Help American Get Your Vote Back

Suppressing the vote has long been a cornerstone of the GOP’s electoral strategy. Shortly before the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, Paul Weyrich — a principal architect of today’s Republican Party — scolded evangelicals who believed in democracy. “Many of our Christians have what I call the ‘goo goo’ syndrome — good government,” said Weyrich, who co-founded Moral Majority with Jerry Falwell. “They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. . . . As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”

Today, Weyrich’s vision has become a national reality. Since 2003, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, at least 2.7 million new voters have had their applications to register rejected. In addition, at least 1.6 million votes were never counted in the 2004 election — and the commission’s own data suggests that the real number could be twice as high. To purge registration rolls and discard ballots, partisan election officials used a wide range of pretexts, from “unreadability” to changes in a voter’s signature. And this year, thanks to new provisions of the Help America Vote Act, the number of discounted votes could surge even higher.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Yes, the Late Bobby Kennedy’s Son) and Greg Palast published and article in the Rolling Stones Magazine titled “Block the Vote”. It asks the of readers if the Republican’s campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president?

Mr. Kennedy appeared on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC a few days ago and I thought that it was a good article to share with those who may be interested.

To view the video, Click Here.

Additional Resources:

Rolling Stones – 10/17/08 “Block the Vote”

Steal Back Your Vote – http://www.stealbackyourvote.org/

Remember New Hampshire

Although I’m all for Obama, I’m not going to allow myself to get too comfortable with how things are today. This is partial because of my lack of trust of some within the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. One accuses the other of intimidation while the other accuses the other of fraud. So I am a little cautious of proclaiming victory, before the last vote is counted. It’s too close to Halloween for me to believe that someone will not try to play a trick on my treat.

So I agree with Barack when I say, Remember New Hampshire. But there’s more that you should remember.

Remember Tom Bradley, Remember Harvey Gant, Remember Douglass Wilder, Remember the 19th Amendment, Remember Medgar Evers, Remember Fannie Lou Hammer, Remember Susan B. Anthony, Remember Martin Luther King, Remember the March in Selma, Remember the Woman Suffrage Movement, Remember the Civil Rights Movement, Remember Florida 2000, Remember Ohio 2004, but most of all I want you to remember the people you know who didn’t have the opportunity to vote or was tricked out of it when you go to the polls. When you vote you not only stand for yourself, but you stand for those who does not have the opportunity to stand.

Now I’m going sound like a preacher for a minute here, but there’s no reason for anyone to celebrate or to congratulate, just make sure you participate.

This “Electoral Map” of the National Presidential Race is provided by Pollster.com You only need 270 Electoral Votes to become the President. Even if John McCain got all of the 95 toss up electoral votes and Barack Obama maintained what is predicted here it would be enough, but leaving it up to chance is not enough. You must vote and take as many people with you as possible.