Strategy for Suppressing the Vote

[noamnety]

Back in July, MI State Rep. John Pappageorge, R-Troy, was quoted as saying, "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election."

A lot of us were outraged, but didn't have a clear idea what that meant. A couple of weeks ago, People of Color United bought air time and began playing ads with this voice over: "Our community doesn't need another wishy-washy, rich, white politician ... and boy, does Kerry come across as rich, white and wishy-washy."
http://www.freep.com/news/politics/ad14e_20040814.htm

There has been talk about those ads being used to try to confuse voters, to push them into voting for Bush instead of Kerry. I believe, however, the goal of those ads was never to get a listener to vote for Bush. Instead, the ads are part of a deliberate campaign to disenfranchise black voters entirely, to convince them that because neither candidate is black, they should just stay home on election day and refuse to be part of the process at all.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I think you are right

because Bush is just another white politician himself. Hope folks realize this and take it for the bull it is. The MoveOn ad about voting is very powerful, and should be played again and again.

[roseBudd]

2. Volunteer to be a poll watcher

We need volunteers from all walks of life, but we especially need lawyers, law students, clergy and Spanish-speakers.

http://www.workingforchange.com/electionprotection/index.cfm?mktcode=PFAW002

[noamnety]

4. I will be a poll watcher

I already put in for a vacation day to be a poll watcher, I'm working with a group called MOSES in Detroit, so I will give them first choice of where to place me before I sign up online.

But poll watching is not a solution for a campaign designed to increase voter apathy. We need to expose this for what it is.

[roseBudd]

6. I talk to African Americans everyday and they are not

apathetic about Bush. For them it is the ecomomy, and they never thought Iraq was a good idea.

[mbali]

3. What better way to suppress the vote than to plant and stoke the notion

that our candidate is weak, his campaign is doomed, he won't fight for us, can't stand up to Bush, blah blah blah.

We're doing half their work for them.

[Dookus]

12. that is exactly right

They don't need to get people to vote for Bush - they just need to get people NOT TO VOTE!

The way to do that is to make politics so ugly and destructive that people give up on it.

[roseBudd]

5. I canvass and register African Americans in Ohio

and they are mad.

"By Friday, two full months before Election Day and a month before the registration deadline, Hamilton County alone had already registered 34,000 new voters. Butler has registered more than 16,000 new voters this year; Warren County more than 10,000, and Clermont has 7,500 new registered voters."

Cincinnati is in Hamilton County and Cincinnati is 43% black.

[noamnety]

7. great!

And those nearly 70,000 people are not "likely voters" according to the pollsters, since they didn't vote before. I don't understand that methodology. Seems to me people who register shortly before an election are the MOST likely voters.

Can we get this interpretation of those ads - "the republican campaign of disenfranchisement" out into the blogs and press? (more than just me writing a lone LTTE?) This needs to backfire on them in the same way as the bandaids at the convention.

[Orangepeel]

8. voting: it ain't worth it, hommie!

http://www.uclick.com/client/wpc/bo/

that's Aaron McGruder's take on the bush campaign strategy in today's strip.

[notadmblnd]

9. Folks don't be so gloomy...

I went to the Arts Beats and Eats festival yesterday and the bushbots do not have anyone fooled. Both Bush and Kerry workers were out there handing out stickers and yard signs and to me the Bush people appeared desperate. They were much more visible than the Kerry workers and much more aggressive at stopping people. I did finally find a Kerry guy as he was leaving and asked him for some stickers.

Once we had our stickers, almost instantly.. we were overwhelmed by people wanting to know where they could obtain them. The guy was gone, but the number of people I was stopped by was amazing. I stopped at a both of some older women who have a small business making and selling the cutest tops, I assumed they'd be republican.. they immediately started talking about their support for Kerry.

The Kerry worker I spoke to told me that last election 22 million women did not bother to vote. I don't think that will be the case this election day. I think women have bush pegged and it's going to be the women that pull this election out front for Kerry.

The only thing I wish, is that the Kerry campaign was more visible in the state of Michigan. People are desperate for info and items to display their support for Kerry and their campaign people are almost non existent. I signed up as a volunteer for his campaign via his website hoping someone would contact me ( I'm willing to canvas, go to events and hand out literature etc.) I have a lot of free time and I see the need but If I don't have access to their information or their campaign people, theres really little I can do.

[noamnety]

11. not being gloomy at all

I wasn't being gloomy, I was suggesting an effort on our part to counterattack those ads with a specific strategy of our own, of exposing them for what they are.

I just forgot to use the word "meme" in my post.

[notadmblnd]

13. Well count me in.. but how do we do it?

I need some direction, if someone needs my help with something, please PM me.

[noamnety]

14. That's where I need help

I posted this on the JK forum, and also here ... and I will post it to my blog, but we need more than that, of course. LTTE is helpful, but it needs to be a real news story or talking point that gets repeated.

*waits for magic newsfairy to come along*

erm. I need a better plan than that, eh?

[snippy]

10. Republicans always have a very well organized effort to suppress the

black vote. They run ads like the one you describe several weeks before the election, then in last few days before the election they will distribute flyers throughout inner city neighborhoods in swing States saying things like the election has been moved to Wednesday or that voting locations or times have changed or that anyone who is receiving any public assistance or is behind on their rent or a utility bill or child support payments is ineligible to vote. Then on election day they will spread rumors that the democratic candidate has already won (or lost) so it is unnecessary to vote or they will hire telemarketers to jam the telephone lines of democratic get-out-the-vote call centers.