Voting-rights suit filed against Chesco

A group of African Americans has sued Chester County government officials, contending that the voting rights of black residents near Lincoln University were violated during the 2008 presidential election.

The federal lawsuit, filed yesterday in District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleges that residents were prevented from voting because of inadequate facilities in the Lower Oxford East precinct.

Residents of the district, which includes Lincoln University, waited in long lines near railroad tracks and often in the rain for up to eight hours.

The lawsuit, filed by a coalition of civil-rights groups, names as defendants Chester County; Commissioners Carol Aichele, Terence Farrell and Kathi Cozzone; the county Board of Elections, made up of the three commissioners; and James Forsythe, director of Chester County Voter Services. They are charged with violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

"We believe that we can prove that this was intentional discrimination on the part of the commissioners, because they wanted to suppress the African American vote because, presumably, it wouldn't be favorable to them," said Michael Churchill of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia.

County Solicitor Thomas Whiteman said he had not received a copy of the lawsuit and could not comment until he had read it.

The five plaintiffs, who waited as long as seven hours or just gave up in their attempt to vote, seek to have the polling place moved to a large gymnasium at Lincoln University, where it was in the early 1990s.

The suit also seeks posting of federal election monitors at the polling place, and unspecified monetary damages for residents who were unable to vote or who faced extreme difficulty while voting.

The lawsuit describes a chaotic scene on Nov. 4, 2008, at the Lincoln Community Association Building, the district polling place with the largest concentration of African American voters in Chester County. Many are students at Lincoln, a historically black college whose graduates include the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Lines at the small community center began forming early in the day, snaking outside, down a flight of stairs, and sometimes onto nearby railroad tracks.

Delays were caused because poll workers did not have up-to-date lists of registered voters, and residents - even those with valid registration cards - were repeatedly challenged by a Republican poll watcher, the suit said.

Plaintiffs Wanda Havelow and Shanisha Smith waited in line for more than six hours, the suit said, and plaintiffs Golden English, Aaron Lloyd, and Darcel Jones gave up after repeated delays and didn't vote.

Farrell, a Republican, was at the site for most of the day, but "shrugged" off and "dismissed" frustrated voters who voiced concern, according to the suit.

The suit also alleges that the circumstances resulted in the lowest turnout of any district in Chester County.

Residents had petitioned to have the site moved before the November election because of anticipated high turnout. The petition was rejected by a 2-1 vote.

None of the commissioners could be reached for comment yesterday, but Farrell had argued earlier that the Election Day crowds resulted not from space limitations but from a sharp increase in new voters.

After the election, residents petitioned the commissioners to change the polling location to the university gym, but it was moved to the Township Building, which is nearly twice as far from the university as the community center, Churchill said.

Joseph Brion, chairman of the Chester County Republican Party, said earlier that some residents who were not Lincoln students did not want their polling place to be on campus. They had written letters to him stating that they did not want their polling place moved because some students in line on Election Day were unruly, he said.