WaPo: Groups Step Up Efforts to Avert Voting Mishaps

[babylonsister]

Groups Step Up Efforts to Avert Voting Mishaps

By Krissah Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 9, 2008; Page A04


On her way to vote in Georgia's Feb. 5 Democratic primary, the usual music and celebrity gossip on Carcola Tippit's favorite radio show was set aside in favor of host Tom Joyner's repeated calls for listeners to report voting problems.

"Report any trickery! Call 1-866-MYVOTE1," implored Joyner, whose show is heard by 8 million listeners nationwide. "Let us know what's happening out there."

After waiting more than an hour in line, Tippit, 46, tapped the number into her cellphone. "This is crazy," she recalled telling the hotline's answering service. "Everybody was complaining. . . . People had to get out of line to go to work. It was a disaster."

Joyner's call-in line is at the center of an expansive effort -- run largely by African Americans independent of political parties and election officials -- to make sure every vote is counted in this year's elections. The NAACP National Voter Fund and the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation are also tracking voter complaints, and more than 1,000 lawyers have volunteered to staff polling places and call centers to guard against voter suppression.

So far, nearly 70,000 voters have reported problems, including extraordinarily long waits, a shortage of ballots, difficulties finding polling locations and being dropped from registration rolls.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/08/AR2008040802973.html

[eppur_se_muova]

1. "MISHAPS"? What a *quaint* choice of word.

Maybe their spellchecker wouldn't accept MIHOPs ...

[Kurovski]

2. *

:rofl: