Disenfranchised Sisters
Indiana Nuns Lacking ID Denied At Poll By Fellow Sister …
About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow sister because they didn’t have state or federal identification bearing a photograph.
Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away her fellow members of Saint Mary’s Convent in South Bend, across the street from the University of Notre Dame, because they had been told earlier that they would need such an ID to vote.
The nuns, all in their 80s or 90s, didn’t get one but came to the precinct anyway.
“One came down this morning, and she was 98, and she said, ‘I don’t want to go do that,’” Sister McGuire said. Some showed up with outdated passports. None of them drives.
They weren’t given provisional ballots because it would be impossible to get them to a motor vehicle branch and back within the 10 days allotted by the law, Sister McGuire said. “You have to remember that some of these ladies don’t walk well. They’re in wheelchairs or on walkers or electric carts.”
Nonetheless, she said, the convent will make a “very concerted effort” to get proper identification for the nuns in time for the general election. “We’re going to take from now until November to get them out and get this done.
“You can’t do this like school kids on a bus,” she said. “I wish we could.”
Elsewhere across the pivotal state, voting appeared to run smoothly, despite the fears of some elections experts that the Supreme Court’s recent refusal to strike down Indiana’s controversial photo identification law could cause confusion at the polls.
In a primary expected to draw record numbers, a voter hot line set up by the secretary of state’s office mostly received calls concerning precinct locations, spokeswoman Bethany Derringer said.
But a group of voting rights advocates that established a separate hot line reported receiving several calls from would-be voters who were turned away at precincts because they lacked state or federal identification bearing a photograph.
One newly married woman said she was told she couldn’t vote because her driver’s license name didn’t match the one on her voter registration record, said Myrna Perez of the Brennan Center Justice at New York University’s law school, coordinator of the 1-866-OUR-VOTE hot line. Another woman said she was turned away from casting her first-ever ballot because she had only a college-issued ID card and an out-of-state driver’s license, Perez said.
“These laws are confusing. People don’t know how they’re supposed to be applied,” she said.
According to the New Voters Project, sponsored by Student Public Interest Groups, about a dozen college students at Notre Dame, Butler University and Indiana University said they were told at the polls they didn’t have the right form of identification.
Angela Hiss, a 19-year-old sophomore at Notre Dame, presented her Notre Dame ID card and her Illinois driver’s license. Poll workers did not inform her that she could have cast a provisional ballot, she told project staff monitoring her polling place.
Indiana’s photo ID law is the strictest in the country. The Republican-led effort was designed to combat ballot fraud, said supporters, who also have acknowledged that no case involving someone impersonating a voter at the polls has ever been prosecuted in Indiana.
The state’s American Civil Liberties Union sued, calling the law a poll tax that disproportionately affected minorities and elderly voters, those most likely to lack such identification. On April 28, the Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 that the law did not violate the Constitution.
Since then, advocacy groups have fretted that people showing up to vote in Tuesday’s primary would not understand their rights under the law, which include being able to cast a provisional ballot and obtain a proper ID within 10 days so that ballot would be counted later.
Rick Rice, a precinct judge at the Charles Martin Youth Center in South Bend, said one person complained about the voter ID law when he attempted to use a federal identification that didn’t have an expiration date on it.
“I didn’t know who it was put out by, but we couldn’t accept it,” Rice said. “He had a driver’s license, he was just trying to make a point. He wanted to push it and the law is very clear.”
Rice said the man voted, then asked where he could write to file a complaint.
Sean Greene, of the nonpartisan electionline.org, was monitoring precincts in the Lafayette area of Tippecanoe County. “It’s going pretty well,” he said, despite long lines. “Most of the people I’ve seen today are prepared and used to this. They have their IDs out already.”
That thought was echoed in South Bend, where Elizabeth Bridges, 63, said half of the people working in her voting precinct were family members, but still she showed her ID.
“I think the law is a good thing because a lot of people are crooked,” she said.
Another voter, John Parker III, agreed.
“I think it’s a good thing because I don’t want anyone coming in and voting for me,” he said. “Someone could come in here and just use my name.”
(AP)
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As a Catholic who “did time” (grades 1 through 3) with ruler-armed penguins in charge, I can tell you with authority that NUNS ARE FUCKING STRICT!
When a nun and a dominatrix are standing together, how can you tell which is which?
The dominatrix is the one with her mouth agape, standing in AWE of the true professional.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:19 pmCold.
Cruel.
Accurate.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:21 pmAre Nuns that stupid…yeah, but what do they do when they want to buy booze?
May 6th, 2008 at 3:22 pmI’m 47 and still suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder because of Sisters Mabel, Julia and Carmenita.
I’m also still single because of them!
May 6th, 2008 at 3:24 pmwho’s going to turn down a nun in a liquor store? I mean hell who wants to cross a nun at all. I mean the ruler and holding textbooks “to understand the suffering of the Lord on the Cross” is only part of the threat. They’re crazy. lol
God I miss Sister ____[forget name] She was strict, but awesome. lol
May 6th, 2008 at 3:26 pm…and for those here who are familiar with the works of Mr. P.G. Wodehouse:
“The f of the s is d than the m!”
TRUE DAT!
May 6th, 2008 at 3:26 pmSr. Jucinta
Sr. Challina
Sr. Adelle
Sr. Jude
Sr. Corinna
All grew up in Mussolini Italy …
`nuff said.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:53 pmShould have said they were illegals, no problemo.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:30 pmNuns got rights too!
Okay. I’m lost. What was that all about? All those sisters?
Totally lost.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:53 pmList of MY grade school nuns …
May 6th, 2008 at 5:02 pmFrom a non-Catholic, God Bless that Nun. For God’s sake, folks, does no one recognize the reason for basic rules (laws) any more…. Rules are what make society flow. They may chafe at times (yeah, me too), but damn, with all the people on this earth, rules are the only reason we haven’t all killed each other already. Those of you who went through Catholic school fifty years ago, and are still bitching about it… GROW UP!!
May 6th, 2008 at 7:23 pmWasn’t quite 50 yrs ago.
To have lived through the nuns in Catholic school in the 60s is to be able to joke about them and their effect on you … a badge of courage we “survivors” flash about every now and again …
As to the topic story on this thread … I completely agree with you. She did her job, and did it correctly. Hopefully ALL poll workers follow that example … especially in the general election that just might make 2000 and 2004 look like child’s play.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:28 pm