DOJ reviewing election complaints in Arizona

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Talking Points Memo reports that "a representative of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division
declined to say Monday whether federal authorities were considering
taking action in Maricopa County, Ariz., where Latino voters were
allegedly steered towards provisional ballots on election day. DOJ Stays Mum On Arizona Ballot Counting:

Civil rights organizations have said the number of uncounted early
ballots was unusually high and that a large number of Latino voters were
given provisional ballots when they showed up to vote. A DOJ
spokeswoman would only say that the agency would continue to review
complaints from any of the locations it was monitoring, including in
Maricopa County.

"The Department will review voting hotline calls, election monitoring
reports and reports from other sources for potential federal law
violations that warrant further investigation," spokeswoman Dena Iverson
said in a statement to TPM. "If in the process of an investigation the
Department finds a violation occurred, we will take steps, potentially
including legal action, to ensure compliance with federal laws."

TPM earlier reported Arizona Still Counting Ballots Nearly A Week After Election:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona sent a letter to county
and state elections officials on Friday suggesting that Arizona’s voter
identification law may have had a disproportionate impact on minority
voters. Under the law,
voters can show photo identification or provide two forms of non-photo
identification such as bank statements or utility bills. Voters who did
not provide such forms of identification would be forced to cast
conditional provisional ballots, which require them to provide
identification to elections officials by this Wednesday to have their
ballot count.

“The ACLU of Arizona is deeply concerned by continuing reports of
hundreds of thousands of uncounted ballots, expressed concerns about
lack of transparency and clarity in the process, and disproportionately
high numbers of provisional ballots issued to minority voters,” ACLU
Arizona Executive Director Alessandra Soler wrote in the letter.

The New York Times reported
that many of those who had to cast provisional ballots were first time
minority voters who signed up to receive their ballots in the mail but
never did. The group One Arizona is calling on the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to investigate. DOJ had sent federal observers to Maricopa County to monitor polling place activity on Election Day.

Election officials and many in the media have tried to blame this problem on voters. But if a voter requested an early ballot (PEVL) and never received it, as the Times reports, that voter was left with no choice but to go to the polls — where he or she would have been on the rolls with an "E" for early voting, and been given a provisional ballot by poll workers.

If any of you cast a "conditional provisional" ballot, you only have until Wednesday to take proper ID to your County Recorder Office so that your ballot will be counted. Don't delay.