Thursday, October 16, 2008

Obama may be ahead in the polls right now, but to neutralize right-wing voter suppression we need to win really big. And that means coming together to make sure everyone who supports him gets out to vote.

The dirty tricks have already begun. Republicans are shamelessly attempting to prevent eligible Obama supporters from casting a vote:
  • Election officials in some swing states have been illegally purging voter registration rolls.1
  • Fox News has been spreading false allegations about ACORN, a community group that registers low-income people to vote—laying the ground for challenges to legitimate voter registrations.23
  • In Philadelphia, right-wing operatives have distributed flyers falsely warning that anyone with so much as an unpaid parking ticket will be arrested if he or she attempts to vote.4
  • A GOP county chair in Michigan promised to block people whose homes are in foreclosure from voting!5
And of course, the voting machines still in use in some swing states suffer from serious security problems, including the lack of a paper audit trail. The best way to keep this election from being stolen is to win so big that the dirty tricks won't make any difference. The Obama campaign is reaching out to millions of voters to make sure they get to the polls.