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Monday, October 11, 2004

Citizens Monitoring Voting in South

Via Dr. Jinx Broussard:

With the presidential election less than a month away, voting rights activists in New Orleans, Miami and other Southern cities are gearing up to make sure that the polling is free and fair. Representatives of community-based, labor, faith- based and youth/student organizations gathered in New Orleans on October 1 and in Miami on October 2 to learn the process of election monitoring and how to train others as poll monitors. The day-long sessions were sponsored by Count Every Vote 2004 (CEV2004), an Atlanta-based nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to protecting the voting rights of underrepresented, marginalized populations.

"Our goal is to train 800 monitors in nine Southern states who will, in turn, teach other volunteers how to oversee the national elections impartially," said Dr. Keith Jennings, CEV2004 training director and president of the African American Human Rights Foundation. "We expect that 9,000 election monitors will be in the field on November 2."

During the first half of October, CEV2004 is conducting eleven election monitoring trainings in cooperation with civil, human and labor rights organizations in Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina. The Miami and New Orleans trainings were attended by volunteers and staff members of Voices for Working Families, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 527 voter education, registration and mobilization group.

The training in New Orleans came on the heels of voting irregularities in the September 18, 2004 local elections. Hundreds of voters in Orleans Parish were prevented from voting or were delayed when nearly 300 voting machines were not delivered on time to 52 polling places.

"I didn't realize that citizens had the right to monitor elections," said Gilda Burbank, one of 17 participants in the New Orleans training. "This coming election, it's imperative that African Americans as a people get out and vote."

CEV2004's trainings equip volunteers with the skills to observe, document and report on the election process. According to Dr. Jennings, an observer of international elections in 65 countries, the presence of election observers can deter irregularities and voter intimidation; reveal problems where they do exist; encourage voter participation and engagement; and restore public confidence in the legitimacy of the political process.

The training addressed several potential election violations, including voter intimidation, irregularities by election officials, improper functioning of the voting machines, the late opening or closing of the polls, the denial of the right to vote, and other problems.

Felicia Ricks, assistant state director of Voices for Working Families in Florida called the training "very informative." Referring to the checklist of election violations reviewed by Dr. Keith, she said the training equipped the seventy-five canvassers from her organization with the knowledge of "exactly what they're looking for." Voices has registered over 35,000 new voters in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, according to Ricks.

One of the Voices canvassers, 21-year-old Patrick Lindor, said, "The training taught me how to stand up for what I believe in and it makes our job easier."

In a recent guest editorial in the Washington Post, former president and veteran elections monitor Jimmy Carter said the international requirements for a free and fair election in Florida do not exist. He particularly pointed out that two elements are not in place in Florida-nonpartisan electoral officials and uniformity in voting procedures.

"Hundreds, perhaps thousands of African American voters were disenfranchised in the 2000 Florida election debacle and in the recent problems in New Orleans," Dr. Jennings commented. "The 2004 presidential election is as hotly contested as the 2000 election. We want to make sure that every vote counts."
Source: Count Every Vote Newsletter, Oct 5 Edition

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