21. REACH OUT AND DISENFRANCHISE SOMEONE http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2421595&nav=168XRvNe "Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day," reports George Knapp. "The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash. Anyone_who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected." Eric Russell, a former employee of a Republican-affiliated company, called "Voters Outreach of America," says he personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats. In a separate incident, Nevada election officials have rebuffed an attempt by a former GOP operative to purge about 17,000 Democrats from the voter rolls. (We reported on similar past examples of "voter suppression" in a chapter of our recent book, Banana Republicans.) SOURCE: KLAS-TV (Las Vegas), October 12, 2004 More web links related to this story are available at: http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097553600 To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097553600
I have been an Official precinct officer for two years and during each pre-election briefing this topic comes up. The only way to guarantee that you are properly registered (in California) is to mail in your form or use the internet, then follow up with a phone call to the county registrar. Groups soliciting registration in public places have been known to throw away registration forms from an opposite party. I have been told there is no law against this practice in California. Working at the polls is a really interesting experience and more should try it. I think this should be an alternative to jury service.
Yeah, this democracy thing is really working out great this political season. One man, one vote, 35 lawyers. Great.
I suppose all you can hope for is that both sides throw away proportionate numbers of registrations so that the result is unaffected!
There is also the story about the Administration warnings regarding terrorism and polling places. If we are to believe the Administration, terrorists are waiting to bomb us at the polling booth. Many polling places will have armed guards who closely resemble police. The speculation is that there will be an inordinate number of these "guards" in minority voting areas. Many minorities will decide not to vote after seeing these "guards.", even those who have nothing to hide. It seems a bit of a stretch, but in this day and age, who knows?