Meet Brittany Rivera and Francine Gonzales.
The GOP doesn't want them to vote.
Brittany's only 18, Francine's only 19, but they're my heroes this weekend.
You see, both young women had the courage to stand up and say, in Ms. Gonzales's words, "I do exist", and for that, they're my heroes.
Both young women got caught up in New Mexico Republican State Representative Justine Fox-Young's ill-fated voter disenfranchisement effort, the same effort that cried foul that ACORN had registered "Duran Duran", along with 27 other "fraudulent voters", on Thursday, October 16, 2008. The only problem? Duran Duran is alive and well, and living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ooops. I guess they should have checked that one a little more thoroughly before they jumped the gun.
The tiny obstacle of Duran Duran's actual existence did not faze Ms. Fox-Young nor the New Mexico Republican Party in the slightest, however. They insisted they had a list of 10 "fraudulent" voter registration cards "that were filled out [with] missing or inaccurate social security numbers or birthdates for the voters", or so they claimed. There was a slight dissembling about this, for the Albuquerque Journal reports that "five of those 10 were registrations submitted by ACORN". Who the other eighteen are--aside from, presumably, poor Duran Duran--I have no idea. (Aside: Notice how, in later iterations of the story, Duran Duran goes missing entirely.)
Of the supposed twenty-eight cases of "voter fraud", the New Mexico Republican Party could only present five specific names linked to ACORN.
But wait! There's more!
Again, according to the Albuquerque Journal, on Friday, October 17, 2008--no more than 24 hours after the initial story broke with the Associated Press--ACORN contacted four of those "suspect" voters:
"We truly just looked (them) up in the registry ... and found their phone numbers and called them, and lo and behold, real people answered," said Clayton Kennedy, the Albuquerque head organizer for ACORN. "They haven't proven anything here. If, truly, the Republican Party couldn't take 30 seconds to lift a phone, it's saying a lot about these claims."
On Saturday, October 18, 2008--two days after Ms. Fox-Young's "bombshell"--ACORN released four of the five names:
Dora Pargas Escobedo, a 67-year-old immigrant who became a naturalized, United States citizen this year,
Brittany Nicole Rivera, an 18-year-old Albuquerque resident,
Francine Gonzales, a 19-year-old Albuquerque resident,
Francisco Martinez, also a recently-turned 19-year-old Albuquerque resident.
According to ACORN, "Their legitimacy was confirmed by the Bernalillo County Clerk." Astute readers might notice what all four have in common with one another.
And this is what brings me to why Ms. Rivera and Ms. Gonzales are my heroes this weekend. Later that same day, these two brave young women participated in a news conference to prove their own existence and to defend their right to vote. This is more than most would do.
According to the Associated Press, "You guys are trying to scare us new voters," Rivera said of the GOP. "I think it's wrong." I do, too. Ms. Rivera says she's "more determined" to vote now than before.
You go, girls!
Update [2008-10-21 3:29:32 by Lasgalen Lothir]: According to Talking Points Memo, "local election officials had confirmed that the 28 people in question, mostly low-income Latinos, were valid voters." In other words, this story is completely busted. It was a voter suppression effort all along.