March 24, 2016 – As many may already be aware, the voting lines for the Presidential Primary were extraordinarily long in Maricopa County Arizona. In Maricopa, some predominantly Latino areas only got one–or no polling places at all! One might ask, How can this be, this is America?
As a historical perspective for this county–for the 2012 presidential primary, there were 200 poling locations–yet, in 2016 that number was cut to just 60. This represents a whopping 70% reduction since the last presidential primary just 4 short years before! Sound unbelievable? That is, county officials allocated one polling place for every 108,000 residents in predominantly Latino communities–but in other communities there were more polling sites per number of residents. The result: those in predominantly Latino communities had to brave traffic jams–and some waiting in line 5+ hour to cast their vote. Try explaining that one to your boss when you end up being late for work.
There is no doubt that such voter ‘obstructionism’ is tantamount to voter suppression. That is, making it more difficult if not impossible for those in certain ‘designated’ communities with a small number of polling locations to create a situation that in the legal world is called ‘outcome determinitive. That is, a certain number of criteria are put in place that will correspond to the anticipated or expected outcome. Such is exemplified by making one or more communities less able to cast their vote by virtue of having far fewer voting locations. Whether intentional or not–this outcome can not only be predicted–but should be anticipated with the large-scale cuts put in place. With this as a backdrop, the next question to be asked, Is the entire county run this way even in local elections? When pressed for answers, Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell, in charge of overseeing the election, told reporters “she was sorry people were upset” but could not or did not offer any solutions. Fortunately, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton has asked for the DOJ to investigate, now it’s our turn to keep up the pressure. And here’s how we all can help.
Take a stand, sign the Petition for the Justice Department to Investigate Unfortunately, Maricopa county is not the first in the US to pull the disenfranchisement card–and it won’t be the last. But we can all hold them accountable.
The bottom line is, How can the US tout democracy to the rest of the world–when time after time democracy can’t even be made workable in our own nation? If we can’t get it right here–we have no credibility over there. So stand America up and demand accountability. We owe it to our nation, our people and as an example for the rest of the world–that is, voter ‘obstructionism’ is tantamount to voter ‘suppression’ and cannot be ignored! To take a stand, sign the Petition for the Justice Department to Investigate–it’s the only American thing to do!
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