Legal Commentary

Notes From the Front Lines

By Professor University of Miami School of Law

Just spent an hour and a half before class handing out Taddeo leaflets at my local precinct. The isn’t that long, but it is moving slowly — voters say it’s a 40-70 minute wait.

One thing slowing the count is that many student voters are being rejected for social security mis-matches. It’s a suspiciously large fraction of them. Originally the clerks were failing to give proper instructions about how the provisional ballots worked, and but for the presence of the voting rights attorney organized through the Obama campaign, those students would not have cast valid ballots. Fortunately, he was there, and the he explained to them what they had to do. Then he straightened out the clerks, and by the time I left the trickle of rejected voters had not lessened but it seemed they were being treated better.

Another issue is that all the students in two large dorms seem to have been sent erroneous voting cards which show their voting location to be my precinct when in fact they vote on campus. (I think I heard it was Eaton and Hecht, but I’m not sure.) If you are a UM student, look for signs by the entrance to your dorm giving you instructions where to vote, or call the elections department.

I hope this is simple error and not malice…

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Full post as published by Discourse.net on November 04, 2008 (boomark / email).