The results of the Pennsylvania primary are rolling in and the networks are calling it for Hillary Clinton. The question is now how tight the race will or will not be. Right now, MSNBC has her up 53% to 47%.

I’ll keep you posted.

Update #1: (10:57pm EDT): MSNBC has Clinton up by 10 (55% to 45%)

Popularity: 10% [?]

Just a quick word to say that, tonight, my thoughts are with the people of Kenya.

As you are aware, a disputed election has plunged the country into turmoil and violence. The death toll stands at some 500 people and another 250,000 have been displaced.

While we are caught up in issues of a war, worsening economy and politics at home, I hope that we can still take a brief moment to pray for Kenya.

Popularity: 25% [?]

If that was a product slogan, would you buy the product? Most likely, not. But, this is what’s happening with electronic voter registration databases across the country.

Allow me to explain. There’s an old adage and, it’s particularly appropriate in the computer world. It goes, “garbage in, garbage out”. In other words, if you feed bad data to a computer, you can’t expect good data to come out. So, to get you what you want, you have to consider other possibilities.

In this case, it’s clear that no one thought that the names or numbers on a person’s voter registration form might not match exactly with their records with Social Security or their state’s department of motor vehicles. As a result, thousands of legal voters are being purged from voter rolls.

Now, I know what some will say. You should always use the same name and contact information on every official document you fill out. Well, yes, but what happens if you hand that document over to someone else and they enter it in with typos and “Michele” gets entered as “Michelle” or “Joseph” gets entered as “Joesph”? Or what if you move to another part of your city and the address on your driver’s license no longer matches your home address?

If you go by these systems, you get purged.

Before anyone says that these aren’t big issues, check out the following:

The databases are only as good as the information fed into them by applicants and election officials. That can lead to human errors as well as variations from state to state. Colorado, for instance, knocked nearly 20% of its voters off the rolls between the 2004 and 2006 elections. Arkansas purged 3%, according to Election Assistance Commission data.

So, it at least one instance, this affected 1 in 5 voters.

With this being a presidential election year, a few thousand votes can matter. To have voters purged, in such great numbers is a recipe for electoral disaster.

Popularity: 24% [?]

John Tanner strikes again!

A few days back, I shared with you a story about John Tanner, Chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, in which he said that voter ID laws would actually be more advantageous for minorities because these laws disproportionately affect old people and minorities, generally, don’t live to be that old.

Now, he is is using more race-baiting to explain why black people were waiting in line so late into the night during the 2004 presidential elections in Ohio. According to Tanner, it’s because we were on C.P. time.

According to Tanner, black folks just got to the polls late in the afternoon, backing up lines and delaying the vote. Tanner wrote:

“…the principal cause of the difference appears to be the tendency in Franklin County for white voters to cast ballots in the morning (i.e., before work), and for black voters to cast ballots in the afternoon (i.e., after work). We have established this tendency through local contacts and through both political parties, and it accords with our considerable experience in other parts of the United States. Morning voters may wait in line several hours, as happened in white precincts, without keeping the polls open after 7:30 am; this is not the case, however, at sites where voters arrive after 5:30 p.m.”

Interestingly enough, I’ve lived in Ohio my whole life and I remember the 2004 elections quite vividly. I, like a lot of black folks, came quite early to cast our ballots (I got there at 6:45am). I live in a predominately-black suburb and witnessed people waiting 2 1/2 hours to cast their votes. My polling place, which was normally for my community only, was combined with two other polling places (thanks to the scheming of our former secretary of state, Kenneth Blackwell). Also, you had Republican challengers there basically intimidated people trying to vote and people casting provisional ballots, many of which, we now know, were never counted. At the time, we were voting on punch-cards and one of the booths was down due to mechanical error. I remind you, this was all before 9am, in a suburban voting area. Could you imagine what was happening in the inner cities around the state.

Tanner attempts to tell people (I contend he’s lying) that black folks were waiting because they got there late. However, this does nothing to explain why there were some folks (those in heavily-Democratic districts) who missed an entire day of work waiting to cast their ballots.

Tanner’s lies might play to the Fox News crowd but, for those of us who saw this firsthand, he’s going to have to come better than that.

Popularity: 24% [?]

A big thanks to Brad Blog for this one. If you are not familiar with Brad Blog, it provides excellent coverage on voter issues, particular being a watchdog on those public officials and companies that are working against the voters through an assault on even their most basic voting rights.

In a recent post, they cover a talk given by US Attorney John Tanner, who is — get this — the Chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. This means that he is supposed to be insuring the rights of voters of color. Instead, he is actively working against them.

While addressing the National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles, he offers an amazing rationale for requiring voter ID (which is likely a violation of the Voting Rights Act). According to Tanner, those most likely to be adversely affected by this requirement are elderly voters but, since minority voters don’t live that long, this wouldn’t be an issue for them. So, according to Tanner, this should work in favor of minorities.

No, I am not twisting his words, he actually stated this. To be precise, he stated the following:

“I think it’s probably true that among those who don’t, it’s primarily elderly persons. And that’s a shame…You know, creating problems for elderly persons just is not good under any circumstance.

Of course, that also ties in with a racial aspect, because our society is such that minorities don’t become elderly…the way that white people do. They die first.”

Well, you can hear/see it for yourself…

Popularity: 32% [?]

What would Republicans say if they heard this?:

“For them, the proposal to change the way California’s electoral college votes are awarded is more than a political strategy to retain the presidency. In important ways, it reflects the struggle of a muzzled political minority trying desperately to regain a voice and assert itself on such issues as immigration, gay rights, taxes, regulation and spending.”

If they weren’t careful, they might end up saying something bad about their own.

For longer than I care to remember, Republicans have mocked the notion of voter disenfranchisement when it came to poor and minority voters. Now, in one of the rare cases where they find themselves in the role of the voiceless, they cry foul.

Right now, in that state, a Republican measure to change how the state grants electoral votes, is on life support. As you are aware, if a presidential candidate wins a state’s popular votes, all electoral votes for that state go to the candidate. However, a measure has been proposed to break away from this method and to award electoral votes based on the winner of each congressional district.

So, why the push for the change? According to Republicans, they want the change because it’s not “fair” to them. Just check this out:

“If you want to talk about disenfranchised, the disenfranchised in California are Republicans,” said Ken Khachigian, longtime Republican strategist who’s worked the campaigns of eight GOP presidential candidates and was Ronald Reagan’s chief speechwriter. He doesn’t support the measure but he understands the frustration driving it.

“We don’t get to pass laws or stop bad regulations.” The Electoral College measure is one way to gain some clout and also undermine the opposition. And Republican activists immediately vowed to find new support and keep it alive - a testament to just how important the idea is to conservatives.

“Whether it takes this election or some future election,” said Ray Haynes, a former GOP assemblyman who first introduced the initiative in 2000, “it is a good idea. So if we don’t get it in 2008, it doesn’t matter. We’ll get it in 2012 or 2016.”

So, they are upset because they feel like they “don’t get a say”? Well, how about black folks in Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, etc. who also “don’t get a say” about who their states give their electoral votes to? Should they also push for similar measures? How much Republican opposition would occur in those states?

The fact is that they are trying to find a way, once again, to dilute minority votes. The Republican party faces a quandary of its own making. How does it retain power as a party for white males in the face of America’s demographic changes and a desire of many to steer away from bad policy the emanates from this group?

It’s as ironic as being locked away in the jail you built. If you, as a party, are “disenfranchised”, it’s because you and your policies drove the people away.

Popularity: 19% [?]

The U.S. Supreme Court has some very significant cases it will be considering this term but, there is one that we, as black folks, should watch very closely.

It is a challenge to an Indiana voter law that requires photo ID to be presented at the polling place. Backers of the law say that it is needed to stop voter fraud.

Okay, let me interject here.

I have been hearing about this mythical spectre of rampant voter fraud for years but, these folks can’t seem to point out any real significant cases of it. In fact, voter fraud seems to be as rare as hens’ teeth.

This is what other opponents of such measures say, as well. In fact, the people that seem disproportionately affected by these measures are the poor, the elderly and minorities, who overwhelmingly vote Democrat. So, to help preserve their dwindling power, Republicans need a method to purge people from voter rolls or, at least, stop them from casting a ballot on election day.

Admittedly, based on the makeup of the Court, I am little concerned about how all this will shake out. Let’s keep making noise on this because our vote is to precious to have simply taken from us.

Popularity: 25% [?]