Democracy in Action

Back when Karl Rove was still dreaming of a permanent Republican majority, election 08 was shaping up to be the most extensive laboratory to date for his bag of dirty tricks.

In this week's issue of The Nation Andrew Gumbel explains that the plan was to use every legislative and executive lever available to the GOP to suppress the votes of minorities, students, the poor, the transient and the elderly. And though Rove is out of politics and currently busy working the media green rooms, Gumbel warns that many pieces of his plan are still in place and could pose a threat on November 4 -- or beforehand. As Katrina vanden Heuvel wrote in a recent post, "alarming reports of dysfunctional voter registration, purges of the rolls, and possible voter suppression are surfacing weekly, if not daily."

One of the big unanswered questions about the 2008 election, according to elections expert Steve Rosenfeld writing at Alternet, is will the GOP try to contest the credentials of new voters as they show up at polling places. A typical challenger would claim that a voter lives at a different address than what is in their voter registration record. The challenged voter then must produce an ID or a utility bill proving otherwise to vote. This tactic not only delays the process, but deters others in line, frustrated by long waits, from voting.

So, what to do to safeguard the vote?

Our friends at Yes magazine have produced a simple 12-step voter guide culled from the recommendations of leading voting integrity advocates that can help ensure that the election system functions properly this year. It includes moves you can take before the election, on election day and after the voting is finished -- everything from reconfirming your registration and voting early to verifying your vote, watchdogging election officials and even establishing your own poll-watching group.

Rosenfeld advises calling your local election office now to ensure that your registration is current. If your information is correct and you have documentation, you cannot be successfully challenged and you will vote. If a problem arises while voting, you should call the nation's largest election protection hotline, 1-866-OUR-VOTE, which will put you in immediate touch with an election lawyer.

Comments (6)

1. Peter, why do ya'll wait to do this every four years? If the voters don't have the common sense to know by now what they need to do, then they don't need to vote.

   Posted by ACook at 10/23/2008 @ 10:28pm

2. shouldn't federal elections be run by one federal institution with one, non-electronic system?

   what's so hard about that?

   Posted by frosty zoom at 10/24/2008 @ 12:04am

3. The fact that our elections are controlled, electronically, by a third party company should be scary to those on the left and the right.

   Posted by TexasFlood at 10/24/2008 @ 11:16pm

4. Bush just asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate whether hundreds of thousands of newly registered voters in the battleground state of Ohio would have to verify the information on their voter registration forms or be given provisional ballots. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against this requirement, unanimously, last week.

   Posted by Halt at 10/25/2008 @ 4:07pm

5. It will all work out in the end.

   Sure there will be voter suppression...

   BUT think about all of the voters who will vote two or three times.

   The dead people voting.

   The crooked election officials.

   Everybody's vote will be counted .... and then some!

   Posted by bleedingheart at 10/26/2008 @ 10:45am

6. non-electronic system? FZ, you mean not purely cyber or something truly non electronic? Just don't see how you rapidly tally...

   Posted by winyahn at 10/26/2008 @ 11:52pm