Voter Intimidation Alleged by Arizona Sheriff Arpaio
Civil rights groups are concerned about voter intimidation in Arizona, according to an article written by Amy McMullen in a special to the Tuscon Daily News. According to McMullen, the very person responsible for security of the polls and the ballots is the man behind a racist voter suppression effort, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Ban Amnesty Logo
McMullen claims Arpaio sent out an email asking for “voter fraud prevention volunteers” to guard the polls against voting by undocumented workers. The email came from the website Ban Amnesty Now. It asked for volunteers to sit voter registration sites nation-wide to prevent “illegals from voting".
The Arpaio email stated in part:
"Our grassroots army of VOTER FRAUD PREVENTION VOLUNTEERS will stand vigilant across the nation. We will be the first and strongest line of defense to ensure that only legal citizens vote on November 2nd, but to do this, we need your help today!"
The email was signed “SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO Hon. Co-Chairman, BANAMNESTYNOW.COM"
As part of the motivation for seeking the voter fraud prevention volunteers, Arpaio claims:
"In one Arizona congressional district, more than 65% of the 3,000+ new voters registrations submitted by Mi Familia Vota and One Arizona were found to be invalid – many of them to non-citizens."
The allegation is false and misleading, according to McMullen. The district Arpaio is referring to is in Yuma, Arizona. As it turns out, some people registered to vote some time ago, in some cases, year ago, and then registered to vote again. This is a common practice when a voter is not sure if his registration is still active or when he changes addresses.
The dual registration does not allow a person to vote twice, nor is it a registration by an "illegal alien". An undocumented person would not have been allowed to vote in the first place. The second registration simply updates the first registration. The portrayal of these duplicate, hence invalid registrations, as an attempt at voter fraud, is a false statement of the facts. It appears to be an effort to manipulate voters against certain candidates, namely those who are pro-immigration reform.
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati