Voter registration and jury duty: why registration may be less than

[AirAmFan]

complete in some counties, especially among working people with little job security.

While websurfing, I happened upon minutes of a meeting of the "Colorado Blue Ribbon Election Task Force".

If you wanted accurate and up-to-date information about citizens' addresses, where would you go? Local mail carriers? DMV? The power company? The telephone company?

In at least one Colorado county, the answer is: the local jury commission!

Do you think that working people might systematically try to avoid the job-loss risk and near-slavery of jury duty? Do you think their economically defensive actions when they are summoned might make a jury commission's address records less reliable than other sources, especially for people who have little job security? If they make a mistake on a juror questionnaire, or fail to send it back, should they be deprived of their votes?

This country needs mandatory high standards for electoral administration, nation-wide equal standards that force election boards to use the best available sources of address information, not the sources most systematically biased against working people!

And why isn't voter registration MANDATORY AND AUTOMATIC, rather than widely manipulated by Republican ballot-box-stuffers?

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From http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/blue_ribbon/minutes051101.pdf :

The Blue Ribbon Election Task Force was called to order by Secretary of State, Donetta Davidson ... Discussion for the meeting centered on the various facets regarding voter registration.

Don Burton, Operations Manager for Drivers License in the Colorado Department of Revenue, gave a presentation on Motor Voter processes and future plans for a more streamlined program. ... Motor Voter registrations represent 70-75% of the new voter registrations in the state. ...

Pat Kelley, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder, discussed methods used to keep the voter registration lists clean and accurate in our mobile society. Those methods include; 1) OBTAINING THE CURRENT ADDRESS DATA FROM THE LOCAL JURY COMMISSIONERS, 2) return undeliverable mail to clerk's office with new address information provided by the post office, 3) undeliverable mail returned without new address information provided, 4) use of completed juror questionnaires indicating that the voter now resides outside of county and is signed by the voter, 4) contacting family members indicating voter is deceased (use of obituaries), and 5) indication on the jury summons that the voter does not live at the address of record (no signature). ...

[fugue]

1. In my town, out-of-work people volunteer for jury duty . . .

You do get paid something, after all.

[AirAmFan]

2. Sure, SOME people welcome jury duty for $10 or $20 a day.

But don't you think MORE people try to avoid it? And should people who don't send back juror questionnaires have their voter registration challenged and lose their vote?

[fugue]

4. It pays $40/day here

And they get their records from the DMV. My sister, a driver, has been called repeatedly since the second year she has lived here. Not being a driver, I lived here twenty years before I was called. They only noticed my existence when I applied for a job with the city.

I suppose more people try to avoid it, but mostly because it disrupts their lives.

I think we need to encourage people to vote, not make it impossible.

[AirAmFan]

5. $40 a day is pretty good when the minimum wage is little more than $5/hr

Many people believe that registering to vote will lead to getting called for jury duty, but I've never bought that theory. From the link I found today, it seems like the reverse is more nearly true: Not sending back juror questionnaires may lead to challenges of voter registrations.

[Syncronaut Seven]

3. I'm so incredibly hostile when they ask

They simply stopped asking. I think my last rant about judges and prosecuters being corrupt to the core did it.

I haven't been called for jury duty in about 8 years now.

Probably for the best, isn't it a crime to deliberately sink a trial?