Reply #19: We don't have a choice - we must regroup [View All]

[sonias]

Our efforts now have to shift to taking on the education portion of these laws. That's the other part of this that people forget. Most states do a horrible job of letting their voters know what is necessary in order to vote. Hundreds of thousands of voters show up to vote on election day, only to find out they're not on the rolls, they don't have proper ID or they're at the wrong precinct. So they're allowed to cast a provisional ballot, which for the most part is never counted. This ruling will add thousands more this election year.

Texas for example has notoriously low rates of counting provisionally ballots - about 25%. You have a 1 in 4 chance of having your provisional ballot counted. That's totally unacceptable. The majority of them don't count because people simply showed up at the wrong precinct. There's no reason they shouldn't be allowed to cast a regular ballot for at least the federal and statewide races. Texas republicans keep bottlenecking the bill that would allow this kind of voter's vote to be counted.

Now third party registration groups and voting rights groups will have to pick up the slack and fight to make sure people know what their rights are when registering. And inform them of what is required to vote in person. This should be the state's job, but most won't make a big effort because it costs them money. States and local election officials only see elections as a cost, and not the real underpinning of our democracy.

Voter rights groups will also have to make a bigger push and file lawsuits to make sure provisional ballots count. There will be a great hurdle getting people to come back to the county registrar's office to make their ballot count. Who wants to make a second trip somewhere, stand in line and then be made to swear an affidavit saying you're poor, so that your ballot will count. And how many times will you have to do this. Every time they vote, they'll have to go though the same two-step hurdle.

AAS 4/28/08
Advocates: Voter ID ruling may disenfranchise US voters
(snip)
In Marion County, 34 Indiana voters without the proper identification were forced to file provisional ballots in an offseason local election. According to Indiana's photo law, voters have 10 days to return to the county courthouse with the proper identification. They can also file an affidavit claiming poverty.

"Who's going to do that?" asked Bob Brandon, president of Fair Elections Legal Network, a nonpartisan network of election lawyers. "Who's going to show up and sign an affidavit saying 'I'm poor'?"

Sonia