Back on Election Day, we got the picture above from Sarah Carter of Woodbridge, Virginia, who said she waited three and a half hours to vote. That's inside the four-hour mark singled out for scrutiny by Florida Governor Rick Scott, but still an awfully long time. And it appears to about three times too long for a couple of Democratic lawmakers.
Senator Barbara Boxer of California and Congressman Jim Moran of Virginia have each introduced legislation designed to cut the wait time for voting to not more than an hour. From Boxer's press release:
The LINE Act (or the Lines Interfere with National Elections Act) would require the Attorney General, in consultation with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), to issue new national standards by January 1, 2014 regarding the minimum number of voting machines, election workers, and other election resources that are necessary to conduct Federal elections on Election Day and during early voting periods. The bill explicitly states that the goal of minimum standards is to prevent a waiting time of more than one hour at any polling place.
It's worth noting that Republicans are talking about getting rid of the Election Assistance Commission, and that Boxer has been pushing for the Senate to finally re-staff the commission. The board is currently empty.
I don't see the Boxer bill online yet. You can read Moran's House measure here (pdf). Since the election, Democrats have been kicking around measures designed to prevent another election debacle, including bills from Senator Chris Coons of Delaware and Congressman George Miller of California. (How to send us stuff.)
Leave a Comment:
This will be something of a test for the Republicans. Alot of their donors are for voter suppression. The more of these tests that get thrown out at them the better. The Shaheen Amendment to the NDAA is going to test the House shortly as well.
Just make getting an Absentee Ballot easy. No lines, no rain, no fuss.
Is that photo from election day or the line to see the final "twilight" movie?
All elections in the State of Oregon are conducted by mail-in ballot. Essentially, every registered voter receives an absentee ballot in the mail two weeks before the election, which they then fill out and either mail back or drop off by the close of election day.
Oregon's elections are free of voter suppression, operate smoothly, and have significantly higher voter turnout than the national average. The Feds should offer to pay for the costs to run elections on federal election days on the condition all registered voters automatically receive an absentee ballot prior to the election.
Conservatives unfortunately hate the USPS, so they would fight to the end to prevent that. I doubt the red states want to give up the power they have over elections, so this will be a pitched battle.
Going a bit off-topic here jonnymoses, but the USPS is very, very efficient. They carry an enormous amount of freight for both FedEx and UPS. That's right. Look it up. They carry your letter from one corner of the United States to the other for 45-cents. I'd bet my bottom dollar you wouldn't carry a letter across the street for that amount. USPS carries mail to some of the most remote places imaginable.
The reason they are operating in the red right now is because Republicans have placed an utterly ridiculous pension funding scheme on them, while refusing to allow them to raise rates to cover the costs. Look it up, before you comment further.
Voter suppression is very real. You really should pay more attention. G.O.P. elected officials have on at least two occasions come right out and admitted to it.
Lastly, you aren't a conservative. Genuine conservatives are much better informed than you are.
@johnnymoses, if you would care to take David Walkers excellent advise here is one place to start your search for the truth:
http://www.savethepostoffice.com/
And if you want to do some research on voter suppression, you are already on a blog that has written about a lot of the voter suppression. Go read some of the earlier blog entries.
Have fun.
jonny. The usps get no tax dollars. And the 2006 lame duck gop congress passes the crippling bill to make them fund the retirement account for 75 years and giving them only 10 years to do. That's "mismanagement" how? That's a screwed up right wing congress.
@jonnymoses, I'm deleting you throughout for name-calling and general rudeness. Cut it out, please.
I love that at least democrats are trying to bring some standards to at least federal elections, maybe that might spur on the states.....Hahahahaha - who am I kidding this is the GOTP here, well maybe after their implosion?
Simply, elected Republican lawmakers need to immediately quit yakking us around on this voting issue!
Rick Scott, Ohioan Republicans, Scott Walker, that Republican draconian in Michigan and all those other Republicans who would profane our democratic heritage of the franchise - your disdain for our democratic tradition disqualifies you as decent political leaders, and you've become plain to see saboteurs of our way of life along with being provocateurs of class warfare!
Right here, right now, I cannot find much to say about this Republican effort to disenfranchise large portions of the electorate that is positive. Their efforts are Anti-American, anti-democratic, and a direct assault upon our Constitutional rights!
Gerrymandering is accepted, but unbecoming of an elected government. Suppressing the vote is beyond unbecoming. It is untoward, and also repugnant to a free and liberty-minded people - especially if such suppression is underwritten by a duly-elected official!
When any elected official is engaged in the practice of constraining the vote, it shows such a person to be an opportunist, not a public servant! -Kevo
Make election day a national holiday, and a mandatory day off.
Enough you draconian lefties. The GOP or any other valid political party does NOT want to supress the voters. The Dems, Repubs, Libertarians, Green parties want to make sure that every LEGITIMATE vote counts. A legitimate voter is a citizen. With 12million illegals/non-citizens do you want them to vote ? Your argument that voter id supresses voters or places an undue burden on the "poor" and eldery does not hold water. I volunteer at a few senior centers and "poor" people centers and each one of them have programs and transportation available for registration and voting. What states like Florida need is more polling places.
Eagerly awaiting the information you're going to provide on how many "illegitimate" votes were cast last month.
And no, just because the vote was for a Democrat doesn't make it "illegitimate"!
You lost me when you used the word "valid" with a reference to the GOP, I was willing to be called draconian. As soon as all seniors in the country get admitted to the lovely places where you selflessly volunteer, everything will be hunky dory, huh. Maybe we can cram a few dozen in the bed of your pickup...
Having witnessed an entirely GOP county commission plan ON THE RECORD DURING PUBLIC MEETINGS to suppress the vote of university students who had happened to overwhelmingly register Democratic that year, I must disagree with your basic premise.
To be clear:
1) the county clerk (a GOP elected official) reported to the County commission that voter registration was way up amongst university students, and they were not registering Republican;
2) the county commission then tried to invalidate the student registrations, and the courts said 'No' -- something about being able to vote at one's principal residence;
3)the county commission redrew voting precincts to create one rather large precinct that encompassed every dorm, frat, or predominantly student occupied apartment building;
4) the county commission and clerk then made sure the polling place in this precinct had the minimum staff and equipment allowed by law, even though the precinct had more registered voters than any other in the county.
On election day, as to be expected for the Midwest, it rained. People stood in ice-cold rain for over 6 hours to vote. Working at the university but living elsewhere, I was able to vote in about 5 minutes and then go to work and watch the lines grow.
This was in 1992. I changed my registration from Independent to Democrat the following week. The GOP is the party of voter suppression and will never again get my vote.
Any Gov. or legislator who believes 4, or more, hrs is A-OK should be demanded by the voters to stand in line with them the full maximum approved time to prove their commitment is genuine. And no phone or computer to do work & all children must be with them-no nannies! It is a conservative value to do the max. gov. involvement no? Revolting!
I am petitioning the White House to provide photo ID SS cards to ALL citizens so ALL can vote in Republican states.... This may help and if done right, perhaps even prevent Identity Theft. http://wh.gov/NIby
Your statements about all the illegals in this country are a complete and utter strawman. You should have learned in grade school that one must register to vote. If you are a registered voter then you would know that it would be impossible for any non-citizen to complete the form, or have it accepted.
So basically the only argument you could technically make is that an illegal would go and vote, saying they were someone else that *is* registered while hoping the actual registered person doesn't also cast their vote because then they would easily detect fraud.
I mean, you guys with a woody for the GOP can make up all the nightmare scenarios you want in order to pretend that what they are doing is right. The fact that many of the leaders of that party have stated flat out the actual goal makes your arguments pretty weak.