With its half a million still-uncounted ballots, Arizona is the surprising new Florida of elections this year.
The story starts months ago, when a dedicated group of high school students ran a quite successful drive to register new voters. That group, Adios Arpaio, wants people to vote out the anti-immigrant sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio.
Adios Arpaio registered more than 30,000 new voters, and many of them experienced some kind of hitch at the polls. Now Adios Arpaio is in a desperate scramble to reach the 115,000 Maricopa voters who were forced into voting a provisional ballot. Those voters must go back to the county elections office by the Wednesday deadline to prove they voted properly, or else their votes will be thrown out. At least, as you can see above, the folks at Adios Arpaio have kept their sense of humor. More on their very serious story tonight.
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Black Panther Party strikes again! Ha!
Yes
I am sooo intimidated by it's furry softness.
I tawt a taw a putty tat.
if the kids get everybody back and get every provisional ballot certified how many will find that they have to do it all over again for the next election?
these people aren't going away folks, they'll just try again until either they win or we throw them out.
it's time for national standards for voting.
- automatic registration on your 18th birthday.
- address change available on-line or via USPS change-of-address cards.
- paper ballots.
- adequate numbers of booths, polling places and poll workers to serve the population of every district.
these few changes could, along with penalties for not maintaining accurate voter registration records, go a long way toward fixing the parts that are broken. we might want to look into non-partisan redistricting commissions too.
Or, like Washington State, all election, by mail in ballots. No voting machines or 'screw the vote', or lines.
I completely agree!!! Federal voting especially should be handled Federally. Every person in this country of voting age should be issued an 'age of majority' card stating their name, age, residence & all other pertinent info to vote...& drink. And the only way states should be involved is if there's a residence change or a new photo needs to be taken. That's it! No more registration snafu's & no more jerking people around to work your elections.
Thanks Rachel. This has to be corrected. This is a violation of our rights as voters. No excuses.
This is criminal.
Really sickening. Blatant banana republic, Arizona. How in the world did it get so bad?
Interfering with a citizen's right to vote has to become a felony with mandatory jail time.
A HUGE part of the Arizona voting story was the purging of voters that occurred here during the summer - by the Republican Secretaries of State for Arizona and Maricopa County. To ensure that there would be no election fraud, (there had never been any) they swept the rolls, comparing names and addresses to "other databases."
Three of our family's five members received address clarification requests. Numerous submissions, phone calls, and even faxes were required to get registered again!
In the end, I had to file a provisional ballot because the ballot they "mailed to me" never arrived. They said they made a typo when they "corrected" my address - even though I have lived here for 56 years, and have voted in every election and primary since I was 21!
Taking away another American's right to vote is the most un-American act that can be perpetrated on a citizen. I am an immigrant from Greece - and learned that when I became a citizen.. that we are a free people because we have the right to vote to elect our leaders.
I will never, as long as I live, ever vote for a Republican. Even if that person is the only one running in a race, I will not vote for them because they have proven to be the enemies of our freedom.