Milwaukee African-American voter suppression campaign by GOP:
"If you violate any of these laws, you can get ten years in prison and your
children will get taken away from you."
"If you've ever been guilty of anything, even a traffic violation, you can't
vote in the presidential election:"
http://www.sierraclubvotes.org/johnbarry/102904/
--quote
"This election will be decided by new voters ... if they get to vote"
John Barry
October 29, 2004
While we're trying to get voters to the polls, our opponents are trying to
get them to stay at home.
I'm amazed that in 2004, we continue to hear about efforts to suppress the
vote.
Club organizer Rosemary Wehnes forwarded a flyer she received today from
Sheila Cochran, from AFL-CIO Voter Protection. It's been circulating in
Milwaukee's African American neighborhoods.
<flyer omitted from text posting: please see the link above for graphic of
flyer>
This shocking flyer, allegedly from the "Milwaukee Black Voters League," is
headlined: "SOME WARNINGS FOR ELECTION TIME."
Among the warnings:
If you've already voted in any election this year you can't vote in the
presidential election.
If you've ever been guilty of anything, even a traffic violation, you can't
vote in the presidential election.
If anybody in your family has ever been found guiulty (sic) of anything you
can't vote in the presidential election.
If you violate any of these laws, you can get ten years in prison and your
children will get taken away from you.
Cochran says it's aimed at the newly registered and infrequent voters and
that not a single point on the flyer is true.
Scary. But all the more reason for us to keep doing what we're doing.
=====
We're asking people to vote often enough that they're getting annoyed.
Dave Westman, a field staffer from Oakland who has been working in the
Milwaukee office for two months, calls the South Milwaukee city clerk this
morning. He wants a list of people who have voted already via absentee
ballot so we can cross them off our get-out-the-vote lists we'll be using
starting Saturday.
"When I identify myself as being from the Sierra Club," he says, "she starts
in with, 'Oh god, yeah, you guys need to tell people they need to be
registered. We have to register all these people before they can vote.'
"'But that's good, isn't it?' I say. 'These people haven't voted before or
not for many years, and now they will.'"
"'Well, you're keeping us really really busy. We're working 12-hour days.
And then when I got home last night, there was this message from the Sierra
Club reminding me to come into city hall and vote early.'"
So we know our phone calls are making a difference. Here, as elsewhere
nationally, early voting is off the charts.
My most interesting phone conversation of the day -- and arguably the only
interesting one -- comes with a man exasperated that we are still reminding
people to vote.
"With all the coverage on the news, if they still have to be reminded to
vote, maybe it's better that they don't. I mean, how aware can they be?"
There's a part of me that agrees with that, but I don't go there. I say that
some of these people might not be especially informed or motivated, but they
might just be swamped with jobs or kids and voting isn't a regular habit.
It's never too late to develop good habits.
He calls them lazy. "I've got a job. I own an apartment building. I have
five kids."
"So it sounds like you wouldn't consider not voting?"
"I always vote."
His name is not on my list. It's a woman's name, most likely his wife or
daughter. I wonder to myself, not very charitably, if maybe he's expressing
some impatience for a non-voter in his own household.
"If people don't know how important it is to vote by now, it's too late," he
says.
A few minutes later, I talk with a grandpa from Florida who tells me that
the party I'm calling won't be back until the weekend.
"Are you registered to vote in Wisconsin or Florida?" I ask.
"Florida."
"It's just as close there as it is here," I say.
"Really?"
I listen for a hint of irony or sarcasm, but don't detect one. Maybe I
should hook up the apartment owner who just harangued me with this guy.
======
This afternoon I sit in on a conference call with organizers from all the
other voter education sites - Columbus, Ohio; Pittsburgh and Philadephia;
Portland, Oregon; Minneapolis; Reno and Las Vegas; Albuquerque; Tampa,
Florida; and the state of New Hampshire. Also present are Executive Director
Carl Pope, who is in Tampa, and other leaders of the campaign -- Bill
Arthur, Debbie Sease, Greg Haegle, Kerri Glover, Aimee Tavares, Bob
Bingaman.
Most of the call is about sharing numbers -- how many doors were knocked on,
phone calls made, volunteers recruited, get-out-the-vote shifts scheduled.
One agenda item is about voters angry that the Sierra Club is contacting
them too often. Carl says this is a sign that we're reaching people. "If
people are calling to be removed from our lists, we're doing our job. We
don't hear from those who are excited about what we're doing."
Carl also talks about how this election is not about the undecided voters;
it's about the new voters.
"The election will be decided by people who didn't vote in 2000."
--end quote
How low can these Republicans sink? Have they no moral center at all?
Don't let anyone deny you the right to vote!
Fair play is a prerequisite for a civil nation; voter suppression is not
fair play and racial bias in politics is not fair play.
end corporate rule
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