I wonder how many Athenians will be affected by this letter from the State Election Board:
"More than 300,000 Georgians have received inaccurate letters from the State Election Board telling them about acceptable forms of identification when they vote in the Nov. 7 elections. The one-page letter says the recipient is on a list of registered voters who might not have a driver's license or photo ID card. It requests those who do have licenses to contact the county elections and registrations office and let it know their IDs are valid. Driver's licenses aren't needed to vote, the letter continues, because voters can use five other photo IDs when voting.
"But the letter is wrong because a court ruling bars the state from enforcing the controversial voter ID law."
Presumably, these letters were mailed before the Voter ID Act was struck down (for the umpteenth time) by an "activist jerdge" in Fulton County.
Meanwhile, given our higher than average share of poor folks here in ACC, I can't help but wonder how many Athenians received this letter and are thinking they can't go to the polls in November.
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14 comments:
And _I_ wonder who asked the State Elections Board to send them out.
Maybe, just maybe...
If you aren't involved enough to know the issues regrding the voting process itself, maybe you aren't involved enough to actually choose a candidate?
I understand the right to vote is fundamental (sort of, you don't have the right to vote for President), but perhaps the uninformed voter is vorse than the non-voter.
The problem is not who is too poor to vote, or too feeble to vote, but who is self-selected as being too ignorant to vote.
The same people who organize the vans that ferry voters to the polls on Election Day should be able to organize an education effort. Though confusing, the issue is often in the paper and (I presume) on the TV news as well. It wouldn't hurt the various candidates who are campaigning to mention the state of the law as well. If you still don't get the message, it's better that you stay home...
they kept sending them out (at least 20,000 of them) AFTER the injunction was won against the photo id bill. i believe i read that in the ajc, but it could have been macon or augusta's papers that quoted David Worley (the lone democrat on the state board) as furious at their continued attempts to decieve and disenfranchise low income and elderly voters.
maddy
and one more thing... YOU don't get to decide who gets to vote, it's a right of each and every American, and nobody, not you, and not me, gets to give a literacy or cultural test to anyone who is a citizen of this country. folks like YOU are why we still need the Voting Rights Act... let me guess, you probably figure if someone can't afford to own and operate a motor vehicle they shouldn't vote, either, right? after all, rich white guys have done a great job of getting us into a war based on lies, running the economy into the hands of the oil companies, and keeping everyone who lives in poverty poor. way to go wealthy white guys!
sheesh.
maddy again.
maddy, are you talking to fishplate?
talking to whoever's reading, I guess.
maddy
Maddy,
Where did I say that I or you or anyone else wad the power to infringe on anyone's vote? Read it again, for comprehension: I understand the right to vote is fundamental... Where did I advocate literacy tests? Where did I even hint at cultural tests? Where did I say there was no need for the VRA?
You also lump me in with a bunch of white guys? Why?
I did allow the possibility that someone may be too uninformed to vote, but that does not prevent them from voting. It may prevent the governed from suffering under bad choices, most of the time. And you must remember, ignorance is curable.
And for the record, the economy has been in the hands of the oil companies since at least 1974. Remember those days?
Finally, I'll say that the injunction was not the end of the matter. The State deciding not to pursue appeals was the factor which put an end to the uncertainty.
Interviews for the ABH endorsement are this week. Any predictions?
Not Maddox, not Rusk. Obvs not DeRose. My guess is that Chasteen has a good shot at edging Heidi as far as ABH mayoral endorsement is concerned.
I think that's probably a good guess. I would have a hard time seeing Morris News Service pass up endorsing Bill Cowsert for a second time. EH is obviously the ABH's wet dream, a Republican they can endorse without losing too much face to the progressive community.
I don't know. The ABH has been giving Cowsert a hard time lately. Maybe they'll endorse Jane. EH will most likely get the nod. I'm not sure about the Mayor's race, I lean Chasteen.
EH made Peach Pundit again-http://www.peachpundit.com/2006/10/10/more-poor-signage-2/
and once again, Athens Politics goes silent.
Is there some place where it is conveniently arranged when these debates are?
Now that I know for sure what bus to ride home after 700 PM, I'm up for some evening downtown civic action.
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