Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

In the aftermath of the presidential primaries, stories of unprecedented voter registration and turnout are drifting to the back burner. But with an exceedingly imbalanced electorate, the fight to create access to the voting rolls and enforce the voting rights of all Americans continues. With historic voter registration drives underway and a preview of the types of problems that could occur in November, the focus of the media is beginning to shift towards the less sexy, but crucial elements that work to maximize voter participation while ensuring eligible voters can cast their ballots and have them counted. In Project Vote’s view, this is a welcome development since many of the potential issues require more time to sort out than is available if problems are noted only weeks in advance of the election. This week, election officials, advocates and a presidential candidate worked to assist in or restore voting rights for hospitalized veterans in Connecticut, minority citizens in Georgia, and former felons in Tennessee.

Do you live in or near Ohio?  Are you interested in making sure this Midwestern swing state gets colored blue in all of the network maps on November 4?  The Obama campaign has announced its latest action in its effort to make Ohio more Democratic at the presidential level.  This action may also make Ohio more Democratic in the House delegation as well as for other races downticket.  If you are interested in helping this effort, read below the fold for details.

Getting college kids to vote can be a real bitch.  Just like with everything else, it takes some elbow grease to overcome the inherent obstacles involved.  With any luck, this year will be easier than most but I thought I would offer a few tips for increasing the turnout in your area.

College kids move around a lot.  Nearly every freshman moves into a residence hall, frequently from outside the area, and nearly every sophomore moves off campus.  The vagaries of roommate and housing situations take care of the rest right up to the people who have graduated and moved away.  In addition to making voter rolls near universities notoriously unreliable, actually reaching these people to get them registered and to the polls can just plain suck.

Battleground Report:
The Raccoon Fair in W PA

Tractors,
Tilt-a-Whirls
and Obama

By Carl Davidson
Progressives for Obama

Tractor pulls, tilt-a-whirls and dirt track motorcycle races aren’t the usual setting for a literature table featuring the Obama campaign.  But the several thousand local residents who attend the annual Raccoon Township Fair here in Western Pennsylvania every June made it seem like a natural to us, especially after all the local turmoil over "white workers" in the recent Democratic Primary....

Want to help turn Texas Blue?

Want to spend an afternoon with fellow Kossacks and local volunteers  making a real difference?

As previously stated, I am involved in the voter registration drive here in Ohio.  

This is a short diary, but I just had to get this off my chest.

I just can't believe some of the excuses that I have been hearing.  Real classic lines.

Would it be possible to flip Texas back to Blue?

I live here, and I know it reliably sent its electoral college votes to the DEMOCRATIC nominee for President for the lion's majority of its history.  It voted BLUE through the 1960's.  It voted for Carter in 1976.  

What would it take to turn Texas blue in 2008?  

Texas A&M University vs. University of Texas.  University of Michigan vs. Ohio State University.  Duke University vs. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.  They make for great Thanksgiving games, and for good football (and other sports, but really football gets the most attention).  We, as a nation, have grown up on rivalries and division.  It defines us as Americans, and the fact that we don't riot at every game makes us different from the British.  But the division is unhealthy in our politics, and Obama has urged us to be better, to be united as Americans.  So I have a proposal for everyone of you liberal elite in the ivory towers across the nation (I know you are reading this).  Let's overcome our traditional rivalries for Obama.

Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

"Party politics is driving up registration at unusually high rates," Project Vote Deputy Director Michael Slater said in Sunday's New York Times. Slater was referencing the surge of voter registration from both partisan and non-partisan drives "in an effort to change the demographics" of an imbalanced electorate. The flood of interest in the electoral process reportedly has election officials in Louisiana overworked and concerned over how many rejected voter applicants will show up in November thinking they are on the voting rolls.

I started a blog diary for my daughter on mybarackobama.com, to capture my experiences with this election.  This is the second entry.  I realize it will not be of interest to most, but I wanted to post it anyway.

The Candidate-Nominee Crossover
The first article in this series described how some of the most astute political observers were "blindsided by Hope" and Barack Obama’s historic victory, convinced America would continue to be ruled by Freak Show politics.  Eleven organizational principles guided Obama’s campaign for the nomination, which relied heavily on grass roots and community organizing tactics.  The successful "early states" strategy provided enough momentum to carry Obama over the finish line, a race he won by the only measure that counted: delegates.

This article offers a candid assessment of the campaign’s challenges as Obama goes from being a candidate to the nominee.  Obama will adapt his management approach to the general election campaign, internalizing electoral strategy as an important part of the corporate culture.  The internal challenge is melding a grass roots movement with the Democratic Party establishment and limiting expenditures on paid political ads and services.  The external challenge is to avoid inevitable

   The "real" election is closer than you think.

Today in a coffeeshop in El Cerrito, CA, about 20 locals met in a coffeeshop to devise our GOTV strategy from now until election day.

Wow! There was so much energy today for Obama on the parade route of Gay Pride in Boston.  The crowd was excited because Governor Deval Patrick's daughter Catherine had just come out, and the Patrick family marched in the parade.  I expected some excitement for Obama, but I was thrilled to see the intense support as we threaded our way through downtown Boston.

Organizers had a giant rainbow flag, and the volunteers wore Obama/Pride t-shirts.  1000 stickers were printed up to distribute, and they were gone before the march was half over.

When the march terminated at City Hall I joined local activists to do voter registration.  Below are some thoughts for other Pride events.

By aimeeinkc

22 Weeks

                     
                         3480 Hours
                   

As some of you know, I am trying to initiate a voter registration drive in Mississippi.  It's a daunting task organizing everything, with all the research that comes with it, but I think it will be very rewarding.

By Nathan Henderson-James

In These Times' July 2008 cover story, Expand The Vote, posted to its website on June 11, prominently features Project Vote's work to create an electorate that is representative of the American citizenry. 

Adam Doster, an In These Times  senior editor, frames the article by showcasing Project Vote's 1992 Illinois voter registration drive, directed by young recent law school graduate Barack Obama, and shows the impact that members of underrepresented groups can have in elections, no matter who they choose to support. 

I am posting the email I received after the jump.  That was the title...Double Your Impact...  As many of you know.  I'm an undecided voter.  Yup.  Haven't made up my mind.  Like all Kossacks I encourage you to sign up with John McCain and the RNC so that you can receive many expensive, glossy materials.  Remember to recycle!  And don't leave an email address.  That way they have to send you stuff.  I thought about that too late...  Now on with that email.