The Very Best Hires

by dday

I was very pleased to see this yesterday.

Obama for America
Dear —

Help Protect the Vote Real change only happens when new people enter the political process and make their voices heard.

That’s why this campaign is launching an unprecedented Voter Protection Program that will fight to promote and defend the voting rights of every American.

Attorneys, law students, and those with legal expertise will be essential in making sure every eligible citizen who wants to vote can vote — and that their vote is counted.

Find out how you can lend your skills to make sure every voice is heard in this election:

http://my.barackobama.com/VoterProtection

It looks like a 50-state effort that is starting earlier than for any other previous Presidential campaign.

They’d better be ready. It’s very clear that voter suppression and intimidation is baked into the cake of Republican electoral strategy. Sen. Obama is in Indiana today and considers that a swing state, yet this is the state with the restrictive voter ID law that the Supreme Court rubber-stamped this year, leading to nuns in their 90s being turned away from the polls. Yesterday there were a series of primary elections around the country, and in Missouri a man was arrested for trying to vote. They don’t require a state-issued ID like a driver’s license to vote, but the election judges apparently haven’t gotten the memo.

So this morning I walked into my precinct at about 9:45AM, along with my son. Both of us were carrying Precinct issued voter cards, bank statements and utility statements, all of which are acceptable forms of ID in Missouri. The precinct is in the basement of a church and there are two precincts there: 08A and 08C. As I walked in, there were a total of six persons. Three for each precinct […]

The first judge was named Leroy (he would tell em his last name) and he asked for our IDs and was handed the precinct-issued cards. He left them sitting on the table and said, “You need to show me IDs with your signatures on it!”, in rough, angry tone.

I replied, “No sir, I do not.” and handed him a computer copy of the SoS’s web page, printed from this location. http://www.sos.mo.gov/… / The judge did not even look at it, instead standing straight up from his chair, raising his voice loudly, and said, “If you don’t want to vote, there is the door, and you can leave now!”

My reply was, “Sir, we do want to vote. My son and I have both brought the proper ID, and the Sos”s sheet verifies that. Now, if you are refusing to let us vote, please tell us why.” And the reply was, “I need to see your signature!”

(Now bear in mind, the next step in the voting is to actually sign the Poll Book, at which time judges can look at my signature all they want. But what was being demanded was some ID which was already signed. Then it dawned on me that many people would only have signatures on some government-issued IDs, such as Driver’s Licenses.
Compliance with such demands would result in voters having to show Photo Voter IDs without even the need of the GOP-controlled Missouri Legislature having to pass another Photo Voter ID Act. In effect, causing Missouri voters to comply with conditions which had been declared unconstitutional in 2006!)

With the sudden realization of what was probably happening,I had to make a decision. Glancing around the room, I realized that I had seen all of these election judges at past elections. What was the likelihood of them all being untrained, or them all having forgotten what the rules were in the prior election. I calculated the odds were long.

I turned back to Leroy and replied, “Leroy, my son and I want to vote. We brought what was required of us. I am holding the SoS’s web page n my left hand. If you will not look at it, or read it, please call Charlene Davis at the Eastern Jackson County Election Board, or call the SoS’s office to find out what you are supposed to do. Because we want to vote.”

We were then told, “You can either give me what I told you to, or you can just get out that door and find someplace else to vote!” (as he stood towering above my son and I). I looked him in the eye and said, “Leroy, Nope! We will not leave until you give us our rights. We’ve a right to vote!”

Leroy leaned over the table and shouted, “Not unless you follow our rules here!” To which I replied, “Your rules do not trump the laws of this state! Please read them! This ID card (the precinct-issued card) is all I need. And slapped the card down on the table in front of him. “this is all that is required.”

In the next moment an election judge moved toward me from my left and called to me, causing me to turn ninety degrees to my left to face him. I am fairly certain that it was the same judge who had insisted on my photo ID in February. Regardless, as I turned, the man continued walking up to me until he gave me a “Chest Bump” (like players or managers do to umpires in baseball games), and said “You either do what you’re told to vote, or you get out of here NOW!”

I was beginning to feel like Alice, when she fell through the Looking Glass, but managed to ask, “And you going to evict me? Call the police?”

ASt that point, Leroy pick up the converstaion and said, “You leave right now!”. I replied, “If you won’t call your Election Board, I will.” and pulled my cell phone from my pocket. I turned to my son and asked himn to take his cell phone and call “Election Protection” at the Missouri SoS’s Office.

As we both dialed, Leroy shouted for us to leave the building immediately, and I replied, “Sorry. Can’t do that. What you are asking is neither legal or fair. Let’s settle this thing.” And as my son and I were talking to our respective parties, Leroy also made a call… to the Eastern Jackson County Election Board.

As my son spoke to the SoS’s office, I was asking for the GOP BoE head, Charlene Davis. Oddly enough, she was not available.

But Leroy did manage to get through to the Election Board, as Independence, Missouri, Police Officers entered the precinct doors. One of the last things that Leroy was heard to say to the Election Board was “Then we don’t get the signatures??”

My son and I were grabbed by the arms and escorted outside. The two policemen who escorted us were soon joined by four others with two other squad cars. Surrounded, we were peppered by questions. Basically they were of the type, “Why are you bothering these people?”

The answer, as clear as we could make it was, “We aren’t bothering them! We are simply trying to vote, and these people are breaking Missouri State Statutes, preventing us from voting.”

The police responded, “Look, you are breaking their rules. If you don’t get out of here, we are going to arrest you!”

The question I had in response was, “Their rules? What rules? Those are employees of the Election Board, they are under the mandate of the Election Board, and then the SoS. Aren’t you more concerned about the breaking of state laws?” As it turns out, apparently they were not.

This guy was obviously testing the limits of the system, but in the end it merited him an arrest. And he actually knew the rules.

The elections process is extremely fragile and ruled by local boards and pollworkers who aren’t always in possession of the facts. Add on top of that the institutional barriers to voting, with long lines in poor and urban precincts, and the more devious tricks beyond ID laws, like voter caging, etc., and the Obama campaign has a major task ahead of them. This won’t show up on any poll or projection, but getting out in front of election protection is absolutely worth a point or two.

I urge any lawyer reading this to pitch in.

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