1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation____________________________________________________________
This amendment of the constitution gave every man the right to vote, and says that the right to vote can not be denied to a person based on their race. It also gave Congress the power to enforce this amendment. Although African Americans now had the right to vote, women still were not able to.
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11/19/2009
You Call This Progress? Denied The God-Given Right To Vote Just Because You Hate Computers
What do you do if you want to vote today but have a fervent opposition to using a computer?
You get screwed, that's what.
Rad Rich, who pretty much founded the punk scene in town in many ways, went to vote today. He then concisely described his experience for Hands Up Houston's message board: "I was told I cant vote because I refuse to use the computers so I was denied the right to vote. F U Houston and I have filed a complaint."
Houston is trembling, we're sure.
We haven't heard back from Rad Rich, but we did talk to Hector DeLeon of the Harris County Clerk's office, and he confirmed that if you refuse to use the eSlate machines, you have no other options today.
"There may be some other jurisdictions that offer another method of voting, but only if it would be easy for them because there were not many voters," he says.
"It's a complicated thing," he says.
Technically, you could vote by a mailed absentee ballot, but that would involve swearing you will be out of town on election day. Anyone who has a Code of Honor that prevents using computers would surely balk at lying.
Although we guess that person could make plans to stay at the Bellaire Starbucks for most of the day.
Thoughts:
I do not believe that he was denied the right to vote. They never told him he couldn't vote, he just didn't like the way that he was told to vote so he choose not to. He was given the chance to vote, that chance was not denied to him, him not being able to use a computer is what kept him from voting not the cities government.
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11/19/2009
Independence Man Denied Right to Vote; Arrested for Disorderly Conduct
Rhiannon Ross
But what he didn't allow for was extra time to sit in his local jail.
Election judges at Lindsey's polling precinct refused to accept two forms of identification that he submitted to them, although both are acceptable forms of ID under Missouri state election law. Instead, they requested he show a signature ID card, which is not required under state law. When Lindsey refused, he was asked to leave the premises.
But Lindsey, of Independence, persisted. He'd been through this before.
In the February election, he was asked by poll judges to show his driver's license if he wanted to vote. At that time, he chose to do so and, afterward, he filed a complaint with the Jackson County Election Board. However, he was later told his complaint was lost.
"I thought I'm going to lock my heels on this one and make them account for this," he told KCTribune."I stood my ground. I knew what the law was."
Lindsey demanded he be allowed to vote based upon the ID he submitted, and further, that election judges read the printout he carried detailing acceptable forms of voting ID from the Missouri Secretary of State's office. And he asked the judge to call the election board for clarification.
Under Missouri state election law, registered voters are only required to show one form of ID, such as a voting card or a utility bill listing the voter's name and address. A signature or photo ID is not required.
Lindsey submitted two forms of ID -- a postcard notification from the election board bearing his name and address and a utility bill -- both acceptable under state law. When judges refused to accept these, he also produced yet another acceptable form of voter ID under state law -- a bank statement.
But judges, too, stood their ground and would not allow him to vote.
"I shouted, this is all I need to vote!" Lindsey said. "I had the printout from the Secretary of State in my other hand. I asked the chief election officer to pick up the phone and read this, at least determine you're wrong. If you're wrong, you're taking my constitutional right to vote.
“That's about as pumped up as I got about it,” Lindsey continued . “It would be stupid to throw a tantrum. I said, 'I won't leave until you tell me why I can't vote.' He wouldn't give me a law. He said I had to have a signature. I said, 'I have to sign the poll book and then you'll see my signature.'
"One of the judges said if I didn't leave, he would make me. I said, 'What? Are you going to call the police?' It wasn't three minutes before the police were there."
Independence Police officers entered the polling place, at the East Alton Church, 16999 E. 23rd St., and handcuffed and arrested him. He was taken by police car to the Independence jail, where he was held for two hours. He posted a cash bond of $300.
Lindsey said officers told him that he was being arrested for breaking polling place rules. One of the six election judges filed a complaint against Lindsey.
"I asked (the police), 'shouldn't you be enforcing the laws of the state instead of somebody's rules of conduct?"
Lindsey was charged with knowingly causing "a disturbance/disorderly conduct to wit: acts in a violent or tumultuous manner toward another, placing such person(s) in fear of safety by refusing to show proper I.D. when voting."
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Lindsey's son, Eamonn Lindsey, 21, also was with his father. Eamonn said before his father was arrested, he witnessed one of the election judges "chest bump" his father.
"This little man came by me, less than an inch from my shoulder, and came up to my dad and chest bumped him," he said. "He strode out and puffed up his chest and bumped up against my dad and stayed there leaning forward, trying to get my dad to back up."
Before the police arrived, Eamonn Lindsey said he also overheard another judge on the phone say to someone, "'So we don't need to see signatures? We don't need signatures? Oh, okay.' He said it twice. But once he got off the phone, he didn't recant, he pretended like he never said that."
Eamonn Lindsey said he also observed the judge who bumped his father approach a third judge and, referring to his father, say, "He does this every time, every time.' He said, yes, he knew exactly who we were, that he remembered us."
Eamonn said he believes the judge filed a complaint against his father for one compelling reason.
"He did it because his authority was challenged. That's why he filed the complaint."
But Phil Lindsey, a Democrat, believes he was targeted because of his political activism.
He is a local voting rights activist and director of Showmethevote.org, a grassroots organization opposed to both electronic voting and implementing photo voter ID. The group advocates handcounting paper ballots to protect the integrity of the voting process, and they have submitted petitions to the Missouri Legislature opposing photo voter ID, most recently in May.
"They knew who I was and have for two years," Phil Lindsey said. "They definitely had me identified. They know I'm actively involved in voter registration."
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Charlene Davis, Republican director of the Jackson County Election Board, said she was not at the polling site when the incident occurred, nor was anyone from her office.
However, she said an employee from her office received a call from one of the election judges asking if a political notification card and bank statement were "good enough to vote." The judge was told "yes."
Davis said the employee reported hearing someone screaming in the background while on the phone with the election judge. The judge requested that help be sent from the election office. Davis said when another employee called the judge, screaming also could be heard coming from Lindsey.
"By the time someone from our team arrived, the police were already there," Davis said. "(Lindsey) was extremely belligerent, hollering and yelling."
(However, Phil Lindsey said he is physically incapable of screaming because in 2000, he was diagnosed with Para paresis on the left side of his larynx.)
Davis said the judges reported that Lindsey had refused to sign the precinct register.
"They said they had problems with him for at least three years," she added.
Davis said that most voters show their driver's licenses as ID and do so without becoming upset.
"But Mr. Lindsey didn't want to do it the established way," she said. "They made up their mind they were going to be different and set the judges off. I felt sorry for the judges."
Davis said many of the judges are over age 70 and that there was fear that one judge may have a heart attack because the disruption was so upsetting to her.
While Missouri election law permit a voter without acceptable ID to cast a ballot when two judges recognize the person, election judges at Lindsey's precinct chose not to do so. Davis said this is a state election law, not one required by the federal government.
Upon being released from jail, Lindsey and his son stopped by the Jackson County Election Board office on the Independence Square.Davis and JCEB attorney Brad Constance met with the Lindseys.
"We talked to them for one-and-a-half hours," Davis said. "We saw some of Phil Lindsey's temper as he pounded on our counter."
(Lindsey denies this.)
Davis said she offered Phil Lindsey five opportunities to vote a regular ballot while at the JCEB office.
"To me that's the issue,” Davis said. “Could the man vote or could he not vote? He wanted us to escort him to the polling place so he could cast a vote. The police warned him not to go back there."
Davis said Lindsey rejected her offers to vote at the JCEB office "on principle" and they did not have the manpower to escort the Lindseys to their polling place.
"Voting wasn't the issue for Mr. Lindsey," she said. "He wasn't there to vote. He was there to cause trouble."
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A state report released last year on the 2006 midterm election in Missouri - Voters First (www.sos.mo.gov/elections/votersfirst) - found that "Nearly one of every five complaints received by the Secretary of State's Office concerned a voter being asked for the wrong type of ID at the polls on Election Day." Further, one-fifth were wrongly asked for photo or signature IDs.
The report concluded, in part, that more qualified poll workers and more intensive training of these workers is needed. Computer literacy is especially desired because of the installation of new electronic voting equipment.
The state requires poll workers to complete two to eight hours of training four to six weeks before an election.
Davis said that Jackson County election judges completed training three weeks before the primary election and focused on learning how to use electronic machines. Additional training was available on palm pilots for those expressing an interest. Palm pilots are used to track registered voters in a database who are not listed in the poll book.
The word "computer" has frightened some older poll workers, Davis said.
"We lost 800 judges because of the word. Yes, it's a challenge."
But Davis admits that training does not always include detailed discussion on what constitutes acceptable forms of ID from voters.
"It's not the most important thing at the top of the list," she said. "The most important thing is keeping calm and serving the voter."
But she said election judges each were provided with a laminated chart from the Secretary of State’s office that lists acceptable forms of ID.
"We gave each one (a chart) in training and one in a folder at the polls."
However, both Lindseys said that no chart or handout was visible to them nor did they observe any judge referring to one.
And no judge, Phil Lindsey said, would read the copy of the one he held in his hand.
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Changes in state election law have contributed to confusion among polling judges as to what are acceptable forms of voter ID, said Davis.
"Prior to October 2006, it was required voters present IDs with a signature. The Missouri Legislature passed the law requiring photo IDs but the (Missouri) Supreme Court threw it out."
She said when this happened, it also abolished the requirement for signature IDs.
And ambiguous language has further confounded the issue, she added.
"The law says government document, but what's a government document? It's very vague. You can't blame (election judges)...A government check? What's a government check?"
Curiously, a list detailing what is acceptable voter ID is missing on both the Web site for the Jackson County Election Board and the Kansas City Election Board. The only section found on both sites listing voter ID requirements was for absentee voters, and then the list for JCEB was a partial list, with three out of four examples being photo IDs.
Davis said flashing a signed, photo ID is not an issue for most people and is done by people daily in many situations.
"You got to have a signature on your ID. It's the logical thing. ID has a picture and signature," Davis said.
Phil Lindsey says this mindset could potentially alienate already disenfranchised voters who may not possess a photo ID.
"How many walk away?" he asked. "The vast majority. There are six people there that decide on their own, essentially enforcing photo voter ID. When they ask for a signature, what do people carry? A driver's license. How many people carry their Social Security card? It doesn't give many options to ask for."
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Secretary of State Robyn Carnahan takes education and training of election workers very seriously, said Ryan Hobart, deputy communications director with Missouri's Carnahan’s office.
"One of the things we did before the primary, and we do before every election, is send out big posters that list acceptable forms of ID, with visuals, to help train poll workers. These are to go up at every poll office around the state," he said.
Hobart said it is then up to the election boards throughout the state to display the posters. He said Davis had assured the SoS office that the poster was up at the Lindsey's polling place.
And grants available through the Help America Vote Act help fund training initiatives for election offices throughout the state. He said JCEB has applied for poll worker grants through HAVA for the November general election to facilitate more training.
"(SoS) will continue these efforts and try to stress to local election officials to train poll workers on what acceptable forms of IDs are and send new posters to put up, and encourage them to apply for grants to help people specifically get up to speed and make them be able to address them."
Election law also protects voters from harassment or interference from election poll workers, as well as the right to file a grievance. To access the Voter's Bill of Rights, visit www.sos.mo.gov/elections/voter_rights.asp.
And Davis issued this assurance to Jackson County voters: "We want people to vote and anything we can do to make that possible, we're going to do it."
If you believe your voting right have been violated, contact the Missouri Office of the Secretary of State at (800) 669-8683 or the U.S. Department of Justice at (800) 253-3931.
Thoughts:
I would be upset too if somebody told me I could not vote even after I provide the two forms of identification required to vote to them. If the state sets a standard of required information in order to vote, they should not be able to deny someone the right to vote if that information is provided by the citizen. A law is a law and shouldn't be changed depending on the person that is trying to act on it.
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