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- Ring around the rosey, pockets full of.....
- Ring around the rosey, pockets full of.....
Are the City Commissioners Going to Disenfranchise My Brother?
Submitted by Dan U-A on Sat, 11/01/2008 - 5:44pm.
My little brother Louie is 21-years old, registered to vote in Philly, and away at college in the Midwest. He has voted before, and like all good U-A’s is excited to vote in Tuesday’s election. Since he is away at college, he requested an absentee ballot. Yet, as of this post, Louie has not received his absentee ballot.
My ex-boss’ son is 18 years old. This will be the very first election he is eligible to vote in. (Good timing!) He registered in Philly and requested an absentee ballot. He too is away at college in the Midwest. As of this post, not only has he not received a ballot, he has not received a notice that he is formally registered.
Two children of my parent’s friend are eligible voters, registered to vote in Powelton. They requested absentee ballots, as well. As of today, they have not received their absentee ballots.
Those are stories that were not sought out- but that were told to my dad in a span of about one day. It leads me to believe that something is up at the City Commissioners Office, where the influx of new registrations may have overwhelmed them to the point of sending out absentee ballots very late, if at all.
And if those four voters do not get their ballots on time, what is the solution? Unless they happen to be in Philly, apparently nothing. They will just have been disenfranchised. (If they are in Philly, they can show up to the polls and just vote anyway.)
There has to be a solution to this. In the 2004 primary, Ed Rendell kept open the collection of absentee ballots for military and overseas voters for weeks, because two counties had failed to get absentee ballots out to them on time. It seems like we are in need of something similar here.
Hopefully, the worry of these kids will subside, when with Monday's mail, their absentee ballots all happen to arrive. But if not, my little brother and others are going to be disenfranchised by the Philadelphia City Commissioners. Amazing.
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Maybe Worse
Actually, according to their site, the ballots are supposed to be in by Tuesday, not postmarked. This just gets better.
The mind boggles
Why on earth would a (presumably Democratic) City Commissioners' office seek to disenfranchise (presumably Democratic) absentee ballot voters?
-Z
Disenfranchisement need not be done with malicious intent.
The more likely cause is an office slammed with more paperwork than they can handle. The Philadelphia post offices could also be a failure point.
Does anyone know anyone who has received an absentee ballot (which probably should have gone into the mail today at the absolute latest)? Only person I know is a Swiss resident registered for U.S. voting purposes in SE Mass, she received and completed her ballot weeks ago, though did lament the fact that absentee voters don't really get the full luxury of observing the entire election cycle's discourse up to election day (regardless of the fact that this year's elections are pretty cut and dry for her, the other national race MA has is Kerry vs. a literal suicide commando put up by the Republicans).
Students Don't Usually Need Absentee Ballots
In most states, students are eligible to register to vote where they go to school. This eliminates the need to do any absentee ballot acrobatics.
Too late to help in this situation, but good for students to know.
Sure, but that is only if
Sure, but that is only if they want to vote where they go to school. These are kids who made the decision to vote in their hometown, and as of now, they have had their vote taken away by the City Commissioners.
Who are the Commissioners?...
Are they elected?
Have spoken to several voters who received absentee ballots
while canvassing for The Man.
2 things I'd keep in mind while considering this matter:
1. Record voter participation means more work at the City Commissioners Office than it has ever had before.
Consider your own work; then imagine there being more to do than ever before. Are mistakes likely? I'd imagine there would be.
2. However, it IS the job of the City Commissioners to deal with just this kind of problem. If they can't, they should be replaced.
I REALLY don't like to toss around false accusations, so I'm gonna speculate that the above cases are probably failures to meet deadlines, rather than something more pernicious or intentional
I don't think it is
I don't think it is intentional or pernicious in any way. However, their failure to do their job means that, as of today, they have disenfranchised people.
Edited to add: It is good to hear people here have gotten their ballots. But unless something changes, the deadline for these out of staters is to get their ballots in by Tuesday at 5pm. Considering they haven't even gotten them yet, something has to give.
Are you laying the blame on the Commissioners solely?
Or does this speak to a broader systemic failing of PA's election system. It doesn't surprise me that the Commissioners didn't have the resources to do their job. Given the staff and buget of their office it could well have been physically impossible for them to tackle the load.
I'm not saying you are, but I'm getting a vibe here that you're saying heads should roll in the Commissioners office as a result of this, and I don't know if that's the best scapegoat here.
There are many things wrong
There are many things wrong with how we conduct elections, and people at all levels of government are responsible, and all for a unified statewide system or a unified national system. And I am sympathetic to the fact that they undoubtedly are just swamped. But we spend an incredible amount on our election apparatus, starting with the paid salary of three elected officials, when what we need is one skilled administrator instead. So, if they cannot get out absentee ballots on time, then yes, I blame them. And it especially makes me angry that they have said nothing about it, nor told us what they are going to do about it. Instead, what are they hoping, that no one notices?
In any sane world, the Commissioners Office would be part of the City Government, with an election administrator answering directly to the Mayor. If that department was swamped, like in any private company, temporary staff would be hired or employees from other departments would be told to slide over for a couple weeks to help.
Bingo: symptoms of larger problems
First, our peculiar way of administrating elections in Philadelphia (County) is counterproductive.
Second, our commissioners -- who after all are selected in low profile elections in which purchasing the support of ward leaders, regardless of qualifications, is the key -- do not inspire confidence because of the way they are elected, their historical lack of transparency, and their reluctance to adapt to new technology.
Third, mostly thanks to State Republicans and arcane registration laws, it's still too hard to register and vote in Pennsylvania. I've already talked to several Americans right here in the home of American democracy who are disenfranchised, denied their vote for Barack Obama, because they did not get in a proper paper form by snail mail a month ago.
Fourth, we lack national standards. If as a nation we really want to restore our status as a beacon of democracy, we have to adopt safe, practical national elections standards, so stupid practices like those in Pennsylvania, and worse practices elsewhere, no longer go unchecked, and so we can finally say every American has the same right and chance to elect our leaders.
The first two are tough to remedy but not impossible; it's up to enlightened locals to address them together with government and to implement a fix.
The third will happen only when local progressive reformers get the time and resources to focus on Harrisburg. Stay tuned.
The fourth likely can happen only if we elect Obama tomorrow and a big Democratic majority in the House, and elsewhere in the Senate. Because one thing, maybe the worst thing, the Republicans Party has stood for in recent years is opposing elections reform. And it seems like almost every Republican, at almost every level, has not been immune from the pressure from their party to Do the Wrong Thing related to our most precious institution, the vote.
the lovely commissioners
Have you guys seen the reports from the American News Project on our lovely Commissioners?
http://www.americannewsproject.com/node/166
Apparently, we shouldn't complain about long lines to exercise a democratic right. It's the same as waiting for baseball tickets or a new iPod. Thanks Marge.
Lost Ballot
I checked for the final time today to see if my ballot arrived. It has not. I have repeatedly tried to call 2 numbers given to me and both have been busy. Luckily my father was able to find some information and found that my ballot was sent on the 23rd, but when i went to the mail room i was told it "never arrived." Luckily Wisconsin has same day registration, so if i am able to find proof of address, i will be able to vote.
Do you know a lot of other Philly residents ..
Where you go to school? .. sucks as it might .. could you all rent a bus or something to come vote? .. after all .. it would be tough to miss out
I never rec'd my ballot
I never rec'd my ballot either...called all Friday afternoon to busy signals at 686-3469 (the designated number...which never worked) as well as 1500/1501/1502...fortunately I was able to reach someone today after multiple tries then being transferred and put on hold for a good 10 minutes to hear that all ballots have been mailed out for any applications rec'd...they were able to confirm that they rec'd my application though...thanks Marge, much appreciated
I'll be on a train tonight so I can vote in the morning...how much I love our dinosaur city.
3 more.
My friend just told me that him along with 2 of his friends at Cornell never received their ballots from PA. They all sent in their ballots more than 3 weeks ago. I guess my problem is not unique-that's 3 people in ONE house. Unlike WI, NY doesn't have same day registration so there goes 3 more votes.
One more thing to add in the
One more thing to add in the Cornell story: Another friend of his from Philly received her ballot just in time after waiting over 3 weeks, while his friend from Villanova received his ballot within the week.