The importance of voter registration

BFCE.

Another tidbit from the USC conference today: Steve Hildebrand, Obama's top field aide, described of the importance of the Obama campaign's voter registration effort.

"In nine states, we registered more voters than our margin of victory," Hildebrand said. Without the new registrants, "We would have ended the campaign at 244 [electoral votes], not 270."

Robert Wexler: Florida voting "uneventful"; New York, not so much, per Tim Robbins

By GottaLaff

Note: I changed the post title to accommodate my update.

Sitting here listening to Randi Rhodes talking to Robert Wexler, and he made two newsworthy comments.

One: He said Florida, which he says will go blue, is having/will continue to have an "uneventful" election for the first time in years. (UPDATE: Ambinder confirms)

And two: Congress will hold a lame duck session in two weeks.

UPDATE, New York, via Randi Rhodes:

Tim Robbins, the actor, had problems voting today. His name wasn't on the roles, even though he's registered. He wouldn't use a provisional ballot (he knew better), although he filled one out. He went downtown to the Board of Elections, went before a judge, and it was finally determined that he was registered. He then schlepped back to the polls and voted.

Tim Robbins, husband of Susan Sarandon, had to fight hard for his right to vote today. So much for the myth of the Hollywood liberal elite floating through life sipping Appletinis and using their celebrity to get their way.

UPDATE--Waitng for the video to load, but meanwhile:

Apparently, Robbins has been voting at that polling place for more than a decade, but today his name wasn't on the register. They told Robbins he had to fill out a provisional ballot but he didn't want to do it. An argument erupted between Robbins and the poll worker. Robbins allegedly got loud and the poll worker said he was calling the cops.

Robbins accused the poll worker of trying to intimidate him so he wouldn't vote.

Court ruling: Thousands of flagged voters can vote in Georgia

By GottaLaff

Great news! My favorite kind of story. Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel is a Republican and is not happy. Tsk, tsk, tsk:

Georgia must allow thousands of people whose citizenship was questioned by the state's new voter verification system to vote in the upcoming election, a panel of federal judges ruled Monday.

The court ruling will affect about 4,500 people in Georgia who had been "flagged" by the new voter verification system and faced being denied a chance to vote Nov. 4 because their citizenship was questioned.

It could also affect more than 50,000 other registered Georgia voters also flagged by the new system because of mismatches in their personal identification information, such as discrepancies in addresses. [...]

The issue was raised in a lawsuit filed on behalf of a Georgia college student who claimed that the secretary of state's voter verification system violated the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act and caused an illegal purge of voters in the weeks before the election.

Federal law prohibits widespread voter purges within 90 days of the election. In Georgia, that has become a heated issue with some calling the purge "voter suppression."

Handel, a Republican who began working on purging voter rolls from the time of her election in 2006, said the act of verifying voters is not voter suppression.

I hope there are more happy endings like this one. So far, we've done well with these court cases. Too bad Bush is sticking his nose into one of them... Ohio no less. Big surprise.

Dep't. of What Else is New: Thousands Face Mix-Ups In Voter Registrations

By GottaLaff

These stories never stop pouring in:

Thousands Erroneously Tagged Ineligible to Vote --In New Databases, Many Are Wrongly Flagged as Ineligible Thousands of voters across the country must reestablish their eligibility in the next three weeks in order for their votes to count on Nov. 4, a result of new state registration systems that are incorrectly rejecting them.

In Alabama, scores of voters are being labeled as convicted felons on the basis of incorrect lists. Michigan must restore thousands of names it illegally removed from voter rolls over residency questions, a judge ruled this week. Tens of thousands of voters could be affected in Wisconsin. Officials there admit that their database is wrong one out of five times when it flags voters, sometimes for data discrepancies as small as a middle initial or a typo in a birth date.

Here's an excerpt that struck me:

Tens of thousands of voters could be affected in Wisconsin. Officials there admit that their database is wrong one out of five times when it flags voters, sometimes for data discrepancies as small as a middle initial or a typo in a birth date. When the six members of the state elections board -- all retired judges -- ran their registrations through the system, four were incorrectly rejected because of mismatches.

You'd think they'd have this whole voting thing down by now, wouldn't you?

H/t: CLG

Virginia registers 5,021,933

By GottaLaff

If Obama can get the youth vote out, it truly will be a landslide:

Virginia now has more than five million registered voters, a new record, as the deadline for registration for the fall election closed on Oct. 6th, according to the Virginia State Board of Elections.

The total number of registered voters in Virginia is now 5,021,933.

Since January, Virginia, a swing state this cycle, has experienced a net gain of 436,000 new voters, including what they call an "onslaught" of new voters in the last week of registration.

Nearly 40 percent of the newly registered voters across the state are under the age of 25. Trends show that, regardless of age, females represent the majority of new registered voters.

Females like Obama. I should know.

Among the biggest gainers were cities:
-- Williamsburg: Nearly 20% increase
-- Richmond: More than a 17% increase
-- Arlington County: More than a 14% increase
-- Hampton city: 15.4% increase
-- Charlottesville: 14.6% increase
-- Fairfax County: 9% increase, but that means 61,000 new voters
-- Fairfax City: 7%

Now let's hope we can keep voter suppression to a minimum.

Obama Pushes Registration

BFCE. Ground game, ground game, ground game. All this while McPalin sounds like a daycare teacher with an attitude in Florida.

Today is the voter registration deadline in swing states with a large African-American population -- Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia -- so Obama kicked off the morning by appearing on two popular black radio shows: the Steve Harvey Show and then the Tom Joyner Show, where he spoke with Roland Martin.

Both hosts implored listeners to register to vote before and after the interviews, and Obama said that everyone should visit voteforchange.com, the website his campaign has set up to make voter registration easy -- anyone listening on the Tom Joyner website was greeted with a pop-up video ad for the site.

Harvey asked Obama if it was true that a small uptick in the African-American vote could've won the election in 2004. "The African-American vote can be a game-changer in all sorts of states. In Florida, in Indiana, in North Carolina, in Ohio," Obama responded. "I just want people to look at the numbers."

Martin asked Obama what he would say to people who think Obama's ahead and they don't need to vote. "You need to get on a website, voteforchange.com," he said. "We can't sit on the sideline, the time is too important."

Obama Campaign Clears Virginia Voter Registration Goal

By GottaLaff

BFCE:

With his decision to pull out of Michigan, John McCain will have more resources to devote to holding the Republican states he needs get to 270 electoral votes, including Virginia. And -- would you look at that -- just yesterday McCain and the Republican National Committee announced the opening of 12 new offices in the Old Dominion, giving the campaign a total of 21 offices in the state.

But the Virginia Board of Elections today posted new numbers showing the GOP nominee facing an unusually challenging climate in the state [...]

In September, the board reports, 106,150 people registered to vote in the state; combined with deaths and people moving out of the state, the net increase for the month was 101,737.

That is more than double the number of new registrants in August, and it places Barack Obama's campaign ahead its goal of making sure 150,000 Virginians got added to the rolls in the months since the primaries ended (on top of the 142,000 Virginians who registered in the first five months of the year). [...]

As it now stands, there have been 163,000 voters added to the rolls during the general election period, for a total of 305,000 new voters since the start of the year. And a few days still remain before the Oct. 6 registration deadline. That compares with 210,000 new voters who were added between the start of 2004 and Oct. 1 of that year.

There is no way of knowing which way the new voters lean politically, since Virginia's registrations are nonpartisan. But one can speculate about their inclinations based on where they're coming from -- and a disproportionate number of the new voters reside in Democratic strongholds.

The Obama campaign has been estimating that 80 percent of the new voters are Obama supporters, and that they'll turn out at a rate of about 75 percent, which the campaign predicts could mean about a 1.75 percent boost on Election Day. That's enough to make a difference in a close race -- but not nearly enough to close the full 8 point gap that Bush enjoyed.

Republicans lose one: Ohio upholds early voting

By GottaLaff

This early voting issue works for Obama, but the Republicans? Not so much:

[A] court decision in Ohio which could have big implications for the presidential race.

Republican-backed lawsuits went to the Ohio Supreme Court, and the court, by a 4-3 vote, "upheld a weeklong period in which new voters can register and cast an absentee ballot on the same day in Ohio. Another federal court decision was expected later in the day over the early voting window...." (The Ohio Supreme Court has six Republicans and one Democrat.)

Previously, voters had to be "registered for at least 30 days before receiving an absentee ballot."

This is the first presidential election in Ohio in which voters can vote absentee and early without excuse. Election officials have pushed the effort as a way to eliminate long lines and voting complications of years past. In 2004, Democrats alleged voter disenfranchisement in areas with large African-American populations, as voters waited hours and hours to vote.

Excerpts from my earlier post:

The move will benefit Obama, who enjoys a 2-to-1 lead over McCain among 18- to 34-year-olds, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released last month. If Obama's campaign were able to tap into college campuses with one-stop voting, it would add thousands of votes to his tally in a state where, in 2004, John Kerry lost to President Bush by only about 118,000 votes, putting Bush over the top in the electoral count. [...]

The move is likely to bring Obama to Ohio for nonstop campaigning that week. Also, television ads are expected to be in heavy play as both campaigns try to take advantage of the electoral oddity. And the early push could help neutralize any last-minute attacks by one campaign on the other.[...]

But Obama advisers now look at Ohio's campuses as a possible way to offset the losses.

It has Ohio Republicans frustrated.

Score one for our team. Rah!

Another Poll Finds Obama Won Debate

Also check out this great diary by Kossack Thunder Road about voter registration at the Ohio State game. Another reason it's the BFCE.

A new USA Today/Gallup Poll shows 46% of people who watched Friday night's presidential debate say Sen. Barack Obama did a better job than Sen. John McCain; 34% said McCain did better.

On another note, anyone with any Photoshop skills (I have Photoshop and no clue how to use it) want to make us a BFCE logo? With fully credit and a big hug of course!!

Reverend Sharpton's Fabulous Registration Bus Tour

BFCE. Al's pretty popular with the older AA demographic so this could be a real shot in the arm for registration.

Al Sharpton is hitting the road on a bus tour for voter registration. His goal -- to register an “estimated 9.5 million unregistered blacks nationally. The campaign is targeting Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Florida, North Carolina and Michigan, possibly pivotal states in the contest between Obama, a Democrat who would be the first black U.S. president, and Republican John McCain."

Group warns some states may be unprepared for election

By GottaLaff

Oy:

As the ranks of new voters swell, a nonpartisan watchdog group predicted Tuesday that voters in three Southeastern states may face problems voting on Election Day.

Common Cause, a citizen’s lobbying group, examined voting preparedness in 10 states where the presidential race is expected to be tight and was most concerned about Florida, Georgia and Virginia.

Inadequate state voter databases, strict voter registration and identification rules that could disenfranchise voters as well as too few voting machines are among the biggest problems, the group said in a report.

The group looked at likely swing states, including Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

With a record turnout likely throughout the country, inadequate preparation for the election could be particularly problematic, said Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause. [...]

In Florida, Common Cause pointed to strict voter registration and voter identification laws that have the potential to prevent thousands of voters from registering to vote.

People registering to vote in Florida must provide an exact match of their identifying information to existing state databases or risk having their voter registration denied, Common Cause said. The group said the policy results in the rejection of thousands of valid voters because of minor clerical errors. [...]

Jennifer Krell Davis, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of State, said the state has taken steps to prevent problems. She said the state also informs voters of any errors, and they can present election officials with information verifying their identity in person, by mail, fax or e-mail.

State law also allows voters to verify the information up to two days after Election Day, Davis said.

Common Cause cited Georgia’s state voter identification law as “harsh” because it requires a government-issued photo identification card.

In Virginia, Wang was critical of laws about student voting and the state’s strict residency requirements.

“Virginia has a history of making voting more difficult for students,” Wang said.

Valarie Jones, a deputy secretary for the Virginia State Board of Elections, said the board has clarified its policies for students in the past week and provided the information on its Web site. [...]

Wang said there is time before Election Day to make some improvements, but more long-term changes are needed.

“I think [election officials] are trying,” she said. “But I don’t think they’ll have the laws or policies in place to ensure they’ll be ready.”

Read the report

State-by-state breakdown

Why, after 8 years, are we still grappling with this? It's almost as if there's a reluctance to rectify all these... Never mind.

Craig Ferguson, "If you don't vote, you're a moron"

I actually got out of bed to get this up. Wow. there was a follow up bit at his desk after this that was also great. I'll try and find it- from the YouTube description.

On the Sept. 10th edition of The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson, a new American citizen preparing to vote in his first US election asks, "Are we so lost we have to be sold our own democratic right!?"

Updated with second half- "Do me the honor of being my fellow Americans and vote"

Scorecard: Team Obama winning, 2,000,000 to Minus 344,000

By GottaLaff

In addition to these states, Virginia added 49,000 new voter registrations in August, thanks to the Obama campaign:

With time running out on its push to register thousands of new voters in Virginia, the Obama campaign is picking up the pace. State election officials told the campaign Friday that 49,000 new voters signed up in August, a sharp increase from the 36,500 who signed up in July and the 28,000 who registered in June.

The campaign had predicted that its August numbers could lag given the difficulty of reaching residents during vacation season. But the August gain puts the Obama campaign very much on track toward its goal of signing up 150,000 new voters by the early October voter registration deadline, on top of the 142,000 new voters who registered during primary season.

But there are no guarantees:

There is no way of knowing how many of the newly registered will vote for Obama, especially since Virginia does not record voters by party affiliation. But the campaign is encouraged by the demographic profile of the new voters -- about 40 percent of those who registered in August are aged 25 or under.

The campaign predicts that if it can add 150,000 new registrations before early October, it will net about 60,000 votes out of that in November, assuming that 80 percent of the new voters are for Obama and that they turn out at a rate of 75 percent. Those votes could add up to about 1.75 percent of the anticipated state vote -- not enough to make up for the eight-point edge George Bush had in 2004, but possibly enough to tip the state Obama's way if he can also make gains with existing voters.

Now. Let's compare enthusiasm for Democrats vs. that of Republicans:

Nationally, more than 2 million Democrats have been added to the rolls in the 28 states that register voters according to party affiliation, according to the Associated Press. Republicans have lost nearly 344,000 thousand voters in the same states during the same period.

Scorecard: 2,000,000 to minus 344,000. BFCE!*

*Best F***ing Campaign Ever

Obama camp counting on new voters

In my back yard, and probably yours. BFCE. Anyone want to make me a BFCE logo? I need one.

SOUTH BEND — In the coming weeks, volunteers for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign will be everywhere.

Beauty shops. Barber shops. Bus stops. Churches.

All for the sake of getting you to vote.

(snip)

At the local level, organizers will be encouraging people to vote early starting Oct. 6, said Shailen Bhatt, regional field director for Obama's campaign in northern Indiana.

Early balloting ensures everyone gets a chance at the ballot box and helps avoid the myriad situations that prevent people from voting such as long lines or bad weather, Bhatt said.

"The tragedy is not people who vote against us," he said. "The tragedy is people who want to vote for us, go there, and can't."

Ohio voting law may be a boon for Obama supporters

By GottaLaff

I just wanted to use the word "boon" in the title. That aside, any time we can frustrate Republicans works for me:

Ohio has created a window in the election calendar that would allow residents instant gratification -— register one minute, vote the next. It's also given the campaigns of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain a chance to bank thousands of first-time voters during that Sept. 30 to Oct. 6 window.

The move will benefit Obama, who enjoys a 2-to-1 lead over McCain among 18- to 34-year-olds, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released last month. If Obama's campaign were able to tap into college campuses with one-stop voting, it would add thousands of votes to his tally in a state where, in 2004, John Kerry lost to President Bush by only about 118,000 votes, putting Bush over the top in the electoral count.

Of the more than 470,000 students enrolled in Ohio's public colleges and universities in 2006, the most recent figures available, nine out of 10 were Ohio residents, the state Board of Regents said. To register to vote in Ohio, a person must be a resident of the state for at least 30 days immediately before an election. [...]

In Ohio, Republicans are clearly not pleased with same-day registration and voting and have not ruled out a lawsuit against Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's office. [...]

The voting window, so far, is only being implemented in some counties—typically, urban areas or those with college campuses—leading Republicans to cry foul. [...]

People in Ohio can register without identification, but they have to show some sort of ID to vote.

State lawmakers accidentally made the window before the 2006 elections. Obama's campaign is eager to take advantage of it this year. [...]

The move is likely to bring Obama to Ohio for nonstop campaigning that week. Also, television ads are expected to be in heavy play as both campaigns try to take advantage of the electoral oddity. And the early push could help neutralize any last-minute attacks by one campaign on the other. [...]

Obama has trailed in support from rural voters and white, working-class voters. He hasn't campaigned in rural areas, despite advice from Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, whose aggressive rural strategy helped him win his job in 2006 and was repeated for Clinton during March's primary.

But Obama advisers now look at Ohio's campuses as a possible way to offset the losses.

It has Ohio Republicans frustrated.

Boon.

Just When I Start To Get Worried

They pull something like this-

Volunteers Recruit Hundreds of New Supporters at Lollapalooza

Chicago Obama volunteers spent the weekend out in the sun at Lollapalooza music festival in Grant Park, registering new voters and helping recruit new volunteers to the campaign. Despite the heat, volunteers found the Lolla crowd was eager to get involved. The volunteers passed out flyers and stickers to an enthusiastic crowd who couldn’t seem to get enough Obama gear.

The Obama troop signed up hundreds of new volunteers from across the U.S. who are excited to help out Obama in their home communities.

Democrats Abroad- "Where On Earth Will You Vote?"

Not officially part of the campaign, but using their playbook.

Speaking alongside several other Americans living abroad, Paltrow says: "Start now - right now.

"I'll be voting from London, but you can vote from anywhere. If you live abroad, you've got to do it. Every single vote will count."

The Shakespeare in Love star asks: "Where on earth will you vote?" The screen then shows the slogan: "Vote Democrat. Vote Obama. Vote from abroad."

The internet-only video was produced by Democrats Abroad, a wing of the political party dedicated to winning the votes of the millions of US expats eligible to take part in domestic politics.

More than six million Americans live abroad, but only 1m ballots were requested from overseas for the 2006 mid-term Congressional elections.

Florida registration: "Huge swing" towards Democrats

By GottaLaff

More than twice as many Democrats than Republicans registering in Broward County? Oh yeah!

What's that? There's more? Over six times as many Democrats statewide? Weeeeeeeeee!

Sun-Sentinel: Through May Democratic voter registration in Broward County is up 6.7% compared to GOP registrations, which grew 3%.

Democrats have posted even greater gains statewide, up 106,508 voters from January through May, compared with 16,686 for the Republicans.

If we could pull off Florida this time around, it would be so suh-weet.

Obama's Voter Drive Could Put 9 States in Play

By Paddy


The R's are freaking out as we speak. Of course, they were already freaking over this, and this, and totally this.

Sen. Barack Obama "could make major gains in at least nine states the Democratic ticket lost in 2004 if he can achieve a relatively modest increase in turnout among young and African-American voters," according to a must-read Chicago Tribune analysis of voting data.

"That potential helps explain why the Obama campaign chose to forgo federal funding and also why it is engaged in a massive voter registration drive. With its unprecedented resources, the campaign can fund an array of specific targeting operations, and Obama exploited early versions of those to great success during the primary campaign."

Example: "If Obama could inspire just 10 percent more Democratic voters under 30 to go to the polls than did four years ago, that alone could be enough to switch Iowa and New Mexico from red to blue.

Louisiana Democratic vote drive has problems

By GottaLaff

You know that old lead-in, "I've got good news, and I've got bad news"? First, the good news:

A Democratic voter registration drive in largely black neighborhoods of Louisiana has swamped the state’s voter registrar offices, forcing them to hire new staff members and work 12-hour days to process thousands of applications.

Now the bad news:

Buoyed by the popularity of Senator Barack Obama, the drive has raised complaints from registrars about large numbers of duplicate, invalid or incomplete applications, and has led to an investigation by the Louisiana secretary of state, Jay Dardenne, a Republican.

Election officials have expressed concern that large numbers of people who believe they are registered will show up at the polls in November, only to find that they cannot vote because their application had been improperly submitted.

Much of the enthusiasm, and some of the chaos, may be repeated in the months to come in other states where Democrats and liberal groups are planning similar drives in an effort to change the demographics of the electorate.

So what do we do with all this news?

It remains unclear whether election officials will be prepared to handle more registrations and the potential for overwhelming turnout on Election Day, Mr. Slater said. “Party politics is driving up registration at unusually high rates,” he said.

That was no help at all, was it? Of course, the Republicans are there, as always, with kind and helpful words of encouragement:

Registrars have reported that as many as a third of the applications cannot be entered into the system, and many of the rest require more information. The state Republican Party called the operation “the Dems’ phony registration drive.”

Aren't they the supportiviest? I've made a decision. For tonight, anyway, I'm sticking with the good news.