Saturday, February 09, 2008

Obama campaign claims "irregularities" in Louisiana

Per the campaign's blog, under the headline: "After Widespread Reports of Voting Irregularities Obama Campaign Submits Urgent Request for Assistance:"

BATON ROUGE, LA -- The Obama campaign submitted an urgent request for assistance to the Secretary of State’s Division of Elections today, after receiving widespread reports from Democrats across Louisiana who reported that they were not allowed to vote because their party affiliation had been switched. Hundreds of Louisiana democrats went to the polls to vote in today’s presidential primary and found that they were now on registration lists as Independent or Unaffiliated voters.

Obama faced a similar hurdle in California, where some poll workers appear to have misinformed independents seeking to vote in the Democratic primary.


Choosing to go public with complaints, though, is always a political as well as a practical move, and it may increase the sense among some Obama supporters of Clinton dirty tricks -- something the Obama campaign isn't alleging in either case.

This primary, with its huge turnout and surging independent cadre, is really straining a very creaky elections system.

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