Group Finds Voting Irregularities in South

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News Story - Group Finds Voting Irregularities in South

 

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Group Finds Voting Irregularities in South

 

2 hours, 6 minutes ago

 

By DOUG GROSS, Associated Press Writer

 

ATLANTA - A national voting rights group said Friday it documented

hundreds of voting irregularities affecting poor and minority voters

in seven Southern states — from long lines and faulty equipment to

deliberate voter intimidation.

 

" While the United States of America is a strong democracy, it is also

a flawed democracy, " said Keith Jennings, director of Count Every Vote

2004, formed after the 2000 election to assure voting rights for

" underrepresented and marginalized sectors of the population. "

 

The group sent monitors Tuesday to 700 precincts in Alabama, Florida,

Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Their goal was to observe such issues as the timely opening of polls,

the presence of correct ballots and functioning machines, and the

impartiality of elections officials.

 

Among their preliminary findings, the group listed a shortage of early

voting locations in Duval County, Fla., the largest county in Florida

in area and voting-age population, the failure of electronic voting

machines in three South Carolina counties, and the loss of votes at a

North Carolina precinct when too much information was stored on a

computer unit.

 

" In one case, sprinklers came on while people were waiting to vote and

the poll workers didn't know how to turn them off, " said Alma Ayala,

who monitored voting in St. Petersburg, Fla.

 

Volunteers with the organization met Friday at Atlanta's Ebenezer

Baptist Church — where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached —

to compile their findings and plan for collecting new information.

 

Group leaders did not know exactly how many irregularities were cited

and could not say which states appeared to have the most. They said

those issues will be more fully explored in their final report, to be

issued in about two weeks.

 

But volunteers provided anecdotal evidence of voting problems in every

state they monitored.

 

Randall Tussaint, who helped register voters and monitor polls in an

eastern Georgia congressional district, cited a precinct at

historically black Savannah State University where the 25 provisional

ballots provided were gone by 11 a.m.

 

Some voters whose registration status was unclear after that time left

without voting, he said.

 

In Florida, monitors said they observed prospective voters leaving

polling places when they saw long lines for last week's early voting.

Faulty equipment and sub-par facilities in some poor neighborhoods

also contributed to possible voter disenfranchisement, they said.

 

The group's preliminary report made some positive observations.

 

The report applauded increased voter participation and numerous " get

out the vote drives " and called elections throughout the South

" relatively well administered. "

 

But members said the fact that the presidential election's outcome is

not being challenged — as it was in 2000 — should not obscure problems

that still occurred.

 

" We had an election on Nov. 2 that fell outside the zone of

litigation, " said Patrick Merloe, an attorney and human rights

activist who has observed elections in 27 countries. " That does not

mean we had an election that met acceptable standards. "

 

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On the Net:

 

 

 

Count Every Vote 2004: http://www.counteveryvote2004.org