Voter Suppression

On Election Day 2010, with the polls still open, computers placed calls to 112,000 voters in predominately African-American precincts in Baltimore City and Prince George's County with an unusual message: "Relax" and stay home. The recorded message did not identify the calls' sponsor; essentially, it told voters that Gov. Martin O'Malley had won and they did not need to vote. Such campaign "dirty tricks" have been part of Maryland elections for years, pursued by both parties largely because the perpetrators judged they would neither be caught nor prosecuted.

"Come out to vote on November 6. " "Before you come to vote make sure you pay your parking tickets, motor vehicle tickets, overdue rent, and most important any warrants. " That's the text of a flier distributed in African-American and Hispanic communities the weekend before Election Day in 2002 when Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. ran for governor against Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. November 6 would be too late to vote; it was a Wednesday. Failure to pay the rent or parking or motor vehicle tickets is not a barrier to voting; neither is an outstanding warrant.

State and local election boards need to communicate better, Maryland needs more voting machines and Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler should set up a hot line to take reports of voter intimidation and other irregularities, a task force concluded yesterday. Members of the task force, commissioned by Gansler, said they want to avoid a repeat of the 2006 gubernatorial primary, in which some voters, notably those at a Prince George's County church, waited as long as three hours to vote. Others were turned away by the unexpected closure of polling places and a lack of election judges.

WASHINGTON -- Ed Rollins' deposition on what he did and didn't say about black voter suppression should end speculation that the election of his New Jersey gubernatorial client, Republican Christine Todd Whitman, might be voided. Barring testimony from other sources establishing actual denial of voter rights, Rollins was sufficiently persuasive in saying under oath that he was guilty only of gross braggadocio and exaggeration to blunt Democratic hopes for a court-ordered rerun against defeated Gov. Jim Florio.

The Ehrlich campaign's alleged effort to keep blacks from voting last November could have the opposite effect for years to come, according to political observers who said indictments over the automated phone calls would become election-season fodder for Democrats. Tantalizing details suggesting an organized strategy of black voter suppression emerged Thursday when Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich's campaign manager and political consultant were charged with violating election laws.

I am so relieved that I don't live in a swing state. I can sleep through Nov. 6 and wake up knowing that Maryland's Electoral College votes will be safely in President Barack Obama's pocket - or Gov. Martin O'Malley will be in witness protection. Or I can do my civic duty and vote, without having to produce my birth certificate (the long form) and a cheek swab for a DNA test. Voter suppression is what they are doing in swing states this election - it's the flip side of loading people in a van to take them to the polls on Election Day. But if I lived in a state like Pennsylvania, Maryland's neighbor to the north, or Virginia, our neighbor to the south, I would have to spend the next two months listening to the 60s station on XM radio or watching old episodes of "Modern Family" on the DVR to avoid the political ads that are going to fill the air. President Obama and Mitt Romney are going to spend more than $1 billion on TV ads, and most of it will be in swing states.

This past November, I went to Florida to help mobilize voters to increase participation in communities of color and raise the voice of those often unheard. While there, I witnessed firsthand what we all have seen on TV - terrible voting lines that forced community members to wait hours to cast their ballots. However, these perpetual voting challenges are not isolated to Florida. Even here in Maryland, we have a long, long way to go to ensure that the right to vote for Marylanders is easy and accessible for all. Like in Florida, my friends and family here in Baltimore City also waited hours to vote.

Having studied the long and shameful history of institutional voter suppression of the poor and people of color over the last 150 years, I agree with Cynthia Tucker that the push for voter ID cards is a cumbersome and costly (especially for people of little means) solution to a problem whose very existence cannot be confirmed by hard evidence ("Voter ID cards are solution to problem that doesn't exist," Opinion * Commentary, Sept. 25). All Americans should have their red flags up whenever citizens of means try to concoct ways to make voting more difficult for citizens without adequate means.

A full week after saying she was untroubled by a Republican activist's efforts to hire poll watchers to monitor voting at Baltimore polling places, GOP gubernatorial candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey yesterday called the plan "unacceptable."Democrats say the underlying purpose of the "ballot security" plan being advanced by gadfly Republican Dr. Ross Z. Pierpont is to intimidate and suppress the vote by black city residents -- a bloc of voters Mrs. Sauerbrey's Democratic opponent, Parris N. Glendening, must turn out in large numbers if he is to capture Tuesday's election.

Bill Internicola had to show his papers. He received a letter last month from the Broward County, Fla., supervisor of elections informing him the office had "information from the state of Florida that you are not a United States citizen; however, you are registered to vote. " So Internicola had to prove he is an American. He sent the county a copy of his Army discharge papers. Mr. Internicola is 91 years old. He was born in Brooklyn. He is a veteran of the Second World War. He earned a Bronze Star for his part in the Battle of the Bulge.