Election Day 2014 Problems: Latinos 'Discouraged' From Voting in Kentucky While 40,000 Voter Forms Missing in Georgia
Election Day in the U.S. was not over without technical and human error as national organizations noted and criticized the problems registered voters encountered for the midterm elections.
The Election Protection Coalition, a nonpartisan voting rights network, held a press briefing detailing issues reported by registered voters across the U.S. The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Executive Director Arturo Vargas noted 14,000 calls were made to his network from Arizona, California, Florida, New York and Texas. Most of the calls were people seeking to find their voting location or if they were even registered.
Vargas said there are some calls they "have been monitoring" following calls about voters who should be listed on the voter registration list. Reports of inconsistent information about voting locations and language assistance issues, including in jurisdictions where it's mandated to provide an interpreter, occurred.
The NALEO executive director said the "most concerning" cases have come from Latinos in Kentucky, home of the competitive U.S. Senate election between Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell and Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes. Vargas said Latinos have called about being discouraged to vote, lack of voting information and "treated rudely" by election officials. Vargas noted Latinos are an emerging electorate and they will monitor the situation in Kentucky very closely.
In Georgia, reported of thousands of missing voters' names caused concern with the voting rights coalition. According to Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law's Barbara Arnwine, the names of 40,000 registered voters were missing and misinformation about voting locations occurred. Arnwine also said the Georgia Secretary of State's website and county phone lines have been overwhelmed.
In a statement Latin Post received from ColorOfChange Executive Director Rashad Robinson, Election Day should be a day when voting is "fair, free and easy," but problems in Georgia have troubled the process.
"Unfortunately, even amidst the controversy surrounding his mishandling of over 40,000 missing voter registrations forms, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp's office has mismanaged another key aspect of the process -- locating your polling place," said Robinson. "With so many hotly contested races on the line, it's disappointing and dismaying to see that eligible Georgia voters are waking up to find one more roadblock on their path to full democratic participation today."
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights President and CEO Wade Henderson, during the briefing, noted this year's midterm election is the first major election since the U.S. Supreme Court "gut critical pieces" of the Voting Rights Act, which helped counter voting discrimination for the last 50 years.
Election Day this year is also the first election in Texas with the photo identification law in effect. Brennan Center for Justice's Nicole Austin-Hillery acknowledged voter ID issues in Texas were reported, citing individuals with a military ID were provided contradicting and confusing information whether their ID was one of the seven valid forms of identification to vote in the state.
Despite the problems, an official of the Election Protection Coalition said there have been sightings of higher voter turnout in some locations with people "tremendously interested" in voting. A distinguished case was in Colorado with many people taking advantage of the same-day registration.
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