Peaceful protest questions voting fraud

Even 40 years after Martin Luther King Jr. marched across Alabama to push for equal voting rights, some minority communities across the country believe they continue to face discriminatory tactics at the poll booth. \nSome believe a prime example is the potential voter fraud at the Ohio polls during the recent presidential election.\nAs a result, more than 40 Bloomington students, residents and guests protested at IU's Sample Gates, believing that King's 1965 pilgrimage from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in the name of black Americans' voting rights, continues today throughout the backalleys and backroads of America -- including cities north of the Mason-Dixon line.\nEducation professor Bradley Unger Levinson, who helped mobilize the Martin Luther King Jr. Day protest, said King's plea for freedom-loving people to rise against oppression continues in the 21st century. \n"This is part of my civic duty as (an American) citizen," Levinson said. "I think, as students, part of your civic duty is to fight for justice, peace and equality. We should speak the truth when the truth is covered -- we should educate one another about the truth. There is no question in my mind -- MLK would be in the streets every day protesting what happened in Ohio and elsewhere around the country to minority voters."\nBloomington resident Linda Zambanini, a member of the Committee for the Preservation of Democracy and a protest participant, said she chose to spend her MLK Day protesting Ohio voting practices because most Americans do not realize the effects of voting fraud on many minority community members.\n"We want to bring public awareness about the widespread suppression of the minority vote in Ohio -- it was horrible," Zambanini said. "There is a lawsuit being brought against the state of Ohio by the Green Party and (Sen. John) Kerry's campaign, among others, who believe Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell suppressed minority votes."\nZambanini said Ohio was supposed to have one voting machine for every 100 people. \n"In some minority areas there was one voting machine for every 1,500 people. ... People were voting until two or three in the morning after waiting hours in the rain."\nProtest propaganda included orange flags, cardboard signs decorated with messages such as "What Would Martin Do?" and stickers proclaiming "Support Our Troops -- Impeach Bush."\nBloomington resident Jennifer Enoch, who experienced Ohio's voting irregularities from the poll booth, said she witnessed minority voter fraud first-hand.\n"The orange flag is for democracy. I was an election observer in Columbus (Ohio) on election day," Enoch said. "I was volunteering for an election protection group. I watched the poll workers turn away voters who had registration cards in their hands, which proves they registered to vote. It is against federal law to turn registered voters away (before the polls close)." \nZambanini said all Americans should be aware of who is making electronic voting machines, how the machines are made, where the machines are located and who controls how the electronic votes are tabulated.\n"(Ohio voting officials) reallocated many voting machines before the election," Zambanini said. "For example, voting machines from Kenyon College -- a liberal arts, democratic-leaning campus -- to (Mount Vernon) Nazarene University -- a fundamentalist Christian college. That kind of thing happened all over the city. Lines to vote were, maybe, 20 minutes in the white suburbs, but three to 10 hours in minority areas. Our group wants voting machines that have a paper trail and oversight of the voting machine industry. We have to have an independent and bipartisan oversight of computer ballots."\nEnoch said she's disturbed and upset by the action of the poll workers she was supposed to observe in Ohio.\n"Of all the people I saw turned away by the poll workers, every single person was African-American," Enoch said. "It makes me feel like we are not living up to our principles of democracy and free elections. Every person should be able to vote -- the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is supposed to ensure everybody can vote."\nLevinson said the MLK Day protest, meant as a method of nonviolent resistance, began as an e-mail and mushroomed from there. He said the willingness of about 50 people to protest in "bitterly cold," below-freezing temperatures reflects King's message of peace and justice. \n"Try to carry this struggle with you," Enoch said. "We can take heart in honoring Dr. King by being more combative and taking our struggle to the streets. We cannot rest until there is justice and peace for everyone."\n-- Contact City & State Editor David A. Nosko at dnosko@indiana.edu.