Although our political and media establishment seems to have collectively forgotten that trumped up voter fraud allegations were precisely what led to the US attorney purge, many of us in the progressive blogosphere seem to remember all too vividly. The question is, what do you plan to do about it?

Very fortunately, there are a series of new tools that have been developed precisely to combat these Jim Crowe style policies in ways we have never been able to before:

The Voter Suppression wiki has been instrumental in promoting and connecting these innovations, and it will continue to act as an information hub to those looking for answers for what they can do to prevent the suppression of their vote as well as what they can do to help others. Likewise, the Election Protect wiki is another great resource for protecting your vote, and furthermore it is acting as an encyclopedic institutional memory for these rancid tactics already.

Both of those services will be complemented by the bevy of reports of voter suppression that will be flooding in on election day from non-traditional sources. This includes the Twitter Vote Report which will aggregate reports of problems from around the country and display them in real time. It also includes You Tube’s Video the Vote project which is a national initiative to protect voting rights by monitoring the electoral process. There is also the more action oriented Immediate Response Network that has been developed by Credo Action. The network will direct activists via text message alerts to take area-specific action on urgent election protection issues. This network will be particularly useful to activists in the field working without internet connection to ensure they are working in the areas of greatest need. Furthermore, it can be used in tandem with any of the other phenomenal tools available as well by directing you to how you can make your work the most effective.

All of these new media innovations are tailor made for the tech savvy community that inhabits the progressive blogosphere. As we get closer to the election, please take the time to learn about how you can be sure to protect your own vote as well as what you can do to help the votes of others!