowly to non-English speaking voters how to vote.
“We just keep repeating what’s on the ballot until they understand,” she added.
Many non-English speaking voters managed to submit the ballot, though, with their family members functioning as interpreters.
But in other polling sites across Detroit, University student volunteers monitoring the polling sites said they not only encountered deficient polling sites, but also challengers from the Republican Party deliberately aiming to drive voters away through tactics of intimidation.
“It was quiet in some places, but in other places there was faulty election machinery and attempts by challengers to intimidate voters, and challengers at some points had to be physically removed by the police,” said LSA senior Ryan Bates, an electoral organizer with the grassroots community group Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength.
Of the Republican challengers at his polling location, Bates said all three were from Texas and intentionally hid their credentials in order to create the appearance that they were election officials. He added that they then intimidated voters by looming over them when casting ballots and interfering with their paper work, he added.
“At one point, there was a problem where a women’s ballot was spoiled, and she asked the challenger if she could have another one. And with a direct quote from the challenger, ‘This isn’t Afghanistan, you don’t get to vote twice here,’ ” Bates said.
Republicans have said their challengers monitor the elections to prevent voter fraud, and they sued Detroit officials Tuesday for allegedly barring some challengers from the polls.
Even with the end of election day, problems with the voting system still seem to be cropping up everywhere.
Starting her day of work in the morning at the U Club in the Union yesterday, LSA senior Rita Schiesser said her manager found an interesting surprise when he opened the restaurant.
“He found two metal boxes with ballots in them. … There were about 1,700 ballots in them,” she said.
The ballots were picked up by the Ann Arbor City Clerk’s office after her manager informed them, but Schiesser said she can only imagine how many ballot boxes are just waiting to be found.
The clerk’s office was unable to comment on the forgotten ballots.
I can imagine how they got there.........
I have been dead since 1985 and only got to vote twice...I was robbed! Robbed, I tell you!!! :-)
The RATS rely on this every year. Their playbook is so old it gets tiresome.
Kerry did carry this state so they are complaining about what?
The site had no ballot translated into Arabic?
What a bunch of BS!
Hey, I got a better idea...LEARN SOME ENGLISH!
Then you won't feel discriminated against!
This issue is like beating a fading speed horse on a muddy track.
Dearborn, MI has the highest number of Arabic people outside of the Middle East.
I think you should read and speak English before you are allowed to vote...
Just my opinion..
No one says anything when I eenie, meenie, miney, moe behind the curtain.
They weren't actually disenfrachised; they just felt disenfranchised.
A polling site at Cleveland Middle School in Detroit suffered some of the same difficulties, as the site had no translated ballots for Arabic speakers and lacked any interpreters. Election officer Susie Johnson said she could only resort to explaining slowly to non-English speaking voters how to vote. “We just keep repeating what’s on the ballot until they understand,” she added. Many non-English speaking voters managed to submit the ballot, though, with their family members functioning as interpreters.
If the law allows only citizens and naturalized citizens to vote and if the law requires people seeking to become naturalized citizens to have a basic understanding of English, thenn why we are handing out bilingual ballots of any kind.
I know it does.
But they should still learn enough English anyways.
Screw 'em if they can't!
I've had it with this muilti-lingual crap!
>>I think you should read and speak English before you are allowed to vote...<<
I do so agree with you!!!!
They are laying the early ground work to outlaw poll watchers/challengers in the future. I suspect the normal fraud activities were somewhat hindered in this election. Don't bet that they won't succeed. Cries of "Racism" pretty much trump anything in this society.
Agreed. If you moved to Mexico, for instance, and didn't learn Spanish (or rather, the Mexican dialect of it), don't expect to see a ballot in English at their elections. There's no reason why we have to cater to every other language in this country when we already have one of our own. What next... ballots in Klingon?
Anyone who believes that the blacks in Detroit were intimidated by anyone hasn't walked through the streets of Detroit. There is some serious intimidation going on for sure but it isn't the blacks on the receiving end.
The best people in American society are racists. I think people should aspire to be called such a great title. Bush is racist, Cosby is racist, Powell is racist, Rice is racist, and I’m proudly racist. Long live racism! We will work to make race a forgotten issue.
Let's make it easy. Make federal presidential election rules that everyone who votes must show picture ID. No exceptions!
That ought to cut fraud considerably.
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