Reality Check:
Election System Still Fundamentally Flawed  
 
 People For The American Way   12 November 2004
 
 
Support a Full Investigation of 2004 Election Problems by writing Congress 
Do not let the reports in the news media fool you. The notion that the election ran "smoothly" in contested states is just so much self-serving happy talk. The truth is, the election system remains virtually closed to millions of Americans; significant barriers to the ballot box still exist for minorities and the poor.

People For the American Way Foundation is gathering evidence of the failures of the election system in the election just past, and preparing a series of initiatives to correct the problems, including legal action, analysis of voting records and an agenda for election reform.

As part of the Election Protection coalition, People For the American Way Foundation deployed more than 25,000 volunteer poll monitors and lawyers in minority and low income neighborhoods. Election Protection volunteers answered more than 125,000 voter questions and complaints on a toll-free hotline. Through timely assistance, Election Protection helped prevent the disenfranchisement of countless Americans. Indeed, not since ?freedom summer? of 1964 has there been such a massive deployment of volunteers dedicated to protecting the voting rights of the American people. Here is what our volunteers and callers reported over and over again, especially in Ohio and Florida:

Long lines and waits of up to ten hours to cast a ballot, especially in urban districts with too few voting stations. The lines disenfranchised untold thousands who could not afford to wait, and had to return to their jobs or their children before they had a chance to cast a vote.

Tremendous inequities among polling places. Minority and low-income voters faced not only long lines, but antiquated and faulty equipment, in polling places with too few poll workers, who were often inadequately trained.

Higher rates of spoilage and discarded ballots at polling places with old voting systems such as punch cards.

Suspicion and confusion surrounding electronic voting machines. Many voters voiced their beliefs that the machine were pre-set to record a choice in the presidential and other races, did not accurately record their choices, or did not record their votes at all. Without a voter-verified paper trail, they could not confirm that their choices were correctly recorded.

A lack of ballots and voting materials in Spanish and, in some areas, Creole, even in polling places where state law mandates such materials, and not enough poll workers trained to provide assistance in voters? primary language.

Widespread confusion over the proper use of provisional ballots, and widely differing regulations from state to state even from one polling place to the next as to the use and ultimate recording of these votes.

Absentee ballots that never arrived or arrived far too late for the voters to use them. Most egregious was Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's decision to send such voters away from the polls on Election Day. Election Protection lawyers filed suit, and a judge overturned the ruling, but not before many, many voters were turned away.

Longtime voters who arrived at their polling places to find that their names had somehow disappeared from the rolls, not knowing when ? or whether ? their provisional ballots would ever be counted.

Voter registration cards or other official materials directing voters to the wrong precinct, where they sometimes waited in line for hours only to find themselves directed to another long line at a different precinct.

Many reports of difficulties for voters with disabilities, from physical access to the voting booth to the denial of necessary materials and assistance in the voting process itself.

In addition to the problems voters faced on Election Day, many pre-election decisions from Secretaries of State and local election officials disenfranchised thousands of voters before they ever made it on to the registration rolls or into the voting booth. Think of Secretary Blackwell?s ridiculous assertion that registration applications be printed on 80-pound paper, before public outcry forced him to back down. Think of the Florida Secretary of State?s insistence that registrants who failed to check the ?citizenship? box on their application be rejected, despite the fact that signing the form itself was a black-and-white declaration of citizenship.

The good news in the 2004 elections was that more than 115 million Americans came to make their voices heard, a phenomenal number. The sad fact was that untold thousands were deprived of their right to vote by inequities at the polling place, and decisions by public officials that put barriers between ordinary Americans and the ballot box.

Democracy requires better. PFAWF is undertaking a multi-level strategy to investigate, expose and remedy the violations we have uncovered. We are currently reviewing the reports we collected in the days leading up to Election Day and the thousands reported on Election Day to identify the most troubling election incidents already reported and to prevent violations during the counting process to ensure every eligible vote is counted. We are also analyzing other election data, investigating voter reports of irregularities, taking testimony from voters about barriers to voting and assessing inequities in the system for minority and low-income voters. The widespread failures of election officials to supply absentee ballots, the inconsistent application of voter identification and provisional ballot requirements, and the failure to provide assistance to voters as required by law are high on that list. We are considering all options, including litigation, legislative reform and other advocacy, to address these problems at the state or national level.

We will develop an agenda for the electoral reforms necessary to ensure fairer, freer and more accessible elections in the future for every American. We will re-dedicate our efforts to ensuring that every eligible voter can vote and that every vote is counted. Regardless of the effects on the outcome of the last election, it is critical for future elections and for our democracy that the problems uncovered be remedied and that the extraordinary energy that went into Election Protection this year be channeled into those efforts.