Post-election keeping lawyers busy with voter fraud issues
From Ballotpedia
November 5, 2008
Lawyers who volunteered to take calls and monitor polling locations nationwide on Tuesday reported voting machine malfunctions, polling places opening late and numerous incidences of names missing from voter registration rolls.[1]
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Both filing lawsuits and avoiding litigation
In Ohio, New Hampshire and Virginia, lawyers filed court documents in election related lawsuits. However in most states, lawyers were working to prevent litigation by fielding calls at centers housed at area law firm offices, or traveling to polling locations to address voter concerns. Some states had unique issues, such as improper signage in Florida, missing absentee ballots in California and a shortage of interpreters for Asian American voters in New York's Chinatown.[1]
The majority of the lawyers who volunteered were involved with Election Protection, a nonpartisan coalition that is administered by the Voting Rights project of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.[1]
Not a smooth election everywhere
Jon Greenbaum, director of the Voting Rights Project, said the election did not go smoothly in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan and New Jersey.
Most of the problems in those states had to do with the optical scan machines, which came about after the last election resulted in complaints about electronic voting machines. On Tuesday, the scanning machines broke down, resulting in elections workers having to hand out paper ballots as an alternative to thousands of voters, said Greenbaum. Additionally, many ballots were put in duffel bags and even thrown on the floor by poll workers.
According to Greenbaum: "The system is not designed to deal with a high turnout election and we're seeing the effects of a lack of planning and resources."[1]
Scanning machines saw problems in Florida, as well.
In Broward County, voters vote by blackening circles on vote cards. The cards are then fed through optical scanners. Each precinct has just one scanner. According to Valerie Shea, a partner at Gordon, Hargrove & James who is heading the operation in Broward, the scanner broke in a few precincts, so poll workers collected ballots and promised to feed them through later.[1]
Similar call centers were set up in Miami-Dade County, at the offices of Washington's Hogan & Hartson, and in Palm Beach County, at the offices of New York's Proskauer Rose.[1]
Perhaps most concerning, Shea said, were reports that voters in Pompano Beach, were intimidated by numerous police at the polls. "They were apparently intimidated by what appears to be excessive police presence," she said. [1]
Voting machine breakdowns also were reported in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and jammed machines popped up in San Francisco and Los Angeles, said Jenny DaSilva, a volunteer attorney who is working in the San Francisco call center at Bingham McCutchen, which sent more than 120 lawyers to polls in Florida, Nevada, Virginia and San Francisco.[1]
See also
- Ohio vote fraud
- California vote fraud
- Pennsylvania vote fraud
- Florida vote fraud
- Virginia vote fraud
- New Jersey vote fraud
- New York vote fraud
- Michigan vote fraud
- New Hampshire vote fraud
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 The National Law Journal: "Malfunctioning machines, ballot glitches, election-law litigation — and a busy day for lawyers," Nov 5, 2008
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