Voter Intimidation May Plague Election Day 2007

Tough new voter identification laws, fervent anti-immigrant rhetoric, officials who won't follow federal election law, challenges to college student voter registrations, electronic voting machine failures -- these are problems that voting rights groups and Democrats will be monitoring as a handful of states vote on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

"No election is ever run perfectly," said David Becker, People for the American Way's Democracy Campaign director, which is staffing a national hotline, 1-866-OUR-VOTE, that will be active on Tuesday to help voters if they run into problems at their polls. "Even if elections are run responsibly, things happen. ... We have to be vigilant."

As always in odd-numbered years, there are a handful of state and local races around the country. While not as high-profile as races for Congress or president, these contests can experience numerous voter suppression tactics and deceptive election practices. Some political observers say obstacles that will surface today may be a precursor for 2008.

"It's high time that everybody understood that good election practices is good policy," said Jack Young, Virginia Democratic Lawyers Council co-chair, who is organizing his party's election monitoring in that state as it elects a new legislature. "The Democratic Party's effort is 'Promote the vote.' This is part of the same effort to get Democratic voters to the polls, see that they vote and that their votes are counted."

"This stuff of Republicans trying to jam phone lines, or telling people to vote on Wednesday, is un-American," he said, referring to tactics used by the GOP partisans in New Hampshire in 2002 and in Ohio in 2004. "Chris LaCivita, who did the Swift Boats against Kerry, and New Hampshire, is in Virginia. We will be watching him."

Voting rights activists and attorneys say they will be monitoring possible problems in more than a half-dozen states. Some, such as the impact of new voter ID laws, have the potential to affect hundreds of thousands of people. Others, such as forcing college students to prove their voter registration information is correct, may affect hundreds.

Among the states and possible problems being monitored are:

Georgia: the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported that more than 160,000 voters could cast ballots that later will be disqualified because those voters lack one of several forms of required photo ID. These voters tend to be the youngest and oldest voters, who often don't have driver's licenses, or low-income voters who don't own cars. The paper reported that half of these 160,000 voters are in the Atlanta region, while the rest reside in southwestern rural counties. Under the state's tough voter ID law, these voters would get a provisional ballot on Tuesday but would have to return to their county election office and present additional identification for their vote to be counted.

Georgia: More than 900 college students at Georgia Southern University, in Bulloch County, may see their voter registrations challenged by "a new citizens group formed to challenge newly registered students," according to PFAW's Becker. "They are targeting people who are least capable of providing the kinds of documents they will need," he said. "Students will have to prove they are eligible, instead of those people who are challenging them prove they [the students] are not eligible."

Michigan: The Detroit Free Press has reported that state officials estimate 340,000 of the state's 7.2 million voters don't have a state photo ID or driver's license, which will complicate their efforts to vote. Unlike Georgia, however, Michigan residents can sign an affidavit swearing they are the person on the voter roll and receive a ballot. The Detroit branch of the NAACP has called the new law, which goes into effect for the first time Tuesday, "another version of a poll tax" that seeks to intimidate and deter voters.