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Election Reform
In reply to the discussion: Greg Palast: New York voting fiasco just the warm-up for the November game [View all]xloadiex
(628 posts)13. Here is Francesca whole public post
from Facebook.
MY EXPERIENCE AS A POLL WORKER THE EPIC FAIL OF A PRIMARY I just got off my 17 hour shift as an election official in East Hampton, NY. I am from this area and went canvassing for Bernie for 4 days here. While canvassing, I found overwhelming support for Bernie in my middle class area -- nearly every house where I actually talked to voters (about 40% of the houses), almost all were for Bernie.
But today at the polls, many of those had disappeared from the voter roll book. In my own ED district, which is the district I was working in, out of 166 Democratic voters, 39 were forced to file affidavit ballots. (ONLY 2 Republican voters had to file affidavits.) That's close to 20%. Let that sink in for a moment.
Many of these voters were long term registered Democrats -- some were in couples where one person was on the rolls and the other was not. Most had not moved since the last election and had voted in the most recent elections.
Hillary won by 11 votes in my ED -- not counting affidavits. THE AFFIDAVITS MUST NOT ONLY BE COUNTED, THEY MUST BE ALLOWED.
It was impossible for me, an election official, to get a straight story on whether the affidavits would be counted. The "coordinator" -- the top person at the site -- let slip that they count the affidavits "proportionately". If she is correct, that means, I assume, they take a sample of the ballots to count. Not all. If that sample is based on the proportion of official ballots cast, then I imagine it would just reproduce the first results WITHOUT the affidavits. But it's worse than that. If the voter has been purged from the Board of Elections rolls -- like 125,000 Brooklyn voters were -- then it seems the affidavits (because no one could tell me for certain WHAT would happen to the affidavits -- are not counted. If you can't prove you are a registered Democrat, then you won't be counted, it seems. (If you received a voter card, you have some proof. But not everyone did or they may not be able to retrieve it.)
The ruling that came down from the emergency voter protection suit was no remedy. It allowed for getting a court order to vote. The nearest judge is more than an hour from here. And I was strongly discouraged from even informing voters that a court order was an option (I had to fight to be able to tell people of their right to a court order.)
Finally -- this was NOT business as usual. This was my second election. The last one I worked at, exactly ONE voter needed an affidavit ballot in my ED. Every poll worker there, at all the ED tables (there were 4) was shocked at the number of voters who were not on the rolls. Many have been working for years -- and had never seen anything remotely like this.
The whole purging and affidavit process needs to be investigated on an emergency basis BEFORE the election results are decided. Bernie's folks need to be on top of this. They need to fight for an honest election. They owe it to us who have worked so hard for them.
But today at the polls, many of those had disappeared from the voter roll book. In my own ED district, which is the district I was working in, out of 166 Democratic voters, 39 were forced to file affidavit ballots. (ONLY 2 Republican voters had to file affidavits.) That's close to 20%. Let that sink in for a moment.
Many of these voters were long term registered Democrats -- some were in couples where one person was on the rolls and the other was not. Most had not moved since the last election and had voted in the most recent elections.
Hillary won by 11 votes in my ED -- not counting affidavits. THE AFFIDAVITS MUST NOT ONLY BE COUNTED, THEY MUST BE ALLOWED.
It was impossible for me, an election official, to get a straight story on whether the affidavits would be counted. The "coordinator" -- the top person at the site -- let slip that they count the affidavits "proportionately". If she is correct, that means, I assume, they take a sample of the ballots to count. Not all. If that sample is based on the proportion of official ballots cast, then I imagine it would just reproduce the first results WITHOUT the affidavits. But it's worse than that. If the voter has been purged from the Board of Elections rolls -- like 125,000 Brooklyn voters were -- then it seems the affidavits (because no one could tell me for certain WHAT would happen to the affidavits -- are not counted. If you can't prove you are a registered Democrat, then you won't be counted, it seems. (If you received a voter card, you have some proof. But not everyone did or they may not be able to retrieve it.)
The ruling that came down from the emergency voter protection suit was no remedy. It allowed for getting a court order to vote. The nearest judge is more than an hour from here. And I was strongly discouraged from even informing voters that a court order was an option (I had to fight to be able to tell people of their right to a court order.)
Finally -- this was NOT business as usual. This was my second election. The last one I worked at, exactly ONE voter needed an affidavit ballot in my ED. Every poll worker there, at all the ED tables (there were 4) was shocked at the number of voters who were not on the rolls. Many have been working for years -- and had never seen anything remotely like this.
The whole purging and affidavit process needs to be investigated on an emergency basis BEFORE the election results are decided. Bernie's folks need to be on top of this. They need to fight for an honest election. They owe it to us who have worked so hard for them.
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Greg Palast: New York voting fiasco just the warm-up for the November game [View all]
SusanCalvin
Apr 2016
OP
Give me some examples of outrageous things people have said about Hillary that made you feel like
Baobab
Apr 2016
#75
Could you say what they said, I am just finding circular - its not clear to me what they said.
Baobab
Apr 2016
#81
They purged "inactive" voters... the ones most likely to be motivated by Sanders...
modestybl
Apr 2016
#69
Probably some of them were independents following the widespread online advice to request
pnwmom
Apr 2016
#4
ABC's exit poll said close to 20% of Dem primary voters identified themselves as independent.
pnwmom
Apr 2016
#6
The poll worker has worked this before. If it was independents he would have said so.
newthinking
Apr 2016
#9
Probably the 126,000 who were kicked off the voting roles. Stop rationalizing Election Fraud as a
Dont call me Shirley
Apr 2016
#11
They haven't determined exactly what happened, but it's possible it was connected
pnwmom
Apr 2016
#14
Yes we do but with the fox guarding the investigation henhouse all the evidence will be in the
Dont call me Shirley
Apr 2016
#28
What fox? Are you accusing a Democrat of being unethical, or is this a Rethug you're referring to?
pnwmom
Apr 2016
#29
I'm basing that on the rather glib attitude that Hillary Supporter has taken toward it.
frylock
Apr 2016
#68
"uncovering an unjustified ethnic cleansing of voter rolls from Ohio to Florida to Texas"
pat_k
Apr 2016
#17
Our elections can be summed up easily: "The one that cheats the most wins."
Feeling the Bern
Apr 2016
#25
Lately I have been reminded a lot of the "both parties are the same" meme. I always rejected it.
thereismore
Apr 2016
#65
The big difference between Tuesday and November is that Tuesday was a PRIMARY day....
George II
Apr 2016
#52