Although we are no longer struggling for the right to vote, we still have to fight to make our vote count. The 2000 presidential election made us ask a lot of questions about our country's voting and election procedures. The millions of Americans who didn't get their say on Election Day made the need for election and voting reform evident.
Did your vote count?
The Caltech/MIT Voting Technology project announced that from four to six million people who went to the polls were not counted in the 2000 presidential election. Some people cast a ballot, but their vote was not counted because of voting technology problems (such as hanging chads). Others were unable to vote because of flawed or missing registered voter lists, broken voting machines, and/or impossibly long lines.
These problems were particularly common in jurisdictions with large minority populations, effectively excluding a disproportionate number of people of color from the voting process.
Educating voters needs to happen between elections, as well as on election day. In some countries elections happen over several weekend days so that everyone has an easier time in getting to the polls. Then no one has to leave work to vote. No one has to break a religious tradition to go to the polls.
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My issues or our issues?
What holds the non-voters back from exercising their citizenship by voting? Candidates and parties try to match their speeches and their advertising to what each group wants in their local communities. In a country as big as ours, and with national TV, selecting matching issues is not always possible, especially in urban areas with a diverse population.
The younger voters are reported to be concerned about different issues than older ones. If the issues of older voters don't match theirs, they just don't turn out.
What holds back new American immigrants and low income individuals from registering and voting? Those who can't read are afraid to embarrass themselves and ask for help. At the polls they find it hard to follow directions and may spoil their ballots. THEY CAN ASK FOR A NEW ONE, BUT MAY NOT KNOW HOW OR FEEL COMFORTABLE DOING SO.
Those who feel life is unfair may figure that there is no point in voting. They feel no one will help and actually make a difference.
Those who feel uncertain are easily intimidated by poll workers who seem uncaring, impatient, or even hostile.
People in the economic underclass often support each other by sharing housing while working in the underground economy and receiving welfare payments. To have to show ID with proof of residency, pay stubs, or utility bills may put their "system for survival" at risk.
For many, registration is like an exam - deliberately designed to make it hard to vote. No wonder that in many locations only the party faithful show up.
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Know Your Rights
You have voting rights that you probably don't know about. Read through this list and test yourself. Do you know your rights?
1. You have the right to cast a ballot if you are in line when the polls close.
2. You have the right to ask for and receive help.
3. If you make a mistake, you have the right to ask for a replacement ballot.
4. If your eligibility is in question, you have the right to ask for a provisional ballot. You can vote and have your registration checked later to see if your vote can be counted.
5. Voting is not a test! You can stop in the middle and ask questions, start over or take voter's information guides in with you.
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Voting Reform
The Help America Vote Act of 2002 is a response to the chaos of the 2000 presidential elections. Bush signed this act into law on October 29th, 2002. The law requires states to maintain an accurate statewide list of registered voters, to establish a fair procedure for handling voter complaints, and to have at least one voting machine accessible to persons with disabilities.
The act also creates the Election Assistance Commission, which sets voluntary guidelines and administers research grants and pilot projects. The act provides funds for states to replace punch card and lever voting machines and to improve election administration. Further, it insures that military and overseas voters receive information and ballots on time.
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Why voluntary? Why federal money to the states?
The debate between Republicans and Democrats in Congress highlighted their power centers. Democrats were interested in federal standards that would guarantee easy to use equipment and training of poll workers in every state. Such national standards would force states to pay attention to the less educated, new immigrants, Native Americans on reservations, and other low income minorities who, when they vote, tend to vote for Democrats.
Republicans focused on guidelines for the states rather than detailed rules, wishing to leave to the states the choice of specific kinds of machines and training. Those states where race history makes for competitive voting patterns between whites and blacks have been dominated by the Republican Party since Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1965.
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Getting out the vote: what it means to the parties
There always is competition for "getting out the vote." To the political parties that does not mean any old vote. To Democrats that means in addition to union members they must bring low income, minorities, and women to the polls. To Republicans whose base is centered on educated white males that means appealing to some suburban women and challenging the credentials of those who have to be mobilized by paid street workers.
The new voting rights act reflected a compromise between the two major parties between federal regulations and states' rights and between voter training, preparation, and identification papers to make sure that everyone voting is qualified to do so.
The behavior of poll workers towards low income minorities and citizens who have trouble with English makes a great difference on election day. Is intimidation of a potential voter a local, state, or federal issue?
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New York Rebels
Under this new law, people registering to vote are required to have proper identification. First-time voters who register by mail must present ID at the ballot box. This is the reason that two Senators, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, both from New York, voted against the bill. Their votes are noteworthy because they were the only two opposed; ninety-two other Senators voted in favor of the bill.
While both Clinton and Schumer admit that the bill is good for the nation, they claim that it is bad for New York. Clinton says that she fears the identification provision "will disproportionately affect ethnic and racial minorities, recently naturalized American citizens, language minorities, the poor, the homeless, the millions of eligible New York voters who do not have a driver's license, and those individuals who otherwise would have exercised their right to vote without these new provisions."
For the last twenty years, New York has used a digital signature verification system. To register, all you need is a signature, which is then scanned into a computer. On Election Day, the voter simply signs the book of registered voters and the signatures are compared.
Although the new identification provision is meant to guard against fraud, such as pretending to be someone else, dead or alive, and voting twice, it may also prevent those without identification papers from voting at all.
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