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Voter Probelms at Western Kentucky University

by Dave Newton — last modified November-04-2008 01:05 PM
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The Bowling Green voting location that serves Western Kentucky University has had problems today, turning away many students, telling them that they can't vote because they're registered in a different county.

This has drawn a lot of concern from our members because these voters should be allowed to cast provisional ballots for federal offices at the least. 

We reported this to the County Clerk and they agreed with us, and sent a couple of people to the voting location to ensure that people were allowed to cast provisional ballots. 

A couple of our members stayed behind to talk to people when they had problems voting to help document what was going on, but a local sheriff asked us to leave.

We appealed to the County Clerk to stay to help ensure the voting process went smoothly and he agreed that our members should be allowed to stay.

In other news, there have been serious voter problems in Kenton County.  Visit the Polwatchers site for more information.

 

Sorry to hear that!

Posted by Colette at November-04-2008 02:31 PM
Such sorry news.. So is Bowling Green going to stay by the polling location with the clerk? Keep us updated!!

How did this turn out?

Posted by Patrick at November-06-2008 09:38 PM
What happened in the end?

problems

Posted by Meredith Wadlington at November-07-2008 03:20 AM
When the sheriff asked Greg Capillo to leave the polls for "electioneering" - which Greg was in NO way participating in, but simply asking students if they had any problems voting - it was a little disheartening. But, thanks to some KFTC allies, we got in touch with a local lawyer and learned that provisional ballots were a civil right, and then followed up with the County Clerk. Thankfully, the County Clerk was more helpful in bringing attention to the election officers. Once the workers at the polls were informed of the legal process of casting provisional ballots, things went a little smoother.

But, the question remains as to how this happened in the first place? All the students having problems were undoubtedly registered on campus (they all recalled detailed information about their form), were undoubtedly collected by trustworthy organizers (not just KFTC students), were undoubtedly turned into the Co. Clerk (I would trust George Ecklund with my life), but somehow never showed up on the roll?

My speculation is in some misinformation from the phone banking - or should I say, missing information? During phone banking, we had computers set up to access vote411.org, the site that gives polling places for any address. I think the problem is that some folks on campus didn't add their dorm numbers to their registration, just their building. This threw off the address that was put into the site, when we called people who didn't know their polling location. It's just a hunch, but I'm sure that some students just went to the wrong polling place, because they didn't include their room number on their registration.

Simple enough, eh?