samtheeagle

Indianapolis Public School 69

Voter suppression takes many forms, mostly hidden. It's easy, often too easy, to level false charges of racism based on mere disparate impact or even hunch however heartfelt. When poll watchers appointed by Clinton's local team scrutinize the ID of every African American voter but no Anglo or Hispanic voter, plainly racism is at work. I blogged previously about these yokels, who since were ejected on charges of fraudulently obtaining poll-watcher certificates. Lacking evidence that the Clinton campaign itself committed or condoned the fraud or targeting African American voters for challenge, I cannot say that the Clinton campaign itself responsible.

The evidence, however, is that the State of Indiana and Marion County (Indianapolis) are directly responsible for voter suppression in numerous ways that raise troubling questions about the fairness of election procedures for minorities that are disparately affected by bizarre and seemingly pointless election procedures. While the County suddenly and significantly reduced the number of polling places in the name of efficiency, dozens of polling places in predominantly poor African-American neighborhoods were bifurcated without advance notice to voters. As such, fully 50% of voters in these precincts come to the wrong place to vote, poll workers have no information about where they should be voting, the County's phone line is jammed, there's no authority anywhere and voters left dejected until I was able to access a central voter database with my laptop computer and satellite card. But for my presence, 50% of voters in this precinct would not be able to vote at all, and I'm very sure hundreds of similar polling places here lack uppity people like me with computers able to guide voters where election officials and other government offices can't or won't.

As bad as the lack of information is the simple fact that 50% of these voters -- but not voters in more affluent or rural precincts -- must travel elsewhere to vote. This burden may seem minor, but numerous voters squeezed for time (whether owing to work schedules or parental duties) have stomped off in disgust, their votes discouraged.

Altogether absurd is the quirky provision of Indiana law that bans people from voting if they moved across a congressional district or county boundary without re-registering. This law works against Democrats disproportionately because the Indiana State Legislature drew congressional districts so that each of the state's Republican counties falls within a single congressional district (so voters moving within the county run no risk of disenfranchisement) while each of the state's Democratic counties is gerrymandered to be divided between multiple congressional districts (thus exposing Democrats disproportionately to this vote-suppression risk). I have lost count of the number of voters here at a single Indianapolis precinct who cannot vote at all because they unwittingly crossed a congressional district boundary when they moved from one apartment to another in the same area. It's almost impossible to avoid the conclusion that animus motivates this vote-restriction law, especially because the state allows residents in some counties (none of them urban or Democratic) to vote literally anywhere in the county, without regard to precinct. What legitimate justification could there be for voters in some counties to have a right to vote anywhere in the county but voters in other counties to risk having no right to vote at all?

Add that Marion County and the City of Indianapolis seemingly made no effort to educate their poll workers or provide meaningful and timely guidance to them, and there is more than a little bit of frustration here on the ground in Indianapolis.