- Nov 10, 2003
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Registrar culling onslaught of Democratic voter registrations
By Ana Radelat ? aradelat@gns.gannett.com ? June 18, 2008
Aggressive Democratic voter registration drive in Louisiana is troubling election officials who say a flood of new applications ? some apparently fraudulent ? have strained resources.
Ernie Roberson, registrar of Caddo Parish, said problems began May 28, when a representative of Voting is Power ? a group funded by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ? dropped a stack of registration cards on the front counter of his office.
Since then, he's received about 8,000 registrations from the group, which he says makes him suspicious.
"It's very hard to find that many unregistered voters in Caddo Parish," he said.
Nearly 700 of the applications came from felons. Roberson said he notified those applicants that they must present a Department of Corrections release letter to be eligible to vote.
He said he was left with 2,877 forms after removing the felons' applications and forms that were duplicates, incomplete or belonged to other parishes. When he tried to process the remaining forms, he said, 999 were kicked back because they contained an incorrect Social Security or driver's license number.
"When you get 34 percent of the applications back, the red flags go up," Roberson said.
Roberson said he asked Republican Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne for additional temporary staff to handle the flood of new voter registration applications.
DSCC spokesman Matthew Miller said problems with the voter registration drive were a normal result of efforts to register huge numbers of new voters.
"Our goal has been to register as many people as possible," Miller said. "It's our understanding some of the registrars have been overwhelmed, and we want to work with them to get everyone who is eligible registered."
Jacques Berry, Dardenne's spokesman, said Voting is Power's problems in Caddo and other parishes prompted a meeting with representatives of the group last week.
"We wanted to know their practices and let them know our concerns with incomplete and fraudulent forms," Berry said.
Brian Welsh, coordinator for Louisiana Victory, an umbrella organization for state and national Democrats, said canvassers are required by law to turn in all forms they collect, even if they suspect they're fraudulent.
"We have been and are continuing to work with the registrars in what is an unprecedented effort," he said.
Welsh said the Voting is Power campaign collected 74,000 voter registration forms in more than 30 parishes. He said efforts were concentrated in four parishes ? Caddo, East Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Jefferson ? with large populations of blacks, who usually register as Democrats.
Local Democrats also are trying to register new voters this year.
Bertha Jimison, 60, a staunch supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, said she's trying to coordinate with local churches and other groups in Shreveport to organize a voter registration festival called "You Can Vote Too."
She hopes the new voters will include felons who mistakenly think they permanently lost their right to vote when they were sentenced to jail.
Adding felons to the rolls "is a special campaign within itself," said a posting by Jimison on the Obama campaign Web site last week.
Jimison said that after talking to felons who thought they couldn't vote, she researched the issue and discovered Louisiana law allows felons to vote after they complete their sentences.
She wants all eligible voters to cast ballots this year.
"There seems to be a lot of people in this town who are not voting but should be," Jimison said.
http://shreveporttimes.com/app...01/806180407/1002/NEWS
Interesting. I believe if you can't show ID, you can't vote. Don't give me "ID is a burden" crap. You need ID to do almost everything, why not to vote?
By Ana Radelat ? aradelat@gns.gannett.com ? June 18, 2008
Aggressive Democratic voter registration drive in Louisiana is troubling election officials who say a flood of new applications ? some apparently fraudulent ? have strained resources.
Ernie Roberson, registrar of Caddo Parish, said problems began May 28, when a representative of Voting is Power ? a group funded by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ? dropped a stack of registration cards on the front counter of his office.
Since then, he's received about 8,000 registrations from the group, which he says makes him suspicious.
"It's very hard to find that many unregistered voters in Caddo Parish," he said.
Nearly 700 of the applications came from felons. Roberson said he notified those applicants that they must present a Department of Corrections release letter to be eligible to vote.
He said he was left with 2,877 forms after removing the felons' applications and forms that were duplicates, incomplete or belonged to other parishes. When he tried to process the remaining forms, he said, 999 were kicked back because they contained an incorrect Social Security or driver's license number.
"When you get 34 percent of the applications back, the red flags go up," Roberson said.
Roberson said he asked Republican Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne for additional temporary staff to handle the flood of new voter registration applications.
DSCC spokesman Matthew Miller said problems with the voter registration drive were a normal result of efforts to register huge numbers of new voters.
"Our goal has been to register as many people as possible," Miller said. "It's our understanding some of the registrars have been overwhelmed, and we want to work with them to get everyone who is eligible registered."
Jacques Berry, Dardenne's spokesman, said Voting is Power's problems in Caddo and other parishes prompted a meeting with representatives of the group last week.
"We wanted to know their practices and let them know our concerns with incomplete and fraudulent forms," Berry said.
Brian Welsh, coordinator for Louisiana Victory, an umbrella organization for state and national Democrats, said canvassers are required by law to turn in all forms they collect, even if they suspect they're fraudulent.
"We have been and are continuing to work with the registrars in what is an unprecedented effort," he said.
Welsh said the Voting is Power campaign collected 74,000 voter registration forms in more than 30 parishes. He said efforts were concentrated in four parishes ? Caddo, East Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Jefferson ? with large populations of blacks, who usually register as Democrats.
Local Democrats also are trying to register new voters this year.
Bertha Jimison, 60, a staunch supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, said she's trying to coordinate with local churches and other groups in Shreveport to organize a voter registration festival called "You Can Vote Too."
She hopes the new voters will include felons who mistakenly think they permanently lost their right to vote when they were sentenced to jail.
Adding felons to the rolls "is a special campaign within itself," said a posting by Jimison on the Obama campaign Web site last week.
Jimison said that after talking to felons who thought they couldn't vote, she researched the issue and discovered Louisiana law allows felons to vote after they complete their sentences.
She wants all eligible voters to cast ballots this year.
"There seems to be a lot of people in this town who are not voting but should be," Jimison said.
http://shreveporttimes.com/app...01/806180407/1002/NEWS
Interesting. I believe if you can't show ID, you can't vote. Don't give me "ID is a burden" crap. You need ID to do almost everything, why not to vote?
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