On Friday the Nebraska Democratic Party put out a
Call for Action on the issue of "Satellite Voting" in Lancaster County, Nebraska, a little blue dot in a big red state.
"Satellite Voting" refers to a program recommended by the Vote Nebraska Initiative, started as a result of the Help Americans Vote Act, to make it easier for all Nebraskans to vote.
Now the Republican Secretary of State, John Gale, along with a Republican Election Commissioner are trying to turn the program into a taxpayer-funded Get Out The Vote program for uppermiddle class Republicans.
Some quick History:
In December of 2004 the Vote Nebraska Initative released it's
Final Report which included recommendations for increasing "Accessibilty to the Election System" one of these was a plan for "Satellite Voting", which means setting up small voting hubs in convenient places throughout the district, where people can come and register to vote, and vote, in the days leading up to the election.
The reports says:
"The committee recommends that a plan of rotation be devised that meets the test of fairness and equal protection under the laws."
and it goes into further detail:
"Obviously, the counties could not cover every such facility prior to an election, and would therefore need to create a plan that is fair and equitable to all areas of the county, together with a public schedule of
locations and times when such "satellite voting" equipment would be made available.
Secretary of State Gale, however, has decided to leave behind fairness and equity in his implementation of this plan.
A trial version of Satellite Voting was started in Lancaster County, home of the capitol city, Lincoln. In October of 2005, Gale announced the first prospective Satellite Voting Sites. All three of the sites were located in areas of town where Democrats are heavily under-represented.
Barry Rubin, the Executive Director of the Nebraska Democratic Party has stated in the NDPblog post above and in an email to me that the Democrats have been advocating openness and transparency in this process for some time, to no avail.
"the decision regarding the locations is being made arbitrarily by the SOS and the County Elections Commissioner" said Rubin.
The three sites themselves are in public libraries, all located in various suburbs which tend to skew upper-middle class Republican.
Two of these libraries are new, having been built in the last 2-3 years to accommodate Lincoln's rising population.
One location rejected was the Bennett-Martin Public Library, located in Downtown Lincoln and accessable by public transportation. Overlooked is the fact that Bennett Martin is already a designated polling place.
Rubin said in the email that he had pressed for the Bennett-Martin site, only to have Deputy Secretary of State Neil Erickson inform him personally via telephone that it "just wasn't going to happen". Another rejected site was Anderson Library, just south of downtown and also in a densely populated area.
To sum up, SoS John Gale, along with the Election Commissioner, have used taxpayer funds to make it easier for suburban Republicans to vote, while neglecting the most densely populated areas of the city. People like Gale and Erickson want to turn the Help America Vote Act into the Help Republicans Vote Act.
So what to do?
If you're a Nebraska Voter, Democrat or Republican, who cares about fair voting then you should write or email the Secretary of State John Gale and tell him that Accessible Voting is too important to be relegated to back-room deals, and that transparency and accountability are necessary to keep voters engaged in the democratic process.
john.gale@sos.ne.gov
or write his office:
John Gale, Secretary of State
Main Office
Suite 2300
State Capitol
Lincoln, NE 68509
(402)471-2554; Fax: (402)471-3237
Addenda: I should mention that Secretary Gale has dismissed these concerns as partisan bickering.
According to Barry Rubin "They have responded by saying that our outrage is "premature", but in fact, they will have to announce their plans for locating the satellites by this Thursday per statute. In addition, they have already notifie(d) the Library Board that they have selected the locations we disclosed...
It seems that Gale and co. are trying to present this to voters as a done-deal. We need to change their minds.
To clarify, this program was meant to give voters more convenience. The implementation of the program as it stands now will only give convenience to suburbanites who for the most part do not rely heavily on public transportation.
The areas of the county that are most densely populated appear to have been left out on purpose. This will not help to make it more convenient for people in these areas to vote.
The Secretary of State appears to believe that this issue is not worth his concern. I think we may be able to disabuse him of this notion.