Thursday, May 22, 2014 5:29:41 AM
Arkansas Voters Complain About Quizzing By Poll Workers Checking IDs
AP Photo / Danny Johnston
Eric Lach – May 21, 2014, 1:22 PM EDT
Tuesday primaries marked the first state-wide election in Arkansas since the state's new voter ID law went into effect earlier this year. And there were problems.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas has received numerous complaints from voters who say poll workers "quizzed" them about the information on their IDs, one of the organization's officials told TPM on Wednesday.
"It's not one or two specific locations, we're hearing about it in various locations around the state," Holly Dickson, legal director at ACLU of Arkansas, said in an interview. "There may have been a coordinated effort to have poll workers enforce the law this way -- that remains to be seen, of course."
The complaints received by the ACLU were similar in nature to those reported on by Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times, an alt weekly in Little Rock. He first noted reports of it .. http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2014/05/20/the-voter-id-law-takes-effect-questions-raised .. on Tuesday while the election was still taking place. Then on Wednesday, Brantley posted several first-person accounts .. http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2014/05/21/the-time-is-now-to-investigate-the-voter-id-process-something-is-bad-wrong .. from voters on the newspaper's website.
"I was quizzed about my name, address and birthdate while the election volunteer held my license where I couldn't see it," one reader wrote to Brantley. "Is that also part of the photo ID law? I mean, my drivers license does have my photo right there on the front... Are we testing for fake IDs now, too?"
"I voted in the Democratic primary at Temple Baptist Church, Springdale, Arkansas. I was asked many questions," another reader told Brantley. "The little old lady was pleasant and I was nice to her but I was asked to specifically mention that the word 'Place' was in my street address in addition to the street name, etc."
Quizzes are not part of the new law. Here's how it's supposed to work: poll workers are instructed to ask each voter for their name, their address, and their date of birth. After that, the poll workers ask for ID, which they are supposed to use to verify names and compare faces to photographs. But that's not the procedure encountered by the voters voicing complaints.
Dickson said her organization -- which is currently challenging the constitutionality of the voter ID law in state courts -- began getting the complaints earlier this month, after early voting began. The "inconsistencies" under the new law, she said, were "interfering with people's constitutional right to vote."
"Within the last week we started receiving complaints from voters about vehement enforcement … from poll workers," she said. "We've been encouraging them to file complaints with the Arkansas state Board of Elections."
Justin Clay, the director of Arkansas' Board of Election Commissioners, told TPM on Wednesday morning his agency had not yet received any complaints about the issue.
"I can tell you that poll workers, from our perspective anyway, poll workers were trained on the correct process," Clay said.
About The Author
Eric Lach is a reporter for TPM. From 2010 to 2011, he was a news writer in charge of the website?s front page. He has previously written for The Daily, NewYorker.com, GlobalPost and other publications. He can be reached at ericl@talkingpointsmemo.com
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/arkansas-voter-id-quizzes
====
Asa Hutchinson, right, is applauded by his wife Susan and others as early vote totals are announced inLittle Rock, Ark., Tuesday, May 20, 2014.
Danny Johnston/AP Photo
GOP candidate runs into voter-ID problem in Arkansas
05/21/14 09:11 AM—Updated 05/21/14 07:40 PM
By Steve Benen
When voting-rights advocates complain about voter-ID laws as an unnecessary suppression policy, the right generally responds with rhetoric that might seem sensible: “everyone” already carries identification, so these laws are no big deal and the left’s concerns are exaggerated.
Evidence to the contrary is fairly common, and once in a while, even amusing .. http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/asa-hutchinson-forgets-photo-id-vote .
Asa Hutchinson, who won the Republican nomination in the race for Arkansas governor Tuesday, forgot his ID when he went to the polls, despite backing the state’s new voter ID law, according to the Associated Press.
Christian Olson, a spokesman for the Republican candidate, told the AP that Hutchinson believed the situation was a “little bit of an inconvenience” and that a staffer retrieved his ID so he could cast a ballot. Olson said the former congressman still believes voters should be required to show an ID.
The larger takeaway from this should be obvious.
As the Arkansas Times’ Max Brantley explained .. http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2014/05/20/oops-voter-id-law-may-have-briefly-tripped-up-law-advocate-asa-hutchinson , “Such an episode is an all-too-human reminder of how the law can be an impediment to the franchise. Hutchinson is a successful lawyer with an entourage and the day off to politic. He was going to get a ballot cast yesterday. The hourly factory worker trying to cast a ballot in the midst of a long commute to work who left his license back at the house? He might have a harder time setting things right. Never mind those who don’t have a valid ID at all and no ready means to get to the county clerk’s office to get one.”
Indeed, in this case, the gubernatorial candidate – the one who supports blocking voters from participating in their own democracy unless they show identification they never had to produce before in order to cast a ballot – dispatched an aide to go back to his law office to fetch his ID.
Ask yourself: how many voters usually go to their local precinct with paid staffers in tow?
What’s more, as Republicans impose new voter-ID requirements in states nationwide, all to address a fraud problem that doesn’t exist in reality, problems become more common.
In North Carolina recently, the new voting restrictions caused quite a bit of confusion .. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/north-carolina-voting-law-causes-confusion-the-polls . Not long beforehand, Texas’ state attorney general was temporarily disenfranchised .. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/11/01/2875901/texas-voter-abbott-affidavit/ .. by his own voter-ID law.
We’ve seen a judge nearly blocked .. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/10/23/2821651/texas-judge-voter/ .. from voting because the name on her ID didn’t match closely enough with the name on the voting rolls, and we’ve seen a former U.S. Speaker of the House get turned down .. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/11/03/2880381/texas-house-speaker-denied-voter/ .. for a voter ID.
None of this is necessary. Voter-ID laws, which have struggled recently in the courts, are a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, and creating new problems that didn’t used to exist.
In Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson was able to finally vote after one of his employees gave him a hand, and he went on to easily win his gubernatorial primary. But the fact that he was delayed from casting a ballot should have given him new insights into what might happen to others – most of whom don’t cast ballots while surrounded by aides.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-candidate-runs-voter-id-problem
See also:
Wickham: John Lewis vs. Barack Obama .. Judicial nominees for Georgia threaten hard-won civil rights.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=95506502
Wisconsin Voter ID Law Rejected By Federal Judge
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=101297325
Must have ID laws! Voter fraud! Yikes!
"Indeed, a Wisconsin study found that just 0.00023 percent of votes are the product of in-person
voter fraud, so a person is more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit fraud at the polls."
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/03/20/1749121/one-day-after-rnc-calls-for-minority-outreach-arkansas-gop-passes-bill-to-suppress-minority-vote/
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=96046853
.. how about calling the GOP the "0.00023% party .. lolol .. that's really all the votes they deserve with their 'deny voters the
right to vote' effort .. one other thought, how do the different requirements required to vote jibe with the basic tenet everyone
is treated equally under the law? .. hmm, then again, that would apply to the death penalty, and for so many other laws, too ..
AP Photo / Danny Johnston
Eric Lach – May 21, 2014, 1:22 PM EDT
Tuesday primaries marked the first state-wide election in Arkansas since the state's new voter ID law went into effect earlier this year. And there were problems.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas has received numerous complaints from voters who say poll workers "quizzed" them about the information on their IDs, one of the organization's officials told TPM on Wednesday.
"It's not one or two specific locations, we're hearing about it in various locations around the state," Holly Dickson, legal director at ACLU of Arkansas, said in an interview. "There may have been a coordinated effort to have poll workers enforce the law this way -- that remains to be seen, of course."
The complaints received by the ACLU were similar in nature to those reported on by Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times, an alt weekly in Little Rock. He first noted reports of it .. http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2014/05/20/the-voter-id-law-takes-effect-questions-raised .. on Tuesday while the election was still taking place. Then on Wednesday, Brantley posted several first-person accounts .. http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2014/05/21/the-time-is-now-to-investigate-the-voter-id-process-something-is-bad-wrong .. from voters on the newspaper's website.
"I was quizzed about my name, address and birthdate while the election volunteer held my license where I couldn't see it," one reader wrote to Brantley. "Is that also part of the photo ID law? I mean, my drivers license does have my photo right there on the front... Are we testing for fake IDs now, too?"
"I voted in the Democratic primary at Temple Baptist Church, Springdale, Arkansas. I was asked many questions," another reader told Brantley. "The little old lady was pleasant and I was nice to her but I was asked to specifically mention that the word 'Place' was in my street address in addition to the street name, etc."
Quizzes are not part of the new law. Here's how it's supposed to work: poll workers are instructed to ask each voter for their name, their address, and their date of birth. After that, the poll workers ask for ID, which they are supposed to use to verify names and compare faces to photographs. But that's not the procedure encountered by the voters voicing complaints.
Dickson said her organization -- which is currently challenging the constitutionality of the voter ID law in state courts -- began getting the complaints earlier this month, after early voting began. The "inconsistencies" under the new law, she said, were "interfering with people's constitutional right to vote."
"Within the last week we started receiving complaints from voters about vehement enforcement … from poll workers," she said. "We've been encouraging them to file complaints with the Arkansas state Board of Elections."
Justin Clay, the director of Arkansas' Board of Election Commissioners, told TPM on Wednesday morning his agency had not yet received any complaints about the issue.
"I can tell you that poll workers, from our perspective anyway, poll workers were trained on the correct process," Clay said.
About The Author
Eric Lach is a reporter for TPM. From 2010 to 2011, he was a news writer in charge of the website?s front page. He has previously written for The Daily, NewYorker.com, GlobalPost and other publications. He can be reached at ericl@talkingpointsmemo.com
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/arkansas-voter-id-quizzes
====
Asa Hutchinson, right, is applauded by his wife Susan and others as early vote totals are announced inLittle Rock, Ark., Tuesday, May 20, 2014.
Danny Johnston/AP Photo
GOP candidate runs into voter-ID problem in Arkansas
05/21/14 09:11 AM—Updated 05/21/14 07:40 PM
By Steve Benen
When voting-rights advocates complain about voter-ID laws as an unnecessary suppression policy, the right generally responds with rhetoric that might seem sensible: “everyone” already carries identification, so these laws are no big deal and the left’s concerns are exaggerated.
Evidence to the contrary is fairly common, and once in a while, even amusing .. http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/asa-hutchinson-forgets-photo-id-vote .
Asa Hutchinson, who won the Republican nomination in the race for Arkansas governor Tuesday, forgot his ID when he went to the polls, despite backing the state’s new voter ID law, according to the Associated Press.
Christian Olson, a spokesman for the Republican candidate, told the AP that Hutchinson believed the situation was a “little bit of an inconvenience” and that a staffer retrieved his ID so he could cast a ballot. Olson said the former congressman still believes voters should be required to show an ID.
The larger takeaway from this should be obvious.
As the Arkansas Times’ Max Brantley explained .. http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2014/05/20/oops-voter-id-law-may-have-briefly-tripped-up-law-advocate-asa-hutchinson , “Such an episode is an all-too-human reminder of how the law can be an impediment to the franchise. Hutchinson is a successful lawyer with an entourage and the day off to politic. He was going to get a ballot cast yesterday. The hourly factory worker trying to cast a ballot in the midst of a long commute to work who left his license back at the house? He might have a harder time setting things right. Never mind those who don’t have a valid ID at all and no ready means to get to the county clerk’s office to get one.”
Indeed, in this case, the gubernatorial candidate – the one who supports blocking voters from participating in their own democracy unless they show identification they never had to produce before in order to cast a ballot – dispatched an aide to go back to his law office to fetch his ID.
Ask yourself: how many voters usually go to their local precinct with paid staffers in tow?
What’s more, as Republicans impose new voter-ID requirements in states nationwide, all to address a fraud problem that doesn’t exist in reality, problems become more common.
In North Carolina recently, the new voting restrictions caused quite a bit of confusion .. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/north-carolina-voting-law-causes-confusion-the-polls . Not long beforehand, Texas’ state attorney general was temporarily disenfranchised .. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/11/01/2875901/texas-voter-abbott-affidavit/ .. by his own voter-ID law.
We’ve seen a judge nearly blocked .. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/10/23/2821651/texas-judge-voter/ .. from voting because the name on her ID didn’t match closely enough with the name on the voting rolls, and we’ve seen a former U.S. Speaker of the House get turned down .. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/11/03/2880381/texas-house-speaker-denied-voter/ .. for a voter ID.
None of this is necessary. Voter-ID laws, which have struggled recently in the courts, are a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, and creating new problems that didn’t used to exist.
In Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson was able to finally vote after one of his employees gave him a hand, and he went on to easily win his gubernatorial primary. But the fact that he was delayed from casting a ballot should have given him new insights into what might happen to others – most of whom don’t cast ballots while surrounded by aides.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-candidate-runs-voter-id-problem
See also:
Wickham: John Lewis vs. Barack Obama .. Judicial nominees for Georgia threaten hard-won civil rights.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=95506502
Wisconsin Voter ID Law Rejected By Federal Judge
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=101297325
Must have ID laws! Voter fraud! Yikes!
"Indeed, a Wisconsin study found that just 0.00023 percent of votes are the product of in-person
voter fraud, so a person is more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit fraud at the polls."
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/03/20/1749121/one-day-after-rnc-calls-for-minority-outreach-arkansas-gop-passes-bill-to-suppress-minority-vote/
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=96046853
.. how about calling the GOP the "0.00023% party .. lolol .. that's really all the votes they deserve with their 'deny voters the
right to vote' effort .. one other thought, how do the different requirements required to vote jibe with the basic tenet everyone
is treated equally under the law? .. hmm, then again, that would apply to the death penalty, and for so many other laws, too ..
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
