Scandal — Part II (Dirty Rotten Scoundrel Edition)

For background on this, go here.

I talked to Russell Simmons at the Rowley campaign awhile ago. They have, so far, one report of someone who was called last night from a NY cellphone number and given a fake polling place. Apparently the DFL called the number -- the woman has caller ID -- and found a "very sincere" person at the other end who had no idea what they were talking about. The conclusion at the Rowley camp is they spoofed a caller ID number (which makes me wonder why they didn't just come up with "Minnesota DFL" or something better than a phone number in New York.)

I have a call out to the woman's daughter (who filed the complaint) and have left a message.

Update3:47p I had a very nice chat with Erin Rein-Loavenbruck of Minneapolis, whose mother, Kathy Rein and her partner -- of Eagan -- received the "go vote somehwere else" call last night. She says the person asked if Kathy's partner, David, needed a ride to the polls, and then gave the wrong address and the wrong hours. She didn't have, however, the hours they were given and didn't know if the address they were given was a legit polling place in Eagan. Erin's husband ended up paying $20 to the phone company for a report on what number appeared on Kathy's caller ID, then called the number. A person named Sebastian answered and Erin's husband hung up... then called back later and left a message.

They didn't have the phone number handy because one of the things I would like to do is compare the number to other similar complaints. Obviously this wasn't a robo-call, but we don't know whether it's part of a larger effort, or some kid who followed the controversy and decided to make some crank calls.

The absence of a pattern of similar calls in Minnesota, and the 2nd District in Minnesota in particular, leads me to believe that it is not part of a large effort. If it is, it's not very well deployed.

End of update

Our public insight journalism folks have been taking various calls regarding their voter experiences. The majority of them have been quite positive. We do have one person who e-mailed saying she, too, was given a phony address and I'm trying to contact her. She says:

Just wanted to let you know that last evening there was a phone message for my husband from a person stating that he was with the Republican party, reminding him to vote for Republican candidates, and then giving the wrong polling address. My husband and I are both registered Democrats.

I'm hoping to make contact with her from the sanctity of the kitchen table. No nap today, I guess.

Here are some highlights of what we've found so far (New additions at the top):

1. I voted at Walker Methodist on 37th St…An elderly man who lived in the building was confused and needed someone to vouch for him. None of the employees of the building would vouch for him so he couldn’t vote. I am very concerned about this. (Update from someone who saw the above here on Polinaut) "I am responding to the entry identifying an elderly getleman that was turned away from the polls at Walker Methodist, because staff could not vouch for him. The staff person that was at the poll at the time he was attempting to vote did not know him, she contacted a social worker in the building who was able to vouch for him and he was then able to vote."

2. voted at Burnsville at the firehall.. and they had a guy there taking pictures of people voting as they leave the ballot room… why is a camera even allowed at a voting place in America …that’s downright communism… to be taking a persons picture when they are voting… these city people cant figure that one out… I hope you put that on the air.. maybe you can tell me who I can file a complaint with so that they take those cameras out of the polling places

3. my only surprise at the polls this morning.. I didn’t have to verify my name and address with some form of id. And those in front of me… also looked puzzled… if you looked over the list and you could see the address, you could pick a name. I’m just thinking that for housekeeping issues it could become a problem… by not verifying. (Midday had a terrific show in the first hour and addressed this)

4. I vote in the 28th precinct in Duluth. I vote early in the morning. When I went to vote the machine that you feed the ballot into was not working, we had to put our ballots into a slot in the machine to be run through later whenever they can get the machine up and running. This is frustrating becasue the same thing happened last time I voted (This year's Primary). A bit of information about the neigborhood - this is Lincoln Park, formerly known as "the West end" mostly working class and poor people in this precinct. A lot of Blacks, Natives and other people of color..... I wonder are the machines in the wealthier negborhoods working? And - I wonder if my vote is even going to be counted.

5. When I finished filling in circles, I went to the ballot box where there was a long line of voters waiting to have their vote counted. The person at the front of the line had spilled coffee on the machine. It was 20 minutes after seven. Other people in the line were giving each other that familiar look of "why is this hapening?" Luckily, they opened up a slot for us to drop our waiting ballots into. The election judges assured us our votes would be counted later.

6. At my polling place in rural Ottter Tail County at 9 a.m. this morning 100 people had voted, which is 40% of the total registered. I expect a turnout equivalent to a Presidential year.!

7. I try to be an informed voter, but I am always surprised when I get the ballot and find races that weren’t covered in any of the media I followed: Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor, County Commissioner, all the judges. I don’t need your “Select a Candidate” option for the major races, but I really do need it for those minor ones. (bob notes: 19,000 people took Select A Candidate yesterday. And last Friday night, I moderated a Water and Soil Conservation District debate in Hennepin county. Only family and friends showed up)

8. I am a visually impaired person. I was anxious to see if the AutoMark equipment was available at my polling place today, and whether it was usable. I'm pleased to tell you that it worked exceedingly well. The equipment functioned and there was someone there to show me how to use it. I proceeded through the entire ballot nonvisually, using computer speech. This was the first time that I was able to vote independently without the help of a sighted person to mark my ballot. This is an impressive step forward for voter accessibility. (See Tom Crann's ATC thing on this)

9. I walked into my election precinct all revved up this morning to vote using the new assistive voting equipment made possible by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). As a blind citizen, I had only been able to vote privately and independently once during the recent primary election and all other times I had to tell an election official how I wanted them to mark my ballot. This was truly an exhilarating feeling, a feeling that most voters luckily will not have to ever worry about experiencing any longer. The issue however was that the assistive voting machine was located in direct sight line to every voter as they waited in line to sign in to vote. For me, that was not so much of an issue because I can turn off the screen and use the audio prompts, something I am quite experienced in doing. But for someone needing to use the machine because of a physical impairment or a disability other than a blindness issue, or in other words anyone needing to see the screen to make their selections, the set up was unacceptable. It was not private in any way. Besides the obvious lack of visual privacy there are two other concerns I have. One is that the assistive machines are not for use ONLY by people that are disabled. Anyone who wants to can, and should be able to use the machine. The way this precinct decided to set up its machine however, no person, other than a blind person would feel comfortable using the machine because of the lack of privacy. It wasn't even a matter that people could accidentally see the screen but that anyone waiting in line had little else to look at other than the machine in their sight line as they waited to register to vote. The second issue is that, for right or wrong, there are going to be people who will simply use the low numbers to point out how financially wasteful it has been to purchase these machines in the first place for the few people who will end up using the machines. This has already been raised as an issue by people who did not want the huge price tag for implementing HAVA in the first place. To those individuals I ask, "How much would they be willing to spend if the issue was to provide a means that allowed THEM the ability to vote privately and independently?" To be fair, my precinct was crammed into a very small space. There were 15 voting stations and one machine station. With the check in tables, the tabulation tables and the check in tables there are only a limited number of ways to set up the space effectively. At this point now, to move the machine so that no one could see the screen other than the voter using the machine, would require moving all the other 15 voting stations first then moving the table with the voting machine completely around. The election judge I spoke with told me there has been a very long line since the doors opened this morning and that he did not expect the line to die down at anytime today. This means in most likelihood, the machine is going to stay where it is and the number of voters using the machine will be extremely low. It is such a shame that more voters who may have been disenfranchised in the past may not be able to experience the same exhilaration I was able to feel as I cast my vote today, completely independently and privately for only the second time!

10. I was surprised to see at Precinct 2 in Richfield that our election judges were high school students (I’m assuming they were at least 18 years old). Usually the retired population fills those roles, and the young people kept everything orderly and organized. Though there was quite a line of 50+ people, they kept it moving. Keep 'em coming and thanks! You can also e-mail our PIJ folks with your comments at voting@mpr.org.

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