2/07/2004

Democracy is messy: Edwards state director Derek Albert, however, said most of the moved sites were affecting minority voters and were robbing them of their right to vote. 'This is worse than in the '60s,' said Albert, who also is chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus. 'This is horrible. This election needs to be stopped. Because this is not right.' Dean state director Daren Berringer had said changing polling places at the last minute hurt voters, especially in low-income areas such as Detroit where people might not have arranged transportation to get to a caucus site outside their neighborhood. 'They're walking to their polling place and they're finding their caucus site has been changed,' Berringer said. 'The sites in Detroit and Southfield are in minority areas. This is direct voter disenfranchisement.' Lorenzo Morgan said that he and his wife called the Democratic party's toll-free number and were told to vote at one caucus site, only to find it closed. The couple had to drive around to try to find their right caucus site. 'They're afraid even to tell us where to vote,' said Morgan, 66, as he came into a caucus site at Bethany Baptist Church in Detroit to vote for candidate Al Sharpton. Other people coming to the church also said they had been told their caucus sites were somewhere else... Democratic National Committee member Joel Ferguson, a black Kerry supporter from Lansing, agreed there were problems with some of the caucus sites being moved. But he said the Dean and Edwards campaigns were trying to make a bigger deal out of it than it was because their candidates were losing. "Some of our people got lost. Some of the other people (for other candidates) got lost," Ferguson said. "We just have to do a better job in the future. But I don't think it taints the election."

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