Forty-six people in Miami-Dade County have had their votes challenged.
Brentin Mock and Voting Rights WatchVoting Rights Watch just received word from the Miami-Dade County Elections Department that there are about forty-six people in their area whose voting rights have been challenged. The challenges follow the same pattern as those filed in Hillsborough County, where they have all been signed by the same person on the same date, this time by Pamela Evans Rhodenbaugh of Aventura, Florida on October 25, 2012. Most of the challenges were for discrepancies in voters’ addresses that Rhodenbaugh found by matching names and birth dates from voter registration databases with the state’s Department of Corrections database. Eleven of them were challenges based on her allegation that the voters have felony convictions that disqualify them from voting.
As with the Tampa case, each of these challenged voters will be surprised at the polls when they find out they can not vote regular ballots, only provisional ballots. In 2008, over half of the provisional ballots cast were thrown out, and over a quarter were tossed in Florida’s 2010 elections.
Rhodenbaugh could not be reached by the phone number listed in the phone book. A profile page for a Pamela Rhodenbaugh from North Miami is listed on the Patriot Action Network, an online social media network for Tea Party members, where Pamela rails off about ACORN and the New Black Panther Party.
The challenges were made under oath, and again punishable by up to a year in prison if they are found frivolous. It is not clear if Rhodenbaugh has a connection to True the Vote, as does Kimberly Kelley who filed seventy-seven challenges in the Tampa area.
Check back with Voting Rights Watch 2012 throughout election day for regular updates.
Brentin MockTwitterBrentin Mock covers national politics for Colorlines. He previously served as lead reporter for Voting Rights Watch 2012, covering the challenges presented by new voter ID laws, suppression of voter registration drives and other attempts to limit electoral power of people of color. Brentin is also a contributor for Demos’ blog PolicyShop, where he covers voting rights and civil rights; and also a blogger for Grist.org, where he writes about environmental justice. You can read some of his other work at Next American City, Facing South, The Root, In These Times, American Prospect and The Washington Post.
Voting Rights WatchBrentin Mock and Aura Bogado cover voter-suppression efforts nationwide in a 2012–2013 project in partnership with Colorlines.com.