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Yesterday I concluded that many of us have a lost, hopeless feeling which we do not recognize, because we have never known what it is like to live with a nonrepresentative government. "Black living in Jim Crow" is how I phrased it. That is an exaggeration, but it gets the point across. Many of us are going to be excluded from the process of electing our so called elected officials this fall, unless we do something. The feds wont help. The Voting Rights Act has not been enforced since Bush took office. States and many state election officials are openly violating that Act, secure in the knowledge that Big Brother Al Gonzales will do nothing that helps a Democrat vote. The Republicans in Congress are counting on voter disenfranchisement. It is their last hope.
What can disenfranchised voters do to throw a monkey wrench into the works? Here are a list of some ideas I have come up with off the top of my head. I hope that other people will add to the list. The premise is simple. Take the other sides stupid, ignorant, selfish greed and expose it for the whole world to see. If possible, make them react in a way that is so nasty that the mainstream media will be falling all over itself to cover the conflict. How does this help? The majority of Republican voters do not want to live in the Fourth Reich either.
Remember, nonviolent protest helped women and minorities get the vote. Maybe it can help us get back our vote.
Here are some of my ideas.
1. Ohio: Blackwell says each voter registration form must be turned in IN PERSON (not mail) by the one who signed up the new voter. Solution: have each person doing voter registration early in the season bring one and only one completed form with him to Blackwell's office. Form a big line of lots and lots of people, each with one form of one voter which must be turned in. Try to get there in the middle of the night on Sunday so that the line stretches around the block. Take a lot of time turning the forms in. Keep adding to the line. A continuous line of people attempting to comply with Blackwell's crazy requirement is the goal. Someone in the press is going to notice if that line stays there long enough.
2. Florida says that no one can test voting machines unless the state and vendors approve. Call their bluff. This works better em masse. Have a bunch of precints have a big testing day. Invite everyone BUT the state and vendors to test the machines. Be sure to invite the press. Tell them that arrests are expected. Test the machines. Pictures of election officials being hauled away and machines being impounded because someone wanted to test them will be worth more than money.
3. When the letters start arriving that so and so isn't really qualified to vote, be sure to do something flashy and public about each one. Sooner or later they will disqualify an Iraqi veteran. That one can easily make the national news. But doing something like having a way to symbolize each voter who has been purged from the rolls in an ongoing public protest in front of a state capitol would be good. Like maybe a memorial wall, something like that. Invite people who receive letters of disqualification to come tell their stories and have their names included--and try to get their rights restored.
4. Aug 6 1965 LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act into law. This would be as good a day as any other for a march since it is a Sunday.
Those are just a few ideas to get things started. I am sure that other people have some good suggestions.
:dem:
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