Common Cause Blog

Rock the Vote: Young Voters Hit Record Turnout in States Across the Country

Rock the Vote reports that despite several tactics employed by various groups to suppress youth voter turnout, young people came out and were heard in record numbers.

Despite these turnout increases, attempts to keep more young Americans from voting are widespread today. "Our voting process continues to be marred by bureaucratic ineptitude, premeditated shenanigans and outright attempts to disenfranchise young voters. These new voters will impact the election and, despite the attacks, are fighting back," said Heather Smith, Executive Director, Rock the Vote.

Voting rights violations are nothing new in our country - sadly, we have long history of targeting groups of people based on their race, socioeconomic status, or gender in attempts to keep them from registering and voting. In the 1960s, defenders of the status quo used police dogs and bloodshed; today, they use lies and threats, distributed online and through text messaging.

"If you ever needed proof that young people are making their mark on politics, just look at the new techniques of suppressing their vote through inaccurate text messages and Facebook status updates directing young people to vote on November 5. While, these tactics may appear less crude, the aim is just as criminal and sinister," said Heather Smith, Executive Director, Rock the Vote.

Taking voter calls in California

It may not be glamorous, but there's something exciting about pictures like this -- what just one of the many Election Protection command centers look like around the country, with trained volunteers and legal professionals taking calls and logging it into our database for any follow up.

This is from LA, where polls remain open and calls continue to pour in. You can view the breakdown of calls we've been getting all day at the OurVoteLive site.

Student Voting Report #6 - Student Denied Provisional Ballots at Penn State

At 6:30pm, I received some disturbing news from Amy Zeller, DM coordinator at Penn State. A Penn State student went to vote, her name was not listed in the voting rolls, and the poll workers refused to give her a provisional ballot. They claimed, "they were not giving out at provisional ballots." This, of course, is completely illegal. Every single person has the right to cast a provisional ballot as a last resort.

The student found Amy and told her what happened and the two of them marched back over the polling place and confronted the poll worker, demanding that they give the student a provisional ballot. The polls worker claimed that the local election office has instructed them to not hand out any provisional ballots. Amy and the student called the 1.866.OUR.VOTE hot line and got in touch with an election lawyer who then called the local election office. An election lawyer for the Obama campaign also got involved and argued on the student's behalf, demanding she be allowed to cast a provisional ballot.

Colorado Update #2

One thing to watch in Colorado...

Overuse of provisional ballots.

According to Election Protection Officials, including Common Cause Colorado, many counties are immediately driving voters to use provisional ballots at any sign of a discrepancy. Protocol is for poll workers and election officials to call their County Clerks to double check the database.

There has been reports of voter intimation early on in Weld County, were police officer were checking IDs and camped out in primarily Latino Voter Precincts. Also at Colorado College.

Colorado Independent has been keeping good track of problems in Colorado.

Indiana update #2: challenges, intimidation in Gary and Indianapolis

After a day that featured few voter challenges at the polls -- a welcome break from 2004 -- we've just heard about intimidation in Lake County, home to Gary, Indiana, from one of our staff who is on the ground as a poll monitor.

Voters in Gary showed up with valid registration cards but were inexplicably left off the voting rolls. At first they were turned away. Then, when the county elections office decided to start letting people vote but to track them in a log to confirm their voting eligibility, two Republican attorneys who had been at multiple polling sites over the course of the day began challenging every one of these voters.

Pennsylvania Afternoon Wrap-Up

It is difficult to make general statements about whether or not Pennsylvania experienced serious systemic problems today. Days and weeks will be needed to do that sort of analysis and at this moment there are still a few hours to go at the polls. What is clear is that many of the problems in Pennsylvania, long lines, too few machines, too few well trained poll workers were predictable and could have been avoided. How long should voters be expected to stand in line? Certainly an hour is reasonable but some voters waited as long as three hours in State College, Philadelphia and in Allegheny County. At what point does a voter give up, forfeiting their right to vote for personal considerations--essentially being disenfranchised because of the government's inability to collect votes in a reasonably swift and accurate way?

Clearly, the system needs more resources, voters need more time to vote via early voting and an Election Day holiday, poll workers need training, and machines need to be accessible and trustworthy. When we address these issues in the future, and we must, most of us will just be curious about the results come Election Day, we won't have to wonder if the election was clean or if people were wrongly shut out of the process.

Summary of top problems Election Day Afternoon

Ohio update #4: more on provisional ballots

Most voters at most polling places in Ohio today have voted without trouble, save for generally long lines. But the primary cause for concern in Ohio today has been provisional ballots, which has affected thousands of voters. We picked up on this problem this morning.

The state board of elections and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner have been responsive, according to the Election Protection teams in Ohio. Now the Assistant Secretary of State has, in fact, been dispatched to deal with the provisional ballot issue and is coordinating with all of their regional liaisons to work directly with local Boards of Election. Two major problems have arisen: