Black Voter Registration Breaking All Records

[Zorra]

I thought this was a very accurate editorial.

New voters are swelling the rolls and threatening to upset the assumptions of corporate pundits and polling organizations. Although Republicans are vigorously signing up white voters in the suburbs and exurbs, it appears the GOP is being out-organized by Democrat-led drives in Black and Brown precincts across the nation.

According to a New York Times analysis, Democrat-affiliated groups “have added tens of thousands of new voters to the rolls in the swing states of Ohio and Florida, a surge that has far exceeded the efforts of Republicans in both states.” A review of county-by-county data shows “new registrations since January have risen 250 percent over the same period in 2000. In comparison, new registrations have increased just 25 percent in Republican areas. A similar pattern is apparent in Florida: in the strongest Democratic areas, the pace of new registration is 60 percent higher than in 2000, while it has risen just 12 percent in the heaviest Republican areas.”

Massive voter sign-ups have overloaded registrars in many localities. The Associated Press national desk reports: “Clerks have hired extra workers in West Virginia, Ohio and Colorado. Philadelphia borrowed employees from other city agencies and started working overtime two months earlier than the usual post-Labor Day push.”
snip----
Alarmed by Black registration fervor, Republicans in Ohio deployed Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell – one of their most highly valued African American spokes-models – to erect classic Jim Crow-style stumbling blocks in new voters’ paths, including a requirement that voter registration cards be printed only on thick, 80-pound paper. (How many bubbles in a bar of soap? How many pounds in your paper?) People for the American Way, part of a coalition of 60 civil rights organizations, protested the “unduly burdensome and costly regulation that will slow the voter registration process, and even disenfranchise some voters at time of unprecedented new voter registration activity in Ohio.”
snip------
The Bush Pirates are keenly aware of the volatility of the electorate regarding Iraq, and are doing everything possible to avoid setting a public mood swing in motion. That’s why U.S. forces have resorted to savage aerial attacks against resistance strongholds in Iraq, postponing infantry assaults on urban centers until after the election. That’s also why the Bush gang keeps blaming television news for giving a false impression of events on the ground, in a bald attempt to encourage further media self-censorship in Iraq.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/107/107_cover_election.html

[bemildred]

1. Good.

The fleabrains in Congress need something to fear to
stiffen their spines ...

[Spinzonner]

2. Boy, Jeb's going to be really busy disenfranchising all those voters

[beyurslf]

3. If OH continues this, the Fed Govt needs to invoke their rights under

the 1965 voting rights act and take over the registration process in the state.

Oh wait, that would mean Bush cared about enfranchising minorities. Nevermind... carry on.

[vickie]

4. I believe these newly registered voters will be the source of

major shock on election night.

[shaolinmonkey]

5. I suggest that these newly registered voters go to the polls en masse

to shout down any thug that tries to turn them away. Do not allow disenfranchisement.

[Maeve]

6. Blackwell (Ohio) did back down on the paper weight issue

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=872656

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

7. Registering is NOT ENOUGH. They have to go and vote.

This is really the key thing here...for this registration spike to matter the new registrants need to be

a) contacted by the Democrats

b) informed where their polling place is

c) and then persuaded to actually go there and vote

....getting folks registered is just the start...the Dems need to get them to the polls to vote.

[MISSDem]

8. You are so right. I'm in Mississippi and I know

that the state will, as usual, go for Bush, but that does not excuse the Democratic party chairman,in my county anyway,saying that he "is going to sit this one out" and did absolutely nothing. One individual actually spent $1000 of her own money so there would be yard signs, etc. for those who want them. With stuff like this no wonder the state goes for Bush. The Republicans always have signs and stuff even though they know they are probably going to win. It makes me so mad. People, not just Black people, feel that their vote won't matter and just don't vote.

[Catfight]

9. I just decided to do an absentee ballot today. I think the lines will

be so huge everyone won't get to vote! I suggest getting absentee ballots for those of us who have already voted before, because first time voting takes just a bit more time, therefore, the lines may move slow. I'm going to volunteer to get people to the polls that day too, I don't want one vote in Florida to be missed! Florida is going to make a huge statement to the 2000 shameful disenfranchising votes! This is where our voice will be heard!