Voting Isn't Easy in Springfield, MA

I listened to the radio today and a liberal talk show host had a caller from Springfield, MA. The caller, a young white guy, had moved a few years ago to a mostly black poor neighborhood. And he has not been able to get registered to vote since. For some reason, most of the people who live where he does are not on the rolls. Technical reasons, nobody is sure why, have made it impossible for this guy to vote, for mayor, for senator, even for president.

The caller recalled that in white Northampton, MA, the local paper decried the
low voter turnout, yet his experience was that he couldn't get his vote to count.

I remember voting booth irregularies in Florida in 2000, and in Ohio in 2004, but I didn't realize that Springfield, MA too, has this distinction of making it very difficult for some of the poorest residents to get registered and cast votes.