Open Left - Florida

CA Measure to Improve Youth Voter Engagement Goes to Governor

project vote — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Cross-posted to Project Vote's Voting Matters Blog

The California Legislature approved a bill last week to extend voter registration privileges to 17-year-old citizens. If signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the bill would help put California youth on the road to a lifetime of democratic participation.
Nearly half of all eligible voters under age 30 nationwide were not registered to vote in 2008. Assembly Bill 30 extends voter registration opportunities to all 17-year-olds, not just those who will be 18 by the next election, as current California law allows. This change would "make implementation of preregistration more efficient and streamlined, and should lead to less confusion," wrote Elizabeth Wu of the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy group, in a press release Tuesday. AB 30 would more effectively reach young people in high school civics classes and voter registration drives, and ultimately get them on the rolls in advance of turning the legal voting age of 18.

Voter registration is "one of the largest barriers to voting," said Steven Hill, director of the foundation's Political Reform Program, because "citizens often become energized by candidates or issue campaigns in the last weeks of an election only to find they are not registered to vote." The idea of allowing young people to register in advance not only has them ready to participate upon turning 18, but it also instills civic duty at an early age.

"Research has demonstrated that developing good 'political engagement' habits at a younger age will increase the likelihood of civic participation as an adult," said Hill. "AB 30 will help break the 'disengagement cycle' that often prevents young people from developing habits of participation that carry over into their adult years."

While several states like California already permit certain 17-year-old citizens to preregister to vote, only five extend the opportunity to all 16 or 17-year-olds. States with laws similar to the pending AB 30 include Louisiana and Oregon. Preregistration is also extended to citizens as young as 16 in states like Hawaii, Florida, and most recently, North Carolina, which passed House Bill 908 into law last month.

Rhode Island also passed a preregistration bill earlier this summer, only to be vetoed by Governor Donald Carcieri. However, FairVote - a voting rights group that has long championed preregistration in the state - hopes that with the "huge majorities in favor of the bill in both the RI House and Senate this year," the General Assembly will override the governor's veto, according to a July blog entry. Proving to be a popular year for preregistration, a similar measure was adopted by the Michigan House. The pending HB 4261 awaits a hearing in the Senate Committee on Campaign and Election Oversight.

To monitor the California and Michigan bills, visit www.ElectionLegislation.org.

Bringing Sunshine to the Netroots Nation

T Rex — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:12:39 GMT

By: Kendrick Meek

As a candidate running to represent Florida in the U.S. Senate and as a four-term member of Congress with a 15-year public service record, I have taken great pride in representing my constituents to the best of my ability. In recent years, there has been an explosion of new technologies that help elected officials stay more in touch with their constituents. Later this week, in Pittsburgh, the top people behind the creation of that technology and the best practitioners of this new media will be gathered at Netroots Nation. I'll be there with them learning from the best.

Netroots Nation is one of the most important annual events in the progressive movement and it is both a place where I can reach out to some of the key opinion leaders in the online world and, hopefully, a place where I can learn how to more effectively use new media tools. I tweet, and maintain a fan page and personal page on Facebook, but new media is not only about the latest social networking sites online or applications on my iPhone. It's about issues and public policy, and finding ways to help our economy move from recession to recovery and the men and women who attend Netroots Nation have critical ideas on how we move our country forward.
While I'm in Pittsburgh, my key goal will be to talk to as many people in attendance as possible, but equally important, to listen to as many people in attendance as possible too.

As a candidate running for the U.S. Senate, I am qualifying for the ballot by petition. Never before in the history of Florida has a statewide candidate successfully qualified for the ballot in this untraditional way. As I am travelling throughout the state, I am listening and learning from Floridians of all political backgrounds who want to play a vital role in our state's future. That is the type of attitude that I will bring to this gathering in Pittsburgh.

One of the first events I'll be participating in is a panel on the rising issue of energy independence for our national security. At 4:30, I'll be joining blogger Adam Siegel, Houston Mayor Bill White and VetVoice Editor Richard Smith for this important discussion. I'll also be attending the Candidate's Forum on Friday Night.

On Saturday and Sunday, I'll be talking with as many bloggers and activists as I can throughout the day. Florida will be going through an important election for U.S. Senate in 2010 and I want to connect with any writers who may be blogging about the election, about my campaign or about our potential opponents, including Governor Charlie Crist and former Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio. Florida is a key state in many ways and who represents us in the Senate will influence many issues, from oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to climate change to health care and beyond. In addition to individual meetings throughout the day, we'll be holding a discussion with our friends from Florida from 3-4 p.m. in the convention center, room 312. I'll also be attending the Daily Kos party that night. If you are interested in the election or would like to talk to me about these or other issues, contact my New Media Director, Kenneth Quinnell, at kenneth@kendrickmeek.com

I'd like to thank the organizers of Netroots Nation for their help in accommodating my staff and I and helping us connect with the convention attendees. I look forward to talking to you in Pittsburgh.

Draft Annette Taddeo for Florida's CFO

T Rex — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:44:30 GMT

Last week, 2008 congressional challenger Annette Taddeo suggested she might be interested in a possible run for CFO. This would be a very good idea.

If you already know about Annette and agree, go sign the petition and encourage her to jump into the race. You don't have to be a Floridian to sign the petition, either, we want to show her that people across the country support her. And, trust me, you want talented, progressive Democrats in charge in Florida, it'll help everyone.

Taddeo ran a strong campaign against Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Florida's 18th District. Despite widespread support and much excitement generated by her candidacy, she was unable to overcome the popularity of the incubment, who had the vast resources of her office and long career in politics to hold off the newcomer. Taddeo did establish herself as a progressive politician to keep an eye on, though.
Upon hearing that she might consider running to replace Alex Sink as Florida's chief financial officer, several bloggers, Fried Gator and myself included, decided that this was something we really wanted to see happen. So, we've launched a new blog Draft Annette Taddeo for CFO and a petition to convince that this is the best way that Annette can serve the state and this is her best career option right now. Since she has expressed openness to running for CFO, we want her to know that she has the support of the people. Maybe that will convince her to take the plunge and join the race.

And this is the year to do it. It looks like the Republicans will offer up a slate of old white guys for Florida's state-wide offices. And not just any old white guys, the same old white guys that got us in the mess we are in now. Democrats, on the other hand, are looking to field a diverse group of candidates for office -- women, African-Americans, Jewish candidates. Wouldn't it be great to add another woman -- a Colombian woman -- to that field? And wouldn't it be great to see a cabinet with a gender make-up that reflected our actual population.

This is particularly true when the Colombian woman in question is so well-qualified for the job. She's got great experience to serve as CFO. She is the founder and CEO of LanguageSpeak, a company with many huge clients across the nation. LanguageSpeak isn't just any corporation, either, it's a company with the goal of bettering society built right in to its mission. They provide language services including translations, interpretors and tutoring in over 100 languages. Taddeo is working on bring the world closer together through better communication. Sounds to me like the type of person I want running our government.

During the 2008 campaign, Annette consistantly came down on the right side of the issues. She endorsed the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq. She opposed the Defense of Marriage Act and the Bush global gag rule on abortion. She supported reporductive rights, domestic partnerships, renewable energy and the expansion of early childhood education.

If this sounds like the type of person you want in Tallahassee, sign the petition.

It was stances like those above that helped garner Annette widespread support from Florida bloggers. Florida Progressive Coalition endorsed her and she was frequently supported by blogs like Discourse.net and Miami-Dade Dems, among others.

Many of the best organizations on the left supported her candidacy last time around, showing that it wasn't just Florida bloggers who liked her. She was endorsed by Feminist Majority, NOW, EMILY's List, Florida AFL-CIO, People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood, DFA, Women's Campaign Forum, Congressional Hispanic Caucus' BOLD PAC, Russ Feingold's Patriot Corps and Red to Blue.

Another thing I love about Taddeo is that she's very plugged in to the Netroots and is supportive of bloggers and online activists. She appeared on a "Future Leaders" panel at Netroost Nation last year and her campain brought in attention from national blogs such as Daily Kos, Open Left, firedoglake, Swing State Project, Huffington Post, AMERICAblog, MyDD and many others. She raised more than $80 thousand on Act Blue last time around, putting her far ahead of most Florida congressional candidates.

Is that enough to convince you to sign the petition.

If you want to see for yourself how great she is, check Annette out in action at Netroots Nation in 2008:

You can also learn more from her Blue America chat or by watching her memorable Pea Pod ad from last year's campaign:

Did I mention you should sign the petition?

Read more on Florida politics at the Florida Progressive Coalition blog (http://flaprogressives.org) and the Florida Progressive Coalition Wiki (http://quinnell.us/sspb/wiki/).

How Can We Hold Prosecutors Accountable for Misconduct?

John Terzano - The Justice Project — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:55:15 GMT

Prosecutors are rarely held accountable for acts of misconduct or abuses of power in our country. Yet another example of this reality comes from a case out of Florida, where prosecutors engaged in egregious, intentional courtroom misconduct throughout the trial. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately upheld the conviction in the case because they found that the misconduct did not affect the outcome of the trial.

The law provides judges with tools that guide them to weigh prosecutorial misconduct against the facts of a case to determine whether the misconduct was severe enough to affect the outcome of the trial. Regardless of what appellate courts decide (i.e., to uphold the conviction or remand it for retrial), the simple truth is that misconduct has occurred. Unfortunately, the system does not provide judges with tools to guide them on how to address acts of prosecutorial misconduct. While defense attorneys, fellow prosecutors, and judges are ethically obligated to report acts of misconduct by prosecutors to the proper disciplinary authority, this reporting rarely happens. When prosecutors do face disciplinary proceedings, meaningful sanctions are uncommon and rarely go further than a public censure.
As a result, prosecutors can predict how much misconduct will be tolerated by the system before a case even goes to trial. As long as the misconduct doesn't prejudice the outcome of a trial to the point that a conviction is reversed, the misconduct will slip through the cracks and the prosecutor will not face any consequences.

Many actors within the system recognize that prosecutorial misconduct in our nation's courtrooms is a pervasive problem, and that prosecutors need to be held more accountable for abuses of discretion. In the Florida case mentioned above, Justice Ramirez stated in his dissenting opinion that, "over the years, it has been my unfortunate experience to see a long procession of assistant State attorneys repeatedly violate clear precedent in their zeal to convict." He also makes clear his intention to publish the names of the prosecutors in the Southern Reporter-a rare move considering many judges often actively withhold the names of offending prosecutors from their published opinions.

Unfortunately, the prosecutors in the Florida case will likely face little or no punishment for their misconduct. As explained in The Justice Project's recent publication, Prosecutorial Accountability: A Policy Review, when reviewing claims of prosecutorial misconduct, appeals courts must abide by the "harmless error" rule, in which a conviction must be upheld if the evidence against the defendant is strong enough-regardless of the misconduct committed by prosecutors. As a result, the convictions in the vast majority of prosecutorial misconduct cases are upheld, seldom resulting in reversals or modifications of convictions.

Appellate judges' have their hands tied by the harmless error rule, and even if they do identify prosecutors by name, as Justice Ramirez intends to do in the Florida case, or report the misconduct, state disciplinary authorities typically do not effectively respond to prosecutorial misconduct.

Why not create mechanisms to hold prosecutors accountable for all acts of misconduct-harmless or not? The Justice Project's policy review recommends jurisdictions establish prosecutorial review boards responsible for investigating all allegations of misconduct and imposing sanctions. In order to ensure the review board is aware of all allegations of misconduct, our policy review also recommends jurisdictions statutorily require trial and appellate judges to report acts of misconduct, regardless of whether the misconduct was deemed "harmless error."

With such a review board in place, appellate judges like Ramirez in the Florida case would have the tools available to them to contribute to the process of holding prosecutors accountable by reporting them to an appropriate and effective disciplinary authority. Until prosecutors face the real threat of discipline, such as fines, suspension, or even disbarment, it is likely that the pervasive abuses of power and egregious acts of misconduct that exist in our criminal justice system will only continue.

John F. Terzano is President of The Justice Project, a nonpartisan organization that works to increase fairness and accuracy in the criminal justice system.

Bad Election Bill Riles Up Advocates, Concerns Fla. Governor

project vote — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 04:00:00 GMT

For most states this year, the economic crisis has taken precedent over other serious policy issues, including election reform. In fact, the few key states that are dedicating this year's session to election reform instead of major budget issues are stirring up voters as they put their rights on the line. Like the highly publicized battles to pass voter ID in Texas and proof-of-citizenship registration requirements in Georgia, Florida's notorious 80-plus page omnibus election bill takes the cake in breaking the spirit of democracy.
The Florida legislature is currently under fire for suddenly focusing on what critics call "draconian" measures that could potentially suppress voters.

"Our state faces the most dramatic budget crisis in recent memory and lawmakers are fast-tracking a bill loaded with costs that will discourage voter participation?" said Florida Public Interest Group spokesman, Brad Ashwell in a St. Petersburg Times report Monday.

Companion bills SB 956 and HB 7149 propose to raise multiple voting barriers through voter ID limitations, voter registration drive restrictions, excessive voter purges and increased reliance upon provisional ballots.

Although State Senator Alex Dias de la Portilla (R-Miami) claimed that the measures were a "response to complaints and problems in the 2008 elections" in an April 15 New York Times report, the legislature is virtually shutting off public input while denying an explanation for how the bill would address those complaints.

"This ridiculous bill [SB 956] surfaced in the dead of night with no attempt to really discuss, question or debate what was going on," said Rep. Janet Long (D-Seminole) in the St. Petersburg Times report. According to the report, public testimony was limited in the Senate to "about 10 minutes, and a House council shut down debate after only six minutes and denied several people the chance to testify in public."

Serious criticisms of the bills were aired in the New York Times' Sunday editorial, which noted the bills' potential impact on the state's "sizable" elderly voting bloc, as well as its poor and minority voters.

The bills would restrict the use of photo IDs from retirement centers or neighborhood associations at the polls, an amendment that "would be a serious hardship for the many elderly people who do not have driver's licenses.

"The legislation would also impose onerous and unnecessary rules on voter registration drives, including a requirement that registration forms must be turned in within 48 hours," the Times editorialized. "Grass-roots voter registration drives play an important role in getting poor and minority voters registered. If this legislation passes, however, many groups may stop registering voters rather than risk jail sentences or fines."

The Times also raised concern over the bills' provision to "require election officials to purge voter rolls more frequently," noting the state's "sore point" regarding improper purges of voter rolls before the 2000 election, which resulted in the disenfranchisement of eligible voters.

Mobile voters, who tend to be young, low income, and minority citizens would also be affected by the measures, which would "require any voter whose address changes less than 29 days before an election to cast a provisional ballot," the St. Petersburg Times wrote. Those voters, however "can now update their addresses at the polls when they vote."

On Thursday, more than 38 voting rights groups, including Project Vote signed a letter to Republican Governor Charlie Crist, urging him to "speak out forcefully against these bills and to veto any resultant legislation." The groups continued, "instead of fixing real problems-such as expanding access to early voting as you directed in November-they would disenfranchise eligible Floridians, for no legitimate reason and at significant taxpayer expense."

While the bill quickly advances in the legislature, the uncertainty of Florida's voting rights remains in question. According to the New York Times, "some of the proposed changes may have to be reviewed by the Department of Justice. Because of past voter-discrimination complaints, five counties in the state must have any changes to registration procedures cleared by the federal government."

Crist has questioned the necessity of the bill, "strongly" hinting that he may veto it if it passes the legislature.

"What is it we're trying to cure?" asked Crist in the St. Petersburg Times report. "The more opportunity you give people to vote, the better it is for democracy. So that aspect of it concerns me."

To monitor SB 956 and other election bills, visit www.electionlegislation.org or subscribe to the weekly Election Legislation digest, featuring election bills in all 50 states, by emailing Erin Ferns at eferns [at] projectvote.org.

States Move to Create Culture of Voter Engagement through Preregistration

project vote — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 04:00:00 GMT

By Erin Ferns

The rising levels of voter participation among the nation's youth continue to be challenged by the current voter registration system, perpetuating the difficulty of fostering lifelong voters. Some states are proposing to take this challenge into their own hands by making voter registration accessible to citizens as young as 16. Already widely accessible at schools and departments of motor vehicles, the move would allow future voters in some states to automatically be enrolled on the voter rolls on their 18th birthdays, a change that advocates say could "close the registry gap between young voters and the rest of the population."
California and Rhode Island are among the states that have introduced legislation permitting 16- and 17-year-old citizens to register to vote in advance of their 18th birthdays. Rhode Island bills, SB 85 and HB 5005 show promise to pass the legislature - a prospect that is nothing new to the state, which has passed such bills three years in a row only to have them vetoed by the governor, according to research and advocacy group, Fair Vote.

"It's good public policy to get young people involved as early as possible in the democratic process," said Fair Vote Rhode Island Director Matt Sledge in Brown University's Daily Herald last week. The preregistration bill, he said, would "close the registry gap between young voters and the rest of the population."

Today, multiple states allow certain citizens under age 18 to preregister to vote, including Rhode Island and California. However, Hawaii and Florida are the only states to have enacted dedicated preregistration laws that permit all citizens as young as 16 to register to vote, which advocates argue is the best way to incorporate youth into the democratic process.

Institutionalizing preregistration not only makes it easier to conduct and participate in voter registration activities on high school campuses and DMVs since it captures more young people before they graduate, but it also helps "boost the effectiveness of civics education by tying it directly to civic participation through the opportunity to preregister," according to a Fair Vote report. The report further notes that "uniform" preregistration laws, like those in Hawaii and Florida, help alleviate general voter registration ills by acting as a "cost-effective step toward greater standardization, which means a cleaner, more accurate data set. Pre-registration could also save money and minimize human error by allowing students to register year round at points of civic engagement and education..."

Advocates say California is a prime place to engage and enfranchise its diverse population, which is "especially apparent in high schools today." According to a 2007 proposal for preregistration in California by the public policy group, New America Foundation, "if young people are not hooked into democratic institutions and practices while they're in high school, it becomes more difficult to do so after they leave high school."

The group emphasized that young people become more difficult to "contact or engage" directly after high school, resulting in a "'disengagement cycle' that becomes increasingly difficult to break. High school, in many cases, is the final opportunity to fully engage young people about participating in our democracy. Having common sense practices for engaging young people in high school is crucial. One of the most effective efforts is to lower the age for voter registration to sixteen."

Although California has yet to pass a bill to lower the voter registration age to 16, there is still an effort underway. Last week, preregistration bill AB 30 was reported favorably out of committee last week. It is now pending in the Assembly committee on Appropriations.

California and Rhode Island also show that they are on the right track toward engaging young people by mandating schools to serve as voter registration agencies or to facilitate drives on campus, both effective ways to facilitate civic engagement through education. The next step is to combine those good laws with legislation to lower the "effective engagement age" in order to capture more future voters while helping standardize the voter registration system in general.

Rhode Island senator and sponsor of SB 85, Rhoda Perry agrees that preregistration would "get more people involved in the civic process," the Brown Daily Herald reported. The only problem with the bill, she said, is that "the governor vetoes it." There is hope for future voters in Rhode Island, however, as preregistration is increasing gaining support in the legislature, a change that Perry said may be just enough to override the governor's veto.

To monitor youth voting bills in these states, visit www.electionlegislation.orgor subscribe to the weekly Election Legislation digest, featuring election bills in all 50 states, by emailing Erin Ferns at eferns [at] projectvote.org.

Two Primaries With ONE TRUE DEMOCRAT

mp — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:36:14 GMT

In recent front page entries on OpenLeft like We Must Stop Raising Money For Blue Dogs Chris Bowers and others have done a great job of discussing mistakes being made and where the focus should be in general terms. I chipped in a late comment No No No on that particular post that I've heard myself saying a lot over the past two years.

In real terms, RIGHT NOW there are two primaries that have one obvious choice for real Democrats - Virginia's 2009 Gubernatorial primary and Florida's 2010 Senate Primary - both open seat races in bluing states.

Brian Moran for Virginia Governor
and
Dan Gelber for US Senator, Flordia
There are three contenders for the nomination of the Governor of Virgina, in basic spectrum positioning from left to right we have Fmr State Delegate Brian Moran, Fmr DNC Chair and Clinton Aide Terry McAuliffe, and State Senator Creigh Deeds.

Of course what skews the "spectrum analysis" is that McAuliffe is one of the original DLC Power Players - quick to sell out democratic values where there is money to be had. Case in point - this video highlighting McAuliffe's love of Clean Coal:

an industry created fiction. This is also the guy who was introducing Hillary Clinton as "The next president of the United States AFTER Obama had clinched the nomination. He recently had a fundraiser co-hosted by Bush 41 White House aide Ed Rogers (learn more about the event here).

McAuliffe's DNC strategy was everything we now oppose, everything Howard Dean changed for the better - out with precisely targeting our resources to only try for a select few districts, in with the 50-state strategy that gave us the majorities and President we now enjoy. He is all about the repugnant back room strong arming and deal making, an opponent of open and honest governing.

He isn't from Virginia, hasn't been active in Virginia politics (ever) and is literally trying to buy the election in every way possible - going as far as buying 400 of less than 1000 tickets to a straw poll event and giving them away to supporters, ensuring a strong showing in the poll.

Virginia has been trending blue steadily for years, shifting from two Republican Senators to two Democratic Senators with the elections of Mark Warner (2008 by a landslide) and Jim Webb (by a highly motivated electorate driven by a youtube video in 2006), a Democratic majority in the state Senate, a shrinking gap in the House of Delegates, and a number of Red-to-Blue US House pickups in 2006 and 2008(highlighted by Perriello's ousting of Virgil Goode), completed with an Obama victory. We have held the governors office since Mark Warner took office in 2002, but the current Democratic Governor is supporting a ban on stem-cell research and a number of other "anti-Democratic" issues while serving as the new Chairman of the DNC.

For those not aware, Virginia has one of the oddest "term limits" laws for Governor I've come across - you may serve as many terms as you like, as long as none of them are consecutive. Hence Kaine is term limited and the three Democrats will fight to oppose a Republican State Party apparatus that has been in disarray since the Webb/Warner Campaign.

So to me, the choice is obvious - Moran, certainly isn't perfect, but he is a proud Democrat who talks like a Democrat and supports Democratic principles is running against the DLC Man and a guy who is a nice guy, but far too conservative for my tastes - speaking like a Republican on a number of issues including Guns, Religion, and Abortion.

This choice will be made in just a few weeks and will have a huge impact on the campaigns run throughout Virginia in the 2009 State Delegate and Senate races and rolling into the 2010 Federal races. Moran was ahead a couple points in recent polling, but it is a tight race and every dime counts, want to make a difference? Donate here.

So in to 2010 in the Second race that matters RIGHT NOW. In Florida we have two prominate candidates already in the race for the Senate Seat being vacated by Mel Martinez, Representative Kendrick Meek and State Senator Dan Gelber.

Meek is the son of a beloved Congresswoman, Carrie Meek, serving in a hugely Democratic District where he has run unopposed each and every time. Yet he has raised $3.5 million with 48% coming from PACs, and spent $3 Million. Running unopposed. Paying consultants and other organizations outside his district for expensive services that make very little sense for a candidate running unopposed. I'm not saying he shouldn't campaign, I'm saying the expense of a consultant for GOTV is pretty silly among other things. For more on the money trail and the quality of Congressman Meek's character - check out this piece.

He's been in Congress since 2002 - surely he has done something meaningful in that time, right? Nope. He has authored nothing that has been signed in to law, most of his measures die in committee save for your standard "recognizing and honoring" and naming of federal buildings (post offices, etc). There is no issue for which he has been a vocal player on the national stage, no evidence he is ready to be one of the 100 members of the United States Senate.

The Senate has been in decline as more and more "mediocre" men and women have entered the body as the costs of campaigning have risen dramatically. The Florida Senate race could cost upwards of $10 million, even $20 million... Meek brings something to the table in this regard, he is strongly supported by the Clinton's, with former President Bill Clinton having twice made trips down to raise funds for his campaign. Several organizations have made early endorsements of Meek, including SEIU helping to push him forward - without much review of the other candidates and campaigns more than 20 months from the election.

Can Kendrick Meek, This Guy, out raise State Senator Dan Gelber in the primary? Probably. The more reason you should help Gelber - who has been a champion fighting tooth and nail in a vastly outnumbered Florida State Legislature against the Governor and Majority GOP. Here is a fantastic mash-up video:

real leadership in action, a powerful progressive voice unafraid to be attacked by the media or opponents for speaking what he believes. THAT is what we need.

The Primary in Florida is over a year away, but winning campaigns are built on early money and steady money - something PAC/Corporate powered candidates and incumbents rely on - take the time to learn about these candidates and races, and when you come to the same conclusion I have, and I am confident you will, GET INVOLVED NOW, not 6 months from now, not 2 weeks before the primary when your dollar is worth so much less. You can contribute to Dan Gelber's campaign here.

Back in October I wrote this about the value of a Dollar through the life of a campaign. This is the time to act - give $50 a month, $20 a month, whatever you can afford to give and support great candidates and make them the candidates the national media and blogosphere rave about later. Here's a fun way to do it a man I met along the campaign trail does...he finds candidates he likes and every time they do something he likes, he puts a one of five dollar bill in a jar, every time they do something he dislikes he takes a bill out, the last week of the quarter when all those fund raising emails come in, he adds up whats in the jar and sends it (via credit card) to the candidate. Suddenly your spare change is a political weapon.

This has been a long diary and few will read it all I'm sure, but I hope at least a couple people will get this far and think about their actions over the next few months while most are resting on their laurels or throwing good money at bad candidates. These two candidates are far different men, but each represents a contrast from his opponent(s) that is very stark - the difference between just "more democrats" and BETTER DEMOCRATS. Can TMac win the General in Virginia? Yes, I think so - he will have absurd amounts of money and a crippled opposition. What will happen next? Pretty much the same thing that happened when President Clinton took the White House, Party Building will collapse, seats in the legislature will erode and we will get more bans on stem cells and set backs in equal rights for the state of Virginia.

In Florida, a strong, proud progressive campaign state wide hasn't been seen in a long time, coupled with the gains made over the last 2 cycles and the number of open seats (Governor, Adam Putnam's House Seat, Meek's House Seat, and likely more retirements over the next year), we could see a real shift in the state, and likely that whatever happens here will get national media attention throughout the campaign season.

To have a voice like Gelber's joining the strong voice of Freshman Congressman Alan Grayson would be a fantastic addition to the national dialogue. The choice really is ours.

Florida Exoneration Reveals a Lack of Prosecutorial Accountability

John Terzano - The Justice Project — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:33:39 GMT

Last week, after spending 28 years in prison for a murder he did not commit William Dillon was finally freed. DNA testing conducted by the Florida Innocence Project convinced prosecutors in Brevard County, Florida not to re-try Dillon for the 1981 murder. A story in the Florida Today newspaper recounted the numerous acts of prosecutorial misconduct in Dillon's case that led to this miscarriage of justice.
Dillon was convicted based on the testimony of a handful of unreliable witnesses, including a discredited expert, whose testimony was used to convict two other men in Florida - Wilton Dedge and Juan Ramos. Both of their convictions were later overturned. Another questionable tactic that led to Dillon's wrongful conviction included the use of a witness who slept with an investigator for the State. She later recanted her story but the damage had already been done.

This is not the first time prosecutorial misconduct played a role in a wrongful conviction. Dillon's case only represents one of what may have become a common occurrence in the Florida State Attorney's office.

Evidence of pervasive prosecutorial misconduct in Florida is not inconsistent with other national studies on this issue. In 2003, a study conducted by the Center for Public Integrity found that since 1970, at least 2,012 convictions, indictments, or sentences have been reversed due to prosecutorial misconduct. By analyzing the data provided by the Center for Public Integrity, The Justice Project found that in the state of Florida specifically, of the cases that were reviewed by the courts on claims of prosecutorial misconduct, over 44% of those cases were eventually overturned. This rate of misconduct is much greater than any other state reviewed in the study.

Procedural reforms, such as those outlined in The Justice Project's policy reviews on jailhouse snitch testimony, expanded discovery laws, and the practice and use of forensic science, can curb the ability of prosecutors to utilize unreliable witnesses, withhold important exculpatory evidence, or present faulty forensic evidence. However, without prosecutorial accountability, prosecutorial misconduct can still lead to wrongful convictions. Unfortunately, both national and local studies of prosecutorial misconduct reveal that prosecutors are rarely punished even for the most egregious abuses of power. Within the criminal justice system, there is a dangerous and pervasive lack of prosecutorial accountability. Nowhere is this lack of accountability more clear than in the state of Florida.

As such, I join Florida Today and the Florida Innocence Project in their call for a special investigation into the Florida State Attorney's office. Abuse of prosecutorial power only facilitates wrongful convictions, subverts justice, and jeopardizes public safety. Investigating the prosecutors who might be responsible for the miscarriages of justice in Florida would be a critical first step in preventing acts of misconduct in the future.

In 2009, the Justice Project will release Prosecutorial Accountability: A Policy Review, which will detail comprehensive recommendations for an effective system of prosecutorial accountability. Only when the most powerful actors in the criminal justice system are held accountable for their actions, and sanctioned for their misconduct, can states be confident in the fairness and reliability of criminal trials.

John F. Terzano is President of The Justice Project, a nonpartisan organization that works to increase fairness and accuracy in the criminal justice system.

Lawmakers Target Individual Voters, While Failing to Address Systemic Problems

project vote — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:36:20 GMT

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

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

Recent analyses of the 2008 general election find that overall participation increased on November 4, with a significant surge in voter participation among historically underrepresented Americans. Yet, while some lawmakers have been inspired by the recent voter turnout to propose election reforms that expand access to voting rights, others continue to focus on creating additional barriers to voting.
While new legislation aims to create additional hurdles to prevent one of the rarest election crimes-individual voter fraud-- some more serious election administration problems have still not been addressed a month (and, in some cases, years) after they were identified as Election Day problems, and little to no legislation to improve the way states manage voter rolls or distribute provisional ballots has been filed to date.

"I know there's a perception out there that this election proceeded more smoothly than the one four years ago," said election law expert at Ohio State University, Dan Tokaji in a recent Associated Press report. "But it's also clear from this election that we've got serious problems that remain," he said.

The inconsistency among states in interpreting federal election law is proving problematic in the administration of elections. Provisional ballots, for example, which are granted to voters who encounter "voter registration problems or because a person had signed up to vote by mail but wanted to cast their ballot at the polls," are counted differently from state to state, rendering many legitimate ballots ineligible if not cast within the correct county or even precinct.

In Colorado, a recent lawsuit to look into the questionable purging of 44,000 voters led to the investigation of whether 69 rejected provisional ballots were actually legitimate, according to Rocky Mountain News reporter, Myung Oak Kim.

"The analysis is being done as a result of a lawsuit filed last month by state and national voter-rights groups against Secretary of State Mike Coffman," Kim wrote. "The plaintiffs claimed that Coffman inappropriately removed scores of people from the voter rolls in violation of a federal law that prohibits purging of voter files within 90 days of a federal election. Coffman contends that it was legal to remove 44,000 voter files since May."

About 365 voters with canceled registrations cast provisional ballots, wrote Kim. Statewide, more than 53,000 provisional ballots were cast, about 80 percent of which were actually counted.

In 2004, acceptance rate of provisional ballots varied from 96 percent in Alaska to 6 percent in Delaware, according to a Project Vote report, Maximizing the Effectiveness of Provisional Voting.

These kinds of inconsistencies are also being challenged in Ohio for their potential to violate "citizens' equal protection and due process rights," according to the Associated Press . The report announced the court's decision to move forward with a lawsuit challenging the state's voting system after the 2004 presidential election.

"The Ohio lawsuit cites examples of voters in some counties who were misdirected by poll workers, believe their votes were miscounted or not counted at all, found broken or not enough voting machines at their polling sites, and it also alleges misuse of provisional ballots. It claims the irregularities fell disproportionately on minority voters," AP reports.

The case, filed by the League of Women Voters three years ago, cites election system issues that date back to 1971. And yet the problems persisted in 2008, according to Pete Johnson of The Free Press. According to this story, a coalition of Election Day observers from The Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism and the Ohio Green Party found an "outrageous" number of provisional ballots being distributed in inner city precincts due to misinterpretation of voter ID law and even data errors on voter rolls. Malfunctioning machines were also reportedly a serious voting inhibitor.

Despite state compliance issues with state and federal election law to protect and facilitate voting rights, from registration to ballot casting, several states are attempting to institutionalize barriers instead.

After instituting Same Day Registration during the early voting period this year to the dismay of state partisans, Ohio Republican lawmakers are attempting to halt the practice by passing a bill (SB 380) that would require voters to be registered 30 days before the early voting period, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Most states require voters to register 30 days before the actual election.

Proposals in other states to implement Same Day or Election Day Registration are being met with resistance from election officials. In West Virginia, for example, according to local newspaper, Beckley Register-Herald, "a proposal before a legislative interims panel would allow potential voters to come by Election Day, get registered and promptly mark ballots, all in one convenient trip."

But many elections clerks are against the proposal out of unsubstantiated fear of voter fraud.
"They don't realize what a monster they're trying to create," Raleigh County, W. Va. Clerk, Betty Riffe said of proposed EDR in the state. "They should, with other states trying it and all the problems they've had. I don't think it's a good idea." According to public policy group, Demos, voter fraud in EDR states is rare. Over three federal election cycles (1999-2005), "only 10 discrete incidents of voter fraud or alleged voter fraud that appeared
to have some merit [were found]. Of these, there was only one case of voter impersonation at the polls-ironically one of the most frequently claimed abuses when fraud enters the public debate."

And the isolated voter fraud problems that led to federal investigation "were directly attributable
to clerical errors, poll worker shortages and incompetence, not any organized scheme or intent on the
part of voters to scam the system," according to the report.

The Orlando Sentinel criticizes the "movement brewing to overhaul the nation's system of elections through a series of federal mandates." The editorial not only slams the prospect of federally mandated Election Day Registration because of the "chaos" that uninformed voters would bring to the polls, but inexplicably dismisses the idea of providing high school graduates the opportunity to register to vote.

"In Florida, the deadline is about one month before the general election. It's hard to muster much sympathy for someone who doesn't start paying attention until a few weeks before Election Day."

The editorial trivializes the need for such reforms by pinning the problem on the voter who, presumably, could not take the time to register before Election Day. In reality, voters who do not have stable residences and set incomes face more hurdles when it comes to registering to vote and staying on the rolls. Young, low income, and minority voters change residences at much higher rates than the national average of 14 percent, according to recent Census Bureau data. This requires them to go through the often untimely process of re-registering whenever they change residences and the headache that may result from overzealous list maintenance procedures (as illustrated in Colorado). Election Day Registration would help ameliorate those problems.

Like the argument against EDR in West Virginia, unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud are also perpetuating the demand for voter ID by lawmakers in numerous states for the 2009 legislative sessions.

In Mississippi, secretary of state and longtime voter ID advocate, Delbert Hosemann hopes to resurrect nine failed voter ID bills from 2008 by supporting early voting as long as it involves voter identification in 2009, according to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. However, House Apportionment and Elections Committee Chairman Tommy Reynolds said the two reforms are unrelated and should not be tied together.

Maryland, another state hoping to pass a voter ID law, is also making headlines.

"Republican Delegate Nic Kipke drew headlines earlier this month when he said he would propose the requirement for Anne Arundel County during the 2009 General Assembly session," according local publication, the Frederick News-Post. However, lawmakers say that the law, which is criticized for its potential to "disenfranchise poor voters because there is a fee for state-issued identification such as a driver's license" is unlikely to pass.

Finally, one state actually has a voter ID bill filed and ready to be heard in 2009. The Oklahoma bill will be carried over from the 2008 session, according to the Associated Press. "Senate Bill 4 changes the types of documents that would be required, but still requires voters to provide identification. The new measure requires a photo identification that is issued by the federal government, state government or a tribe. If one of those items is not available, the voter can show a county-issued voter ID card."

Seemingly ignoring numerous lawsuits and reports that point to systemic problems in recent elections, lawmakers continue to point the finger at individual voters-not the state election system-as the biggest threat to election integrity. Enacting laws to prevent the rare crime of voter fraud does not alleviate the real issue of long lines, misuse of provisional ballots, data errors on voter rolls, or voting machine malfunctions. Until states get the system right, and remove state-to-state inconsistencies and barriers to participation, shouldn't the real focus be on reforms that create easier access to voting such as EDR?

Quick Links:
www.ElectionLegislation.org

In Other News:

Some confusion over motor-voter - Fredericksburg Free Lance Star [Va.]
A Virginia driver's license is not a ticket to vote.

OPINION: Where Are The New Voters? Look Closer: Overall Turnout Increased, But Some Sections Of The Population Took A Giant Leap Forward - National Journal
Given voter registration spikes and widespread predictions that this year's turnout would shatter records, it's tempting to look at exit polls and ask: Where did all the voters go?

Jeb Bush Has His Weaknesses

Matt Stoller — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:44:42 GMT

I grew up in Miami, so I remember Jeb Bush's political runs for Governor in 1994 and 1998. In 1994, there were bumper stickers plastered all over cars in Miami that simply said 'Jeb!', but he ended up losing a very narrow race to a popular good old boy Democrat, Lawton Chiles. That was a good year for Republicans, and it was shocking that Bush got knocked by a relatively unaccomplished incumbent in a change year tilting towards conservativism nationally. In 1998, Jeb won the election against a weak opponent, Buddy McKay, and triumphed in 2002 again against a relatively weak opponent, Bill McBride. Both times he was perceived as a moderate and highly competent Governor in a relatively apathetic state, and he's always able to shield his conservative views from public view because he's in a state level position.

This track record has been compounded by the weirdness of Florida, which is Alabama in the north of the state, Cuba and New York in the south of the state, and the exurbs in the I-4 corridor in the Disney middle. Jeb's conservative politics play well in the north of the state, and have been pretty irrelevant elsewhere. Should he run for Senate, Jeb Bush will have an entirely different experience. If his opponent is Alex Sink, my guess is that he's going to have a really tough time. Sink is a wonderful and highly respected former banker who is now the state's chief financial officer. She's a very very strong opponent, and Bush's background as a semi-corrupt businessman who participated in a scheme to, get this, sell water pumps in Nigeria, will emerge.

Remember, the Bush family is immensely corrupt, but that doesn't emerge unless there's actual scrutiny. Jeb has never been subjected to any such scrutiny, but it's hard to imagine that this situation can continue if he gets a serious contender. The Bush family is in disgrace, and I don't see how that changes in just two years, especially with the rumors flying around about Jeb's personal behavior and business shenanigans.

2010 will probably not be a good year for Democrats, but just because Jeb Bush is popular now doesn't mean that he's necessarily a strong candidate in two years.

Exit Poll Analysis Suggests Obama Victory Due to Surge in Youth and Minority Voting

project vote — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:43:42 GMT

The United States saw dramatic increases in voting from traditionally underrepresented groups, including minorities and young voters, according to a new analysis released this week by Project Vote. If borne out by systematic analysis of the voter rolls, this change in the electorate is evidence of the power of successful voter registration drives and an indication of the strong inclination of voters to participate in the process when candidates address their issues.
Countering the conventional wisdom that the voting population on November 4 did not change as dramatically as predicted, the analysis, The Demographics of Voters in America's 2008 General Election: A Preliminary Assessment, demonstrates that African-Americans, Latinos, and young voters cast millions more ballots in 2008 than in 2004.

"The analysis estimated that about 5.8 million more minorities voted in this year's presidential election than in 2004, while nearly 1.2 million fewer whites went to the polls," wrote Greg Gordon of McClatchy Newspapers. "The figures appear to reflect the success of Project Vote and other liberal voter registration groups in registering millions of young, poor, elderly and minority Americans to vote in recent election cycles."

According to the analysis, African-Americans cast nearly three million more ballots nationwide in 2008 than in 2004-an increase of 21 percent. The total votes cast by Latinos went up by 16 percent-more than 1.5 million-and young Americans aged 18-29 cast 1.8 million more votes, a nine percent increase. That the overall totals did not increase significantly compared to 2004 was in part due to a decrease in voting by white voters.

In addition to presenting an analysis of ballots cast from the United States as a whole, the memo by Project Vote consultant and Ph.D. candidate Jody Herman and Barnard College political science professor Lorraine Minnite examines several key states in detail, including Colorado, Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

The Project Vote data is preliminary, and does not speak to "turnout," which is traditionally a measure of the percentage of the voting-eligible population that shows up to vote. Project Vote expects to release a full report on turnout in the 2008 election in 2009 when government survey data on the voting-eligible population comes available. Yet, this preliminary analysis indicates that a significant shift occurred this year.

"There is no doubt that this surge in voting by Americans of color and young people had a powerful impact on the outcome of the election," said Michael Slater, executive director of Project Vote, in a press release issued today.

"Separate opinion polls and election results themselves indicate that an overwhelming majority of African-Americans and Latinos backed Obama," according to Gordon.

"Thus, the appearance of an African-American presidential candidate with a sympathetic message may have prompted the nation's minorities to vote at levels approaching white voters -- if final state vote counts do not upend Project Vote's figures," wrote AlterNet's Steve Rosenfeld last week. "Its findings also suggest the U.S. electorate is not an inflexible assembly of voting constituencies, but has segments that are mobilized -- or demobilized -- depending on the year, candidate and message,"

In an email exchange with Rosenfeld, Frank Sharry, executive director of pro-immigration reform group, America's Voice, said "neither the turnout increase among Latinos -- nor the swing in support to Democrats -- were surprising."

"Telling people you don't like them and don't want them is not a winning electoral strategy," wrote Sharry. "But that is what the Republican Party has been saying to immigrants, Latino immigrants in particular, for the past four years. No surprise, then, that record numbers of Latinos turned out in 2008 and that the swing away from Republicans to Democrats among Latino immigrants in particular was dramatic."

McCain sinks to new lows at campaign's end...

btchakir — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:24:15 GMT

Two days to go til the election and, surprise surprise, McCain is doing everything from criticizing Obama's patriotism in speeches to pamphleteering many unsubstantiated charges... like Obama favors criminals over police.
Joe Biden commented on the McCain endgame in a speech yesterday:

"In my view, over the last few weeks, John McCain's campaign has gone way over the top," said Biden Saturday at an outdoor rally on Evansville's Main Street. "They are trying to take the low road to the highest office in the land. It's not only George Bush's economic policies that John McCain has bought hook, line and sinker. He's also bought Karl Rove's brand of political tactics."
"It is disappointing, I never thought I'd see this from a McCain campaign," Biden continued. "They're calling Barack Obama every name in the book. They are going out in a way that I don't recall it being more personally vicious."
As a supporter yelled, "They're scared!" the Delaware senator predicted that the tone would get worse in the last three days. (via CNN)

In reality, the early voting has stacked up in Obama's favor.

Just under 50% of the vote in Colorado, for instance, a swing state, is in already and it appears to be 2 to 1 in Obama's favor. This is a state where Republicans outnumber Democrats... but Independents are the largest group. That is where Obama seems to be doing very well.

Florida, which McCain must win if he is t be elected, has the Republican falling behind in many polls.

The NY Times pointed out yesterday that there are reasons for Democratic optimism in Florida:

Emblematic of the challenge was the experience of two Republican canvassers who appeared at Beth Moriarty's door in Orlando Thursday looking for her husband's vote. Her response was blunt.
"Y'all are totally at the wrong house," Ms. Moriarty said. "My husband, he's 62, he has never voted for a Democrat in his entire life. Until Tuesday."
Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, has a litany of structural advantages to help him. With only days to go, the Obama campaign has more of just about everything: offices (100 to Mr. McCain's 80); advertising money (outspending the McCain campaign four to one in some weeks); and voter registrations (a 660,000 Democratic edge over Republicans, up from 280,000 in 2006).

McCain senior advisor Nicole Wallace speaks for the Republican campaign, however, with the view that the polls are "tightening:"

"We have never been as convinced as others by some of the discouraging numbers. We are not saying we are moving ahead of him. But we are certainly encouraged by the tightening of the polls."

While this may be true, fivethirtyeight.com, a polling site, notes that it is very difficult to get accurate polling on weekends, especially when there is a holiday (Halloween).

So it's coming down to the wire. We have Dick Cheney giving McCain his nod, a scary thought in itself... the current VP is one of the least popular figures in American politics right now. And we have President Bush apparently keeping himself almost invisible in order not to effect the election.

But Sarah Palin continues as the negative voice of the Republicans, as she pushes through the swing states:

At a rally in central Florida for Mr. McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, supporters chanted "John McCain! Not Hussein!" Mr. Obama's middle name is Hussein, and some of his opponents use it to falsely suggest that he is Muslim. (via NY Times)

And McCain seems to beputting all of his chips in Pennsylvania, where the polls are heavily in Obama's favor.

We'll have to see where we go from here.

Under The LobsterScope

Voters Eager to Have A Stake in Historical Election: Early Voting Predicts Strong Turnout Tuesday

project vote — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:47:47 GMT

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

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

In the last two weeks voter registration and early voting has shown that voters are geared up and ready to take part in what has been called a "historical event" on November 4.
Last week, voters scrambled to register at drive-thru election office windows in Southern California, busy street corners in Wichita, Kansas, and post-naturalization ceremonies in Los Angeles County. These efforts to meet the Oct. 20 registration deadlines in some states are seen as evidence of a surge in voter registration among historically underrepresented communities, including newly naturalized Latino and Asian citizens, and Black voters as well as formerly disenfranchised ex-felons.

This week, early vote turnout gave a sneak peek at what voters and election officials can expect at the polls on Tuesday, and it's "going to be busy as heck" said one official in Orange County, Calif., where registration rates went up 15 percent since 2004. To accommodate the high turnout, which is expected to exceed "the recent high-water mark in voter participation set in 2004," some states are taking precautionary measures, adding new machines and even extending early voting.

Experts predict "huge turnout" of as much as 132 million people, or 60.4 to 62.9 percent of eligible voters this year, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The last presidential election brought 60.7 percent of eligible voters to the polls, "the highest since 1968, when 61.9 percent cast ballots." Election officials in many states, including Ohio, Arizona, New Mexico, and Minnesota, have predicted turnout as high as 80 percent.

"We are going to have long lines," with some states expecting voting machine shortages, according to Curtis Gans, director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate. "But long lines in this election, as in 2004, are not going to deter people from voting, because of the emotional context of this election. They didn't deter people in 1992 or in 2004, and they're not going to deter people now."

Managing long lines has already been a point of contention in key states. In Georgia, voters waited four to five hours to cast early ballots on Wednesday, in spite of last minute changes Tuesday to reduce the eight hour waits voters encountered on Monday, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. A combination of "high turnout, staff and equipment shortages and state computer problems slowed the process."

Like Gans predicted, however, these issues are not stopping voters from showing up at the polls bright and early.

"It's a historical event and I want to be part of it," said Hampton, Ga. voter, Dara Christian, who arrived at her precinct to be second in line shortly after 5 a.m. on Wednesday. According to a Tuesday AJC report, a million ballots had already been cast during more limited voting in the last few weeks. And about 125,095 of those were cast as of Tuesday night.

While officials in various counties addressed some of the problems by supplying extra equipment and staff, according Tuesday's AJC report, the Democratic Party and election officials are still pleading with Secretary of State Karen Handel to extend early voting in order to support high turnout, including state Democratic Party chairwoman Jane Kidd and DelKalb County Commissioner Lee May.

"It is not my intention to lay blame on any particular, person or body of government," May wrote in a letter to Handel and Ga. Governor Sonny Perdue. "It is my desire that we don't inadvertently squelch the desire of so many Georgians to participate in the political process."
"Handel said Tuesday that Georgia law doesn't include a mechanism to allow her or Perdue to extend early voting," according to AJC. Handel said that even if she could allow the extension, it would be a "logistical disaster," dismissing Kidd's plea an "orchestrated effort of that political party across the country."

In Florida, on the other hand, after record turnout Monday,Governor Charlie Crist listened to similar concerns and signed an order to extend early voting hours to 12 hours a day, over the objections of Secretary of State Kurt Browning, according to the Miami Herald.

"It's not a political decision," said Crist, a Republican. "It's a people decision."

In Broward and Miami-Dade counties alone, more than 43,000 people cast their votes Monday, "roughly 5,000 more than on any other previous day."

Other efforts to help ensure Election Day runs smoothly for voters are underway, including the National Campaign for Fair Elections' hotline, 1-866-OURVote. The line has already received up to 4,000 calls a day, according to New York Times blog, The Caucus. The group plans to have 20 call centers set up around the country by Tuesday with a capacity of handling 100,000 calls on Election Day.

"The notion behind the non-partisan National Campaign phone line is that if problems erupt at polling places on Election Day, the group will have lawyers at the ready to respond to the complaints," the Times reports.

"So far, most calls have been from voters experiencing problems with their registration along with those trying to locate their polling place, according to Ken Smukler, president of InfoVoter Technologies, the Bala Cynwyd, Pa.company that which manages the call system."

Among those who will benefit from the voter protection hotline and other precautions learned are the large numbers of new voters around the country. Since 2004, voter registration rose 15 percent in Orange County, Calif. where citizens were allowed to register at a drive-thru elections office window last week, according to the Associated Press. Alabama has 76,000 new voters since 2004, two thirds of whom are African-American, according to the Mobile Register-Press. Last week, two thousand voters registered on a street corner in Kansas, about a quarter of whom were ex-felons who until then thought they were ineligible to vote, according to MSNBC. Newly naturalized Latino and Asian citizens in Los Angeles County doubled last year's registration rate with 64,000 new voters this year, according to the Los Angeles Times. Up until last week, community groups were "walking precincts, conducting phone banks, holding forums, and distributing multilingual voter guides" to help new citizens become a part of the democratic process.

Historically, Latino, Asian, and African-American citizens have registered and voted at alarmingly lower rates than their White counterparts. In 2006, just 41 percent of African-Americans and 32 percent of Asians and Latinos, respectively, voted in the midterm election compared to 52 percent of Whites, according to Project Vote report, Representational Bias of the 2006 Electorate. But that may just be changing this year.

"We want people to know we're here and our next generation is going to be very important in the process," said recently naturalized citizen, Carlos Romero in the Los Angeles Times.

In Other News:

In Ohio, Wary Eyes On Election Process: Fears of Fraud and Blocked Votes - Washington Post
CLEVELAND -- With Ohio still up for grabs in next week's presidential election, the conversation here has expanded from who will carry the state to how -- the nitty-gritty of registration lists, voting machines, court challenges and whether it all will play out fairly.

Provisional Ballots Get Uneven Treatment - Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Provisional ballots, one of the fixes the government implemented following the disputed 2000 election, are often proving to be a poor substitute for the real thing.

Erin Ferns is a Research and Policy Analyst with Project Vote.

Florida GOP County Chair: Black People are Voting!!!

fladem — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:10:38 GMT

The Hillsborough County Chairman here in Florida forwarded an e-mail today that is rascist. There is simply no other way to interpret it. I voted at the precinct in question, which is right next to the County GOP Office. I am so not surprised. It's true - many African-Americans were exercising their right to vote. What could be scarier!!

I always find it interesting that no one ever accuses racists of being anti-American.

Update
This is the lead story tonight on the CBS and NBC local 11:00 PM news in Tampa. The CBS local station showed it to USF Students for their reaction. They were stunned....

THE THREAT:
HERE IN TEMPLE TERRACE, FL OUR REPUBLICAN HQ IS ONE BLOCK AWAY FROM OUR LIBRARY, WHICH IS AN EARLY VOTING SITE.
I SEE CARLOADS OF BLACK OBAMA SUPPORTERS COMING FROM THE INNER CITY TO CAST THEIR VOTES FOR OBAMA. THIS IS THEIR CHANCE TO GET A BLACK PRESIDENT AND THEY SEEM TO CARE LITTLE THAT HE IS AT MINIMUM, SOCIALIST, AND PROBABLY MARXIST IN HIS CORE BELIEFS. AFTER ALL, HE IS BLACK--NO EXPERIENCE OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS--BUT HE IS BLACK.
I ALSO SEE YOUNG COLLEGE STUDENTS AND THEIR PROFESSORS FROM USF PARKING THEIR CARS WITH THE PROMINENT 'OBAMA' BUMPER STICKERS. THE STUDENTS ARE ENTHUSIASTIC TO BE VOTING IN A HISTORIC ELECTION WHERE THERE MAY BE THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT.

If you read the e-mail it is hard not to see the unexpressed fear running through the veins of so many Republicans. I have little doubt that this e-mail expresses the true feelings of many on the right.

FL: The case against Pinellas Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark

meowmissy — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:18:42 GMT

Back in September, I did a study ranking the number of registered voters per early voting site for each county in Florida in which I found that Pinellas County came in dead last.

As it turns out, this isn't the only problem with Deborah Clark's record as Supervisor of Elections in Pinellas County.

Not only does Pinellas have the highest ratio of registered voters to early voting site, but the locations of those early voting sites are incovenient to a large segment of the voting public:

Look at any map of Pinellas County and it is easy to see that the county is roughly divided in half geographically by Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard in Clearwater. So it is inexplicable, offensive even, that when elections officials chose the polling places for early voting this month, they didn't pick any locations north of Gulf-to-Bay.

...

For a resident of East Lake, the closest early voting location is an hourlong round-trip across and down the county to the courthouse in downtown Clearwater. - St. Petersburg Times, Jan. 22, 2008

Let's take a closer look at Jeb Bush appointee Deborah Clark's record over time:

"She should be making it as easy to vote as possible, not limiting options." Clark's "stubborn crusade" is "wrongheaded." She is "alone and dead wrong" on this issue. - St. Petersburg Times, 9/21/08

Her office "discourages early voting" and her early voting plan "snubs half the county" - St. Petersburg Times, 1/23/08 & 2/8/08

"Pinellas Elections office needed eight private contractors for its electronic voting system. For the primary elect it was 13." - St Petersburg Times 11/09/2006.

"Her staff lost track of 280 absentee and provisional ballots that were not counted until it was too late." - St. Petersburg Times, 11/4/05

Careless, avoidable error has once again marred the performance of Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark." - St. Petersburg Times Editorial, 12/8/04

Clark's office has been "plagued by more embarrassing mistakes" and "a series of gaffes" - St. Petersburg Times, 12/7/04

Her blunders have "raised bipartisan concerns about Clark's management of the office" - St. Petersburg Times, 12/4/04

"She already has come under fire three times for mishandling ballots" - St. Petersburg Times, 12/3/04

"In 2000, the office neglected to count about 1,400 absentee ballots on Election Day - and counted another 600 ballots twice." - St. Petersburg Times, 11/19/04

"About 600 voters who should have been able to vote in the [Lealman Fire Commission] race could not; another 700 who weren't entitled to vote were allowed" - St. Petersburg Times, 11/19/04

"Clark's election flubs draw fire." - St. Petersburg Times, 11/10/02

Now, Jon Ausman (Florida member of the DNC), is calling for a Grand Jury investigation claiming that Clark's refusal to provide additional early voting sites when even the Florida Legislature allows for locations other than the ones she's using as a possible case of misfeasance.

It's time for Deborah Clark's tenure as Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections to come to an end.

Support Jack Killingsworth for Supervisor of Election in Pinellas County

On the issues he's the best option for Pinellas voters. For example:

- he believes voting is a right and that the Supervisor of Elections should make it as easy as reasonably possible for voters to exercise that right.

- he would open 11 more early voting sites at public libraries or city halls to bring the ratio of registered voters to early voting site to be inline with the statewide average.

- he would schedule early voting hours to be more available to working voters (currently early voting hours are 8:00am - 4:00pm).

Plus, he has 40 years of experience designing mission critical computer and managing computer systems where errors are not allowed. He won't be at the mercy of Voting Equipment Vendors for Elections Support.

FL early voting hours extended

shlenny — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:49:36 GMT

Hi. This just came over the wires, and I thought some of you might be able to take advantage of extended hours for early voting in Florida.

You can use this as open thread to discuss early voting.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OCTOBER 28, 2008

CONTACT: GOVERNOR'S PRESS OFFICE

(850) 488-5394

Governor Crist Extends Early Voting Hours

~ Ensures maximum number of Floridians can exercise right to vote ~

TALLAHASSEE - Governor Charlie Crist today signed Executive Order 08-217, extending the hours for early voting during the current General Election. Effective immediately, early voting sites will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., through Friday, October 31, 2008, and for a total of 12 hours between 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 1, and 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 2, 2008.

"I have spoken with the Secretary of State and members of the Florida Legislature and have concluded that it is always the right thing to do to give voters every opportunity to cast a ballot," Governor Crist said. "I have a responsibility to the voters of our state to ensure that the maximum number of citizens can participate in the electoral process, and that every person can exercise the right to vote."

Prior to the 2008 General Election, Florida has seen historic numbers of Floridians registering to vote for the first time. In addition, record numbers of voters have chosen to cast a ballot during early voting.

Early voting began on October 20 and runs through November 2. Current Florida law allows for early voting to be conducted eight hours per day on each weekday, and for a total of eight hours during both weekends during the early voting period. Floridians can contact their county's Supervisor of Elections for dates, times and locations of early voting.

Florida voters can also request absentee ballots to be mailed to them until October 29.

Please see the attached Executive Order 08-217.

# # #

STATE OF FLORIDA

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBER 08-217

WHEREAS, early voting is scheduled to end November 2, 2008; and

WHEREAS, early voting turnout has already reached record levels and is forecast to continue with record turnout. There are only 267 early voting sites throughout the state and long lines have formed at many of the early voting sites; and

WHEREAS, a historic number of Floridians have registered to vote for the first time in this election; and

WHEREAS, new voting equipment is being used in 15 Florida counties;

WHEREAS, as a result of this unique combination of circumstances resulting from the historic voter turnout in this election, there is a possibility that election officials will be unable to conduct an orderly election, and thus residents in our state could be deprived of a meaningful opportunity to vote; and

WHEREAS, because of the existing and continuing possibility of an emergency occurring before or during the regularly scheduled election, and in order to ensure maximum citizen participation in the electoral process, and provide a safe and orderly procedure for persons seeking to exercise their right to vote;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, CHARLIE CRIST, as Governor of Florida, by virtue of the authority vested in me by Article IV, Section 1(a) of the Florida Constitution, by the Florida Elections Emergency Act, and by all other applicable laws, issue the following Executive Order, to take immediate effect:

I hereby declare that, based on the above-described conditions, a state of emergency exists. It is hereby found and declared to be necessary to extend the voting hours during early voting. Accordingly, I order the Supervisors of Elections to open early voting sites from 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. through October 31, 2008 and open early voting sites for a total of twelve (12) hours between 7 a.m. November 1, 2008 and 7 p.m. November 2, 2008.

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of Florida to be affixed, at Tallahassee, the Capitol, this 28th day of October, 2008.

__________________________________________

GOVERNOR

ATTEST:

____________________________

SECRETARY OF STATE

# # #

Down ballot, down home. Vote Local

jpfdeuce — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:12:18 GMT

(x-posted on Daily Kos)

Mutually Assured Destruction had a great diary today about Obama securing votes from elderly Floridians -- how Hillary helped convert them and how John McCain assured them not to vote for him. The point of this diary isn't to simply note that diary. Nope.

The diary, however, reminded me how easily forgotten the rest of the ballot can be. I can't say that Floridians in Tampa Bay, Florida in general or elsewhere in the country are aware that there vote counts on more than just the presidential election. And it's vital in those down-ballot races for that matter.

While people are sold on Barack Obama, how many of them are aware of or participating in the down ballot races?
The reason why I pointed to Mutually Assured Destruction's diary in the opening wasn't to single him out and that instance. It was actually the reference to "the bay area" -- namely Tampa Bay (insert appropriate GO RAYS remark here). Being a Tampa Bay resident and a participant in local politics through online campaigning and what not -- I take the down-ballot races seriously.

It's been echoed on Daily Kos and elsewhere on the blogosphere that Barack Obama will have coattails this election cycle... Yet through an online discussion on a local extension of an international message board (Skyscraper City, their Tampa-St. Pete forum) I was reminded that many locals don't know down ballot races or other candidates for office. Only the most volatile or most pressing are getting the focus of voters of all ages and that disturbs me. It's part of the reason local congressional districts in the heart of Tampa Bay aren't in play -- underexposure. It also holds true for local offices such as County Commission, supervisor of elections, and so on and so forth.

Under exposure. Non exposure. Sheer ignorance of the voting population that has tuned out to the repeated political ads. My guess is this isn't happening here alone.

So, in a simple yet possibly effective manner, the local DEC's have come together to launch Vote Local Now in the Tampa Bay area (representing Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties) in order to give more face time for local candidates and the down-ballot races that may very well be settled by the coattails of Barack Obama.

Case in point, State Representative in Florida House District 48. In 2006, Carl "Z" Zimmermann, the Democrat in the race, lost his election by less than 1500 votes in a heavily Republican district of the county.

1500 votes, folks, between getting a Democratic voice in the heavily GOP state legislature. Carl is running again, against now-incumbent Republican Peter Nehr. Nehr has the financial edge but Zimmermann has broad appeal and the endorsements of both local dailies (the St. Pete Times and the Tampa Tribune).

This is a huge example of why awareness in your local races throughout the nation is MANDATORY. While the Obama campaign and his advisers (as well as many of his supporters here online) warn against complacency, the same must be said about only focusing on one race on your ballot.

Vote Local is also represented on Facebook (groups for Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties in Florida can be found) and what you will find on these group pages are simple ways to remember the candidates -- their campaign signs. Videos of each candidate and positions going out to page subscribers on the social network. As far as I know it's a first-of-it's-kind means to remind people of the down-ballot races.

This is just my local example of trying to raise awareness. My local story (and I am not involved in Vote Local Now, I am simply voicing my endorsement of the concept) is just one small example (on a national scale) of how the profile of downballot Democrats need your focus and support. You know who you are voting for (and many of you have already partaken in early voting). Now get to know the rest of those that will need your support on election day. Or make sure those who are undecided / finally coming to a decision on the presidential race start finding out about the other local races... Because Democracy begins from the ground up, though it can surely gain a boost from the top down on election day.

Fighting for Democracy vs Fighting the Spread of Democracy

project vote — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:21:23 GMT

Scaling the Mountains and Molehills of the "Voter Registration Fraud" Controversy

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns and Michael McDunnah

With a constant barrage of allegations against ACORN and other voter registration organizations coming from the McCain-Palin campaign and the Republican National Committee in recent weeks, it's worthwhile to take a look back at this ongoing war between partisan forces on the right and community based voter registration drives-a war that has largely been fought in the media and nowhere else, and which has threatened to drown out real issues in these crucial weeks before the election.
On October 6 ACORN and Project Vote held a press briefing call in which they announced the completion of their 2007-2008 voter registration drive, a massive 21 state effort that succeeded in registering over 1.3 million low-income and minority people, an apparent record for any single nonpartisan voter registration drive in history. This exceptional news, however, has been nearly lost in a tempest-in-a-teacup brewed by Republicans around a relatively small number of faulty or falsified voter registration applications handed in through the effort.

On October 2, the RNC held a press briefing call attacking the organization. Republican National Committee chief counsel Sean Cairncross called ACORN a "quasi-criminal organization" that is "engaged in systematic fraud and attempts to undermine our electoral system." The RNC, however, did not produce any evidence to support these allegations, other than a handful of problem cards that ACORN itself has identified and alerted election officials about. A small number of ACORN canvassers have been fired for falsifying cards-not in any effort to subvert the election by enabling illegal voting (which is incredibly rare and incredibly difficult), but simply in an effort to get paid for doing work they didn't feel like actually doing. ACORN has encouraged, and offered to cooperate with, investigations and prosecutions against these workers.

ACORN's encouragement and cooperation, however, has not prevented the organization from being the subject of politically motivated attacks. In Nevada, ACORN had already turned over extensive documentation of problem registrations turned in by former workers, and had been working with election officials and law enforcement for weeks when law enforcement nevertheless decided to stage a highly publicized raid of ACORN's Nevada office that occurred on October 7, the day after the announcement of the drive's success. (It was highly publicized, in part, because news crews and photographers just happened to be invited.) ACORN has called the raid a stunt, and interestingly, the very affidavit used to support the search warrant documents the extensive quality control procedures ACORN uses to guard against voter fraud, as well as ACORN's thorough cooperation with law-enforcement officials.

ACORN and Project Vote launched back in a news conference call on October 10. "This is the third election cycle in a row where we've seen partisan interests take the same issue-which is canvassers trying to defraud ACORN by not doing their work and instead fabricating applications-and trying to exaggerate that and turn it into an argument that there is 'widespread fraudulent voting' going on," said Project Vote executive director Michael Slater. "These allegations have been debunked now in several election cycles, and we'll find by the end of this election cycle they'll be debunked as well."

ACORN spokesperson Scott Levenson also made the point that the term "voter fraud" does not apply to these cases. "There haven't been any cases where anyone even suggested that someone attempted to vote under these circumstances," said Levenson. "There are no votes that are really in question here."

Another "Scare Tactic" to Prevent Voter Participation

So what's the motive behind the attacks? At the Huffington Post on October 10, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) said "the real reason is obvious: Because ACORN, along with Project Vote, just announced that they had successfully registered 1.3 million poor people this year." Calling ACORN "one of the strongest, hardest-working, most dedicated community organizations" in the United States, Jackson said "thank you, ACORN. Thank you, Project Vote, for taking our democracy seriously enough to try to include 1.3 million more poor people in a more perfect union."

On the same day election law attorney Rick Hasen at the Huffington Post said, "For the last three elections, Republicans have been ramping up cries of voter fraud as a way of undermining the legitimacy of the election results should they not turn out in their favor and providing a reason for strict voting purges that are likely to remove many Democratic voters from the rolls."

Greg Gordon of McClatchy Newspapers concurred, and helped put these most recent attacks in context. "Republicans have leveled similar allegations against the coalition known as ACORN in every election since at least 2000, but they have yet to produce proof that the group poses a threat to election integrity," Gordon wrote.

"I'm astounded that this issue is being trotted out again," former U.S. attorney David Iglesias recently told TPMmuckraker. "Based on what I saw in 2004 and 2006, it's a scare tactic." In 2007, the myth of voter fraud was exposed during the U.S. Attorneys scandal, which propelled inquiries into the firing of at least nine federal prosecutors, including Iglesias. Iglesias says he received political pressure to bring charges of voter fraud against ACORN in New Mexico despite the fact that there was no evidence of any criminal activity.

On Tuesday, October 14 the confrontation between ACORN and the McCain-Palin campaign almost literally came to a head with dueling press conferences at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Speaking for the McCain-Palin campaign, former senators John Danforth and Warren Rudman once again raised the same old concerns about ACORN's voter registration work, without citing any new evidence. Immediately following, ACORN held a press conference across the hall, where ACORN leaders were joined by leaders from the voting rights groups Common Cause and Demos, as well as by actual voters to testify to the importance of voter registration.

"We have an opportunity this year," said Miles Rapoport of Demos. "People by the hundreds of thousands and millions are anxious and eager to register to vote and be part of it. I think the criticism of ACORN is a diversionary issue that should not be allowed to cloud what is happening this year, which is an extraordinary flowering of democracy. ACORN is to be applauded for encouraging that, not criticized, and I am proud to stand with them."

The following day, October 15, ACORN and other advocacy leaders-including leaders of the NAACP and People for the American Way (PFAW)-held another press conference in which the allegations were placed in their proper context: as a civil rights issue, and part of a long history of attempts to use accusations of voter fraud to suppress the votes of low-income and minority voters. "This latest attack on ACORN follows a sorry pattern, played out in election after election," said Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP. "Republicans have practiced an assortment of subtle and overt methods to suppress and smother voter registration and turnout...Ever since they first practiced voter suppression, they've yelled, 'Voter fraud!' " The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights also provided a statement of support, and PFAW President Kathryn Kolbert said McCain "should be ready to disavow the organized effort his party has made to subvert the democratic process."

"Those who are stirring the 'voter fraud' pot don't want to talk about voter suppression and intimidation," said Kolbert. "They want to use the code word of 'voter fraud' as cover for their real objective of voter suppression. It's a sad day when a campaign's success strategy is dependent upon keeping voters away from the polls," she said.

Far from "disavowing" the attacks, however, McCain himself took the baseless allegations to a new level on October 15 in the final presidential debate. McCain lashed out at ACORN, attempting to tie his opponent Barack Obama to the controversy. "We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama's relationship with ACORN," said McCain, "who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."

Senator Obama quickly dismissed both the charges against ACORN and his own "connection" to the organization: "ACORN is a community organization...they were paying people to go out and register folks, and apparently some of the people who were out there didn't really register people, they just filled out a bunch of names." While defending ACORN, Obama also clarified his own ties to the organization, which partisans have grossly exaggerated. "The only involvement I've had with ACORN was I represented them, alongside the U.S. Justice Department, in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs," said Obama.

Key State Officials Report No Problems With ACORN Voter Registration Efforts

Even election officials in key states have said that they detected no problems with ACORN's voter registration drives. According to Aaron Deslatte of the Orlando Sentinel, election officials in Florida's Seminole and Orange counties stated that they did not suspect the bad cards collected to be a scheme to defraud the election. Furthermore, "Both Gov. Charlie Crist and Secretary of State Kurt Browning have said they don't mind ACORN being active in Florida's election process. When reporters asked Crist if there was a problem with ACORN here, he said, 'No.'"

And the Miami Herald reports that "Crist's Republican Secretary of State, Kurt Browning, said he doesn't think ACORN is committing systematic voter fraud...Like ACORN spokesmen, Browning says the false voter registration forms could be blamed on unethical canvassers or on citizens who themselves fill out fictitious voter cards." About the exaggerated claims of voter fraud, Crist is quoted as saying "As we're coming into the closing days of any campaign, there are some who enjoy chaos.''

In Missouri, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Republican St. Louis elections director Scott Leiendecker says that ACORN's registration efforts have been problem-free this year. "Everything's been on the up and up," he says.

In Newsday, Cathy L. Richter Geier, the Republican commissioner of the Suffolk County Board of Elections in New York, told the reporter "We have not seen anything out of the ordinary."

In an interview with Democracy Now, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said she's "had nothing but good experiences working with" ACORN.

In Texas, according to the Houston Chronicle, the Harris county registrar reports that "there is no evidence of intentional manipulation of the voter rolls here," and a spokesperson for the Secretary of State's office said that "no problems involving ACORN have been brought to their attention."

The Press Sees Through the Partisan Attack

Putting the number of bad registration cards discovered among the 1.3 million into context, the Baltimore Sun editorializes that "any operation that big is bound to produce errors, but the irregularities cited by GOP critics are minuscule compared with the number of valid applications. ACORN hasn't been charged with violating any law, and it says it has fired workers caught trying to game the system with forged or fraudulent documents."

"Real voter fraud - the intentional corruption of the electoral process by a voter - happens at the polls, not when new voters try to register," the Sun writes. "So far, ACORN's accusers haven't come up with convincing evidence to back up their charges."

There is an important difference between this and previous election cycles, however: the GOP's strategy is not working. In previous years the press didn't catch on to the spurious nature of the attacks until long after the election, and so media coverage became an inadvertent part of a successful strategy to create an unfounded specter of voter fraud and perpetuate the myth that more extreme restrictions were necessary to prevent illegal voting. This year, fewer and fewer reputable news outlets seem to be buying what the GOP is selling.

While some histrionic stories have appeared on Fox News (which has mentioned ACORN more often in the past week than it has mentioned either of the vice-presidential candidates) and CNN-both of which have done stories that have been debunked by independent sources including the watchdog group Media Matters-other reporters and editorial boards have been vigilant in getting to the truth (and the true motive) of the allegations.

In an editorial in the Capital Times (Madison, WI) on October 10 entitled "GOP Battles the Spread of Democracy," Joel McNally says:

"Republicans have another underlying motive for attacking ACORN. It is an organization that engages in that dreaded community organizing. It actually tries to give a voice to the poor and most vulnerable among us...Clearly, organizations like ACORN are on the front lines of promoting democracy in this country while Republicans are trying to stop its spread."

And the Kansas City Star's Friday editorial says:

"Let's look at the facts. The single most important one: Voter registration fraud - where bogus names, addresses or signatures of potential voters are submitted to election authorities - is far different from actual voter fraud, where unqualified people show up and try to vote...

"So why all the caterwauling from Republicans? The most salient point is that ACORN has registered more than 1.3 million voters this election cycle. Of course many of these people are in demographic groups - minorities, and lower- and middle-income Americans - who tend to vote for Democrats. And many of these people are ready to vote for change..."

In an editorial today the New York Times calls the charges against ACORN "wildly overblown - and intended to hobble ACORN's efforts":

"..for all of the McCain campaign's manufactured fury about vote theft (and similar claims from the Republican Party over the years) there is virtually no evidence - anywhere in the country, going back many elections - of people showing up at the polls and voting when they are not entitled to...

"Meanwhile, Republicans aren't saying anything about another more serious voter-registration scandal: the fact that about one-third of eligible voters are not registered. The racial gaps are significant and particularly disturbing. According to a study by Project Vote, a voting-rights group, in 2006, 71 percent of eligible whites were registered, compared with 61 percent of blacks, 54 percent of Latinos and 49 percent of Asian-Americans...

"The real threats to the fabric of democracy are the unreasonable barriers that stand in the way of eligible voters casting ballots," the Times concludes. "That would go a long way toward explaining the GOP's frenetic attacks on ACORN."

Finally, today, as reported by Bloomberg, the Obama campaign asked U.S. attorney general Michael Mukasey to "add a probe into allegedly false Republican claims of voter fraud to the investigation into the firings of U.S. attorneys."

In the letter to Mukasey and special prosecutor Nora Dannehy, who is investigating the U.S. attorney firings, Robert Bower, general counsel for Obama for America, says: "The current surge of improper Republican activity must be understood, first and most fundamentally, in context of years of concerted partisan activities to use bogus claims of 'vote fraud' to suppress voting and to influence elections in the eleventh hour by pressuring federal and local officials-including the Justice Department-to investigate and prosecute allegations of fraud where none exists."

Quick Links:
Minnite, Lorraine. The Politics of Voter Fraud. Project Vote. March 2007.
Hess, Douglass R. "Representational Bias in the 2006 Electorate." Project Vote. Sept. 2007.

In Other News:

House speaker to push for voter ID - Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - House Speaker Chris Benge says he plans to push for a new law requiring Oklahoma voters to present identification when heading to the polling booth.

Judge declines to halt Georgia's voter screening - Atlanta Journal Constitution
A federal judge on Thursday allowed the state of Georgia to continue verifying the citizenship of registered voters with a statewide database.

High court rejects GOP bid in Ohio voting dispute - The Gainesville Sun
The Supreme Court sided Friday with Ohio's top elections official in a dispute with the state Republican Party over voter registrations.

The Fat Lady Clears Her Voice: Now What?

Mike Lux — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:00:00 GMT

As those of you who read my stuff know, I have been haranguing people like a madman in recent weeks that this thing isn't over, that we should never let up, that we should not be cocky or take anything for granted. And I will say down to the last day that anything could happen, that we don't know what the Bradley effect will be on the Presidential level, that we should keep pouring our heart out until the very last hour. But even I am starting to listen for the sounds of the Fat Lady singing. Even I am reaching for the fork to stick in this turkey.

Barring a truly catastrophic last-minute event or mistake, or a Bradley effect on the Presidential level completely beyond the realm of expectation, this thing is done. To those pundits who said this was McCain's best debate, or that he held his own with Obama, I have to ask: what were you smoking during last night's debate? Obama crushed McCain in that debate, adding to the cumulative effect of the two other Presidential debates and the VP debate: the Democrats are calm and steady and talking about the things that matter to the American people; John McCain is, in the words of Democracy Corps focus group participants last night, a "grumpy old man" (must have read my blog post the other day) and "a jerk." Obama won over undecideds and even McCain leaners last night in all the surveys and focus groups that were done, dominated in his responses to McCain's attacks, and dominated in his discussion of the most important issues, especially health care and the economy.

So with this thing moving so much in our direction, here's what I would do if I were running the Obama campaign:
1. Lock down Ohio, Florida, and Virginia in the next few days. With momentum we have we are in a position if we move aggressively to solidify ourselves in these three states. I would spend the next week really focused on nailing them down. We're a few points up in all of them, but they are all historically volatile and competitive. I would add even more to your advertising buys there; have both Obamas and both Bidens and both Clintons and other major surrogates flood the zone in these states; dump more staff and money into early voting. If we can build a double-digit, super-reinforced wall in all of these states (which also have at least nine swing congressionals in play), we will have a lot of flexibility in the last ten days to run up the score and help tons of House and Senate candidates.

2. House and Senate candidates. I'm hearing way too many stories about the Chicago office keeping too much distance between the Obama campaign and House/Senate folks in the states. It's time to dive in and do everything possible to help Democrats win a lot of the toughest races around the country, which has the twofer benefit package of helping build your governing majority and repairing some damaged relationships with the members of Congress and Senators you are going to need next year. Add other Dems to your fliers and door hangers, embrace fellow Democrats at rallies, etc.

Here's what I absolutely would not do if I were running the Obama campaign: glide. It's time to go for a landslide, carrying Democrats with you in a massive tidal wave. Do not relax or slow down or lose your focus or drift. If you win this thing going away, and pick up 35 House members and 10 Senators as a result, the odds of you being a successful President are dramatically increased. Since I have been involved in politics full-time (28 years now), I have lived through three absolutely crushing elections: 1980, 1994, and 2004. I have also lived through some good Democratic years: 1982, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2006. But there's a big difference between a good year and a truly crushing victory: with the latter, you have so much more power to actually get real things done. This year, we have a real opportunity to win a crushing victory. Let's finish off the job.

Changing the Game: Voter Registration Drives Reshape the American Electorate

project vote — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:50:07 GMT

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

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

Monday marked the last day to register to vote before November's presidential election in many states and the conclusion to one of the nation's largest nonpartisan voter registration drives in history. Helping more than 1.3 million of the America's underrepresented young, low-income and minority citizens register to vote, Project Vote and its voter registration drive partner, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), have played a leading role this election cycle in changing the face of the electorate to represent all Americans.
In 2006, according to Project Vote study, "Representational Bias in the 2006 Electorate," the proportion of the U.S. population that was registered to vote was biased toward Whites and older, affluent and educated voters. Latino and Black citizens were less likely to be on the voting rolls, registering 17 and 10 percentage points, respectively, behind Whites. Lower income citizens, or those earning less than $25K per year, registered 21 percentage points (60%) behind those earning $100K per year or more (81%). And in keeping with their long history of lagging voter registration and participation rates, voters under the age of 30 registered to vote at a fraction (51%) of the rate of those ages 30-64 (70%). The most stunning findings in the report were that if eligible minorities actually voted at the same rates as Whites, an extra 7.5 million votes would have been cast in 2006.

News articles from every corner of the country are reporting increased registration rates, pointing to a potentially "game-changing" reshaping of the electorate with voters feeling newly empowered to demand that elected officials address their issues. Election officials are predicting "it's going to be a tsunami of voters" on Election Day.

"In the past year, the rolls have expanded by about 4 million voters in a dozen key states," according to the Washington Post Monday. More than half of the 1.3 million that Project Vote helped register were in key states Ohio, Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania, according to Richard Wolf of USA Today, 60 percent of which "are under 30 and about two-thirds are minorities." A driving motivation behind this rise in registrations, according to ACORN board member Carmen Arias, is the "faltering economy."

"In 2004, we were met with apathy," Arias said in a press briefing Tuesday. "We had to convince people to register to vote. This year, we were met with excitement: people are excited to have an opportunity to have a say in solving the foreclosure crisis, and the health care crisis. They're eager to have politicians listen to them."

Elected officials listen to those who vote, and America's imbalanced electorate has effectively silenced millions of low-income citizens.

"We think it's important that the voices in our community get heard," said interim chief organizer of ACORN, Bertha Lewis. "This isn't just about going into the voting booth, but it's actually about strengthening democracy and instilling an ongoing commitment to effect real change."

Reports from Colorado, Michigan, and Florida all note increased registration rates and spikes in last minute registrations. On Monday, a Denver elections office took 100 people per hour who poured in to register or apply for mail ballots before the deadline, according to Myuang Oak Kim of the Rocky Mountain News. Project Vote and ACORN's voter registration effort helped more than 70,000 Colorado voters get on the rolls.

In Michigan, 95 percent of eligible voters are registered, according to the Associated Press. Local clerks, who processed 217,000 applications from Project Vote, "are gearing up for what's expected to be a heavy turnout on Election Day," which may exceed the 68 percent that turned out in 2004. To accommodate the influx, secretary of state spokeswoman Kelly Chesney said her office has recommended increasing the number of voting stations to avoid long lines as well as develop separate lines for those who "are having issues with the state's relatively new voter ID requirements."

In Florida, 430,000 "younger, more ethnically diverse and more Democratic" voters joined the voter rolls since January, according to Michael Bender of the Palm Beach Post Saturday. Project Vote and ACORN's efforts helped register152,000 of these voters.

"Everyone wants to be involved this year; they want to be a part of history," says Verna Hunter, a retired Fort Pierce, Fla. woman and long time local voter registration drive volunteer. "It's just a really inspirational time."

"Our belief, fundamentally, is that by expanding the electorate, by changing its profile, we will get candidates who will start to appeal to those new voters," said Project Vote Executive Director Michael Slater in Tuesday's press briefing. "The idea isn't to assist, whether overtly or covertly, the election of any single candidate, but to force candidates to take into account the interests of Americans who have not historically participated in as high rates as others and to start pursuing policies and programs that are more responsive to their needs."

The idea of new voters demanding different policies and programs is threatening to some entrenched powers, and many partisan attacks on voter participation programs and disinformation campaigns have already been launched with just less than four weeks to go until Election Day.

Project Vote will be running a voter education and mobilization canvass in the run-up to Election Day to ensure that all of our registrants go out to the polls. In addition we are running an aggressive Election Administration program to fight partisan attempts to suppress the vote, and ensure that all eligible voters can cast a ballot and that those ballots will be counted. Please follow this link so that you can help support Project Vote's Get Out The Vote and Election Administration Program.

Quick Links:
Hess, Douglass R. "Representational Bias in the 2006 Electorate." Project Vote. Sept. 2007.

In Other News:

States' Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal- New York Times
Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.

Disabled vet says Tucson officials kept him from voting - Associated Press
A disabled veteran says the city of Tucson prevented him from exercising his right to vote last year.

20 percent of Ohio's provisional ballots rejected - Associated Press
CLEVELAND -- Roughly 20 percent of provisional ballots cast in the March primary election in Ohio were rejected by election officials, a newspaper review found.

Idaho voter registration for students questioned - Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho - Idaho college students face some of the toughest restrictions in the nation when trying to register to vote at their college addresses, according to a national study.

Erin Ferns is a Research and Policy Analyst with Project Vote's Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD).