where's the ACLU in all this?

[garybeck]

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me that voting rights and voter suppression could somehow be tied to civil liberties, in which case the ACLU could be a powerful help. Has anyone heard if they are looking at this situation?

[Melissa G]

1. Good Question! n/t

[EFerrari]

2. No current info. They were active in the run up, and when I

called their Atlanta Voting Project about OH, they referred me to the OH office (early November). I think that site is ACLUOhio.org and they do post updates there. All I know.

[understandinglife]

3. Greg Moore's statement to Congressman Conyers

Just so you know that at least the NAACP has made some strong statements and perhaps you could include them in a letter to the ACLU as a way to urge them to become much more involved, vocal on the disenfranchisement and threat to our Constitution.

http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/moorevotestmt121304.pdf

Two quotes:

"The NAACP National Voter Fund joins in solidarity with CASE, the Free Press, National Voting Rights Institute, and many other groups as we seek a recount of all the votes cast on November 2, 2004 in the state of Ohio; something that never happened in Florida 4 years ago. By almost all independent accounts, had the 2000 Florida recount not been halted by the US Supreme Court in December of 2000, it would have led to the election and inauguration of Vice President Al Gore as president.

Just as there were undervotes and overvotes that were uncounted in Florida that could have determined the true outcome of the 2000 election; there are over 90,000 “spoiled” ballots in Ohio that have yet to be counted and can impact the 2004 election. There are 35,000 people who registered to vote in Ohio, but for one reason or another, were threatened to be challenged at the polls by Republican operatives on November 2, 2004. We are still researching how many of these 35,000 voters were provisional or were actually counted. We may never know the numbers of voters who were intimated from even showing up on Election Day."

[KaliTracy]

4. Ohio ACLU

I emailed the Ohio branch of the ACLU right after the election telling my *non-election difficulties* since I happen to live in a demographic that is way over 90% Republican, mostly caucasian, upper middle class, etc., etc.

They wrote back thanking me for the information and told me that the information was useful for their investigation.

I sent additional information a few days later, and again received an e-mail thanking me for the information.

They just recently tried to launch a lawsit about voters being disenfranchised because they are still using punch card ballots. If I remember correctly, it was thrown out. I think they originally did the same thing in Florida in 2002 (correct me if I'm wrong).

What needs to happen is that every precinct needs to give informaiton on 4 things.

1. how many people allocated to each precinct location.
2. how many machines in each precinct location.
3. how long people had to stand in line (if at all -- which I did not)
4. how many votes were recorded on each machine

Blackwell was on Tavis Smiley today saying how "smooth" everything went and that it was a "fine" election. I don't know what he's been sniffing, but when people who pay taxes for equitable and fair elections have to stand in the rain for hours to vote, that's not fair, nor equitable.

Somehow the ACLU needs to investigate what exactly the law states, and how the fair and equitable can be determined.

Blackwell, as well as other BOE chairmen have mentioned because some Republican areas had long lines that it wasn't only in Democratic areas (Tim Burke (Dem, BOE Hamilton County) mentioned Mason to me (same Demographics as West Chester). Only thing is, Mason's lines came because they had tremdous growth since 2000, and they didn't update their precincts. (HOW did they do primary elections?) Their lines were 1-2 hours.

I (we) need to find clarification/information too, on Blackwell's decison to Merge precincts in those areas that had long lines in anticipation of using e-voting, and then deciding that they 'didn't have enough money and wanted a papertrail -- but DIDN'T unmerge the districts. I know I read it somewhere, but I've yet to find it. It's things like that which will help build a case, I think.



edited for clarity

[idiosyncratic]

5. A friend just asked me that as we discussed Donna Frye

and the fact that she won the San Diego mayoral race, except 5000 ballots were "unbubbled" and won't be counted . . . yet.

How much "voter intent" does someone need to see if the name is written in.

[katinmn]

7. I read about that. It's plain ridiculous. n/t

[katinmn]

6. I had an action alert from them this week

They are focusing on the Patriot Act, torture of Iraqi youths by US Marines, and they recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of antiBush protesters.
http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeSpeech.cfm?ID=17172&c=86

There's plenty that needs fixing!

[KaliTracy]

8. The Report on Merging Precincts

I mentioned in my post above about providing/finding the link to verify Blackwell Merged precincts "in anticipation" of e-voting machines, but after they decided not to go to e-voting, they DIDN'T go back to the original precinct totals ---- and since this CAME from Taft and Blackwell, and NOT each Board of Elections, they have some explaining to do!!

http://www.portlandphoenix.com/features/other_stories/multi1/documents/04258174.asp

[pointsoflight]

9. The ACLU has joined the effort in Ohio.

I saw a report on it 1-2 weeks ago. Don't know how much they're involved, and have seen little about it, but a spokesperson for that group says they have joined the effort.