The long, long learning curve in Arizona …

           Earlier this month, we posted here about how Maricopa County, Arizona had sent out Spanish-language instructions with its Voter ID cards that wrongly stated the election takes place on Nov. 8.  In fact, as the English-language instructions made clear, it’s Nov. 6.

            But hey, anybody can make one mistake.

            Except now the county has made the same mistake again, and once again it involves only material printed in Spanish. 

            According to The Huffington Post:

a bookmark distributed by the elections department … was passed along to HuffPost on Tuesday by minority advocacy group Campaign for Community Change.  It says, "Register today! Exercise your right to V-O-T-E!" and goes on to list important dates. 

            Once again, the English language bookmarks had the correct date, Nov. 6, while some of the Spanish language bookmarks said Nov. 8.  The story continues:

Yvonne Reed, spokesperson for the Maricopa County Department of Elections, told HuffPost that some of the Spanish-language notices were incorrect because the department used the election date from last year, but that they are no longer being distributed.

… BUT NOTHING IS LOST IN TRANSLATION IN MARYLAND

            While Maricopa County seems to be having an extremely difficult time getting materials out in Spanish to help people vote, a group in Maryland has had no trouble at all producing fliers warning noncitizens that it would be a crime for them to vote.  They warn of possible fines, jail time, and/or deportation – as if the one thing a noncitizen wants to do most is call attention to himself by voting illegally.

            The group is supporting a referendum to prevent implementation of Maryland’s DREAM Act, a law providing in-state tuition to the undocumented immigrant students.  The group  had no problem printing its flier in Spanish – and French, Chinese and Korean.

            Perhaps it’s all a matter of motivation.

By the time you vote in Phoenix – will it be too late?

Still another screw-up in connection with Voter ID – this time in Phoenix, Arizona and surrounding suburbs.  There is nothing wrong with the ID cards themselves.  There is nothing wrong with the English-language instructions.  But some sets of Spanish-language instructions – no one knows how many – say the election is on Nov. 8.  Actually, it’s Nov. 6.

This, of course, comes on top of the blunders in Pennsylvania and Kansas noted previously on this blog.

And speaking of Pennsylvania, it seems the state has come up with an ad campaign with the potential to mislead voters.  According to the HarrisburgPatriot, the state has huge ads on the outside of buses featuring a picture of a state driver's license and, in huge type, the words "SHOW IT"   

In fact, while election workers are free to ask for such ID, thanks to a court ruling, Pennsylvania voters are not required to "show it." Presumably, that's why the ads also say, in notably smaller type, “this Election Day if you have it.”  You'd almost think the State of Pennsylvania wants to confuse voters - or worse.

The Patriot quotes one of the lawyers who sued to block the Pennsylvania voter ID law, Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, who noticed that a lot of the "Show it" signs with the great big driver's licenses are on bus shelters in poor neighborhoods where “you have low-income people who don’t have a license because they use mass transit. A cynic might say this is an insidious effort to mislead people. I, of course, am not a cynic.”