REMINDER TO DEM TROOPERS: Help register Dem voters esp. in Arizona, GA, TX, NV, FL, CO

[Muddy Waters Guitars]

Just a periodic friendly reminder from me and the team here out West: Preparations for the 2010 and 2012 elections begin now, and the key for success is further, massive voter registration of Democratic-leaning voters particularly in strategic states! Focus on African-American and Latino neighborhoods, college campuses, unions, and other groups with large Democratic-leaning populations but still, thus far, relatively low voter participation-- these represent enormous untapped wells of Democratic voters, key to making the electoral map Bluer and Bluer with each election year. Important: Remember that by law, ballots, registration and other election materials in areas with large Latino populations are available in Spanish, likewise in French for e.g. Creole and Haitian populations and so forth-- be sure to make use of this for increasing Latino registration and voting in particular!

Operations research thus far has suggested that Arizona is a Blue State in the making, and likely would have been Blue in 2008 except for it being John McCain's home state. (In spite of this, he garnered far fewer votes in 2008 than George W. Bush did in 2000 and 2004.) Arizona has a burgeoning Latino population which also includes a fast-growing voting-eligible segment, due both to naturalization and a massive cohort of young US-born Latinos reaching the voting age of 18 between 2008 and 2012. It also has large college populations at the big universities here, plus increasingly progressive neighborhoods sprouting up in Maricopa and the neighboring counties. AZ voter registration and actual voting, particularly by Latinos and college students, has been extremely low thus far, which means that Arizona is a vast well of untapped Democratic votes in future elections.

Other states: Georgia, another Blue State in the making. Black voter registration and voting still lag dreadfully behind, particularly for the hundreds of thousands of new arrivals from other states (particularly New York and California) and for immigrant African-Americans (mostly from the Caribbean, Somalia, Sudan, as well as from some post-colonial European countries like France, Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium, who tend to settle in Fulton County esp. around Atlanta). Let's help sign these people up and give them a voice!

Texas, Florida, Colorado and Nevada: All 3 states with burgeoning young Latino populations and naturalized Latinos with low voter participation. Also, many neighborhoods with African-Americans moving in from California, Oklahoma and New York, who again, have among the lowest voter-registration levels of any group as they adjust to their new home state. Increasing college-student populations with proliferation of small universities and tech schools-- let's sign everyone up!

Let's not forget Mississippi (with an increasingly politically active African-American population), Ohio and Indiana (both of which have large African-American populations that continue to be underrepresented in the polls), Missouri and Pennsylvania. Let's turn the country's map Blue in 2010 and 2012!

[tabbycat31]

1. we've got 2 blue states in play this fall

both with Democratic governors that need to remain blue. In both states, the polls are very close with the Republican a few points ahead.

I'm willing to help you guys out in the south and southwest, but we gotta take care of NJ and VA first.

[Muddy Waters Guitars]

2. Agreed! NJ and VA are also critical states, and we need to give all our support to the

organizers on the ground there.

[tabbycat31]

3. I'm on the ground in NJ

I'm working on voter registration drives at the local community college to get the kids there (particularly the ones who 17 last election) registered.