Posted on 12/13/2006 4:43:43 AM PST by Froufrou
In the 2004 election I waited 50 minutes to vote, but I am not disabled. One potential voter told me she was not able to vote in the '04 election because her husband was in poor health and unable to wait outside in the rain for more than a few minutes. Other potential voters stayed away from the polls because of the long lines in Murrysville. The Republican Party runs Murrysville and they have too few voting booths to support a Presidential election because they understand more Democratic votes are suppressed than Republican votes. It is the height of callousness and indifference to the plight of others to support the Republican Party on this issue.
I waited for two hours and still managed not to be "suppressed".
You are not handicapped or in poor health are you?
Long lines? Like I said, we had them, we dealt with them. I didn't mind a little inconvenience. To me, it was not worth losing my franchise over. If you don't care about voting enough to put up with a little inconvenience, I guess you don't place much value on it. Sure, it takes a little effort sometimes. And maybe that's the difference between conservatives and libs. Libs are lazy, conservatives are not.
Not handicapped or in extremely poor health. Just have a job to get to, but I was able to charge some vacation time for the couple of hours I was late that day. I didn't mind, I thought it was important enough to do so. IOW, not a big deal.
Perhaps you would not be so callously indifferent to the plight of potential voters stuck in long lines if you were trying to support a family on a $10 per hour wage and your employer only paid you for every hour spent on your job. The GOP's voter suppression tactics also aim to keep minimum wage workers from voting. Minimum wage workers will be good Democrats for so long as the Republican Party aims to keep them from voting and from belonging to labor unions.
I remember when Zero was the Rep from my district. At a prompt from AARP I wrote to "my" Rep taking the opposite stand to AARP and stating my preference for GWB's Social Security reform. I got back a letter explaining there was actually money in the "Lockbox" and S.S. was definitely solvent.
He may be a rep again but he is still a Zero.
You're right. Our problems are very deep, far more than poor performance by Republican officeholders, "forgetting Reaganism," etc. Some people don't want to think about this, just want to mouth cliches.
Bottom line is I don't think it's all that great a hardship to vote anywhere in this country. What you seem to be asking is that we assure in each and every case that the time for voting at the polls is at an absolute minimum for the poorest of the poor that are crunched for time. Sorry, the real world doesn't always work that way, and no, it's not because of any "voter suppression" conspiracies. Sometimes a lot of people show up to do something and you have to wait your turn. I learned that kind of thing on the grade-school playground, waiting my turn to go on the swing set. Maybe you didn't. I had to wait in line the other day to buy my groceries. Was it a conspiracy by the local 'Rats to deny me my right to purchase food for my family? I doubt it. There was a line the other week outside the restroom at the football stadium. Did I think the local 'Pubs were denying me my Constitutional Right to "privacy" to take a piss? Not likely. I mean, geez, cry me a freakin' river here, people. What is this, cast an instantaneous ballot or I'm suppressing your rights?
My son turned 18 his last birthday and got a part-time minimum-wage job. He proudly cast his first ballot this past election and joined a union. No eeeevil Republican stopped him. And guess what? He told me he voted the straight 'R' ticket. Not a very "good Democrat", I'd say.
http://www.swingstateproject.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=151
I don't know if this article mentions this, but during the early voting period in Texas the voting booths are taken to hospitals and other businesses to make sure everyone has a chance to vote. If they felt intimidated or didn't vote, it is their own fault.
Check this out:
http://www.votexas.org/english/english_voting.htm
As a registered voter in Texas, you have certain rights. You have…
The right to a ballot with written instructions on how to cast the ballot.
The right to cast your vote in secret and free from intimidation.
The right to receive up to two more ballots if a mistake is made while marking the ballot.
The right to ask the polling place official for instructions on how to cast the ballot, but not for suggestions on how to vote.
The right to bring an interpreter to assist you as you qualify to vote if you do not understand the English language.
The right to assistance while casting your ballot if you cannot write, see the ballot, or understand the language in which it is written.
The right to bring written materials into the voting booth to assist you as you cast the ballot.
The right to report a possible voting rights abuse to the Secretary of State or to your local election official.
The right to cast a provisional ballot if your name does not appear on the list of registered voters or you do not have proper identification.
The right to vote once at any early voting location during the early voting period within the territory conducting the election.
The right to file an administrative complaint with the Secretary of State concerning violations of federal and state voting procedures.
Services Available to Voters with Special Needs
The State of Texas has made groundbreaking efforts to increase ballot accessibility for all voters, including elderly voters, voters with disabilities, and voters who do not read or speak English or Spanish.
State law provides that all polling places must meet strict accessibility standards.
If you are in need of assistance in reading or marking your ballot, you may choose a friend to help you vote, or you may request assistance from election officials.
If you do not understand the language spoken in the polling place or in which the ballot is written, you may bring an interpreter into the polling place.
If you are physically unable to enter the polling place, you may remain in your vehicle and vote curbside.
If you find it difficult to vote at your assigned polling place on Election Day, you may choose to vote at a more convenient time and location by voting early in person or, if you qualify, you may vote by mail.
Accessible Voting Systems
To provide voters with a practical and effective means to cast an independent and secret ballot, voting systems acquired after September 1, 1999, must be accessible to voters with physical disabilities. The systems must accommodate these disabilities: no vision, low vision, no hearing, low hearing, limited manual dexterity, limited reach, limited strength, no mobility, low mobility or any combination of the foregoing (except the combination of no hearing and no vision).
Beginning January 1, 2006, every polling place used in Texas elections must have a minimum of one Direct Recording Electronic device (DRE) for use by voters with disabilities.
DREs are paperless, computerized voting units that allow you to vote directly on the system. Depending on the type of DRE system used, voters with disabilities may use headphones or other assistive devices to vote independently and secretly.
All Polling Places in Texas Must Be Accessible
The State of Texas has been a leader in formulating laws requiring all polling places to be accessible to persons who are elderly or physically disabled. The standards for what constitutes an accessible polling place include the following:
The voting area must be: (1) on the ground floor, which can be entered from the street or (2) accessible by an elevator with doors providing an opening of at least 36 inches.
Doors, entrances and exits used to enter or to leave the polling place must have a minimum width of 32 inches.
Any curb next to the main entrance to the polling place must have curb-cuts or temporary nonslip ramps.
Any stairs necessary to enter or leave the polling place must have handrails on each side of the stairs and a nonslip ramp.
The polling place may not have any barriers such as gravel, automatically closing gates, closed doors without lever-type handles or any other barrier that impedes the path of the physically disabled to the voting station.
Voters May Receive Assistance at the Polls
You are entitled to receive assistance if you
Cannot read or write or
Have a physical disability preventing you from reading or marking the ballot
Tell the election official you need help to vote. You do not have to provide proof of your disability.
You may receive assistance from these people:
Any person of your choice,
Two election workers on election day or
One election worker during early voting.
You may NOT be assisted by any of these people:
Your employer,
An agent of your employer or
An officer or agent of your union.
The person assisting you must read the entire ballot to you, unless you ask to have only parts of the ballot read.
The person assisting you must take an oath that he or she will not try to influence your vote and will mark your ballot as you direct.
If you choose a polling place official to help you, poll watchers and/or state and federal election inspectors present in the polling place may observe the voting process to be sure the ballot has been marked as you requested.
If you ask for assistance by a person of your choosing, no one else may watch you vote.
It is illegal for a person assisting you to do the following:
Try to influence your vote,
Mark your ballot in a way other than the way you have asked or
Tell anyone how you voted.
Voters May Use Interpreters at the Polls
If you cannot speak English, or if you communicate only with sign language, you may use an interpreter to help you communicate with election officials.
You may select any registered voter of your county to be your interpreter.
If you cannot read the languages on the ballot, your interpreter may translate the ballot for you in the voting booth.
Curbside Voting
If you are physically unable to enter the polling place, you may ask that an election officer bring a ballot to you at the entrance of the polling place or to your car at curbside.
After you mark the ballot, give it to the election officer who will put it in the ballot box. Or, at your request, a companion may hand you a ballot and deposit it for you.
TIP: If you plan to go alone to vote curbside, it is advisable to call ahead so election officials will expect you.
Generally speaking, you may vote curbside during the early voting period.
Voting Early, Either in Person or By Mail
You may vote early during the early voting period at any early voting site in the political subdivision holding the election.
Alternately, if you will be 65 years of age or older on election day, have a disability, confined in jail (but eligible to vote), or will be outside the county during early voting hours and on Election Day, you may apply to vote by mail. Simply submit a completed and signed application for a ballot by mail any time from the 60th to the 7th day before Election Day to the proper early voting clerk.
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This was NOT an "upset". The Supreme Court mandated that Hispanics be added to the district by the thousands, many of them no doubt illegals. Bonilla never had a chance.
Yeah, it’s all the fault of those bastards Sensenbrenner and Tancredo for upholding the rule of law! Everyone KNOWS Hispanic voters are “hard-working, pro-life, devout Catholics” by default! They’d NEVER elect a marxist RAT if we Republicans would just “reach out” to them with inclusive candidates. Just look at the 2004 election results! Great “pro-family” crowd here:
ELECTION RESULTS 2004
ILLINOIS 4TH DISTRICT
PRIMARY ELECTION
Abortion Luvin’ Pro-Terrorist Commie Luis Guiterrez (D) 38,338 votes
Socially Moderate, Pro-WOT Marty Castro (D) 12,008 votes
GENERAL ELECTION
Abortion Luvin’ Pro-Terrorist Commie Luis Guiterrez (D) 104,761 votes
Pro-life, pro-family, inclusive Hispanic nominee Tony Lopez-Cisneros (R) 15,536 votes
Incidentially, Guiterrez is Puetro Rican, running in an overwhemingly Mexican district against Mexican-American candidates. Seems those "competative" Mexican-American voters wouldn't even go for a "moderate" Dem in the primary but beat down the door to elect an rabidly pro-abortion lunatic. Amazing, eh?
Only problem is they are far outnumbered by the others you mention.
Ciro Rodriguez is correct and the Republicans are wrong on this one.
The combined OAS and DI trust funds contained $1.858 billion in assets as of 12-31-2005, an increase of $171.8 billion over the previous year. Even the rate of increase of the trust fund assets is increasing. The increase was only about $156 billion in the previous year, 2004. The SS trustees report trust fund assets yearly here:
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/TR/TR06/III_cyoper.html#wp142447
W and other lying Republican politicians won't tell you these things. The R's like you to live in "studied ignorance" as they did with Mark Foley's sexual hijinx.
~sigh!~ Me know.
And, you are very subtley suggesting that precinct judges are not truly verifying nationality at the polls?
That illegals vote Democrat doesn't surprise me, given that Dems have also counted votes from dead people...
Democrats get more minority votes because they are the party who will keep entitlements. Pure and simple. Minorities are more likely than Caucasians to pursue entitlements.
This is the point Cosby was making. The sheeple have not all realized that entitlements are Dems' way of keeping them down. Feed 'em, have 'em spit out babies to inflate the voting base, and they're too busy and too poor to get educated.
This is not MHO, it is fact. I did the welfare job and I know.
Chimera,
What you and the other party bots fail to understand is that it doesn't really matter so much that we win or lose, but that an effective conservative alternative is offered to voters.
If we become what we have fought against for so long in an effort to achieve victory, we are no better than the Democrats.
Some of us were warning about the negative impact of the anti-Illegal hysteria being whipped up last spring. We warned that it would be turned against ONLY the GOP and it was.
Bush and Rove's idea to bring America into the GOP and "then" get conservative has officially been flunked. But we are still stuck with bad ideas like huge education bill and medicare expansion.
"This anti-Republican trend, which Hispanics had a big part in, played out here."
GREAT SHOW Carl Rove. You KEEP up that policy of trying to pander to Hispanic voters by insulting them through "amnesties" for illegal invaders.
I'm not saying sacrifice principles. I'm saying come up with tactics, within the rules, that allow us to win elective office, because without doing that all of our "effective conservative alternatives" won't mean squat in terms of being put into practice. In that sense, it does make a difference whether we win or lose. Losers don't get to implement their policies based on their principles, winners do. So you need not only principled alternatives, you need to find a way to win, without sacrificing our core beliefs (which I do not advocate and did not say we should). Most of all, stop lying to ourselves as to what the situation is. We're never going to make any headway on implementing "effective conservative alternatives" if we insist on fooling ourselves, not seeing things the way they are and telling it like it is. Talk about being a "bot", living a lie surely has to be the definition of that.
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