The Repoblicans have stolen the last two Presidential elections. It is time to throw the bums out. Make sure you are registered to vote--then vote for change on November 4th.

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     One thing we have learned from the past two presidential elections is that Republicans don’t win elections by getting Republicans to the polls. Republicans “win” elections by keeping Democrats from the polls.

     In the infamous 2000 Presidential election, there were a lot more going on than hanging chads and  butterfly ballots in Florida.       

·        “In the 2000 election, [Florida] state officials purged voter rolls of the names of more than 173,000 people identified as felons or otherwise ineligible to vote, but civil rights activists as well as some Florida county elections supervisors have charged that those lists contained numerous errors, and that thousands of eligible voters were prevented from casting ballots in the election.”--CNN, 5/28/04

·        “At least 90.2 percent of those on this ‘scrub’ list, targeted to lose their civil rights, are innocent. Notably, more than half--about 54 percent--are black or Hispanic.”--Gregory Palast, The Nation, 4/29/04

     In the end, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the vote count and handed George W. Bush a “victory” margin of 537 votes. Subsequent counts conducted by eight news organizations show that Al Gore would have won, if the vote counting had been allowed to continue--despite the  illegal purging of thousands of Democratic voters off the rolls (Consortium News, 11/12/01). Americans were told, “Bush won. Get over it”.

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     In the 2004 presidential election, the crucial battleground moved to Ohio; but the fight was already fixed. By then, the Republican machine had turned voter disenfranchisement into an art form.

     John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee headed a Congressional investigation into the reported irregularities in the Ohio election. Here are some excerpts from the report--Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio (1/6/05):

·        ...[We] find that there were massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio.

·        The misallocation of voting machines led to unprecedented long lines that disenfranchised scores, if not hundreds of thousands, of predominantly minority and Democratic voters.

·        [Restriction of] provisional ballots resulted in the disenfranchisement of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of voters, again predominantly minority and Democratic voters.

·        ...[T]housands of partisan challengers concentrated in minority and Democratic areas likely disenfranchised tens of thousands of legal voters, who were not only intimidated, but became discouraged by the long lines.

·        Mr. Blackwell’s decision to prevent voters who requested absentee ballots but did not receive them on a timely basis from being able to receive provisional ballots likely disenfranchised thousands, if not tens of thousands, of voters, particularly seniors.

       In addition to this state-sponsored voter disenfranchisement, there were the usual Republican pranks like sending official-looking notices to inner city residents, telling then they were not eligible to vote, or to vote on the wrong day, or at the wrong place--just good, clean election fun.

    In the final tally, John Kerry lost by 118,601 votes; and despite widespread violations of both state and federal election laws, Ohio’s electoral votes went to George W. Bush. The American people were told, “Bush won. Get over it.”

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     In the upcoming 2008 presidential election, Republicans will try to pull the same things in every state possible; and this year, the Supreme Court has given them a new weapon against potential democratic voters--especially the poor and elderly.

     The court upheld (in Crawford vs. Marion County) an Indiana law that required a passport or driver’s license in order to vote--even though less than a third of adults in Indiana have a passport and nearly 15 percent do not have a driver’s license (mostly the poor and elderly). In all, twenty-four states have passed some form of voter ID laws, supposedly to prevent voter impersonation fraud [a crime that studies have shown is virtually non-existent]. (NPR, Morning Edition, 1/9/08)

     If you cannot produce the proper ID when you go to vote, you may or may not be able to vote on a provisional ballot, which may or may not be counted. Rules vary from state to state, and Republicans don’t really follow rules anyway. They do whatever they can get away with.

     In addition, the Republicans have targeted a couple more groups to keep off the voting rolls this year: injured veterans and dispossessed homeowners.

     The Bush Administration has put a ban on voter registration drives at hundreds of Veteran Affairs facilities around the country.

·        “President Bush and Karl Rove are attempting to block voter registration of at least 200,000 and possibly as much as 400,000 veterans,”--Paul Sullivan, president of Veterans for Common Sense, referring to injured former soldiers from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in various VA treatment facilities, veterans living in the VA’s nursing homes, and homeless veterans living in VA shelters, AlterNet, 8/11/08

     The VA’s ban on voter registration in its facilities was condemned by the National Association of Secretaries of State, and even though their cause has been taken up in Congress, it appears the VA will be able to continue this policy until it is too late for this year’s election.

     If you are wondering why the Bush Administration would do something as despicable as keeping our wounded veterans from registering to vote--wonder no more. The Center for Responsive Politics reports that military personnel have donated more to Barack Obama than John McCain, and deployed troops are donating six times as much to Obama’s presidential campaign than to McCain’s. Evidently, they have had enough of Mr. Bush’s Wars and are counting on Barack Obama to bring them home.

     In Michigan, the Republican party is “planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day. ...[This] is likely to disproportionately affect African-Americans who are overwhelmingly Democratic voters. More than 60 percent of all sub-prime loans — the most likely kind of loan to go into default — were made to African-Americans in Michigan.”(The Michigan Messenger, 9/10/08).

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     So, if you are one of the eighty percent of Americans who feel that our nation is headed in the wrong direction, throw the bums out on November 4, 2008. Help elect Barack Obama and give him a filibuster-proof majority in Congress, so he can make the necessary changes to counteract eight years of the Bush Administration and restore the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law to the United States of America.

     In view of what the Republicans have done in the past, it would be a good idea to check to make sure you are registered to vote. You can check your registration and/or register at:  www.voteforchange.com/index_obama.php.

     You can find registration deadlines, polling places and all kinds of election-related information (like what ID you may need) for your specific location at: http://www.canivote.org/.

     Please vote. It may be the most important thing you do this year. Don’t let the Republicans steal another election and tell us to “Get over it”.          We’ve had enough.

Authors Bio:

Mick Youther is an American citizen, an independent voter, a veteran, a parent, a scientist, a writer, and all-around nice guy who has been roused from a comfortable apathy by the high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush Administration.