Who was disenfranchised by California's "consolidated" polling places?

[Fridays Child]

With nearly 3/4 of the polling places closed statewide, I can think of at least four reasons why poor and lower middle class voters may have been far less likely to cast ballots than other voters: time, transportation, access to information, and fear.

Closing neighborhood polling places made finding the time to vote much more difficult for those who have to work overtime or second jobs to support their families. And in households where transportation is limited to a shared vehicle or public transportation, voting by the poor and lower middle class was even further eroded. Moreover, how widely was the information about where to vote disseminated and how well was it explained?

Finally, exactly which polling places were opened and which were closed? In Los Angeles County alone, voting locations were reduced from 5,000 to 1,800. Were residents of Inglewood, for example, required to enter Manhattan Beach, in order to vote? "Driving while black (or brown)" is dangerous enough in their own neighborhoods. Imagine the minority vote-suppressing effect of re-routing minority voters to white precincts.


With the tactic of consolidation who needs expensive software to steal votes? All in all, closing down nearly 3/4 of the polling places was a pretty clever way to disenfranchise the masses, don't you think?

[hang a left]

1. Yes I do think. How can they call this a viable election.

I hope the lawsuits start being filed today.

[slackmaster]

2. I had to drive almost a MILE to the polls

My usual spot is just a half block down the hill from my house.

Driving to the polls and back probably cost me almost 50 cents in fuel and wear and tear on my truck!

I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANY MORE!!!

:mad:

I am SO fucking disenfranchised it's unbelievable.

[hang a left]

3. Someone posted last night that they waited 2 hours in line in Los Angeles

to vote. How many people just drove by and looked at the lines and said "shine".

[Fridays Child]

4. I'm pretty sure you missed my point.

You obviously had the wherewithal to cast your ballot. You had the time, the transportation, the information, and your polling place for this election was not terribly far removed from your regular polling place. Your situation is probably not illustrative of the issue.

[CarinKaryn]

5. Don't worry about slacker - look at his other posts

He doesn't really have anything worth listening to.

I agree with what you say. Many were unable to cast the vote they desired. Hardly a "fair" election.
The big question - how do we fix. Those suggesting "recall" will not be taken serously, but what about suits to overturn the results.

Someone give me practical steps to take to end this maddness!

I'm so frustrated I could SCREAM!

[Fridays Child]

6. Thanks for the heads up,and welcome to DU!

I think these issues may be subject to litigation. Where there is disenfranchisement, the ACLU ought to be taking a very hard look. So, if you're a California resident, that's where you might want to start.

[slackmaster]

8. Ignore my posts at your own peril

I have the gift of Prophecy but the curse of having nobody take me seriously. It's been like this all my life. I'm constantly telling people what I see and having them put me down as you have, only to see them discover for themselves later what I have been saying all along.

My name is Cassandra.

[slackmaster]

7. Simple two-word refutation of your theory

Absentee ballots.

Anyone who could not get to their polls for whatever reason should have voted absentee. Any claim of disenfranchisement by precinct consolidation will be refuted thusly.

[Capn Sunshine]

9. This does not account for other factors

a blue collar worker taking time off and seeing a two hour line for example. So leaving without voting. Just can't afford the wait.

In my neighborhood, the polling place stayed the same, at the Country Club. The poor part of town and mobile home parks had their polling places relocated to a wealthy subdivision several miles away.

One , you could walk to the other , you definitely needed a ride and no public transportation went out that way.

[slackmaster]

11. Funny you should pull two hours out of the air

California state law requires employers to give workers up to two hours off in order to vote. They don't have to pay for that time but employees have the right to make up the work time so there is no loss of pay.

A long line at the polls can happen in any busy election even without the precinct consolidation. Anyone who has a job that lacks the flexibility to allow for convenient voting should vote absentee.

[nannygoat]

10. Weren't most polling places recently announced?

That means people wouldn't know until the last few days where they were supposed to go and vote (or if their usual polling place would be open at all) so that leaves absentee ballots out as an answer to this problem (especially since a voter probably had to request an absentee ballot awhile ago).

[slackmaster]

13. Polling places were announced on sample ballots as always

They came out several weeks before the election. That gave anyone who couldn't make it to the polls plenty of time to vote absentee.

I'll start believing people were disenfranchised when I start seeing first-hand accounts. The possibility that someone might have been disenfranchised by having their regular polling place closed does not impress me.

[CarinKaryn]

14. You sound like you are trying awfully hard to discredit us...

Why is that?

[slackmaster]

16. Who do you mean by "us"?

People claiming that someone may have been disenfranchised when NOBODY has come forward with a first-hand account of disenfranchisement?

I base my opinions on what I see, not on other peoples' unfounded speculations.

[fizzana]

12. Was this only in LA County?

I was under the impression that it was but I might be mistaken.

It wasn't a hassle for us. The polling place was about a half mile further and we were given the info on our smaple ballots.

The polling stations around here were busy but not impossibly so although I heard about other cases where it was pretty bad.

[Fridays Child]

15. It was statewide. I read articles about poll consolidations all over CA.

What county are you in?

[maggrwaggr]

17. couldn't park anywhere near my place. You had to really want to vote

It was also difficult to find.

Usually I can walk from my house to the polling place.

This time I had to look it up, find it. It was actually very difficult to find. There was absolutely NOWHERE to park. The parking lot was in fact gridlocked with people, and not just to vote. There were people there to play tennis, take their kids to some sort of event, all kinds of shit. Then the polling place was hidden, tucked around in the back of the building.

I had to park pretty far away. If I'd been less motivated to vote, I would have said "ah, to hell with it".

[Noordam]

18. Second part of your question.... (IMHO)

Did the changing of precincts happen not only to make it harder for some to vote BUT to make it IMPOSSIBLE to compare against other elections

OK we know for a fact less people in LA County voted than in 2002 BUT it is impossible to compare precincts. There is no way to compare what percent of voters in say a white precinct voted this time vs a black precinct.

[Fridays Child]

19. Excellent point, Noordam! My understanding, though...

...is that the individual precinct sign-in sheets were used to log voters at the consolidated polling places.

[Noordam]

20. But will they release the stats from those logs

So ppl can see what old precincts were really voting, probably not. But it could tell if the change of precincts did effect one group of voters over another.