sketchy: Detroit caucus sites to stay open extra two hours

[jburton]

on edit: link http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1076181242303271.xml


Detroit caucus sites to stay open extra two hours

By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
The Associated Press
2/7/2004, 4:32 p.m. ET


LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Democratic caucus sites in the city of Detroit were staying open an extra two hours Saturday because of problems earlier in the day with some sites being moved or closed, the party said.

snip==

The state Democratic Party had posted the caucus sites on its Web page and mailed Democratic voters a list of caucus sites statewide, but that list wasn't accurate on Saturday. Brewer denied accusations from the state directors of Howard Dean and John Edwards' campaigns that the problems were disenfranchising presidential caucus voters.

snip==

Edwards state director Derek Albert, however, said most of the moved sites were affecting minority voters and were robbing them of their right to vote.

"This is worse than in the '60s," said Albert, who also is chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus. "This is horrible. This election needs to be stopped. Because this is not right."

=======================

So, what is this? In a Democratic primary no less? Somebody screwed this up big time.

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. We have been yelling about this for weeks. They knew the sites

were wrong for a month. Many phone calls were made. This is a shame. :( I hope they don't brush this off. :hi:

[pollock]

2. Tell more.

Mark Brewer said (some) sites were changed within 24 hours. Is this not correct?

[ScreamingMeemie]

6. The information that we had on some caucus sites a month ago

was incorrect. We found this out when we were calling voters. We were inadvertently giving them the wrong sites. We were told it was fixed and that all caucus sites were now correct. Obviously that is not the case and I am on the phone to the Macomb County Democrats to see what's up.

[jburton]

3. who is the party official in the story?

The person in the story acted like it was some last-minute change, and that Dean and Edwards people were making a big deal out of nothing.

Yeah, not having correct info on VOTING LOCATIONS in MINORITY NEIGHBORHOODS isn't a big deal. :eyes:

[YouMustBeKiddingMe]

4. A month? If that's the case then this is shameful

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jerseycoa]

7. It will probably get worse after this

Pentagon Scraps Internet Voting System
Fri Feb 6, 1:40 PM ET Add Elections - AP to My Yahoo!


By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer

Citing security concerns, the Pentagon (news - web sites) has canceled Internet voting that would have involved as many as 100,000 military and overseas citizens from seven states in November, a Defense Department official said Thursday.



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=548&ncid=703&e=7&u=/ap/20040206/ap_on_el_ge/internet_voting

[theoceansnerves]

8. uh

i don't think this has anything to do with bush...

[pollock]

10. All Democrats snub Detroit forum but Al Sharpton.

Sad truth about Michigan Democratic Party.
But what can you say when you have two party chairmen?

[Jerseycoa]

15. Michigan has Internet voting

This will complicate the returns, I think, casting further question on the outcome. I hope not.

[maddezmom]

19. yup, both my parents cast their ballot a week ago

[stickdog]

9. Why didn't the DLC just purge them from the voter roles? (nt)

[Toucano]

11. Maybe the UN can send elections inspectors in. n/t

[ShaneGR]

12. What race is the state chair?

[dsc]

13. one of each race

one is black and one white.

[displacedtexan]

16. I know both of these guys, Mark and Butch.

These are both extremely honorable,hard working Democrats.
The same thing happened to me in almost totally white Traverse City, MI on election day 2000. In a town of 16,000, you'd think that the polling places would be confirmed in advance. My site was published in the local paper a week before the election, but when I got there (grade school), I had to be directed to the new polling place.

[jpgray]

14. Arrggh! This is EXACTLY the last thing I would want to happen

How did MI organizers screw this up! :(

[ScreamingMeemie]

21. Again, I have to say, something is really wrong because they knew of

this a long time ago. :shrug:

[ajacobson]

17. WTF--we closed our site at 4:00 p.m.

Word didn't make it to our site. We closed at 4:00 p.m. I was a challenger for Clark. The site managers counted the ballots and we were out of there by 5:30 p.m.

Our site ran fine but the process as a whole was a mess, I think.

[ShaneGR]

18. REASON: Massive turnout

Just heard on the news that turnout was twice what was expected.

[Festivito]

20. Low turnout at my Detroit site.

I was number 26 at my site around 2pm and no one was behind me.

The site was ten miles away, which is outrageous.

The church had a snow covered parking lot across the street, handicappers need not try.

We filled out our ballots on an altar. So much for seperation of church and state -- just kidding, it's alright.

The telephone number was constantly busy for days ahead. Leaving a message at 4am, they did nicely call me back the next day this morning.

The website REQUIRED Java to operate.

The polling places were put into a pdf, unavailable in html.

IF ONE WANTED TO DETER A "CERTAIN GROUP" OF VOTERS FROM VOTING, THIS DETROIT PRIMARY WOULD BE A GOOD EXAMPLE OF HOW IT COULD BE DONE.

I'm happy the rest of the state noted a high turnout. Urban Detroit and Southeast Michigan will vote Democratic anyway. The rest of the state is where the real battle rages against entrenched Republicans.