Month: July 2008

Is it possible that the press just doesn’t love John McCain anymore?

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

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

Reports and exits polls this entire political season have built a narrative of tremendous, even record-breaking voter participation, pushing us to believe that voter turnout in November will exceed all expectations.

Maybe.
The dirty secret of elections in America is that getting on the rolls, casting a ballot, and having that ballot counted is a complicated system adjudicated and carried out by more than 3,000 counties and towns and regulated by a complex mix of state and federal laws. In order for the expected record-shattering turnout to occur in November, all aspects of the system, from registration procedures to polling place systems to ballot counting procedures all need to work properly. However, those with an interest in suppressing turnout may disrupt the process at any one of those points. The biggest impact comes by preventing people from making it onto the voting rolls in the first place since no one can cast a ballot without being registered.

Unsurprisingly, politicians with partisan interests at heart are pushing states to raise barriers to the democratic process by enforcing laws that restrict voter registration drives and violate the Voting Rights Act. These election-related policies have disproportionately negative impact on young people and minorities – two groups that have historically suffered underrepresentation in the electorate. However, in an encouraging move aimed at lowering these kinds of barriers, the Massachusetts Senate passed a bill that would help enfranchise all voters on Election Day.

Restrictions on Voter Registration Drives
During presidential election years, efforts to register more citizens increase dramatically. However, several states impose various restrictions on voter registration drives, which in turn has a disproportionate impact upon youth and people with disabilities – two communities that commonly register to vote through such drives, according to Ben Adler of the Politico.

The swing state of New Mexico is under the most scrutiny for their drive policy and has recently been sued for unconstitutionally hindering the right to collect voter registrations under a 2005 election reform law.

“The activists contend that because the law creates criminal penalties for failing to meet its requirements – which even supporters acknowledge are stringent – it discourages groups from collecting registrations,” Adler wrote. New Mexico’s excessively short 48 hour time frame to turn in a completed application and subsequent misdemeanor charge if the collector is late has reportedly stopped students who “‘simply want to get out on campus and register their friends to vote.'” The Federal government recognizes the challenges imposed by short time lines: Under the National Voter Registration Act, state agencies are provided 10 days to turn in new applications.

Violations of the Voting Rights Act
Other voting rights issues that have recently been battled involve violations of the Voting Rights Act.
The U.S. Justice Department recently announced an agreement to protect Latino voters in New Jersey after a complaint was filed involving discrimination in the voting process. Puerto Rican voters in the Penns Grove borough had complained they were subject to racial comments and hostility as well as disproportionately asked for voter ID and turned away at the polls. It was the third lawsuit of this nature this year. The suit also alleged that Spanish-speaking voters were not provided Spanish-language election materials or enough aid from bilingual poll workers, also requirements of the Act. The agreement must still be approved by the court, the Justice Department press release said.

“The right to vote is a fundamental guarantee for all American citizens,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Christopher Christie. “The Division is committed to vigorously enforcing federal civil rights laws during the important election year and commends the county and borough for promptly and constructively resolving the matter.”

Asian voters in Massachusetts were not as successful in getting the state to provide fully sufficient bilingual ballots, according to a column by Adrian Walker of the Boston Globe. Advocates recently attempted to meet with Secretary of State William Galvin to gain his support for a proposed law requiring ballots be translated into Chinese and Vietnamese. The bill passed the Boston City Council earlier this year, but still requires legislative approval in order to ensure elderly Asian residents with limited English skills are not denied the right to vote in November.

“Voting is as American as apple pie,” said Boston City Councilor Sam Yoon. “This is something everyone should want to protect.”

However, Galvin – who the legislature looks to when considering election law – denied the group, as he has for the last year, according to Walker.

Despite swelling interest and rising registration rates among youth and minorities, there are significant and persistent barriers to their increased participation. The identification of these barriers should serve  as a wake-up call in each state, pushing them to take steps to address the barriers and equip themselves to handle the influx of new voters this coming Election Day.

Voter Registration Surge and Election Day Chaos
An example of this swelling interest can be seen in one county in Florida where minority voters are beginning to balance their share of the electorate. This year alone in Lee County, Florida, black and Latino voters have increased by as much as 22 percent – more than double the increase among white voters, according to local publication,  Fort Meyers News-Press.

“The increase in minority voter registration gives voice to people who haven’t always been represented at the table,” the News-Press editorialized. “Whether it’s the presence of a nontraditional candidate, the pressing economic conditions, or the war in Iraq, anything that inspires citizens to participate in the political process is beneficial.”

The unprecedented surge of voters expected to turn out in November could pose a major challenge for states, according to Stateline.org. The online news site, run by the Pew Research Center, raised concerns about poor ballot design and even last minute voter registration drives that could swamp understaffed offices, making it more difficult for voters to get on the rolls, let alone cast a ballot.

“People know it’s going to be a historically high turnout. Whether they can do anything about it is another question,” said Dan Seligson of electionline.org, a Pew Center on the States project that provides analysis on election reform.

Smart Election Reform
While other states scramble to figure out how to accommodate the influx of voters and advocates ensure voting rights are protected, one state is pushing one of the most effective measures to expand access to democracy for all American citizens – Election Day Registration. On Tuesday, the Massachusetts Senate passed a bill that would allow voters to register and vote on Election Day. The bill, SB 2807 is currently in the House Ways and Means committee. If passed, Massachusetts would join the ranks of eight other EDR states, which have average turnout rates that exceed non-EDR states by as much as 12 percent. Three other states are considering EDR bills: New Jersey, New York and Ohio. To view these bills, visit www.ElectionLegislation.org.

Quick Links:

Contacts:
Mass. Committee on House Ways and Means
State House #237
Boston, MA 02133
Phone:617/722-2380

Mass. Secretary of State William Galvin
Citizen Information Service
One Ashburton Place, Room 1611
Boston, MA 02108-1512
Tel: (617) 727-7030
Toll Free: 1-800-392-6090
TTY: (617) 878-3889
Fax: (617) 742-4528
E-mail: cis@sec.state.ma.us

Reports:

“A Summary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.” Project Vote.

“Voters Win with Election Day Registration: Election Day Registration Was Successful in Several States During the 2006 Mid-term Elections.” Demos. 19 November 2008.

In Other News:

Voter-rights group cries foul in state: La. defends process for dropping names – The Times – Picayune [La.]
BATON ROUGE — A national voting rights organization says Louisiana election officials are violating federal law by dropping voters who have registered in other states. But state officials said Friday they are in compliance with all federal and state voting laws.

More homeless people expected to vote this fall – Associated Press; The Raw Story
Among the record number of voters expected to cast ballots this fall may be an increase from an often-invisible population – the homeless.

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

*    Department of Homeland Security officials have come out in support of a Center for Immigration Studies report that claims that border control measures are the cause of a decrease in immigration to the U.S.  However, the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at University of California, San Diego has rebutted those claims and determined that the border patrol apprehends fewer than half of the undocumented immigrants that come into the country through the Mexico/U.S. border.  According to The Huffington Post, the Center for Immigration Studies (an anti-immigrant advocacy group) and the Department of Homeland Security failed to consider reasons other than border control measures that explain why immigration to the U.S. would naturally decline:

When citing the decrease in both apprehensions at the border and remittances sent by workers in the United States to family members in Mexico, Chertoff also failed to consider the fact that undocumented immigration naturally decreases when the U.S. economy is in recession. [Director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies Dr. Wayne] Cornelius’ report shows that undocumented migration clearly responds to changing U.S. economic conditions, with significant decreases during economic downturns such as the one we are in now.

Moreover, Chertoff’s border control measures are completely inconsistent with the fundamentally positive effect immigration has on American communities.  Providing opportunity for immigrants has been a core value in the U.S. since its founding.  To see more immigration myths dispelled, read The Opportunity Agenda fact sheet, Immigrants and Opportunity.

*    In one of last month’s blog roundups on The State of Opportunity, a story about a sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona appeared.  That same sheriff, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, is in the news once again.  An editorial in The Washington Post discusses how  “Sheriff Joe” and his officers have been continuing the “policing strategy” of locking up all Hispanic people they encounter, regardless of if they have any evidence that they are undocumented immigrants or have committed any crime.  According to Arizona Central, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has had to resort to calling for a media mobilization against Arpaio:

“He (Arpaio) has become the false messiah,” Gordon said. “But when the light is shined on him, people will see that he isn’t helping to fight illegal immigration and he’s just making the situation worse. You’ve got an individual with a badge and a gun who’s breaking the law and abusing his authority.”

We need real solutions, ones that are brought about by comprehensive immigration reform and promote opportunity for all, not a gross miscarriage of justice carried out by a rogue officer like Arpaio.

*    Thankfully, not all police officers feel the same way Arpaio does – George Gascón, a former assistant chief in the Los Angeles Police Department, has written this op-ed for The New York Times.  In it he argues that using local police officers as a means to enforce federal immigration policy will ultimately lead to the public, particularly in communities of color, distrusting the police department:

Here in Arizona, a wedge is being driven between the local police and some immigrant groups. Some law enforcement agencies are wasting limited resources in operations to appease the public’s thirst for action against illegal immigration regardless of the legal or social consequences…

If we become a nation in which the local police are the default enforcers of a failing federal immigration policy, the years of trust that police departments have built up in immigrant communities will vanish. Some minority groups may once again view police officers as armed instruments of government oppression.

*    The effects from the ICE raid in Postville are still being felt, reminding us just how detrimental this raid was to the Iowa community and America as a whole.  The Des Moines Register is reporting that the new employees at the Agriprocessors plant have had a significant, negative effect on the local community:

The impact is evident: New laborers are changing Postville. The Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant, the site of the immigration raid, once employed men and women with families. Now, its workers are mostly young, single people with no stake in the community and nothing to lose…

The rise in crime has strained Postville’s tiny police department. One night in June, the calls were so numerous that police asked the local bar to close early.

A protest rally also took place in Postville last weekend – it was documented in a video, which is now available on YouTube.

Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell, in an apparent rare bit of enlightened foresight for a Republican, has indicated that the state will prepare for infrastructure necessary to support widespread use of plug-in hybrid vehicles.  (Shocking, I know.)

Link

“We need to make sure the state’s electric infrastructure is ready for the additional demand, and we want to avoid problems that could crop up if, say, a high number of EVs are charging on a 98-degree summer day when power is at a premium for air conditioners and other devices,” the governor said.

Although none are currently in production, it is anticipated that use of such vehicles could begin as early as 2010.

And, oh my goodness, is this recognition of global warming?!!

“The benefits to our planet, our businesses and families, not to mention the potential cost savings from a coordinated and intelligently planned roll-out of EVs, make Connecticut’s participation in EV integration discussions imperative,” the governor said.

The Governor has directed that Connecticut utilities be involved with preparations.

The integration discussions were announced last week. General Motors and 34 utilities will collaborate with the Electric Power Research Institute on research and development to facilitate integration of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles into the power grid.

Today, Governor Rell directed DPUC Chairman Donald Downes to “ensure Connecticut utilities are actively involved in the discussions.”

And here she goes again, seeming to acknowledge global warming.  

“In a time of soaring energy prices,” said Governor Rell, “Connecticut has an opportunity to be a national leader in reducing our dependence on foreign energy sources and in integrating available technologies in a way that will reduce emissions and may potentially lower costs to consumers.”

Can it really be so?  

Ted Stevens has entered a plea of not-guilty and asked for an expedited trial so he can ‘clear his name’ before the November election. The prosecution has not demanded that Stevens post a bond but they have requested that he surrender his passport so that he cannot flee the country. Nice. The government is not offering Stevens any plea deal, which seems obvious. Stevens was the big fish in this investigation. It’s a bad sign for Stevens that the prosecution, as in the Scooter Libby trial, has not charged any underlying crime, but has restricted itself to proving that the senator made seven false statements to investigators. Libby was unable to squirm off that hook and, as Fitzgerald said at the time he filed the charges, as long as justice is vindicated it doesn’t really matter what charges are used.

Meanwhile, Kos wonders what will happen to Anchorage’s airport, which is named after Senator Hulk-Smash of the Intertubes.

If you haven’t already, you should visit Mark Begich’s website. If he can win election to the Senate, I’m pretty confident that he will be a star in the upper chamber. He’s very intelligent and interested in policy. He’s media savvy…he likes to call-in to all the local radio shows…rap…jazz…right-wing talk…etc. And his record as mayor of Anchorage is simply stellar.

Promoted by Steven D

By lightseeker2

We’ve all gotten one. You know the kind of email I am talking about. It breathlessly lists a long litany of  half truths and slanders against Obama and insists that you have to pass it on since the fate of the world, or at least the Republic depends on it. Its a modern form of gossip, I guess. A new acquaintance collects them for study. I won’t repeat the slanders here since that just pushes them up the ladder when people search for them. My personal favorite is the one that lifts sentences from Obama’s books without page references or any context.

Cross posted at TexasKaos

An Attack That Came Out of the Ether
Scholar Looks for First Link in E-Mail Chain About Obama

Laid out before Allen, a razor-sharp, 36-year-old political theorist, was what purported to be a biographical sketch of Barack Obama that has become one of the most effective — and baseless — Internet attacks of the 2008 presidential season. The anonymous chain e-mail makes the false claim that Obama is concealing a radical Islamic background. By the time it reached Allen on Jan. 11, 2008, it had spread with viral efficiency for more than a year.

Political hit mail of this type is just one of the ways in which the tradition of civil discourse has been ruptured over the last many years. But, with the growth of email and the internet , it has become a particularly nasty one.

An Attack That Came Out of the Ether
Scholar Looks for First Link in E-Mail Chain About Obama

During that time, polls show the number of voters who mistakenly believe Obama is a Muslim rose — from 8 percent to 13 percent between November 2007 and March 2008. And some cited this religious mis-affiliation when explaining their primary votes against him.

Smear emails are one case in which “trickle down” really works, especially among what are being called “low information voters.” That means , for all intents and purposes, the average voter. Policy wonks like me are few at any time in our history, even more so today in the present confusing climate when the MSM have consistently failed to do their jobs.

I call it the “backyard fence smear campaign”. It resembles the old gossip hot line so famous in small towns, except on steroids. My wife has a relative who lives in Louisiana who dutifully passes these on. These things are so outrageous that she has given up even trying to set the relative straight.

What can we do to counter them? At the risk of exponentially increasing the spam already out there, we can fire back, but not with point by point refutations.

I was part of a training exercise for some of our new activists on Saturday. The experience really re-vitalized me. Here is what I told them about answering any smear.

1. Don’t compound the problem by repeating the smear verbally or in writing. ( Yes, I now I quoted the smear in my citation to Professor Allen’s work)

Remember this?

Your Brain Lies to You by SAM WANG and SANDRA AAMODT  This phenomenon, known as source amnesia, can also lead people to forget whether a statement is true. Even when a lie is presented with a disclaimer, people often later remember it as true.

With time, this misremembering only gets worse. A false statement from a noncredible source that is at first not believed can gain credibility during the months it takes to reprocess memories from short-term hippocampal storage to longer-term cortical storage. As the source is forgotten, the message and its implications gain strength. This could explain why, during the 2004 presidential campaign, it took some weeks for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Senator John Kerry to have an effect on his standing in the polls

2 A good response is personal – you speak from your own experiences.

I have been following Obama for several years and what I know is that he  stands for ___ [ fill in your favorite thing – jobs, better public education, government that works for people like me.]
As for the lies and half truths you may have received in your email, consider the source. These emails are started by anonymous persons and then spreads like any other piece of gossip. The incompetent crowd who got us into this mess will say anything to save themselves from voters like you and me.

As a father, I care deeply about the kind of America I will pass on to my children. [ fill in your reason for caring ]That is why I try to get the facts before I vote. Whatever you think about either candidate don’t base your decision on gutter gossip!

If you wish to see the other side of their claims, go here: http://www.fightthesmears.org/

If you wish to see how this kind of email starts go here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/27/AR2008062703781_pf.html

If you feel so inclined, use a message of this kind to blast back.

If you are interested, here is my list for developing a good political message.It is based on the work of Lakoff and others. See here,here , here and here for that discussion.

Its personal – you are telling YOUR story

First you invite a level of trust, then you persuade with fact and opinion.

YOU NEVER REPEAT THEIR MESSAGE IN THEIR WORDS!!! (Frames, Brains and Consequences)

A good message is credible

A good  message should be clear and concise

A good message connects with a person’s interests and values – it is like having a good conversation.

A good message communicates our values

A good message, should stay rooted in what we hope for, idealistically believe ( It is about the Dream)

It’s a steady drumbeat of stories that are always the same. Why isn’t Barack Obama up by forty points in the polls? What’s wrong with his campaign? A new CNN/Opinion Research poll has Obama ahead by a mere 51-44 margin. Nevermind that 51% is a bigger number than any Democrat has accomplished since 1964. Nevermind that with undecideds included, the poll extrapolates out to 54-55 percent of the popular vote. Aside from 1964, you have to go back to 1936 to see a Democrat that reached 55% of the popular vote. The media seems desperate to keep the contest just close enough to maintain some semblance of competitiveness. It’s probably more of a ratings consideration than anything ideological. But, then, reporters do tend to fall into the higher tax brackets these days, don’t they?

Any big news out there?

.
Yesterday just minutes before eight o’clock in the morning local time, a helicopter flew over my house. A moment of joy, I knew it would carry fugitive Karadzic to his final destination, Scheveningen prison, just a few miles away. For days the international media were lined up with their satellite discs and production studio’s to do live broadcast of this very moment.

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."