Jolie Rouge
10-28-2004, 01:45 PM
Take your pick: Would you rather risk that ineligible people get to vote next Tuesday? Or gamble that eligible voters will be turned away at the polls?
That ugly choice will be very much in play at hundreds of polling places, mostly in the hotly contested states that will likely determine the presidential election.
Republicans have deployed thousands of lawyers - mostly to Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania - to challenge voters signed up by Democratic-leaning groups when they show up at the polls. Democrats are countering with their own squadron of lawyers and lawsuits alleging voter intimidation.
Ideally, it shouldn't be an either/or situation. Elections have to go by the rules and no legitimate voter should be disenfranchised. But the experience in Florida four years ago is a red flag that the law may be turned into a tool of partisan advantage. The greatest risk is that voters might be deprived of their most fundamental democratic act, reviving deep wounds from the nation's past.
This is particularly troubling in minority communities, where memories are still fresh of blacks blocked by legal hurdles and intimidation from exercising their voting rights in the segregated South.
The concerns also are rooted in more recent events. After the uproar of 2000, post-election analyses found that the least-reliable voting systems were often concentrated in areas with large minority populations.
In this election, worries about massive voter fraud have surfaced because of a huge surge in new registrations.
And not without cause:
Republicans point to scores of obviously fake names, forged signatures, similar handwriting and duplications among newly registered Democrats. They are challenging thousands of them.
Newspapers from Colorado to Florida have found thousands of voters registered in more than one place.
But evidence of attempts to deny legitimate voters a chance to cast ballots is at least as common:
Criminal investigations in Oregon and Nevada are looking into charges that Republicans signed up new Democrats and then threw their registration cards in the trash.
In Michigan, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, Republicans have spoken openly about holding down the Democratic turnout in big cities. Documents that surfaced mysteriously are cited as evidence of schemes for a massive challenge to Democratic voters when they reach the polls.
The superintendent of Milwaukee schools halted a get-out-the-vote program involving students after complaints were raised about its link to a pro-Kerry organization.
Violence Mars Bush-Kerry Race
A wave of reported break-ins, shooting incidents and vandalism at campaign headquarters this year has marred the race, according the ABC news.
No one would question the importance of exposing voting fraud. Certainly the country has a rich tradition of that - "Vote early and often," as they used to joke in Chicago. But come Election Day, the urge to repeat the win-at-any-cost tactics so evident in Florida four years ago needs to be resisted.
Intimidating voters in the name of ensuring a clean election is no answer.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=742&e=1&u=/usatoday/20041028/cm_usatoday/crossfireoffraudchargesimperilsvotersrights
That ugly choice will be very much in play at hundreds of polling places, mostly in the hotly contested states that will likely determine the presidential election.
Republicans have deployed thousands of lawyers - mostly to Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania - to challenge voters signed up by Democratic-leaning groups when they show up at the polls. Democrats are countering with their own squadron of lawyers and lawsuits alleging voter intimidation.
Ideally, it shouldn't be an either/or situation. Elections have to go by the rules and no legitimate voter should be disenfranchised. But the experience in Florida four years ago is a red flag that the law may be turned into a tool of partisan advantage. The greatest risk is that voters might be deprived of their most fundamental democratic act, reviving deep wounds from the nation's past.
This is particularly troubling in minority communities, where memories are still fresh of blacks blocked by legal hurdles and intimidation from exercising their voting rights in the segregated South.
The concerns also are rooted in more recent events. After the uproar of 2000, post-election analyses found that the least-reliable voting systems were often concentrated in areas with large minority populations.
In this election, worries about massive voter fraud have surfaced because of a huge surge in new registrations.
And not without cause:
Republicans point to scores of obviously fake names, forged signatures, similar handwriting and duplications among newly registered Democrats. They are challenging thousands of them.
Newspapers from Colorado to Florida have found thousands of voters registered in more than one place.
But evidence of attempts to deny legitimate voters a chance to cast ballots is at least as common:
Criminal investigations in Oregon and Nevada are looking into charges that Republicans signed up new Democrats and then threw their registration cards in the trash.
In Michigan, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, Republicans have spoken openly about holding down the Democratic turnout in big cities. Documents that surfaced mysteriously are cited as evidence of schemes for a massive challenge to Democratic voters when they reach the polls.
The superintendent of Milwaukee schools halted a get-out-the-vote program involving students after complaints were raised about its link to a pro-Kerry organization.
Violence Mars Bush-Kerry Race
A wave of reported break-ins, shooting incidents and vandalism at campaign headquarters this year has marred the race, according the ABC news.
No one would question the importance of exposing voting fraud. Certainly the country has a rich tradition of that - "Vote early and often," as they used to joke in Chicago. But come Election Day, the urge to repeat the win-at-any-cost tactics so evident in Florida four years ago needs to be resisted.
Intimidating voters in the name of ensuring a clean election is no answer.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=742&e=1&u=/usatoday/20041028/cm_usatoday/crossfireoffraudchargesimperilsvotersrights