Daily Kos: How YOU can help fight voter harrassment and suppression!

[iconoclastic cat]

Great stuff! Pass it around!

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And Now for Something Completely Different
by mcjoan
Mon Aug 23rd, 2004 at 15:49:45 EDT

Not that the Swiftboat Liars for Bush haven't also completely consumed my waking life for the past week, (my sleeping life is also blog-centric, but definitely more bizarre--the night before last I dreamed that I was blogging with all of you about Neil Young, who had just died) but I've been thinking about something that does pose a very real threat to our democracy, not to mention Kerry's performance in more than a few battleground states.

And it's something we can actually do something about, beyond getting hysterical. (Not that any of you are hysterical, of course, but emotions have been running a bit high of late.) We can help a number of organizations make sure that everyone who wants to vote gets to vote, and that their vote is counted.

Bob Herbert's NYT column this morning continues his critical reporting of the Florida state police "investigation" of GOTV efforts in the black community--an intimidation campaign against elderly black and of the state's voter list purges. Here's an excerpt, but you really need to read the whole thing (and his past few columns) yourself:

The use of state troopers to zero in on voter turnout efforts is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, in Florida. But the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Guy Tunnell, who was also handpicked by Governor Bush, has been unfazed by the mounting criticism of this use of the state police. His spokesmen have said a "person of interest" in the investigation is Ezzie Thomas, a 73-year-old black man who just happens to have done very well in turning out the African-American vote.

From the G.O.P. perspective, it doesn't really matter whether anyone is arrested in the Orlando investigation, or even if a crime was committed. The idea, in Orange County and elsewhere, is to send a chill through the democratic process, suppressing opposing votes by whatever means are available.

It's not just Florida. A feature article on In These Times details Republican efforts in Michigan, Colorado, South Dakota, and Ohio to suppress minority and Democratic votes.

This is something we can do something about. A variety of organizations can use our money and our volunteer efforts. Here's a snip from a story about one of them from The Wilmington Journal:

A non-partisan program called Election Protection, being led by National Coalition on Black Civil Participation, an umbrella group of more than 80 organizations, including the D.C.-based Lawyers Committee and People for the American Way, will be on guard this time around, Arnwine says. More than 6,000 volunteer lawyers and law students will be staffing precincts around the country and a toll free telephone hotline will be staffed by some 500 lawyers and voting rights experts. The toll free number is 1-866-OUR-VOTE or 1-866-687-8683.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to support the efforts of these groups in whatever way you can, with your time, your money, your ideas. Here are some links to get you started:

NationalCoalition on Black Civic Participation
NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=356&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Enaacpldf%2Eorg%2Fcontent%2Easpx%3Farticle%3D108)
People for the American Way
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
America Coming Together

That's just a start. What are your ideas?

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Note: There is much more in the comments section.