Illegally purging Voters- How it happens

As average everyday people, we do not hear about every single bill that gets passed by the state legislature. We hear about those considered "newsworthy" by the media. Things like gay marriage approved by the state, cell phone banning taking affect by a certain date. We even sometimes hear about budget issues that get passed, but certainly not each and every bill that is introduced and passed by whatever state legislature you happen to live under the jurisdiction of. There were 1700 bills to be voted on in California just this August.

Twenty states have Republican controlled legislatures, 19 have Democrat controlled legislatures, and 10 are considered split although Nebraska has a majority of Republicans seated, it claims to be non-partisan.

Some (if not all) of the Republican controlled legislatures have been quietly passing bills under the guise of "ballot security" that disenfranchise segments of the voters. The way this works is, they present a bill that says if your voter registration information does not exactly match other government documents (like your driver's license) then you are not registered , or have a failed registration. This is not reported to the person who attempted to register, so when they get to the polls, and attempt to vote, their name is not on the roster of registered voters. So if you omit your middle initial on one document, but have it on the other, you do not have an "exact match" and your name is removed from the voting roster before it is even printed.

In some states there have even been Republican lawyers at the polls with a list to challenge voters. (in 2004 thousands of voters were challenged for a variety of things ranging from "suspected felon" to "suspect addresses".) The people on these lists that the lawyers were there to challenge were predominately black or democrats. There have been legal battles over votes in Ohio, Florida and probably a few more states where voters were disenfranchised. This indeed was and still is illegal, but those states who now have a law saying there must be an "exact match" to their driver's license etc, will not be in direct violation of the law.

Now, there can be many reasons you name does not show up on the roster other than this. If you are in the wrong precinct, if you moved and are voting in the new precinct, you did not register in time to get your name in the printed roster.. human error... the list goes on. So then you are told by the poll worker/ poll inspector (who by the way is only doing their job) that the only way you can vote is provisionally. This means there is no way to right there on the spot verify that you are indeed a registered voter, so your ballot is kept separate from the regular ballots until such time as your registration can be verified.

Since most of these laws are actually in violation of the Constitution, there will no doubt be long drawn out battles over them, and with any luck they will be overturned, although it is unlikely that this will happen between now and the November election. In order to counter these problems, people like Greg Palast and Bobby Kennedy Jr have been getting the word out in the press and online on ways you can insure you get to vote and that your vote counts. Stealbackyourvote.com has a video, a way to contribute to their organization and information about this issue. Bear in mind when you watch this video, if you live in a state like California, where there is not a Republican controlled legislature, the issue is moot. The video fails in one respect from my point of view as an inspector at a polling place in that it makes a statement that you should "demand a real ballot" and not accept a provisional ballot. This is problematic since there are as I stated before, many reasons that one might not appear on the roster, and the only way as an inspector I would be allowed to let you vote would be provisionally. (provisional ballots ARE "real" ballots, providing you did indeed register to vote and no laws such as I have been discussing have been passed.)

I personally have been having nightmares about folks making this demand for a "real ballot" from me, when we really don't have the issue here in California. It is going to be a record turnout of voters this November, and I do not relish having it become a verbal battle ground over an issue that is not affecting my voters (at least at this time.) Keep in mind that the poll workers are all volunteers, will be working some 18 hours that day, and most of them have not even heard about all the political dirty tricks being pulled.

Just for the record, I am not a Democrat or a Republican... and could say of either party.. some of my best friends are... Also, I do not believe that Republicans have a corner on the dirty tricks department of politics, the current system has many issues that are complex and there will always be those who would use loop holes to press their advantage.

Your best defense is to educate yourself on all the issues, and question all the assumptions and rhetoric. Listen to both sides carefully then get another opinion from those who you know pay attention to politics on a regular basis. If you live in a state with a predominately Republican legislature, send for a vote by mail so you can vote early. If there is a problem with your registration, that should trigger a response so you can address the problem and hopefully get it straightened out before election day.