"We have to fix that"

[Bandit]

America is getting too populated for an election "day". We need an election month or at the very least an election week....There is no excuse for the lines to vote being so long it takes hours and hours of standing in line just to cast a ballot..It is time for the Federal Government to step in and apply pressure to the states to make sure everybody can vote....Enough of this republican voter suppression efforts.. It should be addressed promptly and not put off until the next election draws near....America can do better...

[MindPilot]

1. I caught that too.

"By the way, we have to fix that". A quick throwaway line, but a very important one.

I think a standard should be set; something along the lines of "if you have to wait more than 30 minutes to cast a ballot, your civil rights have been violated."

[BeyondGeography]

2. The President's commitment to turnout ( and success) goes way back

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-1993/Vote-of-Confidence/

Obama led an effort that added 150K black voters to the Chicago rolls in 1992. And there's this other bit of foreshadowing:

Nor can Obama himself be ignored. The success of the voter-registration drive has marked him as the political star the Mayor should perhaps be watching for. "The sky's the limit for Barack," says Burrell.

Some of Daley's closest advisers are similarly impressed. "In its technical demands, a voter-registration drive is not unlike a mini-political campaign," says John Schmidt, chairman of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority and a fundraiser for Project Vote! "Barack ran this superbly. I have no doubt he could run an equally good political campaign if that's what he decided to do next."

Obama shrugs off the possibility of running for office. "Who knows?" he says. "But probably not immediately." He smiles. "Was that a sufficiently politic 'maybe'? My sincere answer is, I'll run if I feel I can accomplish more that way than agitating from the outside. I don't know if that's true right now. Let's wait and see what happens in 1993. If the politicians in place now at city and state levels respond to African-American voters' needs, we'll gladly work with and support them. If they don't, we'll work to replace them. That's the message I want Project Vote! to have sent."