by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
Tomorrow’s elections will be monitored by a new division of the Democratic Election Protection Attorneys called the Democratic Lawyer’s Counsel. The extra monitoring measures will prevent a repeat of problems from past elections, such as shortages of democrat ballots and alleged voter intimidation that took place in 2000 and the September primaries, according to Jimmy Midyette, an attorney with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and volunteer member of the Counsel.
“The efforts became more organized after voters were disenfranchised in Duval County and around the state,” said Midyette. “So there has been a much more coordinated and formalized effort recently to protect the voters and to make sure that their votes are counted.”
The Counsel, which was previously called the Democratic Lawyers Task Force, has elicited roughly 200 volunteer poll watchers to man precincts throughout Jacksonville’s 14 districts. If the watchers see incorrect voting practices taking place, they will be able to contact an attorney from the counsel designated to that district.
There will be roughly two attorney advisors per district, Midyette said, and hopefully three for four of the 14 districts (7, 8, 9 and 10) that appeared to experience more voting complications during past elections than others.
“The ballot shortages won’t be as much a problem for these midterm elections because there will only be one ballot for each voter,” said Midyette. “But we will be looking for intimidation and for folks that may be doing things inside the precinct that they are not supposed to do.”
Midyette, who will be on the ballot in the spring as the Democratic candidate for City Council in District 9, added another concern is campaigning within the acceptable 100-feet range of the polls. He said the close proximity could intimidate voters and/or disrupt the voting process.
Some other things the Counsel will look for are incidents such as poll clerks not correctly applying the law or forcing voters to vote on a provisional ballot when they are actually supposed to vote on a regular ballot.
“By doing this, voters don’t have a bad experience,” said Midyette. “That could lead to voter suppression, and voter suppression can lead to voter disenfranchisement.”