Ya say ya wanna revolution? VOTE and GOTV

[merrily]

Last edited Sat Jul 18, 2015, 05:17 AM - Edit history (1)

As we all know only too well, we saw the worst losses in 2014 since 1928--and we all also know what happened in 1929.

• "63 percent of the American people chose not to vote." Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political scientist, has assembled the United States Election Project, an extensive and widely used archive of voter participation data.

He found that in the November 2014 general election, 33.2 percent of the voting-age population cast a ballot and 35.9 percent of the voting-eligible population voted. The difference between those two figures is that the voting-age population includes non-citizens and felons, neither of which are able to vote, whereas the voting-eligible population excludes these groups.

.....

Incidentally, according to McDonald’s data, the overall turnout rate in 2014 was the lowest since World War II.

The lowest turnout since World War II. New Deal and Fair Deal days. sigh. Anyway.....



Getting out the vote is a two step process. Register voters and then do what you can to make sure they vote. Young voters are the most notorious no shows, so focus on them. Once school start again, target 18 year olds and over. (Those graduating high school next May or June may have turned 18 or be about to turn 18, and, of course, most at colleges are 18 or over, except for Dougie Howser and Sheldon Cooper.) Get them registered. Tell them what their rights are.

We can also help on the state legislative level in two ways.

One way is to seek a state law making election day a state holiday. (Bernie is working toward this on the federal level, but a state legislature has power over its own state's holidays.)

Another way is to get your state to allow at least some felons to vote, especially those who were in for possession of small quantities of illegal drugs, like, oh, I don't know, marijuana. That may be dicey in that a dealer may have pled down to possession. I don't know enough yet about the criminal process to know how to get around that. However, a consultation with an AG may help you. Also, please be aware that, if you are seeking legislation, the law of your state may require you to register as a lobbyist or some such. If you can't find anything online, a call to your state rep's office should get you an answer.

A third way is to think about the physical vote itself. Paper ballots? Vote by machine, but get a paper receipt?

Your state law will also tell you how to file a bill as a citizen, or you could try to work through your state Rep or state Senator for that purpose. Ideally, it would be a Democratic state rep or state senator because Republicans seem to want to keep voters away from the polls. If nothing else, making Republicans vote on a voting bill will show up those who dare to vote no.

See also,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12779021 (Populist Reform Begins With One Person, One Vote.)

and

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12777744 (The Vote is Populist Priority #1)

[Snotcicles]

1. K&R

[brer cat]

2. I agree, merrily.

And would add: make sure you know state laws regarding voter ID requirements. It does no good to get people to the polls if they are turned away. If IDs are required, help identify potential voters who are least likely to have them and help them obtain what they need long before going to the polls. If birth certificates and such are required, that may take some lead time to obtain.

If possible, volunteer as a poll watcher to try and keep the process honest. If people report vote flipping or other signs of problems, make sure to know the proper people to contact.

We all have our disagreements about preferred candidates, but surely we are united on the necessity of voting and having those votes counted correctly.

[merrily]

3. Of course we are united on voting. Thank you for your valuable input.

And this forum is not dedicated is not to any one candidate.