========= No voice unheard
I am currently pissed off. Let me tell you why.
Today, around lunchtime, I went with my parents to the polls to vote in our primary election. When I got there, I found that I had somehow been removed from the books, and hence could not vote.
Frustrated, I took the day off work and my mom took me down to the Election Board at 18th and Walnut. When we got there, we found that the reason I was not on the books is that SOMEONE had sent in an address change card for me. I live near 76th and Troost, but the voting database now had me down as living at 52nd and Locust - I've NEVER lived there, and have in fact lived at this address all of my life (well, except for the year in England, and even then this was my "permanent address"). It took about two hours, but the elections commission director straightened it out and I was finally able to vote. However, she told me why this has been happening, and it's very worrisome.
Apparently there are groups out there who buy copies of the voter registration rolls, then send in new registrations for registered voters giving them a new address. It's really a more sophisticated version of the whole thing with the felony lists in Florida in the last election - however, people aren't being REMOVED from the voting rolls, and hence there's no red flag being raised. After all, people DO move and send in change of address, so there's no reason for them to suspect voter fraud. And there's really no way to trace this, so there's really no way to detect this. But in effect what it means is voters are removed from the rolls - after all, if you're unknowingly registered in another precinct, how can you vote at yours? I was lucky...I have the job flexibility and transportation to go down to the election board and find out the problems, but I'm betting a lot of the other people with the same problems don't. And there are a lot - at my precinct, during the period we were at the polls, which was pretty slow, there were only about five or six people in and out, including us. And of those, me and one other guy found ourselves off the rolls, and one woman said she'd had the same thing happen to her during the 2000 presidential election and had to spend the entire day down at the election board.
By the way, I'll just say that I think it's significant that I happen to live in a largely minority, heavily Democratic district in a swing state. You can draw your own conclusions from that. But I'll add that I've recently been reading Bush's Brain, a book about the INCREDIBLY FUCKING SCARY Karl Rove, and this scheme has a distinct Rovian stench to it. (Three guesses who masterminded the similar scheme in Florida for Bush? And the first two don't count.)
Anyway, I have a feeling that this problem is only going to get worse as the November election approaches. So I'm urging everyone, especially if you live in a swing state - either check with your election board a few days before the election to make sure you're on the rolls at your current address, or vote absentee early (which will also let you know whether you're on the rolls or not).
-- John S Costello joxn.costello at gmail.com "Every other vice hath some pleasure annexed to it, or will admit of some excuse, but envy wants both." -- Robert Burton