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zorroloco 27-Oct-12, 07:41	another attempt to disenfranchise voters in florida, and throughout the south, 'the soul poll' has always been the sunday before election day - that is when the black churches organize their congregations to vote early. so what did florida do? encourage voters? advertise early voting? no. of course not. they conspired to shut early voting after saturday before election day! can't let 'those people' vote if we can help it! hopefully this will rile the people and more of them will vote. OCTOBER 27, 2012, 9:10 AM Groups in Florida Look to Highlight Changes as Early Voting Begins By SUSAN SAULNY JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Before the supervisor of elections opened the main polling site here in Duval County at 7 a.m., a line of almost 100 people had already formed, snaking its way along the sidewalk of a strip-mall parking lot. All but three voters in line were black. As they waited, they held hands and prayed. "Our father, our God," began the Rev. R.L. Gundy of Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church. "Our ancestors paid a dear price to have a right to vote, and we don't take it for granted. Yet the enemy does all it can to disenfranchise us. God, go with us into these polls and every poll around the country." He continued, "We are not fearful. We are not afraid. We will not be turned away." And the crowd said a somber "Amen." Then, in a more jubilant mood, someone screamed, "Fired up?" And a chant began: "Ready to vote!" "Fired up" ... "Ready to vote" "Fired up" "Ready to vote" ... Many of the black voters who gathered here Saturday morning, the first day of early voting in Florida, had spent the night sleeping in tents and recreational vehicles near the elections office. Their plan was to "Occupy the Polls" in an effort to raise awareness about changes to early voting this year that shorten the number of days for casting ballots. Mr. Gundy, the Florida president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, helped organize the camping and "blessing of the polls" out of a sense of outrage that the state took away the Sunday before Election Day as an option for early voting. Early voting will end next Saturday. The Sunday before Election Day had been the main day for churches in Florida to get their "souls to the polls," a tradition for many black congregations. In 2008, when Barack Obama won the presidency, black turnout was particularly strong across Florida on the Sunday before Election Day. "They're trying to turn back the hands of time," Mr. Gundy said. "They knew that was an important day for us. They knew minorities tended to vote on the Sunday before Election Day. But we're not going to let that foolishness stop us." First in line when the doors to the polls swung open was the track team from Edward Waters College - four women - and their coach, Archie Gallon. They had come in a van in the pre-dawn darkness. "I wanted to sleep late, but I also thought it was important to be here," said Amber Durrett, 19. "Very exciting. We're voting for the first time." Others in the crowd had been organized by Florida New Majority, a get-out-the-vote organization that helped bring churches, black fraternal groups and others together to "Occupy the Polls." With Hurricane Sandy churning up the Atlantic Ocean off the coast, the winds were gusty and cool. People kept warm with McDonald's coffee, doughnuts and breakfast sandwiches. As the line grew and grew, a woman took a megaphone and announced, "You are not waiting in vain!" Three Romney supporters showed up with signs. One said he hoped to "convert" the crowd. The group held their Romney-Ryan signs during the blessing, but also held hands in prayer. "It's a Southern thing," said Hank Lengfellner, a retired land surveyor who was one of the Romney supporters. "I want to see everybody vote, I do. But I want to see informed voters vote." Asked why he had come to this particular poll, in a predominantly black area, Mr. Lengfellner and his friend Rick Hartley, who are white, said it was about convenience. "We're early people," Mr. Lengfellner said. But Mr. Hartley seemed keen to ruffle a few feathers. He asked one of the Occupy organizers, Representative Corrine Brown, a Democrat of Jacksonville, if he could take a picture with her holding his Romney sign. She refused. He asked again, then asked others. There were mumbles about why this man had come here to have his picture taken. Eventually, someone snapped a shot of Mr. Hartley and Ms. Brown, but without the political sign. By 7:30 a.m., the crowd had grown to about 200 people, almost all of them black. There were whole families, college students, and groups of the elderly who had come together from retirement villages. In the parking lot outside the polls, they sang, "When the Saints Go Marching In," but with a few lyrics changed to express support for President Obama. "Oh, I want to be in his number." Now the sun was up, trying to break through a thick layer of clouds threatening rain. "Good morning!" a poll worker, Shaela Manning, greeted those standing in line. "Everybody make sure you have a picture I.D. available. Our polls are officially open."
anomalocaris 27-Oct-12, 08:02	Jeff When I read this I expected some sort of poll closing or an "official" of some sort doing something under handed. Two Romney supporters showing up in support of ROmney? This hardly seems worth mentioning as an attempt to disenfranchise voters. I mean by definition yes they were but its just two average Joes. So what?? I would say the same if it were the other way around.
zorroloco 28-Oct-12, 15:50	stinky pay attention. it is not about the romney voters. it is about closing the polls the day before the sunday, which is traditionally the day black churches get out the vote. please read for comprehension.
zorroloco 29-Oct-12, 10:13	With Less Time for Voting, Black Churches Redouble Their Efforts By SUSAN SAULNY JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Rev. Eugene W. Diamond of the Abyssinia Missionary Baptist Church here rarely pays attention to the clock when the spirit moves him to preach, but midsermon on Sunday, he said something unusual to his flock of hundreds: “Timing is critical, so let me hustle.” He had already scaled back the minutes devoted to worship. Congregants had been instructed to forget wearing their Sunday best in favor of comfortable shoes because they all had work to do: moving thousands of “souls to the polls.” And they had only one Sunday to do it. Mr. Diamond stressed the urgency in a tambourine-shaking, trumpet-blaring finale to his prayers: “Bless us as we make our voices heard!” he shouted above the music. “Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” Across Florida, black churches have responded with ferocity to changes that Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, and the Legislature made to eliminate six days of early voting this year — including the Sunday before Election Day, which had been the traditional day to mobilize black congregations. In 2008, black voters cast early ballots at twice the rate of white voters, and turned out in significant strength on the Sunday before Election Day to help propel Mr. Obama to victory here. Now, with Florida’s 29 electoral votes up for grabs in a close race, Obama supporters are counting on a newly energized black base to put them over the edge despite the tighter window for early voting. A victory here for the president would defy recent polling and make his path back to the White House much easier. In the newly revised schedule, early voting began on Saturday and continues through next Saturday. The churches, then, have one Sunday instead of two to move their members to vote. In Jacksonville alone, black churches enlisted 40 buses and vans to move people who did not have transportation to voting sites. They also ran car pools, offered breakfasts and lunch, and helped organize rallies with music and celebrity appearances. In precincts in black areas like the Highlands section in the north quadrant, lines snaked out of doors and into parking lots and onto sidewalks. A 40-minute wait to vote was not uncommon. On Saturday, before the supervisor of elections opened the main polling site of Duval County at 7 a.m., a line of almost 100 voters, all black, had already formed. Within a half-hour, the line had doubled in length. “I think the going sentiment was that Obama wouldn’t get the same rally cry this year as last time, but Florida woke up a sleeping giant that’s showing its defiance,” Mr. Diamond said. “I hate to say it, but Republicans probably would have done better if they had not tampered with early voting.” Still, the pastors took pains not to advocate any particular candidate from the pulpit, because doing so could open their churches’ tax-exempt status to question. Turnout for Mitt Romney also looked strong at several polling sites across Jacksonville, and his campaign was canvassing neighborhoods and calling residents from phone banks to remind them to vote early. One office had a goal of 5,000 calls on Saturday. (As of noon, 403 had been made.) “We’re dedicated,” said Carolyn Hardin, 60, a Romney campaign volunteer working the phones. “I’ll do this as many hours as I can. The most important thing is turnout.” In Gainesville, Tallahassee and Miami, the Obama campaign organized “communities of faith” to march to polls together on Sunday. And they did. The Rev. R. L. Gundy, pastor of Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church and the state president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led prayers outside the office of the supervisor of elections on Saturday morning, before the polls opened. “Our ancestors paid a dear price to have a right to vote, and we don’t take it for granted,” he told a crowd. “Yet the enemy does all it can to disenfranchise us. God, go with us into these polls and every poll around the country.” Many of the voters listening to Mr. Gundy had spent the night sleeping in tents and recreational vehicles near the polling site. Their plan was to “occupy the polls,” so to speak, in an attempt to raise awareness about the schedule changes. Some who spent the night at the polls had been organized by Florida New Majority, a nonprofit civic engagement group that helped bring black fraternities, military veterans and faith groups together across the state to turn out voters. And, of course, there were Obama campaign volunteers and union representatives on site. The campaign organized at least two major rallies in Jacksonville on Sunday. One campaign volunteer, Veronica Glover, 49, had been making calls and canvassing neighborhoods on evenings and weekends since June to tell Obama supporters about the new voting rules. “Wind can’t stop me, rain can’t stop me,” she said. “I’ll be calling. I’ll be knocking. It’s crunch time now. Not next weekend. Now.” Evie Welch, a member of St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, spent her weekend going to stores in her neighborhood and passing out posters that said “African-Americans for Obama.” “I was asked to leave a number of times,” she said. “But I just smiled and said, ‘Thank you.’ ” Governor Scott and legislators have consistently defended the changes to early voting as necessary to combat fraud, and they reject the notion that the revised schedule burdens any one demographic group, no matter how much many blacks disagree. “Early voting was successful for blacks and Obama,” said Mr. Diamond, the pastor. “That’s why they took it away.” Mary Eunice, a retired pharmacy technician and member of Mr. Diamond’s church, walked directly from her pew after the service on Sunday onto a bus headed for the closest polling place. “I usually wait until Tuesday, but today, since the pastor is urging it, I’m going to take this ride and go,” she said. At the Northside Church of Christ on Sunday morning, its senior pastor, Charlie McClendon, strongly encouraged congregants to head to the polls directly after Bible study. Jay Johnson, 42, followed that advice. Outside his polling place, he said: “Take away some early voting and people are definitely going to get out and early vote. I’d say this was a plan that backfired.”
orangemangood 29-Oct-12, 11:35	Are you saying that... minorities are too dumb to handle an ID card? Why? ID's are required for opening a bank account, don't minorities have bank accounts and driver licences?
zorroloco 29-Oct-12, 11:49	mr i what are you blathering on about this time? identification? driver's licenses? bank accounts? can you read? the reason i ask is because your comments are completely unrelated to the thread and the issues in it. this is not about id. this is about the fact that black churches, for years, have been using the sunday before election day as a day to get their congregations to early vote. so this year, the republican controlled legislature decided in their infinite lack of wisdom, to cut off early voting on the saturday before election day - ostensibly to fight non-existent voter fraud. of course the real reason was to lower voter turn out among black voters who, for many reasons, almost never vote republican. you are hilarious. driver's licenses! hahaha. i know it is hard for you, but try to keep up.
zorroloco 29-Oct-12, 11:51	by the way the identification issue is about money, not intelligence. poor people may not be able to afford an id card. as i have said elsewhere, if the state would provide free id cards for poor citizens, i would be all for requiring id to vote. but until they do so, it should be illegal to require it as it ends up being, in effect, a poll tax. and that is illegal.
anomalocaris 29-Oct-12, 15:20	Jeff The reason I didn't respond the way you wanted is because I honestly didn't make the connection. I think from your standpoint you see it that way. I honestly have to stretch my imagination to see it. I do understand how you could think that but with todays technology and the information age no one should be taken by surprise. I mean its already a known fact by you and you don't live there. If they close the polls for everyone on both sides for both parties there should be no problem. Seems they have been given ample time to adjust.
zorroloco 29-Oct-12, 16:28	stinky why did they do it?
anomalocaris 29-Oct-12, 18:48	Jeff I have no idea. Do you know they did it to try and stop black voters? I mean if it was done with no warning I would say , hey that's fishy or hey that is odd. If they are doing it and telling people about then what is the problem? Its not like its a secret and its not like people still don't have an eternity to vote. I just don't see it here. I do see how if you were looking for something you would align this situation with what you wanted to see. Perhaps it just gives them an extra day to start counting votes. Perhaps people are tired of working by the time that last Sunday gets here. I don't know. To say anything like your saying is just conjecture.
zorroloco 29-Oct-12, 19:29	sure it is conjecture. but... in my opinion, even the perception of disenfranchising people should be avoided. in this case, they stopped one day early, and that one day happened to be the single biggest day of african american voting in the florida elections. can you see why many might feel, without a really good explanation, that they were being targeted?
anomalocaris 29-Oct-12, 19:49	Jeff But its not like the day was taken away along with the votes. There will be a new biggest day now because they simply wont be open this day. I think someone can feel targeted if they want to. I don't deny that people might feel targeted but I think people just want to feel this way sometimes. It allows them to focus and direct their attention at something. If these people truly feel targeted perhaps they will ban together and have the biggest day ever. If someone wanted to go all crazy conspiracy theorist they could say that it was a plan to make it look as if the voters were being disenfranchised thus causing bigger turnouts. Damn those dems, this was the best plan yet!
zorroloco 29-Oct-12, 19:59	stinky they go after church. on sunday. it is a tradition. easy for you to tell them to find a new tradition. never mind. sometimes you try sooooo hard to make excuses.
anomalocaris 29-Oct-12, 20:05	Just giving you convo Jeff, whatever. The sunday before is no good?? I think you just dont want to look at it other than how you see it. You are the liberal softy.
zorroloco 30-Oct-12, 04:06	now you are just being intentionally insulting

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