Three percent of the populations plus one voter is where politicians live and die.

In some local and state elections where turnout may be only 20 percent of registered voters, the margin may be far less than three percent plus one.

The average politician lives in constant fear of alienating any substantial portion of this three percent plus one voter he needs in a hotly contested race to win re-election, or to gain higher office.

What is the best way not to alienate these voters?  Do nothing to make them mad, which almost always means … do nothing.

This is why even when new politicians are elected, little seems to change.  Inertia — or the status quo — is the most potent force in politics.

However, by mobilizing and directing voters rallying around a specific issue, you can change the political environment for a politician or even a group of politicians.  One relatively small group can make it more costly for the politician not to act than it is for him or her to act as you want him to.

This is what is meant when it is said that policy is made at the margins.  Over time, the number and effectiveness of activists determines political success or failure.

This is also why the homosexual lobby, labor unions, and organized groups so often get legislation they want.  They have groups of voters who can, and will, vote on their issue alone.  And they often have workers and sometimes money to use against any politician who crosses them.

By becoming a grass-roots leader, you can, too.

That’s where the fun, and the danger, begins.

Tell us (briefly) about you…
I have an insatiable curiosity. I am happiest when I am learning something new that helps me make sense of reality.

…and a bit about what you’ve written…
I’ve written three novels so far. The first one, Employee of the Year, is a mystery set in the call center of a credit card company during the recent financial crisis. The second book in the series is called The Voting Machine. It features Temo McCarthy, the same hero as Employee of the Year, and it’s an election thriller set in Nevada during a voter registration campaign. My latest novel, The Fugitive Grandma, is a dark comedy/adventure about the health care crisis in America. It’s the story of a boy and his grandmother who rob a string of big box retail stores for cash and medicine.

I’ve also worked as a freelance journalist for over twenty years, reporting mostly in the US and East Asia. I’ve covered a variety of topics including crime, technology, business and entertainment.

…and what you’re working on right now.
I am writing a fourth novel, The Watch List, a continuation of the Temo McCarthy series. It’s a suspense novel and a meditation on the war on terror.

What are your earliest book-related memories?
My aunt bought me a copy of The Hobbit when I was five or six years old. It was a big hard back version with pictures from the old Rankin and Bass animated version from the 70s. I always identified with Bilbo Baggins. I liked the idea of this simple little homebody going off and having a big adventure in the world. To a certain extent I ended up following in his footsteps.

What are your three favorite books?
The Dubliners by James Joyce will always be my favorite collection of short stories. I read this when I was a teenager and I admired the way Joyce captured the joys and sorrows of ordinary people from different walks of life.

The last book on the list is A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. History is usually taught in a manner that makes the audience feel passive and helpless. Zinn turns it around and inspires the reader to think about the past, present and future like an active participant.

How many books to do you read at any given time? What are you reading now?
I usually read at least three books in parallel.

Thinking in Pictures. This is the autobiography of Temple Grandin, one of my personal heroes for her courage and compassion in providing a first-hand account of living with autism.

Finish this sentence; when I curl up with a book, I ___
Feel the tantalizing anticipation and hope that another piece of life’s puzzle might slip into place and fit just right.

How likely are you to read a book that’s been recommended to you?
If it’s someone who knows my tastes and interests, then I am very likely to read it.

How likely are you to recommend a book (that isn’t yours)?
Very likely. I am kind of a chronic, compulsive “recommender” and often need to be restrained due to an excess of enthusiasm.

What do you look for in a good book?
It will help me walk away with a story or an insight and I am a better person for it.

Why do you write?
It’s cheaper than therapy. Also more fun.

If you couldn’t be a writer, what would you be?
A linguist. I love learning foreign languages. I am fluent in Japanese. I studied Russian for five years and can read it OK. I also can get by in Italian though I tend to forget it between trips to Italy.

Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Big world-changing ideas and simple everyday experiences.

What has writing taught you about yourself?
It has taught me to become better at empathizing with others and imaging the world from different perspectives. One of my favorite quotes is from Picasso: “To be an artist means never to avert one’s eyes.” I have many blind spots in life and my writing is a way to see things more clearly.

How do the people in your life seem to view your writing career?
I wish writing was my career but honestly speaking it feels more like a hobby. I have a career in Internet technology that provides the financial support to do the things I really love. Many of my favorite writers had day jobs and did their writing on the side. Walt Whitman was a postal worker. Franz Kafka was an insurance executive.

Are there any stereotypes about writers that you don’t think are true?
I think writers, like other artists, are sometimes stereotyped as lacking practical and social skills. I don’t think this is necessarily the case. I do think writers probably find some of the rewards that practical and social skills bring less fulfilling than others sorts of personalities.

What do you see as the biggest challenge today for writers starting out?
The biggest challenge is getting to the point where you are convinced you have something compelling and interesting to say. If you don’t have this conviction, you are plagued with self-doubt and you wonder whether writing is the best use of your precious time on this earth. It took me a while to gain this conviction. But once you have it, it’s hard to lose it.

Have you made any writing mistakes that seem obvious in retrospect but weren’t at the time?
My first novel, Employee of the Year, was probably too long by any sort of contemporary standards. Still, some readers like the depth and expanse of the sub-plots and it was difficult to determine what could be cut without damaging the essence of the story.

Is there a particular project you would love to be involved with?
I currently love being involved in the evolution of the e-book. My background is working in web start-up companies in San Francisco during the Internet bubble. So the idea that books are going through this period of technological innovation and experimentation is very exciting. I am so glad to be a part of defining a new medium. Yay!

How do you deal with your fan base?
I am not sure I have a fan base, that feels a little presumptuous. I have a reading and I appreciate their honest feedback. I try to understand what they like and dislike about my books. I want to know what characters and themes resonate most powerfully.

Finish this sentence; my fans would be surprised to know ___ about me.
I have a shameful and debilitating addiction to top 40 radio pop dance music. I am coming clean with this as part of my policy of total transparency with my fan base. I’ve tried to wean myself off of this dependency and start listening to classical music in the car but so far this has been an utter failure.

Anything else we should know?
My daughter in elementary school is a much better author than me and I predict her books will dramatically outsell my own before she is old enough to vote.

Public Outrage As Obamacare Is Used For Illegal Alien Voter Registration

” Democrats have one primary goal.  They want the one essential ingredient for carrying out their other plans (such as undermining the Second Amendment or socializing the economy). This goal is to get voters, enough voters that the Democrat Party will have a perpetual majority. It buys illegal immigrants by promising them free food, putting them on welfare, and subsidizing the same education Americans can no longer afford. Democrats know that, once amnesty occurs, the immigrants will vote Democrat. In the same way, Democrats demonizes conservative blacks (such as the recent vile attacks against Dr. Benjamin Carson) because, as Col. Allen West said, they can’t risk losing control over a black community that has been brainwashed through welfare and victim politics into voting Democrat.”

Related articles

• Why Obamacare Offers Voter Registration (healthcarebs.com)
• Fox Wants A Lawsuit Over Voter Registration In Obamacare Application (crooksandliars.com)
• Obamacare Application Includes (Democrat) Voter Registration Drive (ijreview.com)
• You Lie: Democrats Vote to Give Free Healthcare to Illegal Immigrants (ijreview.com)

—

Three percent of the populations plus one voter is where politicians live and die.

In some local and state elections where turnout may be only 20 percent of registered voters, the margin may be far less than three percent plus one.

The average politician lives in constant fear of alienating any substantial portion of this three percent plus one voter he needs in a hotly contested race to win re-election, or to gain higher office.

What is the best way not to alienate these voters?  Do nothing to make them mad, which almost always means … do nothing.

This is why even when new politicians are elected, little seems to change.  Inertia — or the status quo — is the most potent force in politics.

However, by mobilizing and directing voters rallying around a specific issue, you can change the political environment for a politician or even a group of politicians.  One relatively small group can make it more costly for the politician not to act than it is for him or her to act as you want him to.

This is what is meant when it is said that policy is made at the margins.  Over time, the number and effectiveness of activists determines political success or failure.

This is also why the homosexual lobby, labor unions, and organized groups so often get legislation they want.  They have groups of voters who can, and will, vote on their issue alone.  And they often have workers and sometimes money to use against any politician who crosses them.

By becoming a grass-roots leader, you can, too.

That’s where the fun, and the danger, begins.

Below are the bills that True the Vote is opposing or supporting. I’ve put a handy thumbs-up in BLUE for “good” legislation (i.e. legislation that make voting more accessible for more people..) Bills aimed at voter suppression (making voting difficult and complicated, or opening it up to fraud) are marked with a RED thumbs-down. 

True the Vote bills itself as an organization fighting for “voter integrity”. The very act of voting is an act of integrity as a citizen of our country. They’ve had a lot of trouble winning donors and friends with that concept, however, and have been suspected in being a party to fraud and disenfranchisement in the state of Ohio and other heavily-contested areas. Ironically, this “voter integrity” effort has even been caught faking signatures. 

The GOP is rebranding, but they’re not actually changing their platform or their voter suppression efforts. Expect them to come out with some real whoppers this year – ditching their “voter integrity” efforts for more energizing phrases, such as “election integrity”, “fair but equal elections” and calling these new efforts “voter’s rights”. I’m only kind of joking here. But don’t worry, they’re not fighting to help you or me.

A quick glance at Texas (scroll alphabetically) show just how far they will go to suppress legitimate voters.  And yes, this post is easily a TLDR (too long, didn’t read) type of posting. So if you’re short on time, take a look at Texas and see if YOUR state is on this list.

ARKANSAS: Conduct of Elections Bill, SB 634  offers easier voting access for disabled.

This is a bill scheduled to be hears by the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee. It allows other people, outside of election officials, to be designated to assist a disabled person with marking and casting their ballot. People with home health aids and other caretakers usually rely on this assistance in their everyday life. Often the person caring for them assists them in all activities of daily living.

Find  & contact your Arkansas state senator to SUPPORT this bill.

CALIFORNIA: Conduct of Elections Bill, SJR 6  requires a minimum number of election workers so that voting sites are staffed, and that long lines at the polls are remedied so everyone gets a chance to vote.

This is a measure proclaiming support for the the Federal Lines Interfere with National Elections Act of 2013. Lines Interfere with National Elections Act of 2013 or LINE Act of 2013.  This act amends the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require each state to provide for the minimum required number of voting systems, poll workers, and other election resources (including all other physical resources) for each voting site on the day of any federal election and on any days during which the state allows early voting for a federal election in accordance with standards established under this Act.

Find & contact your California state senator to SUPPORT this bill.

You can also sign this petition to support the Federal Lines Interfere with National Elections Act of 2013.

FLORIDA – Voter Registration Bill, HB 1045 makes it easier to register to vote.

If you move, you can update your address & vote at your new precinct, all in one place.

Felon & Anti-discrimination Voting Bill, HB 1259  allows felons to register to vote, and protects from voting discrimination.

The bill was filed. This bill declares the “explicit, fundamental right to vote and guarantee to free, fair, and accessible elections” in Florida and protects against discrimination based on gender, income, age, disability, etc. A person who has been convicted of a felony and has served his or her sentence may register to vote and may vote in any election after his or her right to vote has been restored.

Early Voting Bill, HB 1259 creates more early voting options.

This bill allows the supervisor of elections to offer early voting before the official early voting period on specific days before a state or federal election, up to two weeks in advance of the election. This bill designates more early voting centers and takes advantage of public sites such as fairgrounds, civic centers, courthouses, county commission buildings, stadiums, and convention centers.

Find and contact your Florida senator to SUPPORT these bills.

 IOWA  Voter ID Bill, HSB 23 makes voting without ID a big pain.

This bill requires voters to show government-issued, photographic proof of identification. A voter without ID may otherwise vote a provisional ballot, but they have to come back and prove their identity before their vote will be counted.

Find and contact your Iowa state legislator to REJECT this bill. 

ILLINOIS:

Voter ID Bill in Illinois HB 3007  is a voter ID bill.

The bill was referred to the Rules Committee. This bill requires that a person seeking to vote on election day present a government-issued photo identification card to the election judge and will go into effect immediately.

Early Voting Bill, HB 3030 offers an in-person grace period for voting – however, to its detriment, it eliminates discretion with mail-in ballots, which could cause traveling and military voters to not be counted. 

This bill provides that the election authority shall offer in-person grace period voting at his or her office, and may offer in-person grace period voting at additional locations specifically designated for that purpose by the election authority.

 Find and contact your Illinois representative to REJECT these bills.

MINNESOTA

Challenger Bill, HF 894 

This bill allows registered voters who changes their legal residence  to update their address and vote a regular ballot at their new precinct, among other provisions.

Find and contact your Minnesota representative to SUPPORT this bill.

Election Day Registration Bill, SF 916 

This bill reduces the maximum number of permitted registered voter proof-of-residence signed oaths on Election Day. Such oaths are used to verify individuals who register and vote on Election Day. A voter can “vouch” for a neighbor, church member, etc. just 3 times.

Find and contact your Minnesota representative to REJECT this bill.

NEVADA - Felon Voting Rights Bill, AB 301X 

This bill removes all exceptions to the restoration of the right to vote of a person convicted of a felony out-of-state. Current Nevada law requires residents who have been convicted of felonies in other states to restore their voting rights under the other states’ laws.

Find and contact your  Nevada representative to SUPPORT this bill.

NORTH CAROLINA Early Voting Bill, HB 188 expands early voting times.

This bill mandates a minimum of 20 hours of “one-stop voting” and early voting on weekends “with not less than six or more than eight of those 20 hours on the final Saturday.”

Find and contact your representative to SUPPORT this bill

OHIO Voter Registration Bill, HB 78 

The bill was referred to the House Committee on Policy and Legislative Oversight. This bill requires the secretary of state to create an online voter registration system that forces voters to go through an identity verification process that appears quite complicated.

Find and contact your Ohio representative to REJECT this bill.

OREGON Voter Registration Bill, HB 3386 could purge qualified voters from the rolls based on trial and error – no specifics are given on the ‘how’.  

This bill establishes a task force on Voter Inactivation and Voter Registration Maintenance. The bill directs the task force to study how to prevent erroneous voter registration inactivation and improve accuracy of voter registration information maintenance.

Proof of Citizenship Bill, HB 3428  could suppress legal immigrants from voting by complicating voter registration for naturalized citizens. 

The bill was first read and referred to Speaker’s desk. This bill requires evidence of citizenship for individuals registering to vote for the first time in this state.

Find and contact your Oregon representative to REJECT these bills.

TEXAS has so many bills meant to control voting on the table, and most of them work hard to disenfranchise legal immigrants and stop fair voting practices. It’s almost absurd. True the Vote proposed most of these bills.  You can see what their agenda is, quite clearly, by looking at the state of Texas. If you’re a Texas voter, please make some phone calls and fight these absurd new proposals.

Poll Watcher ID Bill, HB 1303 

The bill is currently in the House Elections Committee. This bill requires that all poll watchers must wear an identifying badge while on duty in a polling location. This could lead to harassment of watchers — especially online, where conservatives love to “dox” people.

Poll Watcher ID Bill, SB 160 

The bill is currently in the Senate State Affairs Committee. This bill requires that all poll watchers must wear an identifying badge while on duty in a polling location (similar to HB 1303).

Conduct of Elections Bill, HB 1252 

This bill sets clear protocols for the removal of an alternative judge by a presiding judge in a polling place, among other provisions making it easier for bias and manipulation at a polling place based on your politics or other discrimination.

Conduct of Elections Bill, HB 1783 

The bill is currently in the House Elections Committee. This bill establishes clear guidelines for poll workers to be removed for cause – but the bill does not specify what conditions these are, at present.

Residency Requirement Bill, HB 966 

The bill is currently in the House Elections Committee. This bill establishes definitions for residence as it pertains to voter registration. The bill does not apply to armed forces or dependents or a student enrolled full-time at an institution of higher education. It will affect the homeless and people with unstable living situations, who rely on PO Boxes to get their mail.

Voter Roll Maintenance Bill, HB 2372 

The bill was filed. This bill allows the Secretary of State to coordinate with election officials from other states to routinely perform voter roll maintenance by cross-referencing records for duplicate registrations. Texas would join 21 other states in such an effort – possibly eliminating voters with duplicate names so they cannot vote.

Conduct of Elections Bill, HB 1181 

The bill is currently in the House Elections Committee. This bill requires clerks to designate voters who were served during early voting in the poll books to be used on Election Day.

Conduct of Elections Bill, HB 1560 

The bill is currently in the House Elections Committee. This bill makes the paying or receiving of monetary compensation for assisting mail-in voters a Class A misdemeanor. Social workers, nonprofits, and others who assist people with voter registration in the course of their duties could face possible criminal penalties, depending on how the law is applied.

Conduct of Elections Bill, HB 1428 

The bill is currently in the House Elections Committee. This bill provides a process for remedying ballots inappropriately accepted or rejected, giving the Secretary of State power to investigate the incident.

Voter Registration Bill, HB 1785 

Rather than rely on the postmark, all applications must be in-office by the voter registration date. This will disenfranchise absentee voters, including soldiers stationed overseas. Currently, the application date is determined by the postmark.

Early Voting Bill, HB 2106

The bill was filed. This bill reduces the early voting period from 12 to seven days. It provides early voting on each weekday and Saturday. An election authority may provide early voting on Sunday during the early voting period.

Voter Registration Bill, SB 910

This bill provides that voter registration applications may be delivered via fax machine. In order to be counted, the registration application must be submitted by mail no later than the fourth business day after the faxed application was received. The bill further includes provisions regarding electronic voting systems. This opens voting up to massive fraud. How many voters are using fax machines?  Fax machines are one of the most unreliable forms of communication available today. But a lot of businesses and corporations use them. Huh.

Find and contact your Texas representative to REJECT these bills.

UTAH Voter Registration Bill, HB 378

This bill amends provisions for a poll worker to provide a provisional ballot to a voter who may not live in the voting precinct but is a resident of the county and allows a voter to have a provisional ballot used as a voter registration form in the voter’s county of residence; and makes other changes that make it much, much easier to register to vote.

Find and contact your Utah representative to SUPPORT this bill.

WISCONSIN 

Early Voting Bill, AB 54

This bill eliminates early voting on the weekends and evenings, leaving voters who work more than one job or a trying day job without the time to vote. I bet this is especially meant for those pesky union members.

Find and contact your Wisconsin representative to REJECT this bill.

Related articles:

• True the Vote Presents False Findings (huffingtonpost.com)
• True the Vote Files Lawsuit in Florida (newamerican.com)
• Democrats say GOP early voting bill limits access (thestate.com)
• Senate gives preliminary OK to early voting (thestate.com)
• Early voting proposal gets bipartisan push in Missouri (stltoday.com)
• Fla. House passes election overhaul bill (miamiherald.com)
• General Assembly Considers Early Voting Trial (connecticut.cbslocal.com)
• Finally Confirmed: GOP ‘IS’ Out of Touch (nvrdc.wordpress.com)
• REPORT: Who And How America Voted In The Last Election (davidmixner.com)
• Latino youths protest Arizona election reform (nbclatino.com)

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The deadline to register to vote in Pennsylvania’s May primary is fast approaching.

“The deadline is Monday, April 22nd,” says Committee of 70 Policy Director Ellen Kaplan.

That may seem far away, but it gives voters just 20 days to get those applications in. She says April 22nd is also the deadline for name changes, as well as any changes to party affiliations, which is important in a primary election.

“Registered Democrats vote for Democratic candidates. Registered Republicans vote for Republican candidates. Minority candidates are not on a ballot in a primary.”

The primary is set for May 21st, when Philadelphia voters will be able to cast ballots for judges, controller and district attorney. Kaplan advises voters to get paper applications in as soon as possible. Applications are available at VotesPA.com.

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Obamacare Protest at Supreme Court (Photo credit: southerntabitha)

Obamacare is supposed to be about health care but the 2,000 plus pages of unread Obamacare Act is becoming a Pandora’s box full of unrelated and bad surprises. The latest Obamacare discovery from the 15-page Obamacare form is a question if the person would like to register to vote and if you answer yes you will be automatically linked to a voter registration.

 Their defense is that it’s only expected since The Voter Registration Act of 1993 ( Motor Voter Act ) REQUIRES to ask any recipient of government subsidies like the Obamacare to register to vote. ( Democrats don’t give out freebies without getting the votes attached to them )

THE CONSPIRACY THEORY HERE:  Just in case your political party affiliation will put you on the longer waiting list, maybe  just to play safe register as Democrat but vote Republican. Obamacare may only be nice to the Obamacrat voters and put all Republicans under the waiting panel or death panel if you’re old.

The thing is, Obamacare will eventually lead to singe-payer healthcare to be run exclusively by the government after the private insurance companies are gone and the employer-provided insurance would disappear to be replaced by Obamacare only.

Obamacare will also take over government student loans ( no more private loans ) and will impose taxes when you sell your house. Expect more surprising Obamacare news this year. As what Madame Pelosi has said we have to pass Obamacare first in order to find out the content of the unread 2,000 page-plus Obamacare Act.

Copyright 2013 Ketchie V. Schauf

My alert readers (both of them) will recall one of the evil effects of Prop 14:  that it eliminates one of two ways for a small political party to keep its access to the ballot.  We now, effectively, have only one:  to maintain a number of registrants above 1% of the number of voters that voted in the last gubernatorial election.  That’s currently a number a touch above 100,000.

Green registration in California, at last report, was about 113,000 and has been slowly dropping for the last few years.  This is a cause for concern.  To some people, it might seem to be a “Drop everything!  There is NO OTHER PARTY BUSINESS!” concern.  I’ll try to put it in perspective, for any noobs out there.  Vets are welcome to comment on anything I’m missing here, of course.

The last thing I would try to discourage anyone from is hitting the street to get some new Greens registered.  No organizing or authorization of any kind is required, just a person with some time.  There’s no need for Greens to even talk to each other about this much.  They just have to do it.  I’ve written about this before.

 It also might help to hit up
any friends you have who thought it was so all-frakking-important to vote for Obama or Kucinich or whatever in long-ago primaries to COME HOME, ALREADY and register in the only way that sends a message with your registration.

I would, however, question any panic reaction.  10-15% isn’t what I’d call a comfortable margin, but it’s not dangling off a cliff with the villain stomping on your hands, either.

To give you a broad overview, here’s a table of Green registration in California, with some prominent events marked on it in a timelineish way.  Click on it to view it larger.  It only goes back to 1999 because that’s what was obviously available on the Secretary of State’s site, and I was too lazy to look up earlier numbers.  You see a slow decline in Green registration since our peak in 2003.

Just to get this out of the way, there are three other “third” parties in California that are in worse trouble:

Americans Elect – Qualified for the last primary by petition, not registration.  They have a negligible number of registrants, as this party was negligible from the start.  It was a silly idea, period.

.

Libertarian – Hovering much closer to the cutoff number than the Greens.  But they have money.  They’ll probably pull through with some well-paid registration drive.  Only guessing here, though.  I don’t keep up on what they’re doing.  If they WERE to drop off the registration forms, I’d expect a few refugees to go Green.  Don’t laugh.  Most of their registrants (as with most of ANY party’s registrants) have vague ideas at best of what the party stands for.

.

Peace & Freedom – The Cool Hand Luke of political parties (“keeps comin’ back with nuthin’”).  We got quite a few refugees from them when they dropped off the ballot in 1998.  If they do so again, it could gain us some.  They are far below the required number of registrants.
.

Let’s look at that handy-dandy table & timeline I gave you, hit a couple of high spots that stand out, and I’ll draw some conclusions that have all the authority of being pulled directly out of my…sleeve.
.

First off, the two periods of fastest growth in our numbers were during the Nader 2000 campaign and the 2003 recall election, when Camejo actually appeared in a tv debate.

Conclusion:  There’s nothing like being talked about in the mass media, for good or ill, and being treated like a somewhat serious player.  No surprise there.

Our period of fastest decline was 2007-2008, a time when Obama was talking like a real “progressive”, and looking like a serious “real Democrat” as opposed to Clinton’s “triangulation”.

This is one of those facts we’ve been living with for decades now:  Whenever it looks to some people like they can make a difference with their vote in the Dem presidential primary, they go register Dem or DTS so they can do so.  It’s not a huge part of our registrants; maybe only 10 or 15 percent, but when we’re hovering just above the cutoff for ballot access it means something.

Conclusion:  Some people will keep on going back to the abusive spouse no matter what.  Maybe a counselor can advise us about breaking this cycle.

.

Let’s look at the whole period chronologically now.

My evidence that we gained refugees from Peace & Freedom when they lost ballot access and no longer had their name printed on the registration forms is purely anecdotal.  You won’t see evidence for it in my table, probably because it was overwhelmed by other events.

The rapid-fire arousal of grassroots organizing in the late 90s, early noughties, from Seattle through the early antiwar movement, was a long surge for us. I believe our early adoption of internet communications played a part in this, giving almost-free communication to groups that had previously been hampered by lack of money just for the most basic exchange of information within a group.

Conclusion:  Take advantage of any free communication as much as possible.

The “Blame Nader” nonsense that started after 2000 does not seem to have affected our registration numbers, and might have even helped.  This might have been an instance of “no such thing as bad publicity”.

Conclusion:  “Spoiler” propaganda might work on how people vote, but not on how they register.  Not in the short term, anyway.  This might be an instance of actual awareness on the voters’ part of how the elections work.  I’m shocked & amazed.

.

The serious decline in our numbers began in 2004. Three things were working for this at the time:

(1)  Noobs who had confused Nader with the Green Party from the start lost interest or ragequit when they saw that the Party was waffling over nominating someone who didn’t want our nomination.

(2)  The ever-hopeful blue/greens got interested in the Dem primaries, since Kerry had some moth-eaten old antiwar credentials from his foolish youth, and the mirage appeared
of defeating Bush and thereby getting something, anything, different.

(3)  The following, probably related to #1, but not exactly the same thing.  Be patient.

I once did an analysis by county of our declining numbers, for the period 2003-2006.  Here are links to:

The raw numbers

Basic explanation and conclusions

…if you’re interested.  After some dialogue with other Greens in certain counties, it was apparent that a large part of the loss was simply from registrations that were “soft” to
begin with.  Let me explain.

When you’re tabling or whatever for voter registrations, college campuses are prime territory, for some obvious reasons.  They’re full of young people who just reached voting age, just moved away from home, are probably a little more politically aware than most people, etc.  Great place to get new registrations.  It’s also a great place to get registrations that will fall off the rolls within three or four years.  If they’re not constantly replaced with new soliciting, your numbers will fall back toward what they were before.  In this 2003-2006 period, we identified some hotspots of large losses that we could easily blame on campus soliciting from around 2000 that was discontinued later.

Conclusion:  For soliciting to make a difference in registration numbers, it must be sustained.  There is no such thing as “finished the job”.

Notice that Roseanne’s announcement of her candidacy shows no effect on our numbers.  This would generally contradict the notion that ANY publicity is good, but the impression she gave in the media might have been just a little too comical.

Our numbers might have actually picked up a little due to Stein’s nomination and the subsequent campaign, or that little jump could just be statistical noise.

Also likely to be statistical noise is the slight drop in absolute numbers that might happen (in the absence of strong influences) in the February odd-numbered year report, which often includes results of a lot of roll-cleaning.  Small parties are likely to show a bit more drop from roll-cleaning because of #3 cited above, but it’s usually not a big deal by itself.

Y’all are welcome to point out any historical events I’ve forgotten in that chart, of course.  I’m not aware of everything going on in the state at all times, to say the least.  I suspect that there were candidate campaigns that came and went, influencing these numbers.  There are some things I’m pretty sure of, though, from what I’ve seen:

(1)  As good as it is to have people hitting the street soliciting registrations, my own county has had little of this over the years. Certainly such activities do not account for the jumps of 30-40% that occurred in 2000-2003.  Without any strong registration drives, my county followed roughly the same pattern as the state overall in registration stats. I therefore conclude that the “air war” of broad attention in the media is far more important for getting people to register with one party versus another.

(2)  The msm really learned their lesson after Nader 2000 and Camejo 2003.  Never again will they give a “third” party free publicity in ways that they control easily.  Ever since the last gasp of “spoiler” talk in 2004 died out, mentions of “third” parties on tv have been scarcer than hand-written letters or news anchors who know what they’re talking about.

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(3)  Wherever possible, free noise on the internet should be tried for, as I pointed out long ago.  It’s the mass medium that is least controlled by our rulers, which we can’t afford not to use to the max.

It’s a whole, lengthy subject in itself, and I’m really not the answer guy on this, but I’ll restate the obvious here anyway:

The internet is likely to make as big a change in our society as the printing press did centuries ago, and we’ve only seen the beginning of it.

A little more of the obvious:

As soon as our rulers notice something influential, they take control of it if they can.  They nearly always can.  It usually takes only money to do so.  If you try to solicit in the town square, they privatize the town square.  They can buy up all the major media.  If you actually prove to be effective with a popular web site or twitter feed, they have dozens of ways to pressure you or your host.

There’s something special about the internet, though.  Its anarchic nature is its attraction.  It would be useless if content were too restricted.  So they can kill it if they want to, but they can’t control it all.  Killing it doesn’t seem like a real option, since it’s very useful for banking, selling, and all those things our rulers love.

They can, however, identify certain hosts, certain applications, where rebellion might be beginning, and shut them down.  The answer is to keep moving, and keep it simple, so it’s easy to move.  Don’t get tied to one host, such as Facebook or Twitter, and keep what’s worth preserving on your own computer, and backed up.  Dependence on someone else’s server or software means you’ll lose it.

And don’t follow fashion.  Make your own fashion.  This will involve a lot more misses than hits, of course, as I’ve observed about genetic mutation and innovation in language.  For an analogy, let me take you back to pre-2007.  Remember how the crescendo of “reality” shows along the lines of Flip that house, plus general house porn, reached a peak just before the housing bubble burst?  Remember when it seemed like half the people you knew had a real estate license, almost as a fashion accessory?  My crystal ball (pulled directly out of my… sleeve) says that Facebook and Twitter are approaching that point.  If everyone’s doing it, that’s not the thing to invest your time in.  So what is?  The crystal ball is foggy there.

Fifty-three-year-old Nickie Perkins of Melborne is charged with two counts of election misconduct and one count of fraudulent practice.

Court document say he voted in the 2012 general election, even though he was a convicted felon. Perkins has been released from custody.

Sixty-four-year-old Jesus Castorena is charged with two counts of perjury in Cerro Gordo County.

Officials say he falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen, obtained a drivers’ license and registered to vote illegally.  He was deported to Mexico in 2007 but returned to the U.S. Warrants have been issues for Castorena’s arrest.

Voting Rights for Felons and Ex-Cons

Yesterday, a friend of mine called me.  She said that she had been talking to a woman whose partner had a felony record who had served his time for the crime.  Among the several issues they discussed was his frustration that he was no longer able to vote.  Like many people, my friend and the couple she was talking to me about all believe that once someone has been found guilty of a felony, they face a lifetime ban on their constitutional right to vote.

Since primary season is coming up in many places around the country and since most states have voter registration deadlines before their primary election day, I thought I’d provide some background information on this issue.

What is the myth?

Simply stated, the myth is that ex-cons cannot vote – once convicted and forever afterwards. There are at least two errors in this myth:

• Except for a narrow category of crimes in Mississippi, disenfranchisement does not occur in any state if you are found guilty of a misdemeanor crime.  Even if you spend time in jail for that misdemeanor.
• Voter disenfranchisement for people with a felony conviction differs by state.  Eleven states permanently disenfranchise some or all current and former felons from voting, but most don’t.

So it all depends on where you live. Here’s what I found out about state laws on this issue from the Brennan Center for Justice

Permanent Disenfranchisement for All Felons

Only four states – Iowa, Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia – permanently disenfranchise current and former felons from voting.  The only way for a person to have their voting rights reinstated is through an “individual rights restoration” process set up by each state.

Permanent Disenfranchisement for Some but Not All Felons

Seven states permanently disenfranchise some, but not all current and former felons from voting.

In Arizona, if someone is convicted of two or more felonies, the right to vote is permanently denied.

In the other six states in this category, you need to check your state law to determine which felony convictions permanently deny you the right to vote. Here’s a quick summary of these laws.

• In Alabama, you can be permanently barred from voting if your crime is listed in their disenfranchisement list. If the conviction is a “moral turpitude” type of conviction, you can have your voting rights restored upon completion of your sentence and payment of fines and fees.
• In Delaware, voting after incarceration can be reinstated five years post-incarceration unless the crime you committed is one among a list of crimes that permanently disenfranchises your right to vote.
• In Mississippi, you permanently lose your right to vote if you are convicted of any of ten categories of crime, whether that crime is a felony or misdemeanor.  If your crime isn’t on this list, you can vote even while incarcerated.  Note, this is the only state that has a law that permanently bans voting for someone who has created a misdemeanor.
• In Nevada, if someone is convicted of two or more felonies, the right to vote is permanently denied.  People convicted of violent crimes at any time are permanently barred from voting. Nevada will restore those rights if a pardon is granted or if the court where the conviction originally occurred restores those rights.
• In Tennessee, if your crime is on the list of crimes that permanently bar you from voting, then you can only have these rights reinstated if you are pardoned.  For all other crimes, you can have your voting rights restored upon completion of your sentence, payment of fines and fees, and show that you are up to date on all child support payments.
• In Wyoming, you can have your voting rights restored five years post-incarceration for first-time non-violent crimes.  All others are permanently disenfranchised unless pardoned by the Governor.

Voting Rights Restored Upon Completion of Incarceration, Probation, and Parole

Nineteen states – Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin – restore your rights to vote upon completion of your sentence, which includes incarceration, probation, and parole.

In Nebraska, one additionally has to wait two years after completing the sentence before being allowed to vote.

In Washington state, you can lose your right to vote again if you haven’t paid your financial obligations after completing your sentence.

Voting Rights Restored After Incarceration and/or Probation

Five states – California, Colorado, Connecticut, New York, and South Dakota – allow you to vote once you have completed your sentence and/or probation.

In New York, those on probation can have their voting rights restored if they receive either a “Certificate of Relief from Disabilities or a Certificate of Good Conduct.”

Voting Rights Immediately Restored After Incarceration

Fifteen states – the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Utah – immediately restore voting rights upon one’s release from jail or prison. There are no voting restrictions for people on parole or serving probation time.

No Restrictions on Voting for People with a Criminal Record

And just two states – Maine and Vermont – allow anyone otherwise eligible to vote regardless of criminal conviction to vote. Even while incarcerated, on probation, or parole.

Who is most likely to be impacted by this disenfranchisement?

According to the ACLU, people and communities of color are most often disparately impacted by felony disenfranchisement laws. There are over 5.3 million people in the United States that are barred from voting due to a criminal conviction.  The majority of these crimes are non-violent.

Of the 5.3 million disenfranchised, 1.4 million or 26 percent of people with a criminal conviction are African-American citizens.  Considering that black persons make up just 13 percent of the national population, one can immediately see that if you are Black, you are twice as likely to have your voting rights denied.  This means that one in 13 African-Americans across the country are being denied their right to vote.

The myth of an ex-con never being allowed to vote compounds this issue. As previously stated, many believe that once convicted, they can never vote again.

With a widespread belief in this myth as well as a lack of public education to refute it, more and more ex-cons are at risk of not regaining their right to vote. Since actual disenfranchisement disparately impacts people of color, this assumption exacerbates this form of discrimination.

In my opinion, little is done by the government, courts, and communities to educate people and communities about their voting rights when one has been sentenced for a crime.  Exceptions to this come from only a few, non-profit advocacy sources, including the ACLU, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Prison Policy Initiative, and the Sentencing Project.   There are others, but I believe that these four contain the best resources.

What do you need to do to get registered?

If your state is one of the states that do not permanently disenfranchise people who have completed their sentence (or if you live in Maine or Vermont which has no felony restrictions on voting), you should check out what your state law is regarding registering to vote.  The federal government has a website that has basic information on how to register and what the registration deadlines are by state.  It also has links to every state’s election office website where you can get details about state-specific requirements for voter eligibility.

If you know or believe that you have the right to vote in your state despite having a criminal history and receive a denial to vote when you attempt to register, you should check with an organization that provides legal services to people who have been incarcerated.  You can find a listing of these organizations by state here.  If your state isn’t listed, then the Prison Policy Initiative suggests that you contact one of the national groups that provide voter disenfranchisement assistance.

Once you get registered, GO VOTE!  It’s your right.

The sun shone and volunteers from the Club turned out in force to help Greg Bolian and his regular team register new citizens after the Naturalization Ceremony downtown. Everybody involved had a great time and forty-three new Democrats will be added to the electoral role!

Many of the new citizens enjoyed having their photographs taken next to President Obama and the First Lady – not so many next to Ronald Reagan, funnily enough.

Thanks to Christina Flores and Patrick Schultheis for the photos.

Related articles

• Mar 20 – Volunteer to Help Register New Citizens After Downtown Naturalization Ceremony (peninsulademocrat.wordpress.com)

This says a lot about the Liberal leadership race, but it says even more about the Canadian electorate at large, independent of their affiliation.

The Conservatives aren’t scared of Justin Trudeau, regardless of what the polling says about him being able to push the Liberals into a majority victory.  At least they aren’t scared right now.

The Conservatives know better than anyone that in Canada, governments aren’t elected on the basis of ideas or vision.  Rather the incumbent governments are fired or turfed because either they’ve screwed up one too many times or they’ve become exhausted and old and the electorate just decides meekly to put them out to pasture.  That’s how the Conservatives got elected – at first it was because the Liberals were scandal plagued with Adscam et al, and then after a minority Martin government, the Liberals were put out to pasture, and the Conservatives handed a probationary minority that they’ve parlayed into a majority.

That’s partly why a lot of Liberals think they were just given a “time-out” from governance, because Harper surely didn’t paint any compelling vision of a small “c” conservative government fixing Canada.  Instead what he ran on and has delivered is basically a better managed more focused version of what the Liberals were doing.  Where’s the big tax breaks?  The paring of the civil service?  Where’s the social conservatism?  Nowhere in sight.  So, if you’re a Liberal you’re justified in thinking it’s just a matter of time before the Conservatives misstep or run out of steam, and voila! You’ll be back in power – but not if you’re pulling some Stephane Dion type of Green Shift crap.

So, all the moaning from pundits about poor Marc Garneau, poor Martha Hall Findlay, the poor Liberals who want to have a substantive discussion about policy and vision being usurped by a personality cult is bullshit.  Justin Trudeau, and his revolting stance that he is basically ideological plasticene, waiting to be molded after his coronation when he embarks on his grand consultation with the electorate at large – he actually, cynically, has it right.  Or rather his handlers have it right.

Prediction – his grand consultation in the end will amount to nothing.  His policies and visions for Canada and the Liberal party going into the next election (and the one after that) will be milquetoast garbage that can be interpreted any number of ways, but in the end will result in nothing much different from what the Conservatives are currently doing.  Because his people know there is no reward for bold vision in Canada.  Stephane Dion had a bold vision for Canada (albeit a stupid socialist vision)… he was destroyed by the guy without a bold vision for the country.

Then it’s funny how after almost every election there’s the typical griping about our voter participation rate; less than 50% most of the time, often lower than 40%.  One of the reasons that gets cited is the lack of bold ideas, how because the parties are all essentially the same and are only separated by degrees.  Even Trudeau himself has said that the parties are failing to engage young people with ideas, failing to excite the electorate and get them motivated to come out and vote… wait a second.  Who’s guilty of that now?  Looks like only about 35% of the Liberal supporters are going to vote in the leadership election next month – exactly in tune with what happens in our general elections.  Read what you want into that about Justin Trudeau’s ability to inspire.

On March 4^th 2013, Kenyan’s voted in our most complex election yet. There were six posts to vote including, Presidential, Gubernatorial, and Senatorial, Members of Parliament, Women Representatives, and County Representatives. We witnessed the politicians spend billions of shillings on their campaigns which for the young political aspirant is unfathomable and unattainable.

A quote by George Jean Nathan “Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote” depicts how lack of participation in politics is the cause of bad leadership. Young people constitute a high percentage of the population in Kenya but I realized that a large number of young people including my friends did not register to vote. Their excuses were, “I voted last time and the election were flawed why bother”, “I was too busy to go register”, “I don’t care who becomes president, governor or whatever…life goes on anyway”.  The nature of their responses was alarming as one would expect passion and readiness to elect new leaders especially from the young. It saddened me that as we think about the future, we would hold such thoughts as youth.

Successful campaigns were launched in order to involve the young undecided voter including but not limited to the Swing Vote Campaign which covered different areas concerning elections in a way applicable to the youth in a comical way and the Youth Agenda Kenya who were also active in conducting civic education across Kenya targeting the youth and I had the privilege of attending a session which enlightened me on the election.

I talked to one of my friends, a young woman, who ran for office as county representative in Embakasi area Nairobi. She did not make it through but cam came out third out of twelve candidates. She viewed it as a victory in some way as she was the youngest of them all and had the least funding. Though she did not win she told me in our conversation that she’s happy to have made it that far and that for her this is just the beginning. She stated that some of the challenges she faced were lack of funds as a young person and also being a young woman, she faced some intimidation.

According the UN News Centre, Ban Ki Moon’s during the 5^th Global Forum in Vienna, Austria urged youth to take the lead since they have already demonstrated a willingness to and ability to take on the responsibility of leadership, and that our voices as youth need to drown out those that preach division and hatred.

It is not all doom and gloom for youth since the ones who were elected though not as many as we hoped for, will represent the issues the youth face and set new standards proving wrong the fallacy that ‘Politics is a dirty game’. For those who didn’t make it through, the next election is only five years away.

We as youth look forward to future elections I know the results will favour youth more than they did this time round.