October, 24 2008, 03:57pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020;
or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
* Lawsuit in Response to Long Lines * Black Turnout
JOHN BONIFAZ
A coalition of Pennsylvania voters and civil rights groups, led by the
NAACP State Conference of Pennsylvania, yesterday filed a lawsuit in
federal court in Philadelphia seeking to ensure that voters receive
emergency paper ballots on Election Day when 50 percent or more voting
machines become inoperable at any polling site in the state.
WASHINGTON
JOHN BONIFAZ
A coalition of Pennsylvania voters and civil rights groups, led by the
NAACP State Conference of Pennsylvania, yesterday filed a lawsuit in
federal court in Philadelphia seeking to ensure that voters receive
emergency paper ballots on Election Day when 50 percent or more voting
machines become inoperable at any polling site in the state.
Bonifaz is the legal director for Voter Action
and co-counsel for the plaintiffs. He said today: "Voters should not be
forced to wait hours in line in order to exercise their fundamental
right to vote. While the use of electronic voting machines continues to
pose a separate threat to the integrity of the vote-counting process,
federal court intervention is necessary to ensure that voters will not
be disenfranchised by long lines on Election Day when these machines
become inoperable."
KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY
Gray is the author of the forthcoming book Waiting for Lightning to Strike: The Fundamentals of Black Politics.
He said today: "ACORN is McCain's 'Willie Horton' of sorts. The aim of
the attack is to suppress the vote by raising questions on the
'legitimacy' or 'legality' of some of those potential Obama voters
registered by the non-profit group. And just maybe some of those
registered by ACORN will be intimidated into not coming to the polls
for fear their registration will be challenged."
Gray added: "This Election Day, voters should prepare themselves for
standing in a line for an hour or more and be prepared to be told they
can't vote because their name was removed from the voting roll. Voter
purging has long been a weapon used to blunt black voter turnout.
Election officials regularly remove voters' names from the rolls as
they update and improve their lists. According to The Brennan Center,
between 2004 and 2006, 39 states and the District of Columbia purged
some 13 million voters while cleaning up the rolls."
More Information
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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