Civil rights organizations fight “lose your home, lose your vote” efforts

“We’re seeing more voter suppression efforts and sophisticated tactics than ever before,” said Wade Henderson, President of the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights. Henderson continued “we’ve seen legal challenges to register voters in Ohio, fear tactics threatening that mortgage foreclosures or unpaid bills will thwart your right to vote, and may even result in arrest. There have been massive attempts to confuse voters with ‘robo calls’ and official looking websites and e-mails, especially in communities of color.”

J. Gerald Hebert, Executive Director of the Campaign Legal Center, explained several incidences of voter intimidation, such as “no match, no vote” cases in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Indiana, and Nevada. “No match, not vote” entails states refusing to register valid voters or purging them from voter rolls if they can’t match their voter information to other state voter records.

Hebert brought up an incident at Drexel University of Philadelphia where flyers were publicized claiming there will be undercover police officers at the polls on election day searching for voters who have outstanding warrants or parking tickets. Hebert claims the college community has especially had obstacles put in their way for being absentee voters or if “their parents claim them as independent on their tax returns.”

Jonah H. Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections, said his organization will have “over 10,000 legal volunteers on and around election day, and over 750 call stations at 1-800-866-OUR-VOTE” in an effort to target voters affected by intimidation and suppression tactics, especially communities of color, young people, and seniors in key swing states.

Robo calls will cost McCain

If you are a registered Republican or Independent voter in a swing state you most likely have received a robo call during the last couple of weeks. Robo calls are generated by recorded voice and delivered by a computer. Many campaigns and organizations have used them. In its "wisdom," congressional officials have voted to exempt them from the "do-not-call list."

However, this exemption does mean the calls are not regulated. The Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 outlines the rules for robo calls. They must include who is initiating the calls and a telephone number or address to reach the party who is paying for it. In addition, some states such as California mandate that a live person must get on the line before the message is played.

With two and a half weeks before Election Day, the McCain campaign has made ample use of these calls. The call that played most often this week began, "Hello, I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC." Then it goes on to say "Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home and killed Americans."

One of the robo call companies promotes its ability to achieve desired election results on its website. GOPcalls.com says it has the capacity to make 10 million calls a day and that systems can, "recognize an answering machine, a live person, a fax machine, busy, disconnected and unanswered calls with the highest accuracy in the industry." Doesn't that make you feel warm and fuzzy about these calls?

The reason I am predicting that John McCain is not going to win the election is that he has to resort to tactics like these. They turn voters off, not on. It is not the John McCain many people think they know and like. In fact, there are reports that the McCain campaign hired the exact same firm that delivered scurrilous lies about him in 2000. What are they thinking? Even people who are voting for Obama have great respect for McCain. They don't expect him to run a campaign counter to his own values.

These calls have been so upsetting to some of the swing state voters that even Republicans running for election have asked the RNC and the McCain campaign to stop. The AP reported that two senators running in close elections have asked for the calls to cease. Susan Collin's campaign spokesperson said, "These kind of tactics have no place in Maine politics." Even Norm Coleman, who is in a tough election campaign with Al Franken in Minnesota, has said that he wanted these attacks stopped.

Congress is also considering action against robo calls, and Shaun Dakin of Citizens for Civil Discourse called for a Voter Privacy Bill of Rights. Even if we could get Congress to pass such legislation, it is highly likely that the Supreme Court would strike it down because the law would limit "free speech." However, there needs to be some relief for voters. Some people in swing states have had as many as 10 calls per week. There has got to be a legal way to limit the annoyance and danger of these calls. The candidates would not pay for them if there were not some evidence that this kind rancor works. But it turns some voters off to the election process. Democracy cannot afford a citizenry that is cynical and turned off to the main instrument of our republic, the individual voter.

Getting the vote right in the upcoming election

"It's probably going to be the election of a lifetime for me," said Don Rehill, Deputy Director of election tabulations at the Associated Press, at a panelist discussion, hosted by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) focusing on the key issues to examine the upcoming election on November 4th when it comes to reporting results, especially in competitive states. Rehill highlights the difficulties with lack of voting equipment being one of many problems encountered throughout past elections.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, highlighted previous elections dilemmas with lost voting machines in floods and failing memory cards. "There'll probably be at least one lawsuit to try to keep the polls open past 7:30 and we'll have to deal with that," Brunner said. According to Brunner, in Ohio they have given out a quick reference guide for the co-workers across the state to help conduct the correct voting procedures.

McCain has chosen his running mate: Exxon Mobil, says Gov. O'Malley

Gov. Martin O'Malley kicked off his new campaign at press conference in the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters. His campaign, called "Exxon-McCain '08," mockingly refers to big oil companies as Senator John McCain's (R-Az.) running mate in the 2008 presidential election, and O'Malley plans to take the campaign through cities across America.

"All of this is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek way of underscoring a very, very serious problem that is facing all of us as Americans," O'Malley said.

At the front of the room sat an oversized check made out to McCain. The amount of money on the check, $2 million, symbolized how much money McCain has received from oil companies during the election season. According to a DNC document from the conference, McCain has received almost $55,000 in contributions from Exxon employees and Exxon's political action committee.

Outside of the DNC headquarters, two members of the Republican National Committee held up their own mock-check made out to Barack Obama for $2.8 billion, which is an attack on Obama's 2005 vote on an energy bill that gave tax breaks to oil companies.

O'Malley said Barack Obama is going to use oil company funds to give people emergency energy rebates at $1000 per family and $500 per individual. McCain cannot do this because of his interest in oil companies, O'Malley said.

When the floor opened up for questions, one man asked O'Malley if the Democratic Party has received any money from oil companies. Brad Woodhouse, Communications Director for the DNC, said he did not know the answer, but would get back to the man about it.

Looking good- Obama campaign to target voters in barbershops

The Obama campaign hosted a conference call to unveil a new, unique voter registration initiative geared towards reaching out to unregistered voters in the African American community. The call featured appearances by Obama campaign senior advisor Rick Wade as well as actress Kerry Washington and actor Blair Underwood.

Obama's team discussed how they plan to connect with African American voters by recognizing the importance of barbers and beauticians in the lives of young people. They said they will pay particular attention to the black communities of Detroit, Atlanta, and Jacksonville, although noted that their "barbershop program" is a nationwide effort to mobilize voters.

The campaign explained that their focus on targeting community- based small businesses, will teach the "boys who become men" in barbershops about politics. Also, the campaign will provide barbers in African American communities with videos telling "the story of Senator Obama" to be played while people are getting their hair cut.