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Departments Election Issues Making every vote count The Linden Library in Columbus, Ohio, at 7:15 a.m. on November 2, 2004, was a scene of electoral chaos. There were hundreds of people standing in two lines complaining about a voting system that was taking too much time. When my partner and I arrived, we asked the people in line what was the problem. They told us that two lines was not efficient. To their frustration they had to wait in one line to sign in and receive their voter registration slip and then they were made to go to the back of another line to cast their vote. The best way to deal with this in my mind was to create one line where people signed in, received their voter slip, and voted. My partner and I approached the presiding judge in that polling place and asked if we could do this. She agreed and thanked us. But there was a much larger problem at that polling station. At the Linden Library there were only three voting booths for over 1,500 voters. The result was what you would expect. People, mostly African American, were forced to stand in long lines in the pouring rain for as long as seven hours to cast a ballot. This problem was not limited to Linden Library. This was a systemic problem throughout the six African American precincts in Franklin County my partner and I monitored. We called in the problem to the Legal Command Center, which agreed to file a complaint with the Board of Elections. In the meantime, my partner and I collected affidavits from people attesting to the long lines and waiting time. What we found appeared to be no mere oversight or mistake on the part of the people in charge of this election. How could someone not foresee this result? Every affidavit filled out in our six precincts told of how in elections past there had been six to ten voting booths in the exact same locations. For this election there were only three. We heard that in White precincts in the same county there were six or more voting booths for registration rolls with less people. One precinct in a White part of the county had twenty voting booths, and of course, much shorter lines. This left no doubt in my mind that this was a concerted effort to intimidate and suppress African American turnout. But a funny thing happened in Columbus, Ohio. People stayed in line and voted anyway. And not just a couple of people. Thousands of people. All day long they braved the rain and voted, determined to have their voices heard. There were hundreds of first-time voters. Hundreds of young voters, and many voters you thought you would never see in line to cast a ballot. I had one young man come up and ask me if he could vote even though he had an outstanding arrest warrant. I told him he could. Perhaps the most rewarding moment came when I saw a visibly upset man in his late 60s storming out of the polling place. I followed him and asked him what was wrong. He told me they would not let him vote because they said he was not registered. He assured me he was registered and had voted at the same location for 30 years. I asked him to come back to the polling place. We marched into the precinct and I asked the officials why he had been denied the right to vote. They told me that he wasn’t on the register list. I informed them that under federal law he was entitled to a provisional ballot. They agreed and gave him one. As I left at 11:30 p.m., when the last voter cast her ballot long after the polls had closed, I felt as though I had done my best to make sure that every vote counted.
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Hearings on Ohio voting put 2004 election in doubt Closing the Circle: The Corporatization of Elections Subordinating nation's secular values to zealots' will The Public Hearings and Rally About Election Fraud in Columbus, OH this weekend, Sat. 11/13-Please pass widely! Slip-sliding away in Columbus Green and Libertarian Presidential Candidates to Demand Ohio Recount An End To Mourning November 3rd action The Bible, The Constitution, and the James Carville Experiment Basic report from Columbus Waiting to vote Confessions of a political Know-Nothing in the wake of the 2004 elections Let the spin begin Back Stabbers Cost Kerry in Ohio! The Last Battle Republican America! Republican Forever! Is there inner-city election suppression in Franklin County, Ohio? Michael Moore in Columbus No love in the Heartland: Kerry gets mocked in Pa. school election Ten reasons for Greens to vote for Kerry Twelve ways Bush is now stealing the Ohio vote GW Bush Before the Iraq War
MISOGYNY Foreign Policy Forecast: If Bush Wins | If Kerry Wins Hope for the homestretch FactCheck.org says Cheney got it wrong Do the Hokey Pokey Hope for the homestretch Addressing Republican issues with John Kerry Gallup Polls- Conditioning for Vote Rigging? Too Many Cameras and Not Enough Truth: John Kerry Dodges the Press Nader 2000 Leaders United To Defeat Bush Shut up and color: the politics of bullying Kerry, Nader and the Greens need to kill the circular firing squad Don’t Believe the Hype; Terrorist Warnings Just Another Way Bush Will Steal Election President of Greater Stark County AFL-CIO speaks out on Bush’s visit in Canton, Ohio I'll Follow Kucinich to Kerry, Sorry Ralph Badnarik Doubles in Recent National Poll ‘A green world is possible’ planned in New York City during the Republican National Convention An open letter to progressives: vote Kerry and Cobb A street fighting man? How Kucinich can win Scary, Scary John Kerry With all deliberate stupidity: US self-isolation makes Iraq a virtual non-issue in the elections so far To support or not to support; the Nader question Halliburton, VP Cheney's Former Company Faces Second Criminal Probe In Four Years The Lone Ranger of Righteousness The Wrong Side of History High Noon in America The Truth is Out: Kucinich is the choice of progressives Dean and Kucinich Bush Should Be Facing 'A Long, Hard Slog' On The Campaign Trail, But Dems Too Busy Fighting With Each Other Read Election Issues Articles by Year: |
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