Ga. Hispanics Questioned on Voting Rights

[Rose Siding]

PEARSON, Ga. - Ninety-five people who make up more than three quarters of a rural Georgia county's registered Hispanic voters were summoned to a courthouse Thursday to defend their right to vote after a complaint alleged a county commissioner attempted to register non-U.S. citizens.

The American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) has gotten involved because three men who filed the complaint selected the voters by asking the Board of Registrars for a list of all Hispanics registered in south Georgia's Atkinson County. If the voters fail to defend their citizenship, their ballots won't be counted in Tuesday's elections.
............
The complaint's filers say they have evidence County Commissioner Jerry Metts attempted to help non-U.S. citizens register so they could vote for him in the July 20 Democratic primary. Metts won by 16 votes and faces no opposition in the general election.

Linda Davis, chief registrar in Atkinson County, said she provided the men with a list of the 121 voters on the rolls who listed their race as Hispanic or Mexican. She said the men decided to challenge 95 of them.

"They asked for all Hispanics. They did not say just Hispanics who had registered for the election in July," Davis said. "Some of these people have been registered since 1996."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=696&e=7&u=/ap/20041028/ap_on_el_pr/hispanic_voters_challenged

[Florida_Geek]

1. Oh how many more voters does Bush want to loose

He was telling us the other day how the Hispanics love him... But this could turn Hispanics that were planing to vote for him against him.

[Laelth]

2. Good point.

Guess living in FL forces one to see the silver lining on a regular basis.

:toast:

:dem:

Kerry on!

-Laelth

[davidinalameda]

3. list of all Hispanics?

since when do you put your race/ethnic group down on your voter registration form

or are they just profiling people with Hispanic sounding names?

[Xipe Totec]

4. It's a voluntary designation on voter registration form

Which these three GA yahoos abused.

No offense intended to the rest of the fine people of GA.

[CottonBear]

8. My ( GA) husband checked "other" race/ethnicity

on his voter registration application when he registered to vote at our new address a number of years ago. Last week he received a letter from Cathy Cox (Dem GA Secretary of State) which asked him to clarify his race/ethnicity on his voter registration file. The letter did say failure to reply would NOT compromise his registration status. I told him it was none of their business and don't respond. Wow. I hope he's still able to early vote on Friday.

[CottonBear]

9. No offense taken Xipe Totec. See post#8.

[VegasWolf]

5. Why didn''t the repugnants challenge their validity after Nov 2, are

they trying to lose on purpose?

New Information Shows Bush Indecisive, Paranoid, Delusional

[AspenRose]

6. This is UNACCEPTABLE

I hope the Election Protection people know about this. I'm glad the ACLU is involved but this needs to be broadcast to PFAW and LULAC, and dare I say it, the NAACP. There is strength in numbers and we all need to be united, regardless of who is being disenfranchised. EVERYONE needs to jump on the bandwagon and say NO MORE.

[Rose Siding]

7. I don't see how ANYONE could have thought it were Constitutional

It should never have happened. There should be firings and apologies and settlements for any inconvenience incurred.