Angry voters flood streets as several candidates reject Haiti election - Christian Science Monitor

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Frustrated voters flooded the streets and several presidential candidates called for the government to annul Sunday’s Haiti election due to problems at polls throughout the country.

Skip to next paragraph

Scores of voters said they were prohibited from voting because their names did not appear on rolls at the polling places. Angry voters threw rocks and bottles at United Nations peacekeeping forces and shut down polling places.

Twelve of the 19 presidential candidates held an afternoon press conference calling for the vote to be canceled. They accused the Inite party, backed by President Rene Preval, of "massive fraud."

RELATED: In Haiti election, voter confusion, apathy loom large

As polls closed at 4 p.m. peaceful demonstrations clogged the streets of Petionville, a neighborhood in the hills above downtown Port-au-Prince.

“We are not going to stand for an election that is not the will of the people,” says Abner Jean, who could not vote despite holding a valid registration card. His name did not appear on rolls. “If they put in a candidate that we did not choose, we’ll use whatever means necessary to kick them out.”

Observers said problems were reported throughout the country. Many voters who’d been displaced by the earthquake did not know where to vote, resulting in frustration and confusion.

The electoral commission held a press conference urging calm and reassuring the public that the vote was on track.

Representatives for the commission, CEP, said voters tried to use out-of-date cards or were going to the wrong polling places. They urged voters to call a toll-free number or go to the commission’s Web site to find their polling place.

“There are places where bandits shut down polls, shots were fired, and stones were thrown,” said Opont Pierre, director general of the CEP. “But it is only a small percentage of the polling areas and it won’t stop us from voting and getting a valid result.”

By that time, however, Haitians had already taken to Port-au-Prince streets. They rushed to the candidates’ press conference.

Michel Martelly, a popular musician considered one of the leading candidates in a field of 19, said the meeting was held "to denounce today's massive fraud all over the country."

Rapper Wyclef Jean appeared moments later with Martelly, who is known as “Sweet Mickey.” The crowd that formed erupted as Jean hugged Martelly.

Song broke out with lyrics like “Oh Mickey, now we’ve been delivered,” and “They gave us cholera, they call it poison,” a reference to the cholera epidemic that has killed more than 1,600 and continues to spread.

Nearby, blue helmeted UN soldiers and Haitian police in riot gear lined street sides.

The crowd followed Martelly and Jean, who were joined by Charles Henry Baker, a white-haired businessman who also complained that the vote was unfair.

It was a raucous end to a voting day that began quietly with teenagers playing soccer on traffic-free streets, using earthquake rubble as goal markers as women and children filtered to church.

Tensions grew as the day unfolded and more people complained they’d been prohibited from voting.

Laurent Yvone, who lives in a camp for people displaced by January’s earthquake, lined up with thousands of early this morning. The polling place for the camp, known as Camp Corail, had just 39 registered names, however.

“There are more than 5,000 people here and the [Interim Electoral Commission] sent us less than 40 names. We don’t have enough ballots,” says the polling place’s supervisor, Elizer Fritznel.

Mr. Fritznel fled before the polls were supposed to close at 4 p.m. Only a handful of voters cast ballots there.

“If we can’t vote, these ballots are not going to leave here,” Mr. Yvone said. “This is corruption.”

RELATED: In Haiti election, voter confusion, apathy loom large

View the original article here

Democrats stump for Southland voters - Los Angeles Times

Trying to blunt a national tide of Republican enthusiasm, Democratic candidates rallied voters across Southern California on Sunday, arguing that GOP victories here would put the state in the hands of those who care only for the wealthy.

Jerry Brown, Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom — Democratic nominees for governor, attorney general and lieutenant governor respectively — toured African American churches in the morning. Later, they and other Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, held a pep rally in Van Nuys.

"It's an important election," Brown told an audience at Greater Zion church in Compton. "It's an important election for … the whole Democratic Party. We're not perfect. We've got a lot of problems in this state, we've got a huge budget gap, but there's a lot of things we can do if we all pull together."

Without mentioning Republican opponent Meg Whitman by name, the attorney general repeatedly contrasted her voting record with the sacrifices made by African Americans to secure their right to vote.

"I'm running against somebody who almost never voted. And I've lived here all my life and I've voted in every election, and I've cared to make this beautiful state much better," Brown declared at City of Refuge church in Gardena. "We can't just be for the most powerful. We have to be for everybody."

A Los Angeles Times poll published Sunday showed Brown leading Whitman and Boxer running ahead of Republican nominee Carly Fiorina. Newsom, the San Francisco mayor, was slightly ahead of GOP nominee Abel Maldonado, and Harris, the San Francisco district attorney, was narrowly behind her Republican counterpart, Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley.

Democrats remain nervous that a Republican surge could swamp even the best-positioned candidates.

At the Van Nuys rally, Boxer took off after Fiorina's support for offshore oil drilling and her endorsement by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. She also dismissed Fiorina, the former head of Hewlett-Packard, as a failed executive who had outsourced American jobs.

"I'm not interested in creating jobs in India," said Boxer, a three-term incumbent. "I want to create them in Indio, Irvine and Inglewood."

Fiorina has insisted that layoffs and outsourcing while she was at H-P were necessary to keep the company afloat. She criticized Boxer this weekend as a has-been. On Nov. 2, she said, the nation would "look to California and say 'Wow.... The voters of California decided that 28 years of Barbara Boxer was enough.' "

Whitman had no public events on Sunday, but on Saturday she appealed to Asian American constituencies at stops in San Jose, Los Angeles' Koreatown and City of Industry.

"We have a choice between a career politician and a career problem solver," Whitman told several hundred supporters in Industry. "And do we have some problems that need to be solved, and I will solve them."

As she spoke to reporters after the event, Whitman recounted a Saturday Los Angeles Times article that showed city employees receiving substantial overtime while Brown was mayor of Oakland.

"What you saw was gross fiscal negligence," she said. "No one was home, no one was in charge, and this is the kind of fiscal mismanagement that we cannot stand in the state of California."

Brown on Sunday said the pay was required, and noted that Oakland's biggest employee union refused to endorse him for mayor.

"I think Whitman, because she hasn't been in government and doesn't vote, doesn't understand," Brown said.

Cathleen.decker@latimes.com

phil.willon@latimes.com

View the original article here

Obama's economists missed what voters plainly saw - San Francisco Examiner

Home News Politics Local Opinion Economy Sports Lifestyle Buy, Sell & More Jobs Homes Cars Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

Alaska high court: Voters may see write-in list - Atlanta Journal Constitution

By DAN JOLING

The Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Supreme Court has blocked a lower court ruling, saying voters at polling places may see a list of write-in candidates.

From left, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R) Alaska, and Republican candidate Joe Miller laugh during a political debate Tuesday, Oct 26, 2010 in Anchorage, Alaska. Murkowski is running a write-in campaign following her loss in the primary to Miller. (AP Photo / Michael Dinneen)

The high court ruled late Wednesday after the state appealed an order issued earlier in the day by a Superior Court judge.

The Supreme Court says the list of registered write-in candidates shall be limited to names only, with no party affiliation.

The lower court ruling was considered a setback for the campaign of incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. She was defeated in the Republican primary by tea party favorite Joe Miller and is mounting a write-in campaign.

Former Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams is the Democratic candidate in the Senate race.

___

October 27, 2010 11:34 PM EDT

Copyright 2010, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here

Univision Refuses to Air Ads from Group Telling Latino Voters to Stay Home - Fox News

Univision announced Tuesday it will not air any ad spots from a conservative Latino group that is telling voters not to go to the polls on Election Day.

Latinos for Reform launched a national ad campaign targeting Hispanic voters who they say have been betrayed by members of Congress delinquent on delivering immigration reform promises pledged by President Obama during the 2008 campaign. 

"It's an election year, so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to hear promises about immigration reform," said LFR President Robert Deposada. "What is surprising, however, is that these politicians really believe that they can continue to make these same promises during every campaign season without ever delivering on them -- and that we continue to allow it."

But Univision, which would be a huge target audience for the Spanish-language version of the ad, tweeted that it will not air any spots from the group related to voting. 

"Prides Itself on Promoting civic engagement & encouraging Hispanics to vote. Join us," reads one tweet.

Deposada, a former GOP operative, and his group were swiftly admonished by the Latin Chamber of Commerce, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. 

But LFR Vice Chairman Naomi Lopez-Bauman said that both Democrats and Republican leaders have betrayed Hispanics. She encouraged Latinos to vote in local and state elections, but to skip congressional races.

""If we sit idly by and vote for the same lawmakers that ignore us once they are in office, we will just get more of the same shabby treatment. If, however, we don't vote for politicians who don't deliver on the promises they make to our communities, then they will be forced to stop taking our support for granted," she said.

View the original article here

Jewish voters don't reflexively back Rahm Emanuel for Chicago mayor - Chicago Tribune

Some might assume that the idea of a Rahm Emanuel candidacy for mayor would be cause for celebration along Devon Avenue, the longtime rialto of Chicago's Jewish community.

After all, Emanuel attended an Orthodox synagogue before going from Chicago to the White House, and his family is highly respected in West Rogers Park, where his father, Benjamin, was a pediatrician. The numbers of those who say Dr. Emanuel took care of their kids is roughly similar to the legion that claimed to have witnessed Babe Ruth point to the Wrigley Field bleachers and hit that famed home run.

But Rahm Emanuel, who begins his Chicago "listening tour" this week, is about to discover that all politics aren't local.

In the Jewish neighborhoods on the Far North Side, Rahm Emanuel is more associated with what he did in Washington than what he might do in Chicago's City Hall.

"There are questions about his positions on Israel," said Chesky Montrose, 32, who was wearing a skull cap and pushing one child in a stroller while keeping an eye on two others bicycling down Devon. "It's not logical that international policy would influence a race for mayor. But there is some resentment here, no doubt."

There was rejoicing along Devon on Friday because it was Simchat Torah, a festive celebration of the divine laws Moses received on behalf of the ancient Israelites. But there also were questions about Emanuel timing his White House farewell announcement for that day.

"On yontif?" said Montrose, using the Yiddish for the holiday.

During the run-up to Simchat Torah, it's traditional for Jews to take their meals in a sukkah, an improvised hut like their ancestors dwelled in during their wandering years in the deserts of Sinai. A fast-food restaurant on Devon provides customers with a sukkah.

With rituals marking their forebears' exiles, it's hardly a wonder Jews fret over modern-day Israel. Obama got a huge percent of Jewish voters, many of whom assumed Emanuel would give voice to their concerns as chief of staff, noted Cheryl Jacobs Lewin, Chicago co-chair of Americans for a Safe Israel.

"That has not happened, judging by the White House's heavy-handedness toward Israel," Lewin said in an e-mail.

A spokeswoman for Emanuel said Sunday he is a strong backer of Israel.

"Rahm's support for Israel is well known, and he had many supporters in the Jewish community when he represented a half-million Chicagoans in Congress. But he takes nothing for granted and will work to earn the support of every voter in communities across the city," said Lori Goldberg, Emanuel's spokeswoman.

Another person leery of Emanuel on the Israel issue is Norm Levin, who said, "I used to be a devout Democrat."

Levin is president of the Great Vest Side Club, an alumni association of the West Side neighborhood that was once the epicenter of Chicago's Jewish community. (The pronunciation "vest" commemorates the immigrant accent of members' parents.)

"I like to vote for Jewish people," Levin said. "But if they're sort of negative on Israel, they lose me."

Yet that very quality could be a plus for Emanuel among lakefront liberals, many of them secular Jews uncomfortable with a right-leaning Israeli administration.

"I'm sort of hostile to Israel," said James Alter, a founding father of independent politics in Chicago.

He and his late wife, Joanne Alter, also Jewish and a Metropolitan Water Reclamation District trustee, made their Lakeview home a longtime clubhouse for anti-machine activists.

Even so, there are other issues on which liberals clash with Emanuel, said political consultant Don Rose, who is Jewish, a reigning guru of the independent movement.

"We progressives found him unresponsive as a congressman when we wanted him to speak out against the Iraq war," Rose said.

Then there could be a linguistic problem attached to an Emanuel candidacy. Jews think of a Jew in the public eye as representing all of them with his or her behavior, said Chayim Knobloch, a rabbi and proprietor of the Kol Tuv supermarket on Devon.

Emanuel is famous for peppering his conversations with swearing, while Jews have a longstanding caution: "Don't make a shandah for the goyim" — be aware of your behavior in gentile company.

"So I have a small request," Knobloch said. "Rahm should watch his language."

rgrossman@tribune.com

View the original article here

Fox News Poll: Voters Use Midterm Elections to Send Message to White House - FOXNews

With the balance of power in Congress at stake, many voters plan to register dissatisfaction with a Democratic-controlled White House – making the midterm elections a referendum on President Obama.

A Fox News poll released Thursday finds that 41 percent will use their vote this year to express opposition to Obama's policies, compared to 34 percent who describe their vote as expressing support. The message is even clearer among the swing group of independent voters: by an 11 percentage-point margin, independents will cast their ballot to express opposition (41 percent) rather than support (30 percent) for Obama.

That's not surprising given the lack of support for some of the administration's policies. More voters favor rather than oppose repealing the new health care law (46-42 percent). That includes 24 percent of Democrats and 44 percent of independents who want the law repealed.

And by a wide 54-36 percent margin, voters favor legislation stopping the government from spending the hundreds of billions of dollars of unspent stimulus money.

While 57 percent say the Tea Party will not be a factor in their vote for Congress, fully 70 percent of voters support the "main issues the Tea Party has raised" -- calling for lower taxes, less government spending and less government regulation. That includes 49 percent of Democrats.

Those who will use their vote to make a statement on the Tea Party are more likely to cast their ballot as an expression of support for the movement rather than opposition (21-13 percent). It’s important to note the new poll finds just 13 percent consider themselves "part of" the Tea Party movement.

Almost all voters -- 86 percent -- say it feels like the country is still in a recession.

Nearly four in 10 (37 percent) say their family is worse off today compared to two years ago. Just over half (52 percent) say their situation hasn’t changed. Only 11 percent say they are better off today.

Meanwhile, Obama's job rating remains low. Currently 42 percent of voters approve, matching last week’s record low, and 49 percent disapprove. Two weeks ago the president’s rating hit a new low approval (42 percent) and record high disapproval (52 percent).

In addition, 46 percent think Obama is doing a good job "listening to the American people," down slightly from 49 percent in February. Forty-three percent think he’s doing a bad job listening. Yet the president fares better on this measure than those on Capitol Hill. Majorities think Democrats (59 percent) and Republicans in Congress (55 percent) are doing a bad job listening to the American people.

Overall, 72 percent disapprove of the job Congress is doing, including 56 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of independents and 89 percent of Republicans. Likewise, 67 percent agree that the federal government has gotten “totally out of control” and American voters need to clean house.

The national telephone poll was conducted for Fox News by Opinion Dynamics Corp. among 900 registered voters from September 28 to September 29. For the total sample, the poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Click here to view the complete poll results 

Republicans Maintain Edge in 2010 Vote

More Republicans (78 percent) than Democrats (60 percent) are extremely or very interested in the upcoming election, and those who consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement are the most interested group of voters this year (89 percent). In addition, a larger number of Republicans (83 percent) than Democrats (71 percent) are "certain" they will vote in the upcoming election.

That turns into an advantage for the Republicans. With Election Day less than five weeks away, by a 44-38 percent margin, more voters say they would back the Republican candidate in their district than the Democratic candidate if voting today. In mid-September, Republicans also had a 6-point edge on this generic ballot question (46-40 percent).

Among those who are extremely or very interested in the election, the Republican edge increases to 15 points (51-36 percent).

Not only are more Republicans (89 percent) than Democrats (82 percent) backing their party’s candidate, but also Democrats (20 percent) are more than twice as likely as Republicans (9 percent) to say they "dread" voting this year.

Ninety-three percent of those who consider themselves part of the Tea Party, as well as 82 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of Democrats and 67 percent of independents are “looking forward” to voting this year. 

Clinton Preferred Over Obama on Campaign Trail

While 35 percent of voters say they would be more likely to support a candidate if Obama campaigns for them, nearly half -- 48 percent -- say they would be less likely to do so.

Among independents, the president would do even more harm. By a 29-point spread, independents would be less likely (48 percent) to vote for a candidate Obama backs rather than more likely (19 percent).

It's a similar story for First Lady Michelle Obama -- voters would be less likely to vote for a candidate if she campaigns for them by 16 points.

For former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the effect is about the same: by 19 points voters overall would be less likely to vote for a candidate she backs, and by 20-points independents would be less likely.

The most positive response was for former President Bill Clinton. Some 39 percent say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate Clinton backed, while 40 percent say less likely. Even so, among independents, Clinton would do more harm than good: 25 percent say they would be more likely and 40 percent less likely.

Congress Should Vote on Tax Cuts before Election

Most voters -- 76 percent -- favor continuing the Bush tax cuts for those making less than $250,000 a year. That drops to 45 percent support for extending the tax cuts for all Americans, including those making $250,000 or more.

Still, 71 percent think raising taxes right now would be a "mistake" because it would hurt the economy. That’s more than three times as many as think raising taxes is a “necessity” because of the size of the federal deficit (19 percent).

Either way, a 65 percent majority thinks Congress should take action on the Bush tax cuts before the upcoming midterm elections so lawmakers can be held accountable for their vote. That includes more than 6 in 10 Democrats, Republicans and independents.

The Republicans New Pledge to America

Nearly half of voters (47 percent) say they are familiar with the Republican Party’s new “Pledge to America,” which was announced September 23.

Of those at least somewhat familiar with the new Pledge, many more have a favorable (46 percent) than an unfavorable (35 percent) impression of it. For 9 percent it is too soon to say.

Click here to view the raw data 

View the original article here