Post by flanz on Mar 26, 2016 6:27:26 GMT
PHOENIX — Cynthia Perez,
a lawyer, stopped by a polling
site on her way to work here on
Tuesday, thinking she could vote
early and get on with her day. She
changed her mind when she found
a line so long she could not see the
end of it.
The line was just as big when
she came back in the middle of
the afternoon — and bigger three
hours later, after she had finally
cast her ballot.
“To me,” said Perez, 31, “this is
not what democracy is about.”
Two days later, angry and baffled
voters are still trying to make
sense of how democracy is working
in Maricopa County, the state’s
most populous, where officials cut
the number of polling places by
70 percent to save money — to 60
from 200 in the last presidential
election. That translated to a single
polling place for every 108,000
residents in Phoenix, a majority-minority
city that had exceptional
turnout in Tuesday’s Democratic
and Republican primaries.
All day, lines meandered along
church courtyards, zigzagged
along school parking lots and
snaked around shadeless blocks
as tens of thousands of voters
waited to cast their ballots, including
many independents who
did not know that only those registered
to a party could participate
in the state’s closed presidential
primaries.
But beyond the electoral breakdown
here, many observers saw
Arizona as a flashing neon sign
pointing toward potential problems
ahead nationally at a time
16 states will have new voting
restrictions in place for the first
time in a presidential election. The
presidential election will be the
first since the Supreme Court’s
dismantling of a crucial section
of the Voting Rights Act in 2013
freeing nine states, including Arizona,
and parts of seven others, to
change their election laws without
advance federal approval.
Wisconsin, which holds its primary
elections April 5, is one of
nine states with strict photo ID
requirements. Thirty-three have
some form of voter ID. Kansas has
enacted proof-of-citizenship requirements
for all voter registration,
a move that has disproportionately
affected young voters
and those attempting to register
for the first time. North Carolina
allows a registered voter to challenge
the identity and eligibility
of any voter casting a ballot in the
same county.
On March 9, Gov. Doug Ducey,
a Republican, signed a law that
made it a felony to collect ballots
for others in Arizona and bring
them to the polls.
On Tuesday, calls poured into
the office of Arizona’s attorney
general, Mark Brnovich, a Republican,
well into the night, as people
heard poll workers tell them to go
home, “the election has already
been decided,” said a spokesman,
Ryan Anderson. Mayor Greg
Stanton of Phoenix wrote to Attorney
General Loretta Lynch, demanding
an investigation. (NYT)
a lawyer, stopped by a polling
site on her way to work here on
Tuesday, thinking she could vote
early and get on with her day. She
changed her mind when she found
a line so long she could not see the
end of it.
The line was just as big when
she came back in the middle of
the afternoon — and bigger three
hours later, after she had finally
cast her ballot.
“To me,” said Perez, 31, “this is
not what democracy is about.”
Two days later, angry and baffled
voters are still trying to make
sense of how democracy is working
in Maricopa County, the state’s
most populous, where officials cut
the number of polling places by
70 percent to save money — to 60
from 200 in the last presidential
election. That translated to a single
polling place for every 108,000
residents in Phoenix, a majority-minority
city that had exceptional
turnout in Tuesday’s Democratic
and Republican primaries.
All day, lines meandered along
church courtyards, zigzagged
along school parking lots and
snaked around shadeless blocks
as tens of thousands of voters
waited to cast their ballots, including
many independents who
did not know that only those registered
to a party could participate
in the state’s closed presidential
primaries.
But beyond the electoral breakdown
here, many observers saw
Arizona as a flashing neon sign
pointing toward potential problems
ahead nationally at a time
16 states will have new voting
restrictions in place for the first
time in a presidential election. The
presidential election will be the
first since the Supreme Court’s
dismantling of a crucial section
of the Voting Rights Act in 2013
freeing nine states, including Arizona,
and parts of seven others, to
change their election laws without
advance federal approval.
Wisconsin, which holds its primary
elections April 5, is one of
nine states with strict photo ID
requirements. Thirty-three have
some form of voter ID. Kansas has
enacted proof-of-citizenship requirements
for all voter registration,
a move that has disproportionately
affected young voters
and those attempting to register
for the first time. North Carolina
allows a registered voter to challenge
the identity and eligibility
of any voter casting a ballot in the
same county.
On March 9, Gov. Doug Ducey,
a Republican, signed a law that
made it a felony to collect ballots
for others in Arizona and bring
them to the polls.
On Tuesday, calls poured into
the office of Arizona’s attorney
general, Mark Brnovich, a Republican,
well into the night, as people
heard poll workers tell them to go
home, “the election has already
been decided,” said a spokesman,
Ryan Anderson. Mayor Greg
Stanton of Phoenix wrote to Attorney
General Loretta Lynch, demanding
an investigation. (NYT)
