Voter Suppression
GOP firm shreds Dem voter registrations

The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.

Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.

"We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them out of the garbage and she tells her assisatnt to get those from me," said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee.

I feel sick. All those unpaid hours I spent in the hot sun when I could have been sitting in a nice air-conditioned mall destroying democracy instead! How did I go wrong? What monsters did I have for parents who led me to register voters regardless of whether I thought they were Red or Blue or Green or Black or White or Pink?

My advice is this: if you have ever voted before, you are probably still registered from your last address. Check your status online (if your state allows you to -- Illinois does) and then relax. If you registered recently, it may not have been recorded yet.

In Cook County, if you registered with a Deputy Registrar you got a receipt. Other counties and states most likely have similar policies. Hang on to it and take it with.

Regardless, if, when you go to vote, they won't let you, you can fill out a Provisional Ballot, which will be verified, counted and possibly challenged after the fact.

Many states have early voting, or "in-person absentee voting." Do it. It will mean you can help out on election day, if nothing else. I would trust voting this way even above voting at the polls, since people at your local courthouse or civic center have a lot to lose if they screw it up and "lose ballots".

I was going to go yesterday after painting, but it was closed by the time I got cleaned up. Will go today and report back.

As to the painting: when I brought it back from the car this morning, it slipped and fell butter-side down. It could have been worse. I mostly have to fix up the sky, which is currently full of black specs of dirt and grass. Not attractive.

- posted by Cynthia @ 9:07 AM | | | Link |