MyDD :: Ballot Trouble in Michigan

Ballot Trouble in Michigan

by RandyMI, Wed Sep 29, 2004 at 10:34:14 AM EST

The creeps never stop!

The Republican Secretary of State in Michigan, Terri Lynn Land, is trying to do the same thing with provisional ballots as Blackwell is trying in Ohio.
Check the extended story for details. In the meantime, I'm urging fellow Michigan kossacks to email or call her office:

517-373-2540
secretary@michigan.gov

Time to man our battlestations.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Democrats in Michigan sued the state's highest-ranking election official on Tuesday, arguing that voters who show up at the wrong polling place on Nov. 2 but are in the right city, village or township can cast a provisional ballot.

The state party and the Bay City Democratic Party filed a federal lawsuit in Bay City against Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, a Republican. They say she has illegally refused to count provisional ballots of voters who accidentally go to the wrong polling place for the general election.

Democrats want Land to rescind her instructions Michigan's 2,438 county and local election officials not to count provisional ballots for voters who show up at the wrong precinct.

Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer said the Help America Vote Act, which Congress passed in 2002, allows voters to cast provisional ballots if they are in the correct city, village or township. Provisional ballots are provided to voters with questionable eligibility and are set aside and counted after being inspected.

"No eligible voter should have his or her vote taken away because they mistakenly went to the wrong polling place," Brewer said in a news release.

Similar lawsuits have been filed in Colorado, Missouri and Ohio.

State Bureau of Elections Director Chris Thomas said HAVA doesn't require the state to count the provisional ballots of voters who are in the wrong polling location and refuse to go to the correct one.

"We are, under state law, required to determine if they're in the right place," he said. "It's never been an issue. ... It's always been that way that you've got to be in your polling place."

Thomas said local elections officials have been instructed to tell voters who are in the wrong place the correct location to cast their ballots.

A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for Oct. 13, said Jason Moon, spokesman for the state Democratic Party.

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Permalink :: 6 Comments :: Post a Comment

I agree, but.... (none / 0)

While I am in agreement that this may be partisan in nature, you really need to distribute full credit around to all those who need to take blame. This is not a Republican-only tactic. The Democrats are guilty if the same or similar tactics to increase their voter counts.

Take Florida, for example, the state that everyone says Gore won, but that he really did not. How can I say that? Let's start with the 50,000 people who were double-registrants in Florida AND New York. Many of them cast votes in New York and absentee votes in Florida during the 2000 election. An alaysis of the 50,000 double-registrants show that 68% of them were registered Democrats, 12% Republican, 20% undeclared (Independents).

Now don't misunderstand...I am NOT implying that there wasn't some partisan maneuvering that in the weeks that followed by brother Jeb and Ms. Harris, but I am saying that the end result would have been the same had all these underhanded tactics been known at the time.

It's good that you bring them to light. The underhanded tricks by Democrats AND Republicans need to be brought forth, but don't post as though the Republicans are the only people guilty of deceptive voting practices.

by JayRay on Wed Sep 29, 2004 at 12:41:50 PM EST

Re: I agree, but.... (none / 0)

Can you provide a link to the story about double registration? I'm a bit skeptical, since this is the first time I've heard about it, and I do pay a fair amount of attention to the news, especially political news. If it's only been reported in the right-wing press, I'd be VERY skeptical; a lot of what shows up there doesn't get picked up by the mainstream media because it was fabricated (see David Brock for details on this -- he used to be one of the right-wing operatives doing the fabricating), and even the minimal fact-checking that most media organizations do is enough to reveal that. Not saying that's necessarily the case with this story, but I'd like to see some documentation -- preferably from sources more reliable than The American Spectator, The Weekly Standard, The National Review, The Washington Times, Fox News, or the Wall Street Journal's editorial page.

Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama for President! Beat McCain!

by Alex on Wed Sep 29, 2004 at 05:13:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Just a coincidence then? (none / 0)

JayRay-

I don't doubt Democrats have been guilty of similar faults in the past, but we've been having serious problems with the Republicans here in Michigan as of late. As a non-republican Michigan resident, I try to stay up on the issues surrounding the race (esp. today - the Lansing State Journal reports that Kerry only leads by 2 points here).

Just last week there was a debocle surrounding pamphlets that were "accidently" distributed to newly registered voters notifying them that even though they had registered, they would not be able to participate in the general election in November. These pamphlets were not supposed to be distributed until early October... but I guess the news about how new democrats out-registering new republicans by vast margins in swing states had an impact up the chain. Oops! Right? Just a simple oops? Doubtful.

by ShatteredMind on Wed Sep 29, 2004 at 03:30:55 PM EST

payback fund (none / 0)

is it too early to start
gathering funds for 2006 races?
I'd like to contribute NOW
to the campaigns of the future
opponents of Blackwell and
Terri Lynn Land. then I could
lie in wait to see my money
used to exact some payback
when these vote-fraudsters
face the voters themselves.
"Revenge is a dish best served cold."

ah well, guess I can go donate
to the current opponent of
Kathleen Harris, though I'm
afraid my feelings of revenge
there are still pretty hot.

by Woody on Wed Sep 29, 2004 at 05:55:30 PM EST

Re: payback fund (none / 0)

I share your frustrations. I've decided to be a bit more direct though, and decided to target the constituency. For example... I did an internship at a high school last year, and the government teacher/football coach/raging republican assbag in the room next to me used to make fun of my "Freedom is the Distance Between Church and State" bumpersticker, claiming that is "bullshit... this country needs morals!" I guess he never received the memo on how morals and religion don't have to have anything to do with one another. So this guy is a government teacher who doesn't believe in the separation between church and state.

Anyway... I send him an e-mail today with that fabulous article from Vanity Fair about the fix being in with the Supreme Court in 2000. I was very serious. I said he should put together a mini-unit called The Death of American Democracy and the Rise of Neoconservative Fascism... It would be fun; students could extrapolate a "fantasy" future in which this were the case and make predictions about how our government system have... er... I mean WOULD change.

Hold on, I hear helicopters outside my apartment complex... yeah they're right overhead it seems like. Damn man, someone is on a bullhorn yelling "blue team go! blue team go!"

Holy sh.w11111111111111

by ShatteredMind on Wed Sep 29, 2004 at 08:22:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Not the first screw up... (none / 0)

Here is what Land says was an honest mistake....

http://www.mydd.com/story/2004/9/28/175442/210

Seems the offices in Ann Arbor and Battle Creek sent out notices that it was too late to register.....

Wait for it....

A week early....

Keep trusting her, I am sure it was an honest mistake....really.....honest

by Nazgul35 on Thu Sep 30, 2004 at 01:53:19 PM EST

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