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| (IL) 2/12 - WILL CLOSING SCHOOLS TO V... |
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| Author |
Message |
    
Bev Harris
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 11574
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - 11:02 pm: | 
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CHICAGO - received via e-mail from J.L. - Closing schools will affect were people go to vote. Most people vote at public schools. Most of the school closings are going to be in minority neighborhoods. So, the people living there will have to go across the "railroad" tracks to a part of town they might not be welcomed at to vote.
FROM THE MAILBAG: I am concerned about Rahm Emanuel closing down public schools in Chicago:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/10832492-418/rahm-emanuel-protests-over-school-closings-noise-associated-with-change.html
I am afraid that people would rather not vote then go and take a chance of being intimidated in a part of town they are not familiar with. Not only that, a lot of people my not be able to get transportation to places to vote and people who work may be required to take off a lot earlier to vote to go to the new places to vote which will not be in their community anymore.
To me, the school acts are more then just about education, they are about suppressing the minority voters.
J.L. |
Bev Harris
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 11575
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - 11:03 pm: |
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The point J.L. raises is an interesting one and deserves public exposure.
The article he links pertains to closing dysfunctional schools, primarily in minority areas. But the issue of removing neighborhood schools as a voting location is broader than just Chicago, and is happening not only due to school closings, but in some states, they are discussing not allowing schools to be used for voting.
In the Chicago situation, it all depends on where the replacement polling places will be, and how accessible, easy to find, convenient and friendly they are. |
Charles Christopher
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Ilikeinfo
Post Number: 335
Registered: 11-2006
Best of Black Box? 
Votes: 1 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 29, 2012 - 7:22 am: |
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The transistion away from schools happened in my Utah City a few years back. Voting is now in a Church. However the number of people voting on site is drying up. No schools were closed.
So from what I'm seeing here something like in Chicago would seem to push to increase voting by mail. And voting by mail was stated (at my polling location) as causing the decrease in people at the machines and the combining of precincts.
Could this be the same in Chicago?
In our last election there was a two week period AFTER election day before the final count was given ... I was told during this time the votes by mail were "finalized".
Or put another way, 2 weeks is enough time to use the voting logs (ie who did NOT vote) to then come up with the vote by mail cards one needs to create the desired result ... Especially when school closures would upset the historic trends of voting so as to make vote by mail vote stuffing impossible to prove based on statistics alone, at least for the first vote after the closures.
http://chicagoelections.com/page.php?id=169
Problem definition *FIRST*, solution formulation *SECOND*.
The frog just needs to *SEE* the thermometer
Twenty-Five Ways To Suppress Truth
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Kurt Bellman
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Realkurtb
Post Number: 83
Registered: 6-2011
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 29, 2012 - 2:47 pm: |
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Even if schools close, neighborhood voting must be maintained, especially in urban areas where automobile ownership may be spotty. In urban areas, geographically small voting precincts are an imperative. When schools close, often less public and less handicapped accessible polling sites are the inevitable result. This must be minimized by then using other public and quasi-public spaces wherever possible. Some choices might be churches, rec centers, some private businesses, YMCA's, and other human services agencies. I believe most states would do well to have a "must host" statute for all public school buildings as we do. This would eliminate some loss of schools as polling sites, but not in the case of shuttering a school completely.
If we were ever to lose either schools or churches as polling sites, my city would be in deep poopy. |
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