“The Democratic Governor of Minnesota – Mark Dayton – vetoed a voter ID law last year – but the millionaires and billionaires are trying to get it passed as a ballot measure now in November. If successful – Minnesota will join eight other states who’ve passed or strengthened voter ID laws in just the last year – from Kansas – to Mississippi – to Rhode Island – to Wisconsin – to Alabama – to South Carolina – to Tennessee – to Texas. According to the Brennan Center for Justice – more than 5 million eligible voters will be disenfranchised this election thanks to these new laws. And those are mostly minorities, the poor, the elderly, and college students – mostly people who’d vote for Democrats and support stronger middle class policies. 5 million people – wiped off the voter rolls. This is an all-out assault on our democracy – and it’s all happening under the radar of the mainstream media.” Thom Hartmann

Register to Vote - Voter Registration

Some 24 million voter registration data in the United States contain significant errors, according to a recently released Pew Center report.

Although the errors affect one in eight registrations, researchers at the Pew Center on the States said they don’t believe it indicates widespread voter fraud. Rather, Pew believes outdated data systems are failing to keep up with the most basic changes in people’s lives, leading to perceptions that U.S. elections are not as sound as they could be.

To address the voter registration problems, eight states are currently working on a centralized data system designed to help identify people whose information may be out of date.

“A lot of people probably assume we do this already,” said Sam Reed, State of Washington’s secretary of state, who oversees their elections. “I think it’s going to bring more trust and confidence in the election system.”

The Pew Center says a centralized data system along with online voter registration will save time and money by eliminating the need to print millions of registration forms, enter information by hand, or send mail to outdated or wrong addresses.

“That’s a tremendous cost to the taxpayers,” said David Becker, of the Pew Center on the States.

The Brennan Center for Justice, which has done numerous studies on voter registration issues, is also calling for the modernization of data systems. But they caution that states need to take extra care not to eliminate legitimate voters from their rolls. The Brennan Center said there have been a number of cases recently in which voters have been improperly deleted from the system because two people happen to have the same name and date of birth.

Many states are enacting laws requiring state-issued photo IDs to vote, saying such laws will prevent rampant voter fraud even though cases of such fraud is rare. These type of voter suppression laws are being directly opposed by the Brennan Center.

Maryland credits the Pew report with turning the state toward online voter registration, allowing voters to update their information on the web.

read more

Overseas Military Voters : Overseas Vote Foundation

Each State Fact Sheet features:
• Legislative Updates
• Estimates of the Overseas and Military Voters population from that State
• Overseas Vote Foundation Usage Statistics and Post-Election Survey Results
• Balloting Statistics from the Election Assistance Commission (EAC)
• Current State Policy on Overseas and Military Voters

“Imagine how the outcome of the Iowa caucuses might have changed, had overseas and military voters been able to participate. The margin of eight votes helps Americans understand that their vote really matters. It’s a great motivator,” said OVF President and CEO Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat in a recent press release. “Our overseas and military voters can have an impact on this Presidential election. We need to assure they have timely access to absentee ballots and can exercise their right to vote.”

According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, more than 989,000 ballots were requested by overseas military voters for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election; only 680,000 were returned for counting.

The Overseas Vote Foundation’s (OVF) mission is to help overseas and military voters participate in federal elections by providing public access to various voter registration tools and services.

OVF makes it convenient for overseas military voters to get their ballot and vote. Overseas U.S. citizens, State Department employees, and active duty uniformed service members (along with their spouses and dependents) within and outside of the United States vote under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). All can register to vote from abroad using OVF’s services.

OVF ia a nonprofit, nonpartisan public charity and is not connected in any way with any US government or US military organization.

For more information about the Overseas Vote Foundation and overseas and military voters visit www.overseasvotefoundation.org

Florida voter suppression election law HB 1355

Daniel Smith, along with several election experts, testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing that the law will have a detrimental effect on early voting and voter registration. This new law, HB 1355, now requires groups such as the League of Women Voters or local churches, to turn in their voter registration forms within 48 hours. Such community service organizations used to have 10 days to submit them. Any group that misses the deadline is subject to heavy fines.

According to Professor Smith: “Not only is the number of new voter registrations down appreciably from comparable months four years ago, but the percentage of valid new registrations under HB 1355 is also lower, indicating that third-party groups such as the League of Women Voters and other groups who collected and submitted voter registration forms in 2007, but were not so involved in 2011, are not the cause of invalid voter registration forms being submitted for verification. Rather, what is clear from these figures is that the increased burdens placed on third-party persons and organizations wishing to register citizens to vote resulting from HB 1355 have done little to prevent the submission of invalid voter registration forms.”

The effect of this voter suppression law has been to deter third-party groups from holding voter registration drives, since many of these non-profits could not afford to pay huge fines, should their often understaffed and overworked volunteers miss the 48-hour submission deadline.

In addition, HB 1355 now requires voters who moved to another county to cast a provisional ballot rather than change their address at the polls. Also, early voting on the Sunday before Election Day was eliminated. Before then, many churches took their members to the polls on that day.

Professor Smith also presented evidence that the restrictions of this voter suppression law fall disproportionately hard on minority groups:

“In the 2008 general election, African-Americans comprised only 13 percent of total voters but were 31 percent of voters on the Sunday before Election Day. Similarly the state’s Hispanic voters were 11 percent of total voters but made up 22 percent of those who cast their ballot on the last Sunday of early voting. Obviously eliminating early voting on that day suppresses the turnout of minority voters who tend to vote Democrat.”

The Court majority opinion stated that, “If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.” … “independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.”

The Court minority dissenting opinion stated that, “At bottom, the Court’s opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.”

Most Americans dislike the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling because it allows a Super PAC to take in and spend unlimited political cash. According to a recent poll, 65 percent of voters aware of the case feel that unlimited campaign money is negatively affecting political campaigns. Sixty percent of Republicans and sixty-three percent of Democrats in the poll say there has been a negative effect on campaigns.

Citizens United Super PAC Money

The “Saving American Democracy Amendment” states that:
• Corporations are not persons with constitutional rights equal to real people.
• Corporations are subject to regulation by the people.
• Corporations may not make campaign contributions or any election expenditures.
• Congress and states have the power to regulate campaign finances.

A Petition to Support the Saving American Democracy Amendment

Thousands of college students on campuses across several states will be surprised to learn that recent voter id card laws have made their college ID and out-of-state driver’s license no longer acceptable for registering and voting. Unable to register to vote, these students will not be allowed to cast their ballots in this year’s elections.

Over half-a-dozen states have already passed strict laws requiring a government-issued photo voter id card if students do not already have certain types of official id, like an in-state driver’s license or a US passport. Over two dozen other states have plans to implement the same voting restrictions. Unfortunately, a great many college students will not have the time, money or resources to obtain such identification in order to register and vote.

Some civil liberty groups see these photo voter id card laws as voter suppression: an attempt to restrict the votes of groups that traditionally vote Democratic, such as African-Americans, Hispanics, the poor, elderly and young adults who, as a demographic, are more likely to be without government photo IDs.

Truth About Voter Fraud

Young college-age adults should be encouraged to take part in the most basic of American democratic functions. Unfortunately, lawmakers in many states are trying to block students from voting in the 2012 elections. Some of these politicians may be doing so to protect political hierarchies, or to protect against what they claim is serious voter fraud. But drastic restrictions on the next generation of voters threatens the future protections of American democracy itself.

US Civil rights group petitions United Nations over minority voting rights

Very Long Voting Lines on Election Day

Fourteen states have passed 25 laws unfairly restricting the right to vote, among black and Hispanic voters in particular. These fourteen states are among the fastest growing in the number of blacks (Florida, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina) and the number of Latinos (South Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee). The NAACP insists that this no coincidence, since these same populations turned out in record numbers to vote in the 2008 presidential election, voting heavily Democratic.

Ethnic minority groups are not the only electorate at risk of losing their voting rights. Other traditionally Democratic voting groups, such as college students, seniors and poorer Americans, are also vulnerable.

In Texas, a law was recently passed that prevents students from voting when using their college ID cards, while allowing anyone to cast their ballot if they present a permit to carry a concealed handgun.

Four states – Florida, Iowa, Kentucky and Virginia – restrict the right to vote from those convicted of a criminal offense. In Florida, offenders who have completed their sentences have to wait at least another five years before they can even apply to restore their right to register to vote. more

Register to Vote: Voter Suppression

Methods of voter suppression include:
• Laws or administrative practices to impede voter registration
• Photo ID laws
• Purging voter rolls
• Jim Crow laws
• Ex-felon disenfranchisement
• Disinformation about voting procedures
• Partisan election administration
• Inequality in Election Day resources
• Caging lists

In the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal, Republican officials attempted to reduce the number of Democratic voters by paying professional telemarketers in Idaho to make repeated hang-up calls to the telephone numbers used by the Democratic Party’s ride-to-the-polls phone lines on election day.

In the U.S. presidential election of 2004, some voters got phone calls with false information intended to keep them from voting—saying that their voting place had been changed or that voting would take place on Wednesday as well as on Tuesday. Voters who believed this misinformation would go to the wrong polling place, or worse, not attempt to vote until after the election had ended.

In 2008, wait times between 2 and 10 hours were reported during early voting at multiple Georgia locations.

The tactics of voter suppression can range from minor “dirty tricks” that make voting inconvenient, up to blatantly illegal activities that physically intimidate prospective voters to prevent them from casting ballots. Voter suppression could be particularly effective if a significant amount of voters are intimidated individually because the voter might not consider his or her single vote important.
more

Register Vote: Medicare

Republicans are firing right back with their own ad, which, just as in 2010, accuses Democrats of cutting Medicare: “Kathy Hochul — a false campaign about Jane Corwin’s position on Medicare, when the truth is, it’s Hochul who says she would cut Medicare and Social Security.”

The prize here is the votes of those who are retired or soon to retire.

In 2010, voters older than 60 were one-third of the electorate, and Republicans won their biggest share of them since the Reagan years. That’s a big reason why Democrats lost the House. Now, Pelosi is determined to get those seniors back — and with them the House majority.

“We won the House of Representatives in 2006 because in 2005, President Bush thought it was a good idea to privatize — or partially privatize — Social Security. [That was] deadly, politically,” Pelosi says. “This is what is in our DNA as Democrats, and the same thing with Medicare. So if they want to mess with Medicare, we’re here for the fight.”

Pelosi says she and President Obama are open to making some changes to keep Medicare solvent, but are opposed to anything that would alter the basic structure of the program. more

Register Vote - Early Voting

Early voting is held in some elections to also increase participation by voters who might normally be unable to vote on election day. Such people may include those who are out-of-town, or others who have conflicting work schedules, as well as those work at the polls one election day. Voters with certain medical issues might prefer to vote early in order to avoid the stressful environment of a crowded election day.

Unfortunately, some government officials are actually working to make voting less accessible by hindering early voting for political gain, as in a North Carolina bill to shorten early voting by a week:

It’s amazing the House members who support this move don’t get it. Going against the demands of voters isn’t a ticket for re-election.

But the point isn’t that one party or the other might benefit; it’s that people who are really excited about elections can’t wait to vote. So, don’t make them wait. more