Anderson@Large

Election Day is 100 Days Away

Back to the Future

Three months ago, I transitioned back to natural hair.

The assault on voting rights is an organized effort to turn back the clock and impose new barriers to the ballot box. We must stand our ground and fight back.

Then as now, ain’t nothing wrong in keeping your mind stayed on freedom.

Voting Matters

Election Day is 140 days away. Are you ready?

Voter Protection 2.0

I am in New York City for Personal Democracy Forum, an annual conference that focuses on the intersection of technology, civic engagement, politics and government. I’m attending as one of nine Tumblr Fellows.

As the chief evangelist for the Cost of Freedom Project, a citizen-led initiative that’s powered by we the people, I’m particularly interested in the “We Government” breakout track. Speakers will present ideas and tips on “the variety of ways the people and their governments are using data to make civic life smarter and more responsive to public needs.”

With the voter suppression schemes in place across the country, voting rights advocates must work harder and smarter to remove barriers to the ballot box and ensure all votes are counted.

During a recent broadcast of “Hour of Power,” Al Sharpton said:

This is not a normal election. We don’t know what we’re dealing with.

That’s true. But we do know that True the Vote will be out in force challenging voters’ eligibility and causing confusion at the polls. They’re crowdsourcing voter suppression; we must crowdsource voter protection.

Yo! Philly Votes will aggregate, visualize and contextualize multiple sources of real-time Election Day incident reports so that problems can be addressed and corrected in real time. We’re leveraging the power of Web 2.0 to fight Voter Suppression 2.0.

Countdown to Election Day

Voting While Black

The November election is 216 days away.

The Wisconsin Republican presidential primary will be held today. Voters will not have to show government-issued photo ID -- at least not yet. The legal challenges to one of the nation’s most restrictive photo ID laws are headed directly to the state Supreme Court.

The court could rule at any time so voters should get ready. A whopping 55 percent of African American men do not have a driver’s license.

Similarly, 49 percent of black women lack an official photo ID. Among African Americans between the ages of 18 and 24, 78 percent of black men and 66 percent of black women do not have a driver’s license.

The clock is ticking.

Connecting the Dots