Arkansas Senate Runoff: Not enough polling places in Halter stronghold...Lincoln Prevails.

Y’know, not for anything in particular, but sometimes we really have to face the fact that we have chicanery in our voting system. Remember, one of the first signs that a country is veering towards fascism is an unreliable voting system.

by desmoinesdem

Monday, June 07, 2010, 5:45AM EDT--Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter has momentum going into tomorrow's runoff election against U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln, but only two polling places will be open in the most populous county Halter carried in the Democratic primary election. The Blue Arkansas blog has been all over this disturbing story. Garland County has about 80,000 residents, of whom about 12,000 voted at 42* polling places in the Democratic primary on May 18. The Chairman of the Garland County Election Commission, Charles Tapp, is not budging from the decision to open only two polling places in the county for the runoff. That will create obstacles for many voters, especially minorities and people in rural areas. On June 4 Tapp promised to open polling stations on the weekend to make it easier for people to vote, but the stations were closed on Saturday. The Arkansas Democrat explains why you should care:

    Remember how rural voters broke so heavily for Halter in the primary? Well now those same rural voters have to travel miles across a mountain range to get to town on a weekday to cast their vote. While Halter was going down to Hot Springs to stand up for the right to vote and stuck up for the people trying to do their sacred civic duty, Lincoln couldn’t even bother to talk to us with that condescending double speak of hers:

    A spokesperson with Senator Blanche Lincoln’s campaign said they do not have any comment at this time.

    Couldn’t even say they were troubled by it.

Pulaski County, which Lincoln carried easily on May 18, has about six times the population of Garland but will have about 50 times as many voting locations open on June 8. Blue Arkansas is urging disenfranchised voters to call Lincoln's campaign, the Garland County Elections Commission, the Arkansas Elections Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. The White House and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which are backing Lincoln, should also denounce any attempt to suppress the vote in Arkansas and should demand that a sufficient number of polling stations be open statewide tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Lincoln is trying to portray herself as one of the people while Halter (backed by several labor unions and progressive organizations) is supposedly "letting other people fund his campaign and do his dirty work." Think Progress posted a partial list of the corporate PAC money flowing to Lincoln's campaign. It's not the first time we've seen signs of Lincoln's dishonesty, and it won't be the last if she manages to defeat Halter.

*Halter strongholds averaged 2,000 voters per voting location!
 Lincoln had 50 voters per location! Lucky, lucky Blanche.