LA: nWhy won't FEMA support absentee voting efforts in Louisiana?

[Wilms]

Election Updates

Thursday, October 20, 2005

by Michael Alvarez

snip

In any case, as I was watching the coverage of Hurricane Wilma, my thoughts drifted back to Hurricane Katrina and the hundreds of thousands who remain displaced in that disaster's aftermath, I wondered about what efforts are being undertaken by election officials to figure out where voters displaced from Louisiana and Mississippi now are, and how they are going to get in touch with those voters to make sure they are not disenfranchised in upcoming elections in both states.

Then coincidence strikes again, when I grab a copy of the Wall Street Journal, and find a short article buried on page A6, titled "New Orleans Elections in Doubt As Voter Tracking Hits Snags." According to this story, "The Federal Emergency Management Agency notified Louisiana officials that it won't fund a plan to help displaced New Orleans voters participate in local elections or give state leaders access to FEMA's database containing temporary addresses of evacuated residents."

According to the WSJ story, the state has estimated that it could cost as much as $750,000 for the state to mount a national advertising campaign to inform displaced New Orleans voters that they can vote in upcoming February local elections no matter where they are now located. Indeed, that seems like a lot of money for an advertising campaign, but given what these voters have gone through --- and the obvious need to make sure they are not disenfranchised and that they can participate in selecting city leaders who will be critical actors in the rebuilding of New Orleans --- I couldn't help but think that this is a worthwhile investment in rebuilding the civic capacity of those displaced New Orleans voters. If FEMA won't make this investment in rebuilding the civic capacity of New Orleans, perhaps other federal agencies or private entities can step up to the plate to help, ranging from the EAC, to other election officials in states with high concentrations of Katrina-displaced voters, to private foundations?

snip/more

http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/2005/10/why-wont-fema-support-absentee-voting.html

[...of J.Temperance]

1. Because they don't want the NOLA blacks ever voting there AGAIN

That way Louisiana stands a good chance of going full-on Repuke. Of course, A LOT of us here predicted this was Bush's sinister reason for doing jackshit for 6 days and then scattering the NOLA blacks around 20 odd states.

My advice to Louisiana, just do what's been done since Huey Long. If you catch my drift.

[nashville_brook]

2. hmmm -- "elections in doubt" -- sounds like they DON'T WANT to rebuild

the civic capacity.

rec'd n kick'd

[flyarm]

3. can we find out what was done for hurricanes in fla last year by fema??

why don't we find out if fema provided the republicans with the voter addresses in florida last year in the general election??????????

fly