Anderson@Large

Voting Matters

Election Day is 140 days away. Are you ready?

On Wisconsin

According to Real Clear Politics’ poll of polls, Mitt Romney has a 3.4 point lead over Barack Obama in the battleground state of Wisconsin.

If the election is close, voter ID will give Romney a clear advantage. Although two judges have blocked implementation of Wisconsin’s voter ID law, the temporary injunction could be lifted before Election Day.

Restrictive photo ID requirements are facially neutral, but they have a disproportionate impact on minority voters.

Read more: Voters Without ID in Wisconsin

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.

Voter Suppression by the Numbers

Florida Gov. Rick Scott is picking up where Katherine Harris left off. Scott ordered his Secretary of State to purge 182,000 voters from the rolls.

The Justice Department sent Florida a letter telling it to slow its roll on the grounds “the practice appears to violate the NVRA.”

Justice Department letter to Florida Secretary of State

View more documents from Cost of Freedom Project.

In Miami-Dade County, 1,638 people were flagged as noncitizens. They have 30 days to provide proof of citizenship. A demographic breakdown of voters on the purge list shows:

• 61% are Hispanic
• 16% are black
• 16% are white
• 5% are Asian

It’s been 12 years since the 2000 election debacle, but there still ain’t no sunshine in the Sunshine State.

Southern Discomfort

Election Day is 168 days away.

States are getting ready by making it harder for voters to cast a ballot that will be counted. Last week, Virginia Gov. Bob McConnell signed a voter ID bill. While Virginia’s law is not as strict as, say, Pennsylvania’s photo ID requirements, it’s still a solution in search of a problem.

The Roanoke Times editorialized:

Gov. Bob McDonnell appeared genuinely torn over two bills on his desk that require Virginians to present identification at polling places or cast provisional ballots and later prove their identity.

[…]

He also directed state elections officials to send a voter registration card to every registered voter in the commonwealth. Everyone will have that identification to bring to the polling place on Election Day.

Well, most everyone. The governor did not concede this in his announcement, but some people inevitably will be missed.

McDonnell also ordered elections officials to conduct an education campaign and keep track of how many provisional ballots are cast because of the new law.

McConnell was the latest southern governor to join the voter ID bandwagon. Stateline reports:

The Republican governors of Virginia and Mississippi are the latest to sign legislation making sure voters show proper identification before they cast their ballots, a trend that has the Obama re-election campaign ramping up its efforts to make sure voters know of the new requirements.

In Mississippi, Governor Phil Bryant late last week signed into law a state constitutional amendment requiring voters to show photo ID that Mississippi voters approved by 62 percent in the 2011 general election. The measure also allows people without proper photo identification to apply for a free voter ID at the office of the county circuit clerk. “We want everyone to participate in the election process, and we want that process to be fair and secure,” the governor said in a statement.

Virginia already required voters to have valid ID, but has never required a photo ID and that doesn’t change now. Legislation that Governor Robert F. McDonnell signed on Friday does change voting procedures in two ways. Under previous law, those who didn’t have identification could sign a special document vowing they were who they said they were.

That is no longer an option under the new legislation. Instead, when someone votes without presenting identification, they can vote with a provisional ballot but must later present an approved ID to their local registrar through email, fax, mail or hand delivery.

Read more: More Voter ID Laws Enacted in the South

Poll Vault

Election Day is 175 days away.

Last week, President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage. Newsweek has since labeled Obama “The First Gay President.”

But heavy is the head that wears the crown, or more accurately, a rainbow-colored "gaylo." The New York Times reports:

The survey results made it clear that the president was wading into a divisive area of American life, one that may not top the nation’s priority list but still has the potential to hurt him at the margins in elections in November. About 4 in 10, or 38 percent, of Americans support same-sex marriage, while 24 percent favor civil unions short of formal marriage. Thirty-three percent oppose any form of legal recognition. When civil unions are eliminated as an option, opposition to same-sex marriage rises to 51 percent, compared with 42 percent support.

[…]

The poll showed that relatively few voters consider same-sex marriage their top issue amid continued economic uncertainty, and more than half said it would make no difference in their choice for president. But among those who said Mr. Obama’s position would influence their vote, more said they would be less likely to vote for him as a result; in a close race, even a small shift in swing states could be costly.

A CBS News/New York Times poll found Mitt Romney “has a slight edge” over Obama. Indeed, the latest email from Obama for America acknowledges “this election is going to be close.”

With the new voting changes, there is no margin for error.

Are you ready?