Author Archives: ELECTIONLAWCENTER.COM

Hawaii Election Day “Chaos”



Primary Election Day “chaos” on the Big Island, with as many as 25 of 40 polling places opening late, the County Clerk ducking reporters, and election staffers taking sick leave from the “dysfunctional” office.  State elections officials are investigating.


 


Hawaii Reporter reports:


 


Andy Smith, a Republican who helped coordinate poll watchers in virtually all of the Big Island polling locations, said the volunteer workers were “wonderful” and the problems, which ranged from no paper ballots or blue privacy shields on site, to no electronic voting machines, were not their fault.


 


He said poll workers were not trained properly, and in some cases, told voters to leave polling places if they could not find their name in the voting rolls… In addition, poll workers and watchers who had already voted by absentee noticed their names did not have an “AB” listed next to them as they should have to prevent absentee voters from voting twice – once by mail and once in the polls.



Problems in the Hawaii County Elections Division were apparent in July, prompting a letter from the state’s Chief Election Officer calling the County Clerk’s actions “unacceptable”.


Exclusive Breaking: 1,100 Florida Voters Disenfranchised Today

Election Law Center has learned that 1,100 Florida voters will not be able to participate in today’s state primary because of snafus by the government.  300 absentee voters in Martin County (FL) and 800 in Indian River County (FL) did not receive their requested absentee ballots in time to participate in today’s important primary election because the United States Post Office treated the bulk absentee ballot mailings as third class mail.  The ballots were deposited by Martin and Indian River County election officials with the United States Post Office nearly three weeks ago, but the USPS office in Jacksonville treated the absentee ballot mailings as third class mail. 

Some of the voters just today received their absentee ballots by mail, and today is the day of the election.  According to attorneys knowledgeable with Florida election law, these ballots may not be faxed, emailed or otherwise returned electronically.  That means 1,100 voters who sought to participate in the election will not be allowed to participate.

Who is running?  There are primaries for United States Senate, Alan West vs. Robert Crowder, State House, County Commissioner, Sheriff, School Supervisors, and other Congressional offices.  Examine a sample ballot here.

Injustice: New York Times Bestseller

My book about civil rights, voting and the Justice Department, Injustice came out last October and stayed in the top 100 at Amazon and Barnes and Noble for a couple of weeks.  What I did not know, until today, is that it also made the New York Times Bestseller list for the week of October 28, 2011.  How this escaped me I have no idea.  Belated news can be as good as timely news.  Of course there are still copies to be had at Amazon or at the link over there on the left hand side of the page.

“Canvassing postponed after clerk, commission disagree on procedures”

 Kansas.  “The official certification of last week’s primary election will have to wait until Thursday after disagreements between the Cherokee County Commission and Cherokee County Clerk Crystal Gatewood over how the vote should be certified reached an impasse Monday.

Commission Chairman Richard Hilderbrand had asked for numbers showing how many people had voted to be correlated with how many ballots were counted.”