Opinion ID: 770321
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Plaintiffs Allegedly Denied Assistance of Their Choice

Text: 62 It is important to remember, in evaluating these claims, what the law and accepted practice were with respect to voters who asked for help. Any voter with a disability was entitled to assistance from any person of his or her choice. It did not matter who the person was. A relative, a friend, even a candidate, was eligible to give assistance. If a voter asked a poll worker to help, two election judges (not just one poll worker) would give assistance.
63 Ruby Coburn was a qualified voter in the City. She requested help in voting on the ground of inability to read well and nerves. Tr. 418, 429. Ms. Coburn asked LaSaundra Johnson for help. Tr. 463. Both Ms. Coburn and Ms. Johnson testified that Mr. Howe gave Ms. Johnson a sheet of paper with an amendment on it, and told her that she had to read that paper before she could help Ms. Coburn in voting. Ms. Johnson refused to read the paper, became upset, and left. Ms. Coburn was then offered assistance from one (apparently not two) poll workers, but she declined. She voted on the machine without assistance. However, because she could not read well, she voted only for about two candidates. 64 Mr. Howe testified that he never stopped Ms. Johnson from helping anyone, Tr. 789, nor did he make anyone read an amendment as a condition to assisting another person to vote, Tr. 790. We are firmly convinced that Mr. Howe's testimony was unreliable. He himself conceded that his memory was fading, and his testimony with respect to the Dixon incident, recounted above, was clearly incorrect, as the videotape showed. Requiring Ms. Johnson to read an amendment (the reference may be to the title of one of the constitutional amendments on the ballot at the time) was improper. It is of course true that Ms. Johnson would need to read in order to assist Ms. Coburn with a reading disability, but that was not the concern of the poll workers. Ms. Coburn had a right to ask anyone to help her, and how well that person could read was no one else's business. We hold that the finding against Ruby Coburn's claim is clearly erroneous, so far as the defendant Howe is concerned. The evidence with respect to the other defendants is either slight or nonexistent, and the judgment in their favor on Ms. Coburn's claim will be affirmed.
65 Willie Taylor is a registered voter and a resident of the City. He asked for help from LaSaundra Johnson (the same person involved in the Coburn incident, just recounted). Mr. Taylor had poor eyesight because of glaucoma. Ms. Freeman and Mr. Howe informed Mr. Taylor that Ms. Johnson could not help him, because she was not kin to him. Mr. Howe testified that he understood that a person needing assistance had to choose a relative or a good friend. Tr. 789. (There is no evidence as to why Mr. Howe would not believe that Ms. Johnson was a good friend of Mr. Taylor's.) Ms. Johnson was not allowed to help Mr. Taylor, and then, at Mr. Taylor's request, Mr. Howe helped him. Mr. Taylor could not see the buttons in the voting machine to punch. He had to tell Mr. Howe how he wanted to vote, and Mr. Howe then punched the buttons. 66 What happened to Mr. Taylor was improper and contrary to law. He had a right to LaSaundra Johnson's help. There is no requirement that she be a relative or a good friend. Violations of state law and election practice, of course, are not, in and of themselves, the same thing as racial discrimination. However, when the alleged violators' conduct is otherwise questionable, and when no plausible justification is asserted, the inference of discriminatory intent is strong in the circumstances of this particular election. We hold that the District Court's finding on Mr. Taylor's claim, so far as the defendants Freeman and Howe are concerned, was clearly erroneous. There is no evidence that the defendants Carlson and Rogers were involved in this incident, and the finding in their favor will therefore be affirmed.