Anderson@Large

Happy New Year

Blues for Christmas

Well, what did you get for Christmas?

Christmas Tears

This is my least favorite time of the year. That said, I love Christmas blues.

Merry Christmas

The High Cost of a Free Voter ID

On March 7, 1965, hundreds of civil rights demonstrators were attacked by state troopers as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. This seminal event in voting rights history became known as "Bloody Sunday."

Two days later Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., led a second march to protest voting rights violations in Alabama. The televised images of the brutal attacks on peaceful protesters moved the needle on public opinion and led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Since the 2008 election, there has been a wave of new laws that restrict voting rights. The Brennan Center for Justice estimates that more than five million voters may be disenfranchised by the voting law changes. The most onerous restriction requires voters to present a government-issued photo ID in order to vote.

The strict photo ID requirements will disproportionately impact young, minority and low-income voters.

In Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the U. S. Supreme Court held that states with strict photo ID requirements must provide free voter IDs. While the voter ID is free, the document a citizen must produce to establish his or her identity, typically a birth certificate, is not free.

The cost of obtaining a certified copy of a birth certificate ranges from $5.00 in some counties in Indiana to $25.00 in Georgia. In addition to the state fee, an applicant will have to pay for postage and photocopying (if requested by mail), a processing fee (if ordered online) or transportation costs (if requested in person).

With documents in hand, some voters will lose wages as they wait in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles to apply for a “free” voter ID.

Civil rights and advocacy groups, including the ACLU and the NAACP, are rightly challenging restrictive photo ID laws. But voters need assistance right now. So at the Random Hacks of Kindness hackathon at Drexel University, I shared the problem facing millions of voters who, for the first time, must show an official photo ID.

My team developed a prototype for the Cost of Freedom App, a location-based web app that will provide voters with information on how to apply for a voter ID.

If they do not have the documents to establish their identity, users can type in their address to find out how to obtain, for instance, a certified copy of their birth certificate and the cost. If they want to apply in person, they will be given the location, office hours, and directions using public transit.

Development of the Cost of Freedom App is being crowd-sourced by ordinary citizens who are concerned about the impact of photo ID requirements on voter turnout.

We will raise awareness about photo ID requirements among voters who don't have a driver's license, non-driver's license or any other government-issued photo ID. And they may not have "a pot or a window." But they have the right to vote.

In a 1957 speech titled, "Give Us the Ballot," Dr. King said:

So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote I do not possess myself. I cannot make up my mind—it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic citizen, observing the laws I have helped to enact—I can only submit to the edict of others.

On March 7, 2012, the Cost of Freedom Project, a citizen-led initiative, will launch the Cost of Freedom App. To get involved in this citizen-led voter education initiative, join us at Facebook.com/CostofFreedom.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Product Placement

On a recent trip to New York City, I lingered longer than usual at Macy's Christmas windows. While children and grown folks enjoyed the sights and sounds, the world's largest retailer has its sight fixed on the bottom line.

The displays are sponsored by, among others, Betsey Johnson, Ralph Lauren, Sean John and Greg Norman.

Miracle on 34th Street

I worked at Macy's Herald Square when I was in college. Back then, children would press their nose against the glass to see the Christmas displays.

Today, parents tap the window to create their own Christmas tree ornaments.