Feb 27, 2007 6:01 pm US/Central
Violence Mars Voting In Contentious Ward Races
by Mike Parker
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
There are charges of violence at the polls Tuesday afternoon. Several campaign volunteers say they were attacked near voting sites.
As CBS 2's Mike Parker reports, some of the volunteers say they have the scrapes and scars to prove it.
Chicago police were called more than once to the polling place at Dvorak Elementary School in the 24th ward. The first incident occurred right after voting began.
Lamont Robinson and others were handing out palm cards for aldermanic candidate Sharon Dixon when first one man, then several others, attacked them. They are still at large.
"The next thing I know he come out jacking with a table leg and started swinging," Robinson said. "When they hit me on my arm...took all the skin off."
"I expected something to happen but I didn't expect physical attacks on volunteers," Sharon Dixon said.
Police hope they won't have to come back.
Over in the 16th ward, candidate for alderman Hal Baskin and a volunteer for one of his opponents scrapped over charges of electioneering too close to this polling place.
"He stepped closer to me… he grabbed my arm," said campaign volunteer Jose Garcia. "Mr. Baskin started calling me names and he said 'If you say anything bad about me, I'm gonna hit you and you're gonna go down.'"
Baskin denied grabbing Garcia's arm.
"He got loud and called me a gang banger," Baskin said.
Baskin denies threatening Garcia and calling him names.
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