Robert F. Kennedy's Steal Back Your Vote has concrete steps that WORKED in Ohio in 2004. More after the jump.
Kossacks, we need to spread the word about this, and we need to get GOTV programs in battlebground states, especially in Ohio, to instruct voters en masse to refuse provisional ballots.
Blogger Interrupted was a Kerry challenger in Ohio in 2004, and here's what he has to say about RFK's instruction to NOT accept a provisional ballot.
As a challenger in 2004, my role was to watch for anyone challenging a voter, step in, and challenge right back. By the end of the day, I was parked at one polling place with super long lines, trying to convince voters in line to NOT ACCEPT A PROVISIONAL BALLOT....
Folks, we need GOTV voter education efforts, especially in African American precincts, to INSTRUCT voters that they must not leave without casting a REAL ballot, NOT a provisional.
Polling officials will cave. You can roll them. Here’s why.
If a polling official has a flimsy reason to put your ballot in the provisional pile (and they’re all flimsy) instead of THE BOX WHERE IT WILL BE COUNTED, a feisty voter can overcome that flimsy reason simply by staying put, refusing a provisional ballot, and demanding a regular ballot. Polling officials fear nothing more than a long line, a slow process, and a bunch of feisty voters that will put their polling place on the TV news. Faced with the choice between making you vote provisional, and making themselves famous, they will give the voter a REAL ballot EVERY TIME.
BI made it work on a micro level in 2004.
At one point on election night in 2004, I was literally yelling at the top of my lungs to the long line of voters, "DO NOT ACCEPT A PROVISIONAL BALLOT, MAKE THEM GIVE YOU A REGULAR BALLOT". Before long, the poll workers just gave up this provisional nonsense, because trying to make so many people vote provisional, who refused, was driving them insane in the membrane. The process sped up, and calm returned.
So, here's the action item.
Contact your local GOTV effort, and plead with them to educate voters that they should stand their ground when they are told to vote provisional. The fewer ballots that go into the provisional pile, the better. We need to be macro about this in 2008. We need every voter to be prepared to stand there, demand a REAL ballot, until they get it. It will work.