Civil Rights Group Seeks Changes in Indiana Election Law

[struggle4progress]

GOP rejects Democrat's accusation of effort to suppress minority votes
By Eric Berman
8/29/2013

... Representative Cherrish Pryor (D-Indianapolis) complains some Marion County precincts changed polling place locations last year with no notice or explanation, often in minority neighborhoods. She charges there's no explanation other than a deliberate effort to hold down minority turnout. Pryor wants legislators to lock in polling places two months before Election Day, and require local governments to specify the reason for making a change ...

The Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law says it fielded 800 election complaints from Hoosiers last year. The civil rights group classifies about 100 of the complaints as intimidation, though its examples involve disinformation rather than strongarm tactics -- for instance, a robocall falsely telling people they could vote by phone ...

And Pryor, a Democrat, questions Republicans' motives in limiting the availability of early voting in Marion County. State law requires unanimous approval from bipartisan county election boards to offer early voting anywhere other than the county clerk's office. Pryor says Republicans embraced early voting until President Obama successfully mobilized thousands of early voters en route to carrying Indiana in the 2008 election ...

http://www.wibc.com/news/story.aspx?ID=2032993

[struggle4progress]

1. Advocates, election officials tell panel complex Indiana registration rules frustrate voters

By CHARLES WILSON Associated Press
First Posted: August 29, 2013 - 4:45 pm
Last Updated: August 29, 2013 - 4:53 pm

... Indianapolis radio personality Amos Brown and Trent Deckard, Democratic co-director of the Indiana Election Division, told the Census Data Advisory Committee that unexplained relocation of polling places and 52 pages of changes approved since 2012 cause voters, especially minorities, to lose faith in the system ...

Deckard said confusion among poll workers who don't understand state registration requirements has resulted in voters being denied their rights and in long lines that cause some people to give up before casting a ballot ...

Committee members said if precincts are redrawn, voters should be notified of the location of their new voting location, which some counties don't do.

Ruth Greenwood, an attorney who works with a Chicago-based voting rights group that monitors voting in northwest Indiana, said a study identified the main reasons given for not voting: intimidation, including political robocalls; problems with registration; and problems involving polling places. Misinterpretation of Indiana's voter ID law was another source, often involving what types of documents were acceptable as ID, she said ...

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/bff09a9a3c0448d0806b2a85273703ef/IN--Voting-Barriers-Indiana/