How to make sure elections aren't rigged

I have another friend who is now fascinated by the question of whether or not the 2000 and 2004 elections were rigged.  I have to admit that I kind of got him started on this.  I volunteered in Florida during the 2004 presidential election, and when I came back I had to explain to him, and anyone else who would listen, all the biased and outright illegal things I saw happen before and during the election in Florida.

I'm still not sure whether the biases were severe enough to have swung the election in 2004, but I do know this: if Democrats and progressive independents want to make sure that future elections are fair, they need to start getting involved now, not just on election day.  Conservative Republicans have spent decades working their way into all levels of the election infrastructure.  They make decisions about where polling places are located, how many voting machines are allocated to each precinct, which machines are used, when the voting roles are purged, who is purged from the roles, who gets provisional ballots on election day, whether those ballots are counted or not --- all kinds of things that are impossible to correct after the fact.

Rosita (with her younger sister) was finally allowed to vote after over three hours

Case in point, my experience in Florida:  I was working outside a polling place in a heavily Democratic precinct in Miami.  As the day progressed, people started coming out of the polls complaining that they hadn't been allowed to vote.  In one case a 19-year-old girl named Rosa was practically in tears.  She had registered to vote at a table at a metro station several months earlier, and this was going to be her first chance to vote.  After waiting in line for over an hour she was told by the poll worker in charge that they could not find her name on the voter rolls.  "Sorry, you can't vote," she was told. 

I went back into the polling place with her, and pointed out to the poll worker that she should at least be given a provisional ballot.  After considerable resistance, they agreed to call the Miami election commission headquarters and find out what the process was for provisional ballots.  I went back outside and began helping other voters.  Eventually Rosa came out, but again they had refused to let her vote. "They told me I'm just wasting my time," she said.  This time I took a copy of the election guidelines with me, and showed the poll worker the provision that says that all voters must be given a provisional ballot if they request one, whether they are listed on the voter rolls or not.  Finally the poll worker agreed, and Rosita got to cast her ballot.

All sorts of things like this happened throughout the day; too many for me to recount.  At the end of the day the poll worker admitted to me that his boss forced him to volunteer to work at the polls every year, implying that if they didn't have enough conservatives watching over certain polling places that Democratic voters would "stuff the ballot boxes." 

My point is this:  if you are progressive, and you want to make sure future elections are fair, don't wait until election day.  Start finding out how you can play a roll right now.  Research all the rules, volunteer to work as a poll worker, get a job in the election office, start a website to educate local voters, do whatever you can. 

Here's another article on the controversy in Ohio in 2004.  Good luck, and keep fighting the good fight!

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