The New Standard
November 1, 2004
Tuesday���s to Be Most Closely Watched Election in Memory
by Brendan Coyne
In response to a rash of reports pointing to voter intimidation and
suppression over the past few weeks, and worries over various kinds of fraud,
many people will be turning out tomorrow at polling places for purposes other
than voting. As "vote challenges" and other irregularities are
expected especially in Democratic-leaning communities, a range of organizations
-- some fiercely partisan and some unaffiliated -- plan to be on hand to prevent
a replay of the contentious 2000 election.
Meanwhile, pro-democracy organizations are suggesting longer-term reforms
that could make future elections less logistically contentious.
Some international election observers have been told they will not be allowed
access to polling places in the two states widely expected to be most litigious
this year: Ohio and Florida. About 100 observers organized by Fair Election and
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will monitor the
election in various places throughout the country.
However, Matt Rose, a spokesperson for Fair Election, said election officials
in two of the three Florida counties which observers are attempting to monitor
initially denied the delegation access to polling places.
On Monday, Jason Mark, spokesperson for Global Exchange, an international
human rights organization behind the Fair Election project, said Broward County,
Florida election officials had decided to permit observers into polling places,
leaving Miami-Dade as the only Florida county which has denied access to the
groups. Cayuhoga and Franklin counties in Ohio have refused to cooperate with
the election observers as well, Mark said.
Estimates of the number of people expected to be
involved in voting efforts outside of casting a ballot Tuesday are hard
to come by, but an aggregate of news reports and organizational claims
places the number at least in the tens of thousands. |
The delegations with Fair Election and the OSCE are but part of the Election Day
observation picture. Aside from plans by many state and local Republican parties
to utilize "vote challengers," various partisan and non-partisan
organizations have announced plans to field complaints, provide information and
aid people in getting to polling places.
One such group is Election Protection, a coalition of over 100 civil rights,
labor, religious, media and legal groups organized under the aegis of the People
for the American Way Foundation, a left-leaning nonprofit civil rights
organization. The group claims to have over 25,000 volunteers engaged in actions
from staffing an informational and complaint hotline, 866-OUR-VOTE, and
distributing state-specific "Voter���s Bill of Rights," to providing
polling site voter aid and offering legal assistance.
Voters, observers and those turned away at the polls can also register
incidents at VoteProtect.org���s Election Incident Reporting System, the online
counterpart to Election Protection���s hotline. The website contains up-to-date
reports of reported polling problems from around the country, broken down by
county.
Vote Watch is a similarly-minded organization founded in 2002 to,
"promote transparency in American elections, and ensure that every vote
cast is counted fairly and accurately for all Americans, irrespective of where
they live, where they vote, or their background," according to their
website. Vote Watch is affiliated with Aguirre International, a survey and
research company created by former US Commissioner of Education Dr. Edward
Aguirre, and Common Cause, a progressive open-government advocate. Vote Watch
provides an election hotline of its own, 866-MY-VOTE1.
Other organizations expected to be out in force on Election Day tend to be
more openly-partisan. Myriad news reports and affirmations from leaders of labor
unions, political action committees and the party faithful suggest voters and
poll observers will both be appearing in numbers not seen in recent decades..
Karen Rosenberg, a United Auto Workers lawyer and labor organizer from
Brooklyn, New York, says she will be in Orlando as part of the Lawyer
Coordinating Committee of the AFL-CIO. They intend to provide legal support
services to voters, operate a call-in center and, if necessary, file
election-related legal challenges.
"I just feel that this is, number one, a hugely important
election," said Rosenberg of her decision to work with the legal committee.
"It���s so important that people should be stepping up and contributing
what they can. The past election showed that the Republican Party has this
ends-justifies-the-means mentality. They play hardball and are more concerned
with winning. I think it���s totally reprehensible."
While groups scramble to protect the right to vote this election, the Center
for Voting and Democracy (CVD) is "tracking reports of fraud and
intimidation with an eye toward what can be done," according to the
group���s director, Rob Richie. And they have some recommendations from past
studies.
The CVD���s biggest recommendation is to federalize portions of the electoral
system. The idea, Richie says, is to reach a compromise that would cut fraud and
expand registration by setting minimum standards and goals for each state while
maintaining a degree of autonomy for states to experiment and innovate. Richie
suggests a national voter identification system would be a good place to start,
adding that it would quickly nullify questions of fraud.
Another proposal the CVD supports is a Constitutional amendment affirming the
right to vote. Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Illinois) proposed such an
amendment, and though it is currently seen as a partisan measure, Richie says
that mindset might very well change if this year���s election results are in
dispute.
"It need not be a partisan activity," Richie said of the amendment.
"Certainly, just because someone [is] conservative, it doesn���t mean they
don���t want elections run well. It���s just too risky to keep running elections
the way we do. Right now we can���t handle a close election."
Estimates of the number of people expected to be involved in voting efforts
outside of casting a ballot Tuesday are hard to come by, but an aggregate
of news reports and organizational claims places the number at least in the tens
of thousands.
The BBC reports that over 1,000 observers will be deployed Tuesday by the
Justice Department alone, three times the number utilized in 2000.
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