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Title: Thousands of Students March 7 Miles To Vote
Source:
http://www.crooksandliars.com
URL Source: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/ ... tudents-march-7-miles-to-vote/
Published: Feb 19, 2008
Author: Nicole Belle
Post Date: 2008-02-21 00:31:45 by robin
Keywords: None
Views: 74
Comments: 2
Early voting starts today in Texas. In Waller County, a primarily rural county about 60 miles outside Houston, the county made the decision to offer only one early voting location: at the County Courthouse in Hempstead, TX, the county seat. Prairie View A&M students organized to protest the decision, because they felt it hindered their ability to vote. For background, Prairie View A&M is one of Texas’ historically Black universities. It has a very different demographic feel than the rest of the county. There has been a long history of dispute over what the students feel is disenfranchisement. There was a lot of outrage in 2006, when students felt they were unfairly denied the right to vote when their registrations somehow did not get processed. According to an article in today’s Houston Chronicle: Waller County has faced numerous lawsuits involving voting rights in the past 30 years and remains under investigation by the Texas Attorney General’s Office based on complaints by local black leaders. Those allegations, concerning the November 2006 general election, related to voting machine failures, inadequate staffing and long delays for voting results. The article adds, “I was angry after registering to vote in the 2006 election only to be turned away at the voting booth,” said sophomore Dee Dee Williams. So what are the students doing? 1000 students, along with an additional 1000 friends and supporters, are this morning walking the 7.3 miles between Prairie View and Hempstead in order to vote today. According to the piece I saw on the news (there’s no video up, so I can’t link to it), the students plan to all vote today. There are only 2 machines available at the courthouse for early voting, so they hope to tie them up all day and into the night. I love stories like this. In the face of an obvious ploy to suppress the vote, these young people stood up for their rights and showed that they will not be cowed. Republicans should be worried, because this is a committed electorate.
More pictures available here
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#1. To: robin (#0)
Did she show up late or at the wrong polling place?? The article doesn't say, so I have my suspicions about the legitimacy of the allegation by Dee Dee Williams. I've never had a problem voting my entire life. I make sure my voter registration is in order and I go to the right polling place. If I can do it, so can other people. If somebody is too stupid to get their shit together, maybe they don't deserve to cast a vote.
"There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America." - Otto von Bismarck
According to an article in today’s Houston Chronicle: Waller County has faced numerous lawsuits involving voting rights in the past 30 years and remains under investigation by the Texas Attorney General’s Office based on complaints by local black leaders. Those allegations, concerning the November 2006 general election, related to voting machine failures, inadequate staffing and long delays for voting results. The article adds, This preceded her statement in the article.
'He will make Cheney look like Gandhi.'“I was angry after registering to vote in the 2006 election only to be turned away at the voting booth,” said sophomore Dee Dee Williams.
#2. To: X-15 (#1)
There was a lot of outrage in 2006, when students felt they were unfairly denied the right to vote when their registrations somehow did not get processed.
U.S. conservative pundit Pat Buchanan, imagining presidential hopeful John McCain in the White House.
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