Wednesday, April 06, 2016

The Justice Department Is Investigating Voter Suppression In Arizona

If you don’t think there’s a problem with voter suppression in this country look no further than Arizona’s primary on March 22, 2016 … which is what the U.S. Department of Justice is doing.

The DOJ has notified officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, that it is investigating the chaos from the recent primary election when many voters waited in lines up to five hours long after the county cut the number of polling places from 200 in 2012 to just 60 last month; and that was down from 2008 when there were over 400 polling places in the county..

The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division sent a letter to Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell that included a 10-point list of items and information the federal government is requesting.

During the chaos, Purcell blamed the voters, even though she was the one who’d decided to cut the number of polling places in the county; in fact, the number of elections was cut so drastically, that there was just one polling place for every 21,000 voters. Additionally, some voters who say they had registered as Democrats were not allowed to vote normally because, oddly enough, their affiliation was listed as independent, and only those registered as Democrats or Republicans were allowed to vote in their respective party's primaries.

And Purcell didn’t expect chaos? Bitch, please.

Voters were still in line past 10PM — voting was set to close at 7PM in 20 of the 60 sites, so people stood in line for three hours to cast their vote.

The DOJ wants to know how county election officials determined how many polling places were needed, and why the number was cut by two-thirds, and whether or not the impact on minority voters were examined. If it widely known that limiting the number of polling locations disproportionately affects minorities and the working poor, who have a harder time finding transportation to polling locations and are less likely to have the time needed to wait in long lines.

Of course they weren’t “examined” because it’s Arizona.

5 comments:

  1. the GOP plays extremely dirty. bastards!

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  2. Wa and Oregon are vote by mail states. Loves it!

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  3. Sadly this country is going that way too, making it more difficult for people to register to vote, causing problems for students, the young the old and the poor. Of course the young are more likely NOT to vote right wing....

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  4. I laughed when I read about this - those Republicans are so desperate to win an election they don't care how blatant their fraud becomes.

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  5. Ah, "the greatest country in the world." I'm not sure for whom, however.

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