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Fight Tea Party Voters With Fresh Voters
Aug 24, 2010
Candidates are in their districts, making nice to likely mid-term
voters. They're a precious bunch, more scarce than general election
voters, and typically more polarized in their views. What if there were
more of them and more low-income people, particularly women, in the mix?
In a country where 131 million people voted in the 2008 presidential
election, a few million more voters from under-represented groups
sprinkled, state after state, by the tens or hundreds of thousands, just
might make a difference. Securing their voting rights is a smart,
effective way to find out.
In a handful of swing states where voting rights groups have sued and
won in recent years, the result is impressive: hundreds of thousands of
low-income people, two-thirds women, registering since 2008.
In Missouri, where John McCain beat Barack Obama by less than 4,000
votes, nearly a quarter-million voter registration applications have
been filed by Missourians while applying for state public assistance
benefits since August 2008. In Ohio, where George W. Bush beat John
Kerry by nearly 119,000 votes in 2004, low-income Ohioans filed 100,000
voter applications in just the first six months of 2010.
Project Vote, Demos, The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law,
and the local civil rights groups who sued these states and won
(forcing turnarounds at state public assistance agencies) have been
waging a lonely fight to implement the National Voter Registration Act.
The 1993 law requires a range of state agencies, not just motor
vehicles, offer voter registration services.
That fight became a little less lonely in June, when, for the first
time, the Justice Department announced it would start enforcing the
NVRA's voter registration mandate. This April, 40 million Americans
applied for Food Stamps. If 10 percent of those people registered to
vote - a smaller percentage than seen at Missouri public assistance
agencies after settling its NVRA suit - the nation's voter rolls would
grow by several million.
The numbers from Missouri and Ohio dwarf the size of the largest tea
party rallies. Already, right-wingers fear these voters and NVRA
compliance, commenting on websites that poor people should not vote for
any number of ugly reasons. Now it's up to other candidates to pay
attention to voters who've until now been overlooked. Instead of
obsessing about the tea partiers -- give those newest voters some good
reason to use that vote!
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 |
© 2023 The Nation
Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders interviews forward-thinking people about the key questions of our time on The Laura Flanders Show, a nationally syndicated radio and television program also available as a podcast. A contributing writer to The Nation, Flanders is also the author of six books, including "Bushwomen: How They Won the White House for Their Man" (2005). She is the recipient of a 2019 Izzy Award for excellence in independent journalism, the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award for advancing women's and girls' visibility in media, and a 2020 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship for her reporting and advocacy for public media. lauraflanders.org
Candidates are in their districts, making nice to likely mid-term
voters. They're a precious bunch, more scarce than general election
voters, and typically more polarized in their views. What if there were
more of them and more low-income people, particularly women, in the mix?
In a country where 131 million people voted in the 2008 presidential
election, a few million more voters from under-represented groups
sprinkled, state after state, by the tens or hundreds of thousands, just
might make a difference. Securing their voting rights is a smart,
effective way to find out.
In a handful of swing states where voting rights groups have sued and
won in recent years, the result is impressive: hundreds of thousands of
low-income people, two-thirds women, registering since 2008.
In Missouri, where John McCain beat Barack Obama by less than 4,000
votes, nearly a quarter-million voter registration applications have
been filed by Missourians while applying for state public assistance
benefits since August 2008. In Ohio, where George W. Bush beat John
Kerry by nearly 119,000 votes in 2004, low-income Ohioans filed 100,000
voter applications in just the first six months of 2010.
Project Vote, Demos, The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law,
and the local civil rights groups who sued these states and won
(forcing turnarounds at state public assistance agencies) have been
waging a lonely fight to implement the National Voter Registration Act.
The 1993 law requires a range of state agencies, not just motor
vehicles, offer voter registration services.
That fight became a little less lonely in June, when, for the first
time, the Justice Department announced it would start enforcing the
NVRA's voter registration mandate. This April, 40 million Americans
applied for Food Stamps. If 10 percent of those people registered to
vote - a smaller percentage than seen at Missouri public assistance
agencies after settling its NVRA suit - the nation's voter rolls would
grow by several million.
The numbers from Missouri and Ohio dwarf the size of the largest tea
party rallies. Already, right-wingers fear these voters and NVRA
compliance, commenting on websites that poor people should not vote for
any number of ugly reasons. Now it's up to other candidates to pay
attention to voters who've until now been overlooked. Instead of
obsessing about the tea partiers -- give those newest voters some good
reason to use that vote!
Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders interviews forward-thinking people about the key questions of our time on The Laura Flanders Show, a nationally syndicated radio and television program also available as a podcast. A contributing writer to The Nation, Flanders is also the author of six books, including "Bushwomen: How They Won the White House for Their Man" (2005). She is the recipient of a 2019 Izzy Award for excellence in independent journalism, the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award for advancing women's and girls' visibility in media, and a 2020 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship for her reporting and advocacy for public media. lauraflanders.org
Candidates are in their districts, making nice to likely mid-term
voters. They're a precious bunch, more scarce than general election
voters, and typically more polarized in their views. What if there were
more of them and more low-income people, particularly women, in the mix?
In a country where 131 million people voted in the 2008 presidential
election, a few million more voters from under-represented groups
sprinkled, state after state, by the tens or hundreds of thousands, just
might make a difference. Securing their voting rights is a smart,
effective way to find out.
In a handful of swing states where voting rights groups have sued and
won in recent years, the result is impressive: hundreds of thousands of
low-income people, two-thirds women, registering since 2008.
In Missouri, where John McCain beat Barack Obama by less than 4,000
votes, nearly a quarter-million voter registration applications have
been filed by Missourians while applying for state public assistance
benefits since August 2008. In Ohio, where George W. Bush beat John
Kerry by nearly 119,000 votes in 2004, low-income Ohioans filed 100,000
voter applications in just the first six months of 2010.
Project Vote, Demos, The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law,
and the local civil rights groups who sued these states and won
(forcing turnarounds at state public assistance agencies) have been
waging a lonely fight to implement the National Voter Registration Act.
The 1993 law requires a range of state agencies, not just motor
vehicles, offer voter registration services.
That fight became a little less lonely in June, when, for the first
time, the Justice Department announced it would start enforcing the
NVRA's voter registration mandate. This April, 40 million Americans
applied for Food Stamps. If 10 percent of those people registered to
vote - a smaller percentage than seen at Missouri public assistance
agencies after settling its NVRA suit - the nation's voter rolls would
grow by several million.
The numbers from Missouri and Ohio dwarf the size of the largest tea
party rallies. Already, right-wingers fear these voters and NVRA
compliance, commenting on websites that poor people should not vote for
any number of ugly reasons. Now it's up to other candidates to pay
attention to voters who've until now been overlooked. Instead of
obsessing about the tea partiers -- give those newest voters some good
reason to use that vote!
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