Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Blogging and Organizing Furiously

I can't help it...I can't wait for the Get Out the Vote (GOTV) weekend, I gotta do something to make sure these crazy right-wingers don't get into office again. For now, at 9:22am on Tuesday morning, all I can do is blog, but I'm 'bout to hit the streets soon, folks, it's my warrior-organizer blood calling.

In other Election 2004 grassroots organizing news, here's an email exchange between my friend and comrade Cathy, who's in Ohio right now working with the League of Pissed Off Voters, aka the League of Young Voters, another good group that is working hard to specifically turn out the 18-35 age bracket voters in key swing states (those are states that could swing either Democrat or Republican, aka the 'battleground' states, which indeed they are in these last days before Nov. 2). I thought it would be good to get another take on the voting rights violation stuff from someone who is very connected to it on the ground right now.

Blessings,
Rona

Hey folks--

For those of you that don’t know, I’m here in Columbus, OH working on turning out young progressive voters.

I second Rona’s email—this shit is real. Here in Ohio (said to be key to either candidate’s victory), there’s been lots of stuff already by the Republican African American secretary of state Blackwell that’s pretty skeezy—provisional ballots, swarms of registrations that may not make the rolls, etc.

 Today NPR  had a piece about pollchallengers from the parties—that the Reps are planning on challenging as many votes as possible (guess which polling places they’ll be at?)--thus making long lines, forcing people to present ID they really don’t need, making it a hassle to vote.  

Many are saying Ohio will be the Florida of 2004.  I hope not. I hope there’s NO Florida of 2004, but with all that I’ve seen and heard about here & nationally, plus just that the polls willb e swamped with larger than normal numbers, I’m convince that there’s going to be problems.

so: if you can do it, do it.  GO somewhere. Come to Columbus! I’d love to see you (though I’ll be crazed).  I’d also love to put you to work “trick or voting” to remind folks to get their butts out there—come on, GOTV in Halloween fun style!  And southwest flies to Columbus—so you can do it cheap.  (a bit closer in Arizona, there’s a Prop 187-like initiative on the ballot—let me know if you want to get hooked up with that campaign)

14 days left!
:) Cathy

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hey cathy!
good to hear from you! i'm glad you had a minute to respond to my email. how are things out there? sound pretty hairy. i really want to get plugged into some election protection shit, but i'm not sure if i'll be able to afford it, i'm pretty broke right now. do you know what the league of young voters is doing in Cali, if anything?

anyway, take care and keep kickin' right-wing ass!

rona

1 comment:

profile said...

ok, rantette, im adding u to my list. :-) so i get to read ur blogisms more regularly. -b