"Poll volunteer Cynthia Scott of North Philadelphia leans against a sign-covered wall as Democratic committeeperson David Senoff works his cell phone outside the 38th ward polling place in East Falls."
Posted on 11/01/2006 9:53:14 PM PST by Red Steel
WHEN YOU GO to vote on Tuesday, you might find your polling place has moved since you last voted, thanks to new laws and court action.
And if you're in a Latino area of the city, the Justice Department wants a judge to order federal observers into your polling place. The feds say they're protecting your rights; the city fears voter intimidation.
At least one thing should be reassuring: City officials have figured out what caused more than 200 electronic voting machines to break down in May, and they're confident that won't happen again.
Of the city's 1,681 divisions, 142 of them have changed balloting locations since the May primary. This is mostly due to a five-year-old lawsuit on disabled access and a law passed by the Republican-dominated state Legislature requiring relocation of polling places from the homes of party committee members.
Democratic ward leader Terry Gillen is troubled that three voting locations in her ward were moved by court order at a time when Republicans are fighting to keep control of Congress.
"I think this has Karl Rove's fingerprints all over it," Gillen said. "If they can create confusion and depress the vote in Philadelphia by 5 percent, that's a lot of votes for [Democrats] Ed Rendell and Bob Casey."
The 2001 lawsuit that resulted in moving 71 voting divisions was filed not by federal officials but by the National Organization on Disability. A separate Justice Department program called Project Access has been scrutinizing Philadelphia's polling places for accessibility over the last two years.
The Democratic city chairman, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, is more bothered by the polling-place changes spurred by state legislation that bans voting in homes owned by party officials - 45 citywide - including neighborhood committee members.
"I can't complain about handicapped access; that's legit," Brady said, "but polling places were only in committee people's houses because they couldn't find anyplace else."
In Brady's ward, four polling places were moved from committee members' homes to other locations. Ward leaders fear that some voters, especially senior citizens, will be confused or not want to walk to locations that may be a few blocks farther away.
Christopher Sheridan, policy director for the watchdog group Committee of Seventy, noted that in addition to the 142 voting divisions moved since May, scores more have moved since the 2004 presidential election, which is the last time many people voted.
"Because of all the movement, people should really try and learn their ward and division number, because they might show up at a polling place with several divisions voting, and they [need] to get in the right line," Sheridan said.
In addition to the polling places moved because of the accessibility lawsuit and the state law, 26 changed because of expired leases and other typical causes.
A controversy over whether the city has violated the voting rights of Spanish-speaking citizens will be aired in federal court on Friday, where the U.S. Justice Department charges the city has failed to provide translated voting materials and interpreters in polling places.
"The city does not make any substantive determination regarding an intepreter's ability to speak Spanish and in fact pays persons to be interpreters who do not speak Spanish," government lawyers charged in a motion asking for federal observers in polling places.
The Justice Department motion cited the May 2006 experience of a Ms. Montijo who arrived to vote at the Incarnation School in Olney.
She reported there was no interpreter available and "the poll workers were laughing at the fact that I could not speak English... I became very upset at being laughed at and being made fun of, [and] I started crying."
The Justice Department cited evidence that fewer interpreters than were needed were available, and charged that some Hispanics "have had their votes stolen by individuals preying on their need for Spanish or other language assistance."
In an interview yesterday, city Solicitor Romulo Diaz declined to discuss the evidence in the Justice Department filings, but said the city is actively expanding its Election Day services to Spanish-speaking voters and will monitor their effectiveness.
Diaz said he'll fight the proposed court order bringing federal observers in because of "very legitimate concerns about voter supression."
"The Latino community is historically very respectful of and easily intimated by authority," Diaz said. "We don't want to intimidate voters by having federal observers under court order with the authority to go into a voting booth."
The Justice Department motion says that their observers do not intervene if they see discriminatory conduct, but simply file reports on what occurs. They could enter a voting booth, the filing says, "in rare circumstances" with the permission of a voter seeking assistance.
Meanwhile, election officials say they've identified the human error that caused voting machine problems in the May primary, and are confident that the machines will work fine on Tuesday.
To check if your voting division is one of the 142 that have been moved since May, you can go to http://go.philly.com/newpolls.
No wonder the polls have the "D" in front. What a mess!
Probably not, since they took the voting machines out of the election officals home.
I call this article B.S.! They moved my polling place. I got a BIG notice of it today and they also sent one to my son with the address of the new polling place. It's written in English and Spanish. It has my name, my address, my ward number, my voter I.D. number.
Will a 5% drop still leave it at over 100% voter participation in Philly?
A few years back, they changed the location of my voting location
I was told were to go and I drove the two blocks to cast my vote
I really don't understand why it is so hard to just give directions to people
Is this a shot across the bough? as in we know what you tried to do and you're not getting away with it.
Why is it that only democrat voters get intimidated??? And why is it only in areas where democrats control everything from precinct workers, voter rolls, ballot counting and election lawyers. Methinks that the 25% of blacks who believe that their vote will not be counted is the blowback from decades of crying wolf about the klan (aka, The GOP) stealing their votes.
To my knowledge every county of every state publishes the location of every precinct before the election. How do people who can't read be able to mark their ballot?
"Poll volunteer Cynthia Scott of North Philadelphia leans against a sign-covered wall as Democratic committeeperson David Senoff works his cell phone outside the 38th ward polling place in East Falls."
Karl Rove blamed again.
Bring out your dead.... Bring out your dead....
Perhaps that famous film was shot in Philly on a long past election night!
Isn't the entire shebang 'Rat controlled? Who'd be doing the intimidation? Their fellow 'Rats?
LMAO!!! Yes, it was a name of a horror movie. By God, it should have been shot in Philadelphia--the city of "dead" brotherly love.
Here's something for Geraldo (aka Jerry Rivers) to do on election night. He and a crew should set up cameras throughout graveyards in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, DC, and several other cities in the US for "suspicious activities." Maybe he'll be able to find Jimmy Hoffa in the process.
the GOP - klan thing isn't my thought, its just the stereotype they throw out every two years when Je$$e needs to be relevant again.
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