Maryland Democrats Say GOP Plans to Block Voters

[Jcrowley]

Md. Democrats Say GOP Plans to Block Voters

By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 2, 2006; B06

A recently distributed guide for Republican poll watchers in Maryland spells out how to aggressively challenge the credentials of voters and urges these volunteers to tell election judges they could face jail time if a challenge is ignored.

Democrats said yesterday they consider the handbook, obtained by The Washington Post, evidence of a Republican effort to block people from voting Tuesday.

"The tenor of the material is that they are asking folks, if not directing them, to challenge voters," said Bruce L. Marcus, an attorney for the state Democratic Party. "It's really tantamount to a suppression effort."

Advocacy groups including the National Campaign for Fair Elections, Common Cause and the NAACP, as well as a George Washington University professor who is an expert on voter suppression, agreed with that assessment.

http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2F2006%2F11%2F01%2FAR2006110103202_pf.html

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Wasn't there a similar story yesterday?

. . . only substituting Maryland for Ohio?

[DUgosh]

2. In Travis county Texas

[elehhhhna]

3. Poll watchers cannot challenge voters, and the Travis co story is

a bit different. There, the Elections Judges & Poll WORKERS are being trained by the Reep Party to misinform & disenfranchise voters by having them them cast provisional ballots whenever possible on Tuesday.

You see, early voting only takes place at a handful of locations. People have heard where these locations are, so if they mistakenly go to an early polling place Tuesday, rather than t heri precint's Tuesday location, they SHOULD by LAW be told where their proper precinct is. The Reep training tells the election officials to deny voters this info and offer them provisional ballots instead. Prov. ballots cast outside your precinct on 11/7 do not count. They are, essentially, thrown away.

[warrens]

4. Might want to consider bringing a Louisville Slugger with you

You lose your vote, they lose a poll watcher.