If comments are closed here, please use the thread on the wiki. Also, I’m still looking for feedback about what to discuss on Meet the bloggers
One area that we think the Voter Suppresion Wiki can potentially add a lot of value is getting the word out more rapidly: about important updates like polling location changes or extended polling times, and to alert the community about deceptive campaign practices. Today, it can often take over a week for information to make it out broadly once its discovered. How can we do better?
The deceptive flyers in Philadelphia are an interesting case study. Their warning that "you’ll be arrested if you try to vote with unpaid traffic fines our outstanding warrants" is a classic,* and Drexel students reported it on September 22. It was posted to the wiki after Tom Namako’s City Paper article Voter Intimidation Tactics are Afoot at Drexel, on September 24, and the 1-866-OUR-VOTE folks issued an alert Watching out for deceptive campaign practices in Pennsylvania on September 26. Even so, it was almost another week before Catherine Lucy’s Vote Scam Flyers Target Black Neighborhoods appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News for the first appearance in the mainstream media (MSM) on October 2.
The good news is that word is getting out — the Daily News article was followed by a flurry of attention. Suppose, though, that the time had been much more compressed … for example, deceptive flyers being posted the weekend before the election. In that case, the reaction will need to be a lot faster.
I thnk one of the keys to doing better is noticing how quickly this was reported by Drexel students. As Catherine’s article makes clear, it wasn’t just students who were targeted by this; these student reports were early warning about a broader issue. So one way to shorten the loop between "reported by students" and "in the MSM" for significant incidents could make a big difference here.
Especially since I’m cross-posting this on Firedloglake’s Oxdown Gazette, I’d like to highlight that the progressive blogosphere could have a much bigger role here. If progressive blogs jump on a story, it’s likely to make it into the MSM-affiliated blogs, and then it’s a much smaller jump into the MSM itself. As far as I can tell, this story didn’t get attention in the progressive blogosphere until after it showed up in the MSM; more actively searching for, and then actively publicizing, stories like this could be a big help.
Youth bloggers and activists could also have a big role here as well. A blog which regularly covers incidents of voter suppression by reposting local blog posts and articles in campus newspapers is likely to be a valuable destination for anybody interested in these kinds of stories, and they could partner with groups like Future Majority and pushback.org to get the word out more broadly. Another advantage of this approach is that it would highlight patterns in different locations … you don’t think Drexel is the only place where flyers like this are showing up, do you?
Even though it seems like there are opportunities to do a lot better here, I have to admit that I’m not sure just how to make either of those things happen. I’m not plugged into the progressive blogophere, and have no contacts at all with students and youth activists. I’ll send this blog post to a few people and hope that somebody will run with some of the ideas … and look for a chance to bring it up on Meet the bloggers next week. Other suggestions welcome!
Of course, this is just one case study; looking at others may reveal some additional groups (milbloggers, perhaps?) that can play the same role as students do here.Suggestions welcome on that as well — or any other topics related to how to do better at getting the word out!
jon
PS: From the wiki perspective, one thing to highlight is how the well-documented incident and coverage trail on the wiki is valuable in a couple of ways: an easy way for anybody who wants to write about the story to get to the sources, and as a base for doing these kinds of "lessons learned" analyses afterwards. The open and collaborative nature of wikis also gave major benefits here, with information coming in relatively quickly from several different people.
* in fact Julian Sanchez’ The future of political dirty tracks and deception online starts with "Make sure your driving record is clear, citizen. See that you’ve paid off your parking tickets…
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I agree we need to be more pro-active. Have you seen RFK Jr.’s new comic book “How to Steal Your Vote Back”?
You might also want to point people to the Barack Obama website – there is a lot of stuff on there – and possibly start another action group on his site just like the one for FISA.
Notify the ACLU immediately of any suspected violations – they have an entire unit dedicated to voter suppression stuff. (They could use donations to help fund the legal challenges)
There are about half a dozen different organizations that are non-partisan voter rights sites too – maybe someone can set up an instant notification list so as soon as anyone gets hit with a questionable practice – all these groups can be notified at the same time on a joint email or something.
Just some ideas – glad you are working on this – we surely need it. We had an issue here in Montana of all places. The GOP announced they were going to use the requests for change of address from the Post Office to challenge about 6000 voters. Of course, that meant that most of those voters would be students. And also of course, it’s just another form of voter caging. The whole effort was a waste of time – Montana is going for McCain anyway. Montana has instant voter registration – you can register AT THE POLLS! Also, if you move, and you are still in your same precinct – you are allowed to vote one time without doing a change of address. So what the point was, I surely don’t know – except to prevent people from voting at all if they were challenged and then felt intimidated.
The Montana ACLU and a couple of other people filed a lawsuit, and our Lt Governor wrote a big op-ed and told them they should be ashamed of themselves. (He is an R). They backed down, but the fight goes on.
Thanks for the feedback, lokywoky … excellent points. We’re pointing people to various sites (including RFK Jr., 866ourvote.org, the ACLU, other non-partisan organizations) who are doing “know your rights” work, and are working with a lot of them — the idea is to set up something like an instant notification list.
So what the point was, I surely don’t know – except to prevent people from voting at all if they were challenged and then felt intimidated.
That’s part of it. Not sure how much of a hassle the instant registration is, or how many people know about the one-time move exception; if (say) 10-20% of the challenged voters don’t vote as a result, that’s a big deal.
Also, in many cases, ballots after a challenge are provisional ballots, and nationally about 25-30% of those don’t get counted at all — counties run out of time before election results need to get certified. So depending on the details of the procedures, this may also be a goal.
There are several election-protection related groups on my.barackobama.com and that’s also potentially a good channel, although right now there isn’t anything close to as large as the Get FISA Right group. It’s certainly an opportunity and hopefully they’ll wind up taking a more active role as thing get closer to the election …
jon