SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Voting Rights Group Empowers Citizen Journalists to "Fight Back"
Video the Vote calls on voters to "Shoot" and "Share" poll suppression and intimidation
Nov 05, 2012
Voting rights group Video the Vote calls on citizen journalists to take action at polling places tomorrow.
The campaign is asking anyone with a smartphone to be on the alert for fishiness at the polls and to video any incidents or irregularities such as long lines, closed polls, denied voters, police presence and intimidation.
"In an era of partisan voter purges, onerous ID requirements, and organized intimidation, it's not enough for citizens to just cast their ballots," said Video The Vote's campaign director, Matt Pascarella.
Video the Vote is compiling citizen submissions on their site and has dispatched videographers to monitor specific swing state hot spots.
As of Monday morning, videos documenting police intimidation in Columbus, Oh., long lines in Baltimore and voters being turned away in Miami, are already streaming on their site.
As we count down the hours to this frighteningly close election, we are constantly reminded of the importance of each and every vote--particularly in those battleground states.
As Josh Harkinson writes in Mother Jones:
Judging from recent experience, close presidential elections tend to coincide with problems at the polls. Remember the 2000 election's butterfly ballots and dangling chads? Or, four years later, the 10-hour lines in Knox County, Ohio?
The prevalence of intimidation tactics and voter suppression in the months (and days) leading up to tomorrow's election are, perhaps, an indication of what to expect. Video the Vote hopes to empower citizens to do something about it.
Watch their video below to learn how you can take part.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Voting rights group Video the Vote calls on citizen journalists to take action at polling places tomorrow.
The campaign is asking anyone with a smartphone to be on the alert for fishiness at the polls and to video any incidents or irregularities such as long lines, closed polls, denied voters, police presence and intimidation.
"In an era of partisan voter purges, onerous ID requirements, and organized intimidation, it's not enough for citizens to just cast their ballots," said Video The Vote's campaign director, Matt Pascarella.
Video the Vote is compiling citizen submissions on their site and has dispatched videographers to monitor specific swing state hot spots.
As of Monday morning, videos documenting police intimidation in Columbus, Oh., long lines in Baltimore and voters being turned away in Miami, are already streaming on their site.
As we count down the hours to this frighteningly close election, we are constantly reminded of the importance of each and every vote--particularly in those battleground states.
As Josh Harkinson writes in Mother Jones:
Judging from recent experience, close presidential elections tend to coincide with problems at the polls. Remember the 2000 election's butterfly ballots and dangling chads? Or, four years later, the 10-hour lines in Knox County, Ohio?
The prevalence of intimidation tactics and voter suppression in the months (and days) leading up to tomorrow's election are, perhaps, an indication of what to expect. Video the Vote hopes to empower citizens to do something about it.
Watch their video below to learn how you can take part.
Voting rights group Video the Vote calls on citizen journalists to take action at polling places tomorrow.
The campaign is asking anyone with a smartphone to be on the alert for fishiness at the polls and to video any incidents or irregularities such as long lines, closed polls, denied voters, police presence and intimidation.
"In an era of partisan voter purges, onerous ID requirements, and organized intimidation, it's not enough for citizens to just cast their ballots," said Video The Vote's campaign director, Matt Pascarella.
Video the Vote is compiling citizen submissions on their site and has dispatched videographers to monitor specific swing state hot spots.
As of Monday morning, videos documenting police intimidation in Columbus, Oh., long lines in Baltimore and voters being turned away in Miami, are already streaming on their site.
As we count down the hours to this frighteningly close election, we are constantly reminded of the importance of each and every vote--particularly in those battleground states.
As Josh Harkinson writes in Mother Jones:
Judging from recent experience, close presidential elections tend to coincide with problems at the polls. Remember the 2000 election's butterfly ballots and dangling chads? Or, four years later, the 10-hour lines in Knox County, Ohio?
The prevalence of intimidation tactics and voter suppression in the months (and days) leading up to tomorrow's election are, perhaps, an indication of what to expect. Video the Vote hopes to empower citizens to do something about it.
Watch their video below to learn how you can take part.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.