BREAKING: Voter suppression rampant in Palm Beach County

A few minutes ago, I was at the Boynton Beach City Library, one of 11 early voting sites in Palm Beach County, where I spoke with one of the Obama-Biden volunteers at the table out front. She described some very troubling developments there and in Riviera Beach, both of which are early voting sites with large turnout among African-Americans.

According to the volunteer, there have been numerous problems with poll workers, city officials, and passersby at both sites. Early today, she said, poll workers tried to eject a Voting Rights Attorney from inside the polling place at the Boynton library, which of course is illegal. There now are three attorneys on site, two inside and one outside, to avoid similar problems. Likewise, a poll worker confronted and tried to stop one of the attorneys this morning as she was helping voters in line understand how to fill out the new optical-scan ballots -- again, a permissible activity and the poll worker was acting illegally. Finally, the volunteer explained that she has faced "regular visits" from city police and other officials, telling her first that she could not sell Obama-Biden T-shirts on library grounds, then that she couldn't even display them with information on how to obtain them, lest she be hit with a $500 fine.

Matters evidently are worse in Riviera Beach, where local officials have ordered the Obama campaign volunteer to remove even the banner that identifies her table. She had strung it between two trees (just as the Boynton volunteer had done), and she was told by a city official that "because they are city-owned trees," she could not display the banner in that way.

In each instance, the Voting Rights Attorney(s) on site was/were notified, but the responses have varied. They sent extra attorneys to Boynton, as mentioned, but evidently the campaign advised the Riviera Beach volunteer simply to do as she was told.

More malicious have been the reported attempts to suppress voter turnout by threats and intimidation. The Boynton volunteer told me that people have been going through the largely African-American neighborhoods in downtown Boynton Beach, saying that anyone who has outstanding warrants, owes child support, or even has an outstanding traffic ticket would be arrested if they attempted to vote. In addition, Obama-Biden yard signs have been removed (and later replaced) along highly-trafficked corridors like Glades Road in Boca Raton. Also, along with the aforementioned regular police presence outside the polling place in Boynton Beach, a police car has been parked nearby throughout the day; city police headquarters is about a block away, but the car is not parked in the designated police parking lot.

These shenanigans are dangerous, and they're only going to get worse as we get closer to Election Day. I encourage anyone who observes or becomes aware of voter suppression tactics to report them, whether here in Comments or directly to south Florida Obama-Biden campaign headquarters in Delray Beach at (561) 865-1724. I also urge any members of the mainstream media (I'm looking at you, Palm Beach Post), to investigate and report these incidents promptly and thoroughly. I will spend time tomorrow doing so myself and will post here accordingly.

UPDATE (5:25 pm 10/30/08): Incidentally, I will be a Voting Rights Attorney myself on Election Day, in Lake Worth. I don't expect to be able to report things here as they happen, but I'll provide as full a summation of the day as soon as possible thereafter.

Advice for Palm Beach County residents for early voting

I voted today. Felt good. Voted for Obama-Biden, plus Ron Klein for Congress (FL-22), Maria Sachs for the state House (86th district), Michael McAuliffe for state attorney, Shelley Vana for county commissioner (3rd district), along with several lower-level offices, judge retentions, and so on. I also voted on the constitutional amendments as recommended by the Progressive Guide to Florida's Proposed Constitutional Amendments (big surprise there), meaning NO on 2 and yes on all the others.

Now for the advice I mentioned in the post title: if you're voting in Palm Beach County, I'd recommend going where I did, the Boynton Beach City Library downtown. I was in and out in half an hour, as compared with the West Boynton Branch Library that reportedly had a three-hour wait at midday.

I'm excited about the turnout, but I have to admit that I'm a little worried that some people will forgo voting if they see long lines. I even saw one couple look at the measly little line at my polling place and decide they couldn't wait even that long. What a shame. I hope they come back.

The point is: I think you'll find shorter lines in downtown Boynton, perhaps shorter than anywhere else in the county, but no matter where you go, plan for half a day's wait, just in case. And remember you can vote anytime from 10am to 6pm on weekdays, 10am to 2pm on weekends, right through Sunday, November 2, at any of the locations listed here (PDF).

Whatever you do ... Just. Go. Vote.

Obama is coming to town ... again

Wow. Good thing I got to see Barack Obama in person and meet him when he was in the area in May ... because I'm out of luck for this go-round.

I was out of town last night and didn't return until nearly noon today, so I didn't even know until early this afternoon that Obama would be visiting Palm Beach Community College tomorrow ... and by that time, tickets were long gone.

Hundreds got in line this morning in Boynton Beach and at Lake Lytal Park in suburban West Palm Beach after the Barack Obama campaign made tickets available for the U.S. senator and presidential candidate's rally tomorrow at Palm Beach Community College's main campus.

Organizers didn't want to just hand out tickets; they had each person sign in and get a pitch about voting early or volunteering.

That slowed things down and the crowd swelled. Tickets at both locations ran out in 20 minutes.

I'd received a Twitter message from the Palm Beach Post at 12:17 pm today saying that tickets for the Obama appearance still were available in downtown Boynton Beach. I raced to my car and was at the Civic Center just 13 minutes later, only to find signs posted stating that all Obama tickets were gone.

The good thing is, of course, that there is such great demand to hear Sen. Obama speak. After all, it's not often that you get to hear directly from the next president of the United States.

Boynton Beach pants thief strikes again

Fortunately, being in Indiana at the moment, I have an alibi ... but the Boynton Beach Pants Thief has stolen another pair of pants at gunpoint.

This time, it was a pair of Enyce blue jeans. What's most distressing is that this is the fourth such incident.

Police said they do not yet know if this incident is related to three other violent pants robberies that occurred between October and mid-November between Seacrest Boulevard and Ninth Avenue.

I guess I'd better keep my pants on ... and, just in case, make sure I always have on clean boxers.