Monday, November 5, 2012

Poll watchers in Fairfax County may not be allowed to speak to voters about their rights


Somehow, the right of poll watchers to speak to voters about their rights is no longer legally protected in Fairfax County after the Fairfax County Circuit Court rejected a request by the Fairfax County Democratic committee to seek an injunction protecting poll watchers.[1]

According to the testimony of election officers at the hearing, poll watchers will not be banned from talking to voters. However, election officials were the cause of the lawsuit by the Democratic committee in the first place.

Fairfax Democratic Party officials said “the change in rules for observers isn’t the result of a new law or policy. They said elections officials are interpreting existing law differently – and incorrectly.”[2]

If the Fairfax Democrats are correct in their arguments, then what Fairfax County has is a situation wherein elections officials incorrectly bar poll watchers from speaking to voters about their rights on Election Day, thereby directly infringing upon the rights of poll watchers in one of Virginia’s most heavily Democratic areas.

There is certainly more than a shred of evidence that is a cause for concern. In the lawsuit filed by the Democratic committee, there is mention of Fairfax’s new general registrar, Cameron Quinn, a longtime Republican activist.[3] The suit reads Quinn’s “instruction [to poll workers] to prohibit FCDC poll watchers from talking to voters has no basis in law and violates the First Amendment rights of the FCDC.”

Folks, we know that this election cycle will witness voting irregularities on both sides of the political aisle, Democratic and Republican. That’s the nature of this game, win at just about any and all costs.

However, talking to voters about their rights is a super-party issue that transcends partisan politics and should therefore concern all Americans. Or have Virginians become so apathetic or jaded or hyper partisan that slights of constitutional practice that benefits one side or the other in the short term is no longer worthy of outrage?

For my own part, I’d be just as outraged if the Democratic Party were pulling this political stunt. But Virginia’s GOP has once again shown that principles and integrity (and protecting the First Amendment) are only worth demonstrating when their political power is not in danger.

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