Poll-itics: African Americans motivated to vote in November

By GottaLaff

Oh em gee! I'm not sure if I can stand two upbeat news stories in one day!

First we find out that Prez O is doing well in the polls on national security. Now there's this report about African Americans being motivated to show up at the polls, even when the president isn't on the ballot:

About two-thirds of black adults in four states say they are closely following news about the upcoming midterm elections, and between 74 percent and 80 percent say they are very likely to vote, according to the poll, conducted by the nonpartisan Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The organization surveyed 500 African-Americans in each state - Missouri, Indiana, Arkansas and South Carolina - all of which have Senate races in November.

How many of those voters follow through with their intentions will help determine if Democrats hold control of Congress.

David Bositis, a researcher at the institute who directed the poll:

"African-Americans feel like they have a real investment in President Obama ... I think it's a major motivating factor."

The economy and health care reform are the top two issues for black voters. The next step is for these very same voters to get out there and, you know, vote.

9,000,000

By GottaLaff

No, that number isn't the amount of hits we've received here at TPC... not yet anyway. It's all about the voters:

Ben Smith: "Turnout guru Michael McDonald has an early look at the 2008 turnout numbers, and finds that 9 million more people voted in 2008 than in 2004. He finds that black, Hispanic, and youth turnout were up notably, and that white turnout lagged."

I love this on so many levels. And oh, this just in: Guess who the party of the future is...

It's going to take an awful lot of disenfranchisement to counter this trend.

From the Department of WTF? Voter turnout was not huge

By GottaLaff

No, seriously... wtf?

Despite widespread predictions of record turnout in this year’s presidential election, roughly the same portion of eligible voters cast ballots in 2008 as in 2004.

Between 60.7 percent and 61.7 percent of the 208.3 million eligible voters cast ballots this year, compared with 60.6 percent of those eligible in 2004, according to a voting analysis by American University political scientist Curtis Gans, an authority on voter turnout.

He estimated that between 126.5 million and 128.5 million eligible voters cast ballots this year, versus 122.3 million four years ago. Gans said the gross number of ballots cast in 2008 was the highest ever, even though the percentage was not substantially different from 2004, because there were about 6.5 million more people registered to vote this time around. [...]

Nationally, the 2008 voter turnout was roughly equivalent to 1968 in percentage terms. Gans said that when taking into account the disenfranchisement of blacks, this year’s turnout was below the 1960 and 1964 presidential campaigns. For example, if blacks had been allowed to vote in the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon race, he said, turnout probably would have reached about 67 percent, as opposed to the official Federal Election Commission tally of about 63 percent.

What kind of candidate does it take to increase turnout? God? According to the GOP, that's who our candidate was. So, again, what kind of candidate does it take?

Voter Purge Rejected in Colorado

By GottaLaff

First Michigan, now Colorado. This is excellent news!

Tens of thousands of Coloradans who had been removed from the state’s voter rolls will be allowed to vote in next week’s election and given extra protections so their ballots are counted, under an agreement reached late Wednesday in federal court here.

The voters’ names had been removed by Mike Coffman, the Colorado secretary of state, who said he did so because the voters had moved out of state or were listed more than once on the rolls. But Mr. Coffman was sued by a coalition of voting rights and other groups who said such purges were generally prohibited by federal law within 90 days of an election.

Provisional ballots? Hmm. I'm having doubts now. The experts don't think much of provisional ballots:

Under the agreement, voters removed from the rolls will be permitted to cast provisional ballots, and those ballots will be counted unless election officials can prove the voters were not eligible. To strike such ballots, county election officials must conduct an extensive records review on each one, a decision that must then be reviewed by Mr. Coffman’s office.

“This is unprecedented,” said Elizabeth Westfall, a lawyer for the Advancement Project, a civil rights group that helped file the lawsuit. “We are really thrilled that there will be this degree of unprecedented scrutiny and protection for these purged voters when they cast their provisional ballots.” [...]

Edward B. Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University and an authority on voting litigation nationwide, said the settlement was noteworthy because many states had put the onus on voters to prove that their provisional ballots were legitimate before they could be counted. The settlement shifts this responsibility to the state, Mr. Foley said, and is more in keeping with the spirit of the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002, which calls for election officials to count a provisional ballot if they can determine the voter’s eligibility.

Okay, that's a little better. The main thing is, our side won again.

There is always the nagging problem, however, that some voters will avoid going to the polls, because they've gotten wind of problems like these. I read that over at TPM ("And there's no way to measure the effect that even the unsuccessful ploys have in generating cynicism about the process itself, and thereby reducing turnout, to Republicans' advantage."), and it's one of those little thoughts that keep rolling around what's left of my mind.

But for now, I'm feeling a lot more optimistic than I was only a few days ago.

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"

Washington expects record turnout, needs poll workers

By GottaLaff

Brace yourselves for potential voter suppression:

Elections officials across Washington are scrambling to recruit enough poll workers for the November election, plastering banks and grocery stores with posters and advertising in newspapers to prepare for what could be a record turnout.

And who would comprise most of that record turnout? Democrats, who else?

The Virginia State Board of Elections reported last week that despite a major push to attract workers this summer, the state was still about 1,600 workers short of the number needed to handle the anticipated crush. The greatest shortages are in fast-growing places, including Loudoun County.

"If we don't get enough, that means longer lines, longer waits and then disgruntled voters," said Dianna Price, secretary of the Loudoun County Electoral Board.

Election fraud. Disenfranchisement. You know, elections as usual.

Statewide turnout could top 85 percent, Mickley said. In the 2004 election, it was 78 percent.

Dan Murphy [a spokesman for the District's Board of Elections and Ethics] said a recruiting drive for the Sept. 9 congressional and council primary as well as the buzz surrounding the presidential race should help.

It couldn't hoit.

"The higher profile the election, the more people want to be a part of it," Murphy said. "We're very optimistic that we're going to reach our goal for November."

You big tease. Was that a head fake? It''s all going to be okay after all? Re-e-eally?

Although the state has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964, Virginia's growing and shifting electorate is now key to the Democratic strategy for winning the White House. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is likely to draw his strongest support from Northern Virginia, which helped tip the state to Democrat James Webb in the 2006 U.S. Senate election and Democrat Timothy M. Kaine in the 2005 gubernatorial election. Polls show Obama and his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), neck and neck in Virginia. If the race remains close as Nov. 4 approaches, turnout could soar. [...]

A shortage of trained poll workers in Maryland was partly blamed for widespread problems during the 2006 primary, when dozens of polling places opened late and some voters were turned away without casting their ballots. In 2002, results of a congressional primary were delayed for hours as Montgomery County poll workers struggled with new voting machines. In this year's presidential primary in the District, some poll workers declined to make touch-screen voting machines available because they were intimidated by the technology.

I do believe in poll workers, I do believe in poll workers, I do I do I do, I do believe in poll workers.