Voter Registration

Making my life far easier in digesting the news :

ACORN registers lots of lower income and/or minority voters. They operate all across the country and do a lot of things beside voter registration. What's key to understand is their method. By and large they do not rely on volunteers to register voters. They hire people -- often people with low incomes or even the unemployed. This has the dual effect of not only registering people but also providing some work and income for people who are out of work. But because a lot of these people are doing it for the money, inevitably, a few of them cut corners or even cheat. So someone will end up filling out cards for nonexistent names and some of those slip through ACORN's own efforts to catch errors. (It's important to note that in many of the recent ACORN cases that have gotten the most attention it's ACORN itself that has turned the people in who did the fake registrations.) These reports start buzzing through the right-wing media every two years and every time the anecdotal reports of 'thousands' of fraudulent registrations turns out, on closer inspection, to be either totally bogus themselves or wildly exaggerated. So thousands of phony registrations ends up being, like, twelve.

Go read the whole thing.

We need every single college kid to vote. The margins of victory for Democrats will be within working-class minorities (which historically do not vote) and the under-30 crowd.

Please remind all teenagers that as long as they turn 18 by the date of the election they can register to vote NOW. And make sure they get that voting registration form sooner than later.

It also needs to be said for college students : if your parents have you as a dependent, then you need to use an absentee ballot. If you claim your college residence as your main mailing address, then you need to vote in the district you live in. Just make sure you follow your state's voter registration instructions.

69% of Latinas do not vote. Even though we have the highest pregnancy rates and the fastest growing incidences of AIDS in the United States. 70% African American and Asian American registered voting women also abstain from voting.

Pass on this video clip to every single, Black, Latian, Asian, Native US American woman you know and ask them to pass it on to their family friends.

Faced with the prospect of a McCain presidency that would squash any hope of Universal Health Care and would put on the bench Supreme Court Justices that would bring back reproductive slavery, it is absolutely necessary that each and every minority woman and man go out and vote.

From the EngageHer blog :

Previously posted at barackobama.com

The sister, all of about 10 years old, marched right up to the folding table Andrew had set up near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for cherry blossom weekend.

Standing rod straight in her rose-colored t-shirt, 3 inches of braids sticking out, one to left and one to right, and with her chin up, she demanded of us in a brassy, matter-of-fact tone, "What are you DOING, here?"

Her younger brother, about 7 years old, crushed up behind his big sister and peered around at us.

"We're registering people to vote", Andrew replied gently, looking eye-to-eye with his young inquisitor, who then declared to Andrew in the same clear brassy tone, "I can't vote". her statement wasn't wistful, not in the least, but rather in the vein of "So what use are you to me, then?".

Andrew said, "We are part of a group who supports Barack Obama for president".

Little Miss Brass, instantly: "Who's THAT?"

There was a substantial pause as Andrew and i contemplated how to describe our candidate to a 10 year old. I scrambled about, looking for Barack's image on something, found him atop a copy of the banner atop our website, a bit distorted from being stretched and thinned, and said, "This guy, right here".

Little Miss Brass braced herself with both hands on the table and leaned over toward me to make out our candidate's picture. A moment of silence ensued, as it registered that the candidate sported her same skin hue.