[Reader-list] Modern Babylon: America Votes 2008!!!

[Paul Miller]

I guess Mugabe in Zimbabwe has a few things to learn from the  
Republicans.

Paul

> Voter Protection
>
> - The African World -
> By Bill Fletcher, Jr. -
> BlackCommentator.com Executive Editor
> <http://blackcommentator.com/285/285_aw_voter_protection.html>
>
> I asked a good friend what I should write about for
> BlackCommentator.com this week. Without missing a beat
> she said: "Write about what I am working on!" I looked
> at her and asked what that was. Her response: "Voter
> protection."
>
> Elections in the USA have rarely been clean. Electoral
> theft is not new. Infamous big city machines were known
> for throwing elections one way or the other. The 1960
> Presidential election has always been shrouded in some
> degree of mystery, particularly with regard to the
> voting results from Illinois. African Americans,
> Chicanos and Asians have had plenty of experience with
> electoral fraud, having been effectively denied the
> right to vote for most of the period since the end of
> Reconstruction (1877).
>
> Yet, in the period particularly since the passage of the
> Voting Rights Act (1965) and the Watergate infamy
> (1973-74), an assumption emerged in Mainstream America
> that elections were, for the most part, honest and on
> the up and up.
>
> Then came the November 2000 elections.
>
> There were several things that were striking about the
> November 2000 elections. One was the audacity on the
> part of the Bush forces, dramatized in the recent HBO
> film, Recount. Their arrogance and boldness completely
> took the Gore campaign, as well as many pro-democracy
> groups, entirely off guard. While the Bush campaign was
> prepared to agitate, including through demonstrations,
> on behalf of their candidate, the Gore forces were
> paralyzed. Staff and volunteers linked to organized
> labor mobilized to go to Florida, but found themselves
> doing little more than taking affidavits from
> individuals who alleged that they had been deprived of
> their democratic rights.
>
> The tactics that were used in both the 2000 and 2004
> Presidential elections by Bush-aligned forces were quite
> amazing. Black voters, for instance, found themselves
> eliminated from the voting rolls. As reported by the
> journalist Greg Palast, letters were sent to the home
> addresses of Black active duty military service
> personnel who, if they did not respond, had their votes
> challenged. This last point is remarkable since it was
> the votes of those who were literally in the line of
> fire who were being denied their right to have their
> votes counted.
>
> Added to this has been the introduction of computer
> screen voting. Described as making the system more
> efficient, the lack of hardcopy proof of voting along
> with numerous examples of computer glitches (and
> possible computer tampering) raises further questions as
> to whether the right to vote is being eroded.
>
> Thus, the irony is that we have witnessed a Presidential
> administration that has heralded the right to democratic
> elections overseas (even if all they have been concerned
> with is that there is more than one party in the race
> rather than whether there has been genuine democracy),
> yet tactics have been implemented which they have not
> challenged (if not outright encouraged), that deprive
> entire sections of the US population of their right to
> vote.
>
> The awareness of the shenanigans of the 2000 and 2004
> elections has led to a very broad-based mobilization
> around what is being called "Voter Protection." Unions,
> community-based organizations, and other non-profits
> have enlisted in this battle, one which starts with
> increasing public awareness of the dangers of voter
> disenfranchisement. Further involvement in this work is
> of great importance, and is often missed when the focus
> of our electoral discussions are on the candidates
> alone. The political Right, fearing a loss by McCain,
> will do all that it can to suppress the Black vote, the
> Latino vote (except among Cuban Americans), older
> citizen vote and the youth vote. It will more than
> likely do this through a shrewd combination of
> propaganda aimed at defaming Senator Obama and
> encouraging fear as to who he actually is (i.e., the
> false allegations that he is a Muslim; does not do the
> Pledge of Allegiance; is actually not a US citizen), as
> well as through the tried and true tactics of the 2000
> and 2004 elections. With regard to outright voter
> suppression, for example, volunteers will be needed at
> all poll sites to ensure that there is no voter
> intimidation or misinformation. This is a lot more than
> traditional voter registration/education and Get Out The
> Vote (GOTV). It is really a democracy mobilization.
>
> In November 2000 I was deployed by the AFL-CIO to
> Florida for several days following the election. I
> watched and listened as reports came in regarding
> spontaneous demonstrations taking place in various parts
> of the state by disenfranchised voters; voters who
> WANTED their votes counted. I watched and listened as
> affidavits were completed. I watched and listened as the
> Bush forces made it appear that they were the righteous
> and that Gore was the spoiler. I watched and listened as
> the Gore campaign and its allies completely caved in.
>
> I am not going through that again. We must provide the
> support for voters to ensure that their votes are
> counted, but if there is further theft it is not
> permissible to accept that the election was stolen fair
> and square. The tables will need to be turned.
>
> [For more information on voter protection, see:
> www.vote411.org]
>
> BlackCommentator.com Executive Editor, Bill Fletcher,
> Jr., is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy
> Studies, the immediate past president of TransAfrica
> Forum and co-author of the just released book,
> Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a
> New Path toward Social Justice (University of California
> Press), which examines the crisis of organized labor in
> the USA.
>
> _____________________________________________