Silent, But Deadly to our Democracy
We just got an email from Stacie Miller of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and the Legal Leader of the Election Protection Coalition about a silent, but deadly to our democracy, problem:
The volunteers who staff our polling places are honorable citizens performing an important civic duty - but they need proper training. Do they know what to do when voting machines break down? Or state law about voters showing photo ID? Can they explain how to properly use their state’s ballot? In 2008, in states across the country, the answer has been “no.”
It’s a very real problem. This primary season, that confusion caused outright misconduct:
- In California, a poll worker went up and down a line of voters demanding to see photo identification, in clear violation of state law.
- A New York poll worker openly ridiculed a man for asking for a Republican ballot.
- Students were refused ballots by a poll worker who claimed, without cause, that they no longer lived at the listed address.
As usual, the media is silent on reporting these stories so help the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights give them the little nudge they need.
The form they provide automatically sends an email to major media outlets like the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, CNN, Denver Post, Fox News, Houston Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. But another idea is to send the same type of email to local TV and print news outlets who frequently look for local stories to investigate. Whether the movement on this comes from the top down or the bottom up makes no diff as long as it meets somewhere in the middle for change.