Anderson@Large

Personal Democracy Forum 2012

The annual Personal Democracy Forum is “the world’s leading conference exploring and analyzing technology's impact on politics and government.” PDF brings together thought leaders, influencers, technologists, activists, academics and good-government types.

In 2009, I attended PDF as a Google Fellow. Yesterday, I received notice that was awarded a Tumblr Fellowship to attend PDF 2012.

I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it.

Craig’s List of Voting Wrongs

Yesterday I met with Craig Newmark, customer service rep and founder of craigslist, along with Barbara Arnwine and her team at the Election Protection Coalition. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss efforts to remove barriers to the ballot box and help voters get ready.

Craig is concerned about the new voting law changes that “protect the public from a nonexistent problem while stopping five million people from voting.” He joined the fight against voter suppression because “George Washington and Tom Paine would have me speak up.”

Paine was an old-school pamphleteer. Craig wants to use social media to “create a big movement.” In a blog post, Craig wrote:

Folks, think you have the right to vote? Maybe not so much. I’ve been working with some good folks focusing on Voter Suppression issues that are happening across the country. There are some bad actors who are trying to pass legislation that will keep eligible people from voting.

[…]

Voter Suppression is happening across the U.S. as restrictive voting laws are being both introduced and passed. 164 laws were introduced in states that would restrict U.S. Citizens from voting in the 2012 U.S. Election.

Restrictive voting has taken these forms:

• Eliminating election-day registration
• Restricting third-party voter registration activities
• Reducing the number of days for early voting
• Legislation requiring photo ID for in-person voting
• Restrictions most heavily disenfranchise young, minority, and low-income voters, as well as voters with disabilities. We need to prevent bad legislation from preventing people to vote in the 2012 U.S. election.

Funny enough, though, Protecting the Vote explains that between 2000 and 2007, there have been 32,299 reports of UFO sightings, 352 deaths caused by lightning, and only 9 instances of possible voter impersonation.

Some other important stuff we uncovered:

• 5 million eligible voters may find it harder to vote in the 2012 U.S. election due to the voter suppression laws.
• Voter ID laws could cost taxpayers $65.8 million in 4 states: PA, IN, NC, MI. All of these states had huge budget shortfalls in 2011.
• 34 states introduced legislation requiring voters to show photo ID in order to vote.
• More than 20 million voting age citizens don’t have the type of photo ID required by the state voter ID laws.

Craig issued a call to action: Get ready.

To help voters get ready, he’s compiled a list of anti-voter suppression organizations and initiatives. The Cost of Freedom Voter ID App is on the list.

Craig is a big picture guy. To give folks a heads up about the voter suppression schemes, he’s drawn a really big picture.

Connecting the Dots

Cost of Freedom App Demo Day

On Valentine's Day, I participated in a panel discussion on how advocacy groups, civil rights organizations and ordinary citizens are using social media to protect the right to vote.

I did a demo of the Cost of Freedom web app.

And a live demo of the text app.

In the coming weeks, I will chronicle the Cost of Freedom Project as we prepare to launch on April 4. In the meantime, I want to share an excerpt from a post written by Brittany Papalia, an intern with the National Women’s Law Center:

Faye Anderson stole the attention of the attendees with colorful commentary and excitement on how she was going to keep these laws from passing, saying “I don’t like to fight, but I don’t like to back down from a fight either.”

That's true. Or as I like to say, if you don't want no mess, don't start no mess.

Papalia notes that strict voter ID requirements have a disparate impact on women:

So how do these new laws affect women? Well, if 34% of women lack proof of citizenship, then that may make attaining a photo ID more difficult since most DMV’s require some sort of proof, typically a birth certificate. Not to mention women who get married and change their last name and address! If their state is following a stricter system, then they will be unable to change their address at the poll without proof of their new address. As Faye Anderson joked, “she finally put a ring on it, but she can’t find the damn license!”

While voter ID is no joke, to motivate citizens to get in the arena, voting rights advocates must move beyond studying and talking about the problem.

To get involved with the Cost of Freedom Project, powered by We the People, please visit us at Facebook.com/CostofFreedom.

Happy Valentine's Day

If you love democracy, please view the livestream of a panel discussion on social media and voter ID TODAY from 3pm to 5pm EST. I will demo the Cost of Freedom App. You can join the conversation via Twitter using the hashtag #CAPVoterID.

For info about the Cost of Freedom Project, visit us at Facebook.com/CostofFreedom.

Protecting the Right to Vote

Election Day is 272 days away. Are you ready?

If you live in Virginia or Pennsylvania, you may have to get ready to show government-issued photo ID in order to vote in the November election.

Yesterday the Virginia Senate passed a voter ID bill. The Pennsylvania Senate may vote on a voter ID bill this week.

In a recent speech at Tulane Law School, Attorney General Eric Holder said “the Justice Department can't do it alone.” He called on every citizen to get involved:

For every citizen, protecting the right to vote, ensuring meaningful access, and combating discrimination must be viewed, not only as a legal issue – but as a moral imperative. And every citizen, in every state, must be part of this work.

The citizen-led Cost of Freedom Project is in the arena. The Cost of Freedom Voter ID App will help voters get ready. Please join us.

Race Still Matters

I am a doer or in the jargon of programmers, a problem-solver.

So it is an honor to be named one of the “Top Ten Race & Civil Liberties Bloggers on Twitter.” After all, in the age of Obama, race still matters.

DePaul law professor Terry Smith, the author of the forthcoming “Barack Obama, Post-Racialism and the New Politics of Triangulation,” writes:

Among other race-baiting, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has referred to the nation’s first African American president as a “food stamp president,” and someone who engages in “Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior,” a coarse reference to President Obama's African father and a nod to “birtherism.”

Not content merely to demean the president, Gingrich has said that poor black children lack role models and a work ethic - a broadside against millions of black, working-poor parents who each day serve as shepherds for their children and instill in them work and other ethics.

Yet the only person who has responded more passively to the former speaker’s racialism than his Republican rivals has been President Obama himself. The irony of having a black man in the White House is that he is disarmed from responding to white opponents who flirt with a revivification of the Republican Party’s Southern strategy. Indeed, Obama has been disarmed, or has unilaterally disarmed himself, from sustained engagement with questions of race during his first term.

The concern on Obama’s part appears to be that middle-of-the-road white voters will not tolerate a black politician focusing on race, even if his purpose is to upbraid someone like Gingrich for making racially inflammatory comments. This concern is not unfounded, yet in succumbing to political reality, Obama has simply reinforced a different iteration of white racial intolerance.

Read more: Abetting inequality in post-racial U.S.