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NEWS & LETTERS, September-October 2010
Disenfranchisement in Memphis, again
Editor's note: In the Aug. 5 Shelby County, TN, election, the list of early voters from a previous election was loaded into the computer. Many voters were turned away because they were listed as already having voted. The commission consistently downplayed the problem. A consultant brought in to investigate said on Aug. 13, "the seals [on hundreds of the voting machines] have been removed or are not applied or have been taped back together with masking tape. They were making alterations at 4:13 yesterday afternoon to the central tabulation file that was supposed to not be touched by court order." On Aug. 19 the election commission certified the election, despite an ongoing criminal investigation. Memphis--It's disenfranchisement of voters from all over the city. They don't know if wrong information was put in the computers on purpose. People were told they had voted in early voting and couldn't vote. The Election Commission said that 5,300 people could have been affected, though they claimed that probably no more than 500 were. But how would anybody know the number when they were turning people away? They just sent them away. They say it's not enough votes to affect the outcome, but we need a revote.
They gave some people paper provisional ballots that didn't list all the candidates. A lot of people weren't offered provisional ballots. They sat for hours and didn't get to vote. They weren't told they could vote.
I am working on getting some neighborhood and other groups to join me to get affidavits. At a meeting Aug. 10, 400 people came to the Electrical Workers Union hall. Randy Wade and other candidates asked for affidavits about what people witnessed. We heard testimony that, at one point, one supervisor at a precinct had all votes deleted from the machines.
The Justice Department has been asked to investigate, but if there's no outcry from the community they won't do anything. We need poll observers in Memphis like the observers that go to other countries. This is not the first time this has happened. It's just the first time it's widespread. So now they're talking about a full investigation. I hope they can go back to look at other elections. With machines, people don't have a record of how they voted. Anything can be done to manipulate the votes. These kinds of things have been happening all along, so it's good it finally came to light.
--Doris Bradshaw
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