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Voting irregularities in Michigan and Ohio

by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 3 November 2004
1 comment

Elections-Elected USA

by MichiganIMC

An early rundown of reports that we’ve received from Michigan and Ohio on voting irregularities, including poll challengers, voting machine malfunctions, ID-checking, and intimidation.

Detroit: A Volunteer working with Moses and People For the American Way (Detroit) as a poll watcher has called in to explain his experiences with "poll challengers." Challengers are affiliated with a group or party, and in Detroit there has been a high presence of Republican challengers. In contrast, poll workers act in a non-partisan manner to make sure that challengers are not slowing the voting process. Voters in Detroit have also been finding that other people have voted in their name, which then makes it impossible for the voter to cast their vote.

Benton Harbor:Reverend Pinkney of the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO) in Benton Harbor reports that Republican challengers are approaching BH voters at random, challenging almost every second or third voter. The actions of the challengers have had the effect of holding voters up, intimidating and discouraging them, yet despite this today was maybe the largest voter turnout in BH history. BANCO registered 2,500 people in BH to vote out of a population of 12,000.

Detroit: Reports from the Detroit Election Protection Team state that polling sites in Eastern Detroit have Republican challengers making poll staff check everyone’s ids.

Detroit: Caller in Detroit says that at Considine Recreation Center polling center, one voting machine is not working. At another polling place down the street (in a church), all the machines are down and there is a wait of three hours. Poll workers trying to keep people from leaving, but some are anyway.

Pontiac: A Michigan caller reported that "it’s five times as bad as we anticipated" regarding Republican challengers at polls. They are doing things illegal for challengers, dressing in Election Protection t-shirts, and telling people to go home (in Detroit and Pontiac)

Bowling Green: Caller from Bowling Green State University reports that the University Administration has issued a directive forcing all political signs to be removed from campus. While the Administration focuses on repressing speech on campus, there seems to be little concern for dealing with long lines which are preventing people from voting. Lines are more than two hours long and some voters have become discouraged and left. Some activists at BGSU are wondering if this is a deliberate effort to repress the student vote. Lawyers are being contacted.

Detroit: Reports from voter protection workers in Detroit that at the Woodbridge Senior Center polling site this morning, voters were asked to provide ID in addition to their voter registration cards. Some voters did not have other ID and were turned away.

Detroit: Voter protection workers in Detroit report that police are loitering around some polling sites, saying that they are there to protect against "riff-raff." Voter protection workers are concerned that this may be a form of intimidation.

http://michiganimc.org/feature/display/7544/index.php

Forum posts

  • There were police at the polls in far Western Chicago suburbs...but no ’challengers’ that I saw. What a vile thing to do.