Michael Perez/AP
You've heard a lot lately about how new restrictions on voting could keep a sizable number of legitimate voters from the polls. But with a few exceptions, the story has focused on state officials, lawyers, and court cases. The countless ordinary voters whose rights are threatened haven't received much attention.
That's why we want to hear from you. Do you expect to have trouble voting this year, or have you already encountered problems, thanks to changes to your state's voting system? If so, tell us your story.
Maybe you live in Georgia, Tennessee, or Indiana, and don't have an official photo ID, as required by those states. Maybe you're in Ohio, and you usually vote on the last weekend before the election—an option that's now been scrapped. Maybe you're in Colorado, Florida, or elsewhere and you found out you've been wrongly purged from the rolls. (For a map showing some but not all voting restrictions, go here.) Maybe it's something more mundane—like your local officials moved your polling place this year and it's harder to get to.
Whatever it is, we want to hear about it. Send us an email at this address. Between now and Election Day, we'll post the most compelling stories we get.
Voting is a fundamental constitutional right, that should be made easy for everyone. It's time to put some human faces on the voting story. Help us do that.
IF YOU CONTACT US:
• Be sure to include your phone number, so we can follow up with you.
• If possible, include a photo of yourself that we can use to illustrate your story.
• Include as much detail as possible about your situation.
Leave a Comment:
Man! I thought the state I live in was going to be spared the Republican voter scams that are running in other parts of the country, but I was wrong!
Let me explain: I live in Nebraska, which is about as Red as a Red State can get. Except that our Electoral College votes are apportioned (if that’s the right word). Only Nebraska and Maine do this. So out of the five electoral votes Nebraska has, one went to President Obama last time: one vote! Surely nothing to worry about, right? No, wrong! The Nebraska Unicameral (the only one-bodied legislature in the country) redrew the second Congressional district to try to rob the President of that one lousy vote.
And if that wasn’t enough, the county voting commissioner has reduced the number of polling locations to try to make it harder for people in the poorer communities to vote. This is just obscene! It boggles the mind. Even out where I live, which isn’t a bad neighborhood, my polling place is suddenly twice as far away. What the heck is this?
Gods! They figure they can’t win fairly, so they’re trying every scam possible to steal the vote. Ack!
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I requested a vote-by-mail ballot, and then drove it back to the Election Commission's Office (which, by the way, is not on a bus route). Unless there's some scam in their offices I guess my vote will count, but this is ridiculous.