Justice Dept. OKs New Orleans Election Plan

[brooklynite]

By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
25 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Over the bitter objections of some black leaders, the U.S. Justice Department approved a plan Thursday for New Orleans' first elections since Hurricane Katrina.

The department still needs to approve a few polling place changes but otherwise gave its blessing to plans to hold elections for mayor, City Council and other posts on April 22. Department officials also said they will send observers to monitor the balloting.

Black leaders have charged that Louisiana officials have not done enough to ensure that voters scattered by the storm will be able to vote. The state plans to set up satellite polling places around the state for New Orleans residents driven from their homes, but chose not to create such stations outside Louisiana.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060316/ap_on_re_us/katrina_new_orleans_elections

[shance]

1. Since when does the Justice Department okay Election plans?

Am I missing something?

[brooklynite]

2. My guess is New Orleans is subject to the Voting Rights Law...

which allows Justice to review and sign off on election plans in areas with a history of voter discrimination.

[EFerrari]

3. No kidding. I don't understand why they have jurisdiction.

[jus_the_facts]

4. "....but chose not to create such stations outside Louisiana...."

....so they're CHOOSING to disenfranchise a few HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE from being allowed to vote...sounds all to familiar..bet a lot of dead people show to have voted for republicans too...sigh.

[juajen]

8. OK, people, settle down

Do you have a link setting out where the evacuees ended up. I honestly believe most, at least two-thirds anyway, of the evacuees are in-state. I don't believe Mitch Landrieu would attempt to disenfranchise black voters. Frankly, they like him. He's a popular democrat. Unfortunately, Nagin made some serious mistakes. Remember, Landrieu and Blanco are democrats who owe a lot to their black constituents.

[jus_the_facts]

16. Over 150,000 people are in Houston alone....

.....and tens of thousands more scattered around all over the country from Georgia to Minnesota and Utah and points in between to where ever they were bused to...what link can you provide that states 2/3 of all evacuees are residing inside LA?

The Repopulation of New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina

The population of New Orleans will likely reach about 272,000 in September 2008 – amounting to 56 percent of the population of 485,000 before Hurricane Katrina struck in August, according to a study issued today by the RAND Corporation."

http://www.docuticker.com/2006/03/repopulation-of-new-orleans-after.html

on edit...I'd bet there will be Republican rule in south La. after this election is said and done because too many of those black constituents won't be allowed to vote at all.

[saigon68]

5. Its those pesky black voters again

Imagine, they are so demanding

They should learn their place

</sarcasm>

[tom_paine]

7. The fact of modern Imperial Amerika

is that we are ALL "black voters" now.

Hey, at least they aren't stringing us up and burning our houses to the ground for daring to try and vote.

Instead, they are painlessly disenfranchising all of us "black voters", who now are all races, creeds and colors.

We are ALL n*****s in Bush's Empire.

[saigon68]

15. So true

[tom_paine]

6. Another nail in the coffin of the Old American Republic

Ironically, just at the moment she was about to fufil the promise of her birth, she was brutally bludgeoned to death.

1776-2000 RIP

[PaganPreacher]

9. Oh, bullshit.

The end of the American Republic is not being heralded by the Federal government's refusal to put special polling places all over the country for a single city election. New Orleans is not that special.

Each of the New Orleans residents in the Diaspora who is eligible to vote, and who is still interested in New Orleans city government, may vote with an absentee ballot.

All he has to do is request a ballot, just like for any other election where he will be out of the city.:eyes:



The Pagan Preacher
I don't turn the other cheek.

[tom_paine]

11. Not heralded, just another tiny chip in a large mosaic

More soft disenfranchisement, more black disenfranchsiement (at least this disenfranchisement doesn't involve lynching, beatings, and burnings, so I guess we've made progress, eh?)

The End of the American Republic was heralded by the upside-down Imperial Roman style impeachment of Clinton in 1998. It was put into motion on Dec 12th, 2000. Somewhere between then and now, and I leave that to historians, the Old American Republic died. Maybe a specific date cannot be named.

Say what you will. The daily facts of life in the Empire speak for themselves.

[PaganPreacher]

12. Since those "disenfranchised" people can still vote...

if they want to, your argument fails on its face.

If anyone who was forced from the city wants to vote, he may request an absentee ballot and vote. If he wants to drive, fly, or ride to a Louisiana polling station instead, he may do so.

Nobody is being prohibited from voting. There is no "soft disenfranchisement" here.
:eyes::eyes:

The Pagan Preacher
I don't turn the other cheek.

[tom_paine]

13. Prohibition to vote is "hard disenfranchisement" or "classical disenfranch

isement"

If you know anything at all about modern Bushevik techniques of soft disenfranchisement, then you'd know it is about aggregate numbers and peeling voters away by discouragement and difficulty.

One notable example was in 2004, Ohio Secy of State Blackwell purposefully shifted voting machines from heavily minority/Democratic precincts such that some of the lines wereas long as 8-10 hours to vote.

How many had to drop out of those lines to get back to work, etc? If you are going to pursue such a strategy, it MUST be against a group of people in which the highest proprtion of Democratic votes are lost against total numbers of people who drop out.

Such as African-Americans, which Busheviks can safely assume that, if they force 10 people to drop out of an artificially long line, then 9 of them were Democrats.

There are other methodologies of "soft disenfranchisement", but I trust I have made my point.

Considering you've been around DU awhile, your lack of understanding of this vital (perhaps the single most vital issue we have left if we are to save freedom in America) issue is staggering.

You ahve continuously made wonderful arguments, against straw men. I concede your straw man. Yes, no one has been directly prohibited from voting.

What a shame that has little to do with my point.

:dee dee dee:

[PaganPreacher]

14. Did you forget what your point was? Let me help.

In post #6, responding to the original post (which lamented the establishment of polling stations out-of-state for a city election in New Orleans), you said:

"Another nail in the coffin of the Old American Republic".

Unless you were just talking to the ether without actually referring back to the original post, your statement was, "The failure of the Justice Department to authorize out-of-state polling places for a city election is another nail in the coffin of the Old American Republic." Everything after that was fluff.

In response to that, I threw the BS flag at Post 9, and specifically answered your statement in Post 6 regarding TEOTWAWKI in American governance. In so doing, I pointed out that no one is being denied the right to vote; they merely have to exercise that right if they choose to by requesting an absentee ballot.

That is not erecting a straw man; it is addressing your point and rebutting it. Perhaps if your point was not made of straw, it would not look like a straw man.

To further illuminate the point: at no time in the history of the state of Louisiana have out of state polling places been established for a city election. They are not provided for in the Louisiana state constitution or Louisiana state law. Since the State Legislature has the power to enact a new law, and has not chosen to do so, existing state statutes apply. If you have a complaint, it should be with the Louisiana State Legislature, who could have written and passed a bill (I betcha the Governor would have signed it), and funded ballot stations in cities outside of Louisiana.

As for your "soft disenfranchisement" meme, if no one is denied the opportunity to vote, no one is disenfranchised. Not softly. Not classically. Not hardly. Since every legally registered voter in Louisiana may vote, either by absentee ballot or by returning from the Diaspora, there is no "disenfranchisement".

You should also re-evaluate your Rovian conspiracy theory in light of this fact: New Orleans is a predominanantly Democratic city, in a predominanantly Democratic state. Even if 85% of registered voters choose not to vote, the majority of the 15% who do will be Democrats. The city election officials are Democrats. The parish wardens are Democrats. The State Legislature is controlled by Democrats. The Governor is a Democrat. Any so-called "soft disenfranchisement" scheme in that city, in that state, will benefit a Democrat, and will not benefit the Republican Party in the least.
:eyes::eyes::eyes:
Although it may bite Ray Nagin in the ass come April 22, it will benefit another Democrat in the end; hopefully the new mayor will be competent to deal with the problems that lie ahead. Ray "I bought a new house in Dallas after the hurricane" Nagin is not up to the challenge.

The Pagan Preacher
I don't turn the other cheek.

[jus_the_facts]

17. "they merely have to exercise that right if they choose to...

...by requesting an absentee ballot."

And who exactly will make sure this scenario will play out by LAW...all sorts of illegal irregularities have been happening in poor districts where people were living and registered to vote but STILL weren't allowed to....didn't take the hassles of Katrina to screw people out of being able to vote...bet there won't be ENOUGH absentee ballots to accommodate all the people outside Louisiana who would like to be able to vote but won't be sent an ABSENTEE ballot even after requesting one....I didn't trust any oversight being carried out down here for honest election practices before Katrina and damned sure don't after seeing what's happened in her wake.

[jus_the_facts]

19. Well we'll just have to wait and see won't we?

Any so-called "soft disenfranchisement" scheme in that city, in that state, will benefit a Democrat, and will not benefit the Republican Party in the least.

Mary Landrieu (DINO-LA) consistently votes with the GOP regardless of that D behind her name...her votes have been benefittin' the Republicans...NOT any of those FORMER constituents of hers. :eyes:

[juajen]

25. Thanks, Preach

I left because I had to and didn't realize my integrity had been impugned.

The population of NO by March of this year, according to the linked article should be approx. 155,000 people. It was in the Baton Rouge Advocate a couple of months ago that BR had doubled its population as a result of this horrific storm. BR is far bigger than Lafayette (where I live, BTW), it being the capitol and all. I believe the population of BR before the storm was somewhere around 150 to 175 thousand people. This should account for at least 100,000 New Orleanians. I know that our fair Lafayette is supposed to have acquired around 20,000, not to mention Shreveport, Alexandria, etc., etc., etc.

I know that Houston is supposed to have around 150,000. I am not sure this is an accurate figure, however, there will certainly be methods for these people to vote. It is right next door, for you who do not know your geography very well. My sister says there are many evacuees in her fair city of Atlanta. I have heard there are some in Utah and frankly, I guess there are some everywhere; maybe even Paris, France, or London, England.

Wherever they are, they can vote is they wish to. This state is not disenfranchising its black voters; certainly not under the Blanco Administration.

I stand by my previous post.

[goclark]

10. There are no words to describe my rage nt

[DerBeppo]

18. I've got one...

misplaced. This seems like a pretty rational compromise considering the size, scope and cost as opposed to the defacto federal election sized demands that some here are demanding for a CITY election.

[jus_the_facts]

23. More like UNPRECIDENTED....

.....so you'd be tickled pink if it was YOUR city's election and after you were bused away from that city and have no means to return there...then you'd be all for the government telling you "so sorry...but you should have thought to get that absentee ballot set up because you don't really matter anymore in this state...much less the city you once called home...so just DEAL with IT?!"

I doubt you'd be for relinquishing your rights so easily...and would appreciate somebody to be screaming to anybody who'd listen for YOUR rights to be heard too. :nopity:

[goclark]

26. My rage is no way misplaced

The PEOPLE that suffered and were "misplaced" not by their own desires are being treated to KATRINAVOTE.

Huum, I wonder who will win the election?

[NashVegas]

20. We Set Up Polling Stations for IRAQI IMMIGRANTS Across the Country!

And nothing for displaced Louisianans?

[Shakespeare]

21. Took the words right out of my mouth.

That was my first thought, too.

[Akoto]

22. I don't know about this plan, but I will say ...

I don't envy whatever souls are elected to lead New Orleans. They have a lot of challenges ahead and, god forbid, it could happen all over again if weather trends continue. As someone who has lost everything in the hurricanes of years past, I can tell you it's no walk in the park!

[superconnected]

24. Relax. Many blacks didn't get to vote in 2000 or 2004.

look how that turned out.

Okay, it's run us into the ground, destroyed iraq, is about to destroy iran, has killed and impoverised thousands of americans and tens of thousands of iraqis, it's been a major threat to world peace and it let the most greedy-hostile junta come into world power since, well, the Nazis.

But other than that... I'm mean they're only poor black people. How much of a difference could they make.