|
|
|
News
Follow on Twitter @DanielDenvir @isaiah_thompson @samanthamelamed
Hundreds and perhaps thousands of voters across Philadelphia, both newly registered and veteran, have not been found on the voter rolls and are being forced to cast provisional ballots that may not be counted.
Precincts are going through far more provisional ballots than anyone can remember ever being needed in the past.
Out of 20,284 provisional ballots cast statewide during the 2008 general election, 10,334 were ultimately rejected, according to data provided by the Pennsylvania Secretary of State that did not include data from Philadelphia and two other counties.
Provisional ballots are not counted until days after the election, at which point county election officials check each ballot and decide whether it is valid. Some who were forced to cast provisional ballots had their voter registrations in hand.
Follow on Twitter @DanielDenvir
Philadelphia has become the epicenter of conservative hysteria over bad things Democrats (who happen to be black) allegedly do to win elections: voter fraud! Voter intimidation! An Obama mural at one precinct (a Northeast Philly public school cafeteria) and a flap over Republican voting inspectors being denied access to polls added further fuel to the fire.
But Fox News (and, perplexingly, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News) seemed less interested in the bigger story: hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Philadelphians registered to vote were denied access to regular ballots and told to cast provisional ballots, which are not counted until days after the election--if they are counted at all.
Fox News, like outlets from around the country, descended upon a North Philly polling place at 13th and Fairmount to answer an ostensibly burning question: was the marginal New Black Panther Party causing trouble? "New Black Panthers back at Philly voting site," blared the front page of Fox News' website.
Updated at 7:20 PM
Since earlier today, the Committee of Seventy, which monitors Philadelphia elections, has been reporting stories of voters who didn't appear on poll books when they showed up to vote.
"The issue of registered voters coming to the polls in Philadelphia today - only to find their names were not listed in the poll books – was raised in a court proceeding in Philadelphia Elections Court late today.
A short time ago, Common Pleas Court Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe turned down a request from Organizing for America, a grass roots arm of the Democratic National Committee, which asked the court to order the City Commissioners to distribute additional provisional paper ballots to polling places throughout the city.
Seventy urged the court to order the city to provide more provisional ballots to any polling place that needed them - since voting could go on in some places for hours. (The polls close at 8 p.m., but all voters in line at 8 p.m. are permitted to vote.)"
A few hours ago, the Daily News reported that the Philadelphia City Commissioners, who oversee elections, said that the problems "were not widespread."
But reports are still coming in, and City Paper's own reporting seems to confirm irregularities in several parts of the city.
* Samantha Melamed visited the 66 Ward, 46th Division in the city's northeast section, where election judge Heather Kelly told her that as many as 20 voters whom she knew well from previous elections showed up to find that their names were no longer in the book. Melamed reports that this judge called the City Commissioners and was told that provisional ballots would not be counted. In some cases, Kelly discovered, that these voters were registered at old addresses - 10 years old in one case.
Updated: Samantha reports more than 100 provision ballots in the 20th ward, 9th division. Over 50 provisional in the 20th ward, 9th divison -- near Temple, but some of the voters are non-students and previous voters, according to the election judge.
* Committee of Seventy told this reporter of at least one case of a polling place running out of provisional ballots. Normally, polling places are given 75. Reports are apparently still coming in to Seventy of names not being in poll books.
* Daniel Denvir reports that a source close to the Obama campaign told him that over 200 provisional ballots had been reported at University of Pennsylvania polling places and over 400 at Temple University.
Updated: Denvir reports that election judge Christine Abbot in Ward 27, Divisions 11 & 3 (near Penn campus) had more than 100 provisional ballots in her two the third divsions because people were not in the polling books.
* This reporter spoke with Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez who reported similar problems in the city's 43rd ward. Additionally, she says 6 divisions were moved without notice to voters. Quinones-Sanchez says volunteers for her office were out until 11 last night informing voters themselves of the change.
Seen a sign like that around Philly?
The signs, paid for and distributed by a group going by the name "PA CAN," the motto "Free Markets for Free People," and which purports to be "Pennsylvania's Grassroots Small Business Advocate," claim to offer a $1,000 reward for information leading to a conviction for voter fraud.
They've been cropping up around the state: The Express-Times reports today that at least one formal complaint has been filed, in Easton, claiming that the signs amount to voter intimidation.
They arrived in Center City Philadelphia last night, thanks to Republican ward leader Mike Cibik, who was to be seen casually placing them around various polling sites in his 5th ward, which contains parts of Center City and the Gayborhood.
Cibik said he'd gotten them from 27th Republican ward leader Matt Wolfe, who confirmed this, saying that "Some guy I don't really know" had delivered them to his house not long ago.
Asked whether he thought voter fraud was a real problem in Philadelphia, Cibik again shrugged. Four years ago, he says, one of his minority inspectors reported having seen signatures in the voter log book before the polls opened. Nothing came of the incident.
Despite a long history of allegations of voter fraud in Philadelphia, few incidents have ever been reported or discovered. A recent report by City Commissioner Al Schmidt claiming to have found "hundreds" of voting irregularities showed no new proof that voter impersonation had occurred.
Asked whether he thought the signs would survive the night in the heavily-Democratic neighborhood, Cibik answered cheerfully: "Maybe some of them."
Follow on Twitter @DanielDenvir
The names of registered Philadelphia voters are not showing up on voter rolls and poll workers are instructing them to vote using provisional ballots, according to voters and poll workers in West and North Philadelphia. Provisional ballots, if they are counted, are not counted until up to seven days after the election.
"We think it's a real concern," said a staffer at The Committee of Seventy, which monitors elections in Philadelphia. Voter ID, he says, is "not the central problem in Philadelphia today: [it's] the messy administration of this election. The phones are just ringing off the hook. We're fielding calls about people who are not in the polling books."
Some poll workers are not even instructing people that they can file provisional ballots, and other voters are reportedly just walking away in frustration.
Follow on Twitter @DanielDenvir
Progressive and civil rights groups have charged poll watchers associated with the Pittsburgh Tea Party and Pennsylvania Republican Party with targeting heavily black precincts--charges which both groups have denied.
Here is the entire list of allegedly targeted Pittsburgh precincts based on a list progressive groups say was obtained from a Tea Party poll watcher training.
Follow on Twitter @DanielDenvir
We reported earlier today that progressive groups sent a letter to Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez alleging that the Pennsylvania Republican Party and Pittsburgh Tea Party are targeting Pittsburgh precincts with large numbers of black voters "under the guise of combating alleged voter fraud."
The Pennsylvania Republican Party denies the allegation.
"This is a ridiculous claim," Pennsylvania Republican Party spokesperson Valerie Caras tells City Paper. "The Republican Party of Pennsylvania is working to cover as many polls as we possibly can throughout the state. All our poll watchers will be credentialed and be there legally. To claim anything else is simply not true. We support free and fair elections rooted in the principle that every eligible voter has the right to cast their ballot on Election Day."
The rights organizations say they obtained a partial list of targeted precincts, which have black voter registration of over 79-percent, used in a Tea Party poll watcher training.
We are still trying to contact someone from the Pittsburgh Tea Party. If that's you, please drop us a line. The Pittsburgh Tea Party denied the charges to the Post-Gazette.
Follow on Twitter @DanielDenvir
The Daily Caller, a conservative publication founded by Tucker Carlson, isn't known for being good or accurate. But Editor David Martosko's prediction today that "Pennsylvania will flip into the red column ― partially because Hurricane Sandy will depress some turnout in Obama-friendly Philadelphia, and because the new Black Panthers have been warned this time" evidences a savage disregard for the truth.
Or just laziness.
Whatever.
Point being: Hurricane Sandy basically spared Philadelphia. Few people lost power in the city. No one died. Homes are intact. I hunkered down, ate a weirdly large amount of pumpkin bread, and watched a movie. We, unlike New York City and the Jersey Shore, are fine. I'm looking out at Philly right now from my kitchen window. Everything looks as nice or as not nice as always and I think I'll make it the two blocks to my polling location bright and early.
Regarding the Philly 2008 "New Black Panther" incident that has been legend amongst conspiracists for four long years now: two members of the marginal organization briefly stood outside of a North Philadelphia polling place, one carrying a nightstick. But as I reported in 2010, almost no one in the neighborhood had ever heard about the incident that was, at the very moment, being discussed ad nauseam in the right-wing media echo chamber--ostensibly on behalf of them, the supposed victims of "voter intimidation." Republicans never put forth a single person in this overwhelmingly black neighborhood who accused these two obscure activists of "intimidating" them.
Follow on Twitter @DanielDenvir
Civil rights and other progressive groups have sent a letter to Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez alleging that the Pennsylvania Republican Party and Pittsburgh Tea Party are targeting Pittsburgh precincts with large numbers of black voters "under the guise of combating alleged voter fraud."
“We have seen their list and it strongly suggests that the Pennsylvania Republican Party is coordinating with the Pittsburgh Tea Party to target African American voters for intimidation at the polls,” according to a statement from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Associate General Counsel Nicole Berner. “The Pennsylvania Republican Party has serious questions to answer about where they are putting their poll watchers and why.”
According to the letter, the rights organizations obtained a partial list of targeted precincts distributed at a Pittsburgh Tea Party poll watcher training coordinated with the Republican Party. The precincts have a black voter registration of over 79 percent.
Full text of the letter is below:
November 5, 2012
The Honorable Thomas E. Perez
Assistant Attorney General
Civil Rights Division
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530
Dear Assistant Attorney General Perez:
The undersigned civil rights and community organizations write to raise concerns about the
likely targeting of African-American voters by the Republican Party and groups and individuals
acting in concert with it in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Allegheny County is one of 51
jurisdictions that will be monitored by the Civil Rights Division of Department of Justice on
Election Day 2012 as part of the Department’s efforts to enforce the Voting Rights Act, to
prevent discrimination, and to the protect the rights of voters of color.
We have received information that strongly suggests the Republican Party, under the guise of
combating alleged voter fraud, has assigned Election Day poll watchers disproportionately to
majority African-American precincts in Allegheny County. We are in receipt of a partial list of
targeted precincts that was distributed at a poll watcher training conducted by the Pittsburgh
Tea Party Movement. The Pittsburgh Tea Party Movement conducted this training, on behalf of the
Republican Party, as part of its program to combat alleged voter fraud in Allegheny County.
We understand the Republican Party has targeted approximately 111, out of a total 1,319
precincts, in that county. The partial list, which is attached hereto as Exhibit A, includes 59 of
the total 111 precincts targeted by the Republican Party. We are unaware of any history of
voter fraud at any of these 59 locations. We are concerned that these locations are being
targeted for impermissible, racially-motivated reasons.
A comparison of the 59 Republican Party targeted precincts to the other precincts in Allegheny
County reveals that the targeted precincts disproportionately contain African-American voters.
Specifically, the targeted precincts are over 79% African-American. By contrast, the nontargeted
precincts contain, on average, less than 11% African-American registered voters.
Moreover, although the targeted precincts include only 3% of the total number of voters in
Allegheny County, they contain 18.5% of the registered African American voters. The vast
majority of these precincts are among those with the mostly highly concentrated African-
American populations in the County. A statistical analysis of the 59 Republican Party targeted
precincts is attached hereto as Exhibit B.
On the basis of the above, the undersigned organizations are extremely concerned that the
racial composition of the targeted precincts districts suggests that race may have been a factor
in the decision of the Republican Party to target these 59 precincts in its voter fraud prevention
program with the purpose or potential significant effect of deterring qualified African-American
voters in Allegheny County from casting their ballots and thereby suppressing the minority vote.
We call upon the Justice Department monitors to make every effort to ensure that voters at
these targeted locations are able to cast their ballots freely and fairly on Election Day and to
inquire of the Republican Party and the Pittsburgh Tea Party Movement as to the source of its
list and the basis of the targeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Advancement Project
1220 L Street, NW, Suite 850
Washington, DC 20005
Common Cause
1133 19th St NW
Washington DC 20036
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
1401 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20005
Service Employees International Union
1800 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20036
American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania
313 Atwood Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
One Pittsburgh
841 California Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15212
Pittsburgh A. Philip Randolph Institute
60 Blvd of the Allies, Room 208
Pittsburgh, Pa 15222
Pittsburgh United
841 California Ave
Pittsburgh PA 15212
CC:
David Hickton
U.S. Attorney
Western District of Pennsylvania
700 Grant Street, Suite 4000
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Chris Herren
Chief, Voting Section
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530
Meredith Bell-Platts
Deputy Chief, Voting Section
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530
Spencer Ross Fisher
United States Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division, Voting Section
950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20530
David Knight
United States Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division, Disability Rights
950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20530
Yesterday, City Paper reported on a backlog of unprocessed voter registration applications over at the City Commissioners. A backlog of moor than 40,000 voter applications had been announced several weeks ago, but so had a deadline for eliminating it (last Sunday) which had quietly passed without, it seemed, the backlog's having been eliminated.
Today, however, City Commissioners announced at their weekly public meeting (it had been moved from Wednesday due to the storm) that the backlog is no more. Voter registration administrator Greg Irving reported to City Commissioners Anthony Clark, Stephanie Singer, and Al Schmidt that "All voter registration applications that were submitted in a timely manner for this election have been processed," and that "all absentee ballots up until the election deadline have been processed except 300 currently being worked on."
It was welcome news to watchdog groups like the Committee of Seventy, which wrote a letter to the commissioners on Thursday asking for an update on the backlog.
But today's announcement answer all of Seventy's concerns. Asked by Seventy's Ellen Kaplan about the procedure for applications that were filled out incorrectly, City Commissioners said today that anyone seeking to correct an application would have to do so by November 3rd — tomorrow, that is, even though the last applications were only processed yesterday and it's not clear that applicants will get notice of the problem registration in time to fix it.
In indirect answer to Kaplan's inquiries, Election Specialist Tim Dowling noted to the commissioners that "We have given the people every opportunity to get this information to us ... it is the responsibility of the voter."
But voters don't always turn in their own registrations — and it's possible people who thought they'd been registered already were in the backlog through no fault of their own, and now faced a closing window to correct any errors.
Kaplan raised the point: "But in light of the fact that the deadline for corrections is tomorrow," she began, but was cut off.
"We're open tomorrow, eight to eight," said Elections Specialist Tim Dowling, not quite answering the question but, in a way, answering it loud and clear.
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
