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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: ACLU Robyn Shepherd, (212) 519-7829 or 549-2666; media@aclu.org |
ACLU Launches Voter Empowerment Program
Effort Includes Cards Advising Voters Of Basic Rights And Emergency Contacts On Election Day
ATLANTA - October 15 - The American Civil Liberties Union launched its 2010 voter empowerment program today. As part of this effort, ACLU affiliates have distributed voter education materials in 19 states that inform voters of their rights on Election Day and how to avoid problems when casting a ballot.
"The ACLU is working hard to ensure
that all voters' rights are protected and that every vote is counted on
November 2," said Fred McBride, Redistricting Project Coordinator with
the ACLU Voting Rights Project. "There is just too much at stake for
people to be denied their right to choose their leaders."
The cards, which are being distributed by ACLU state affiliates and are available for download at
www.aclu.org/voter,
summarize the basic state and federal laws pertaining to every voter
and list emergency contact numbers for voters to call if they encounter
problems at the polls. The cards also provide answers to common
questions such as: Where do I vote? Is identification required? How can I
minimize potential problems?
Voter education materials have been
created for voters in 19 states, including Arizona, California,
Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri,
Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah,
Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Voters can report complaints on a
wide range of elections issues – including equipment malfunctions,
access to the polls and discriminatory or illegal election practices –
by calling the ACLU toll-free help line: (877) 523-2792. Many states
will also have information about voting with a criminal conviction
available.
"With Election Day right around the
corner, we are pleased to offer an important tool to help people
exercise their fundamental right to vote," said Laughlin McDonald,
Director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project. "You never know what might
happen at the polls – that's why voters must be as informed as
possible."
Through a multi-pronged effort of
litigation and legislative advocacy, the ACLU is on the front lines
fighting the important constitutional battle to protect voting rights.
The ACLU has challenged voter suppression efforts throughout the
country, including unlawful voter purges and photo identification laws.
To download the voter empowerment cards, go to:
www.aclu.org/voter
Voter empowerment cards optimized for mobile devices are available at:
mobile.aclu.org/voter/
A video with 10 tips for Election Day is at:
www.aclu.org/voting-rights/always-practice-safe-voting
4 Comments so far
Show AllThe ACLU is a vital organisation doing vital work, and one must applaud and deeply respect this herculean effort by the ACLU to protect and empower voting.
I very seriously doubt that I'm alone, however, in doubting the veracity and credibility of the process to begin with.
There was a coup d'etat in the United States in 2000, which of course rendered the 'relection' of Bush in 2004 null and void. The boy-hooker and his pimp Cheney therefore were illegally in office for eight obscene years. It doesn't matter a fiddler's fart that the so-called 'Supreme Court' made the decision in 2000 - this was a scam to cement the disenfranchisement of the black voters in Florida, and just the icing on the cake of the coup.
The court, in an un-unanimous decision, stole democracy from the American people, and the American people, cowed as they are by a variety of ploys and agendas, high crimes and mind-/speech- and thought-control, to say nothing of the American pornographic fetish-relationship with money - and the idea that the more stuff you can buy, the more free, and superior a race you are - that have been gathering steam throughout the 20th and now the 21st centuries, have done precisely nothing about it. As they have done precisely nothing to get at the truth about September 11, 2001.
This is because they are afraid. Ignorant, propagandized to within an inch of their lives, and deeply afraid. Some of which is understandable. I for one have had it up to the teeth with a people who never shut their over-fed mouths about how they have the greatest country, 'power of pride', and all the rest of the hyper-fetish-patriotic bullshit that they blather with ZERO HUMILITY AND ZERO RECOGNITION THAT THEY ARE THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THE WORLD, and then can't get the hell of their nauseatingly fat arses long enough, shut the fuck up about 'God' and 'Jesus' and 'God Bless America' and all that shit, and TAKE THEIR DEMOCRACY BACK.
Largely that is because they've been convinced by the media, the right, the military, the money, the 'bombs and Jesus' crowd, as dearly departed Hunter Thompson labelled them, and the politicians, who are all in the same party - this 'Republican' & 'Democrat' shit must be finally exposed for the con it is - that all this goddamn horseshit, including the up-coming so-called mid-term 'election', IS in fact their democracy.
It is so pathetic that one wants to just throw up.
So, the honour and integrity of the ACLU aside - and I suppose if any of us were in their shoes we'd be doing the same thing - be quite certain trhat the fucker is as thoroughly rigged as they can get away with - starting with the 'choice' of candidates. Most of these people aren't fucking fit to shovel shit out of a barnful of pigs. The reason for that is that NONE OF THESE ARSEHOLES CHALLENGES HE PARADIGMS. NONE OF THEM HAS THE GODDAMN SPINE TO RISK THEIR LIVELIHOODS OR THEIR LIVES, TO START TO DO WHAT'S ESSENTIAL TO SAVE THEIR SHITASS COUNTRY - STARTING WITH SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS THAT THIS JACKASS MILITARY NEEDS TO MOSTLY BE DISMANTLED, AND THE MONEY USED TO SLOW AMERICA'S SLIDE INTO THIRD-WORLD STATUS, THEN CERTAIN OBLIVION.
But hey, what the fuck do I know? Just this: that the 'election' is going to be another giant fist-fuck to the American people - starting with the fact that the 'Supreme Court' whores just handed the whole deal over to the corporations, lock, stock and smoking, dangling 'chad'. This crap wil not be an exercise in democracy - it will be yet another abject lesson in how to stage a modern coup d'etat, and in how fantastically cowardly the American people are - because they're taking it. They didn't go burn down that swamp of corporate right-wing prostitution called the 'Supreme Court' following 'Citizens' United', did they?
Of course not, because they have for at least two generations been turned into mouth-breathing, uneducated, gutless, politically-imbecilic zombies. Obama turns out to be another Bush, anther puppet, and they take it. Ten fucking years in the lost 'war', and they take it.
Now they're getting what they deserve.
A full-scale horror-show. My profoundest kudos to the ACLU in the face of this hell.
Barry Greene, your post rings true. But I had to read it twice. I'm no prude, and I can hang colorful invectives together on a par with any drill sergeant on the planet.
I really liked what you said but if we're going to make sense to polite society and convince them to be impolite to the thieves of democracy, we have to talk nice to the little old ladies and the utterly deluded. Keep it up but tone it down. I don't have enough time left to read things twice.
Good post though.
Oh, Federally funded elections is the answer.
Doc
The ACLU does a lot of good for many citizens. On the other hand, it never confronts Supreme Court Decisions that empower corporations over "We the People". This country is a far cry from being a Democracy of, by and for the people!
"The Supreme Court never made the case for corporate personhood because it couldn’t. It simply assumed it and we continue to live with the consequences. Some 65 years later Justice William O. Douglas observed, "the Santa Clara case becomes one of the most momentous of all our decisions. Corporations were now armed with constitutional prerogatives." And they made the most of these new prerogatives.
The 14th Amendment, written to protect weak and largely defenseless ex-slaves, was mostly used to protect big and powerful corporations. Of the 150 cases based on the 14th amendment the Supreme Court heard between 1886 and 1896, 15 involved blacks and l35 involved business entities." - David Morris http://www.alternet.org/vision/146664/8_words_that_could_save_our_country. It's worth reading.
Until "corporate personhood" takes a back seat to "natural born" citizens, the U.S. is nothing but an oligarchy.
You're right. The ACLU is the foremost protector of civil rights. It helps keep schlock legislation and non-sense laws from oppressing us. It's an equal opportunity exercise is critical thinking. The ACLU ticks off everybody from time to time; I like that even when it's me.
I'm confounded by our SCOTUS and their inability to recognize the difference between the Pillsbury Dough Boy and a live human being. The difference is obvious. Even if it weren't, the definition can found in any dictionary. A corporate logo is not a human. It can't vote and it shouldn't have access to anything other than the market place.
Logically, SCOTUS has given Star Bucks the right to open shop in the restroom at Denny's. The john is open to the public. Since Star Bucks is a corporation, it doesn't need the facilities for the usual purposes. But wouldn't it be a violation of it's civil rights to limit it's normal activity? It could resell Denny's coffee at three times the price just by offering free wifi, campaign literature, and adding a catering permit.
That scenario is ridiculous perhaps, but where does it end? How can an "it" be a person with civil rights? Corporations have a right to free commercial speech. Free commercial speech is logically and legally limited to touting the product or service it sells. Corporations are not licensed to deal propaganda. Let them stick to selling their stock holders whirligigs.
Corporations are a tax structure and an insulator against investor's personal liability. As such, the comparatively small group of investors shouldn't have a right to use the corporation for political propaganda or buying loyalty from politicians. Corporations aren't licensed for that, if nothing else. Citizens United is a misnomer. The human citizens DON'T want corporate money buying extra privilege from politicians. Ask anybody.
We can all support Federally funded elections. If enough people demand it, we can have it. We can stop political donations from everybody. We can make things equal so we have more choices, not just two. Those two are the right and left wings of the same corporate buzzard.
Corporations can keep the Citizens United decisions for all the good it'll do them. If they can't contribute money to politicians, then the politicians work for us, the people, the voters.
Votes are supposed to be the only political currency. Tax payers can afford the most important and most fundamental thing in America, and that is the price of real Democracy. We can fund elections with our tax money.
Just a thought; If votes actually counted, would we the people support foreign military adventurism? Would we fund health and education by whacking our military budget down to a realistic size? Would we re-impose regulations on financial entities to prevent them from trickery and fraud? Would we support any politician who thinks exporting jobs is a good idea?
The fundamental problem with America is we don't have a Democracy. And we're intentionally distracted from that one issue. We don't have Democracy because campaign donations obviously influence political decisions.
We really can demand Democracy. The Internet gives us the tool. Demand Federally funded elections. I'd appreciate it.
Doc