Voting Rights Watch: Voting rights at risk, by the numbers
The following voting rights index appeared in the latest issue of our Facing South e-newsletter. If you're not already receiving that, please go to the form in the upper-righthand corner of this page and sign up.
Number of voters now on Florida's "no match" list whose votes are at risk of going uncounted on Election Day: 12,000
Percent of those on the no-match list who are African-American or Hispanic: 55
Of 20,000 registration applications processed in Florida over a recent three-week period, percent that came up as mismatches due to typographical or administrative errors: 75
In 2004, the number of ballots cast in North Carolina that didn't include a vote for president, a problem blamed in part on a ballot design in which a straight-ticket vote excludes the presidential race: 75,000
Number of votes by which elections experts say the tight presidential race in North Carolina might be decided: 55,900
Number of new voter registrations submitted this year in Mississippi, where Gov. Haley Barbour is questioning the legality of thousands of them: 189,000
Number of states that got letters from the Social Security Administration questioning the "extraordinarily high" number of requests to match newly registered voters with Social Security information: 6
Number of those states that are in the South: 3*
Number of match requests submitted by Georgia, excluding duplicate submissions caused by computer error: more than 747,000
Number of new voters registered in Georgia this year: 406,000
Hours that voters in Cobb County, Ga. waited in line to cast early ballots earlier this month: 2
Hours waited in some parts of Florida: 5
Hours waited in Georgia's Clayton County, a predominantly African-American community: 12
Year in which Florida's Republican-controlled legislature restricted the capacity of early voting sites: 2005
Date on which Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) issued an executive order reversing the legislature and extending early voting hours: 10/28/2008
Date on which elections supervisors from around the state began talking about filing an injunction against the order: 10/28/2008
Number of provisional ballots cast in the 2004 U.S. election: 1 million
Proportion of those ballots that were never counted but simply discarded: 1/3
Number of new voter registration forms submitted this year by the community organizing group ACORN: 1.3 million
Estimated percent of those registrations that were faulty, leading Republican president candidate John McCain to accuse the group of "maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country": 30
Proportion of those registrations estimated to be deliberately falsified by canvassers: 1 to 2 percent
From 2002 to 2005, number of people in the United States found guilty of voting while ineligible: 20
Number found guilty of voting more than once: 5
Number that voters who experience problems can call for legal assistance on Election Day: 1-866-OUR VOTE
*Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina
(All sources on file with the Institute for Southern Studies; for more information, e-mail sue@southernstudies.org.)
Number of voters now on Florida's "no match" list whose votes are at risk of going uncounted on Election Day: 12,000
Percent of those on the no-match list who are African-American or Hispanic: 55
Of 20,000 registration applications processed in Florida over a recent three-week period, percent that came up as mismatches due to typographical or administrative errors: 75
In 2004, the number of ballots cast in North Carolina that didn't include a vote for president, a problem blamed in part on a ballot design in which a straight-ticket vote excludes the presidential race: 75,000
Number of votes by which elections experts say the tight presidential race in North Carolina might be decided: 55,900
Number of new voter registrations submitted this year in Mississippi, where Gov. Haley Barbour is questioning the legality of thousands of them: 189,000
Number of states that got letters from the Social Security Administration questioning the "extraordinarily high" number of requests to match newly registered voters with Social Security information: 6
Number of those states that are in the South: 3*
Number of match requests submitted by Georgia, excluding duplicate submissions caused by computer error: more than 747,000
Number of new voters registered in Georgia this year: 406,000
Hours that voters in Cobb County, Ga. waited in line to cast early ballots earlier this month: 2
Hours waited in some parts of Florida: 5
Hours waited in Georgia's Clayton County, a predominantly African-American community: 12
Year in which Florida's Republican-controlled legislature restricted the capacity of early voting sites: 2005
Date on which Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) issued an executive order reversing the legislature and extending early voting hours: 10/28/2008
Date on which elections supervisors from around the state began talking about filing an injunction against the order: 10/28/2008
Number of provisional ballots cast in the 2004 U.S. election: 1 million
Proportion of those ballots that were never counted but simply discarded: 1/3
Number of new voter registration forms submitted this year by the community organizing group ACORN: 1.3 million
Estimated percent of those registrations that were faulty, leading Republican president candidate John McCain to accuse the group of "maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country": 30
Proportion of those registrations estimated to be deliberately falsified by canvassers: 1 to 2 percent
From 2002 to 2005, number of people in the United States found guilty of voting while ineligible: 20
Number found guilty of voting more than once: 5
Number that voters who experience problems can call for legal assistance on Election Day: 1-866-OUR VOTE
*Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina
(All sources on file with the Institute for Southern Studies; for more information, e-mail sue@southernstudies.org.)
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the former editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.