The potential for voting fraud is quite the hot topic of discussion these days. What with Florida 2000, Ohio 2004, and Bruce McPherson (new CA sec of state) re-instating Diebold after Kevin Shelley de-certified the machines (why d'ya think that "scandal" reared its head?), it's been hard for us to have faith in our democratic process. What can we do about it? Follow me after the flip if you're interested.
In my family, we've reached a point where I can't discuss electoral politics with my parents, as my mom is convinced that every election since 2000, and every election in our forseeable future, has been and will be rigged to benefit the Republicans. She, like many others, feels completely helpless to do anything. A voter who has lost faith in our elections will not vote, so what can we do to assure ourselves that our elections will play out fairly? Smashing all the diebold machines under cloak of night sounds appealing, but that's not gonna happen. We don't have time to place an initiative on the ballot before our crucial midterms. There is however, something we can do to monitor the process. It's ambitious, it requires a ton of manpower, and it's not going to be easy, but if any community can organize it, we can.
I propose that we become the poll workers. We'll need someone at every polling place in every precinct of every county, in every state. Will it be difficult? Hell yes it'll be difficult. Will it require more people than we have available to commit to it? That's a distinct possibility. Does Dailykos/the progressive blogger community reach into every single precinct of every single state? Who knows? But consider this: Did the blogger community elevate a relatively unknown governor from a small state to national prominence, and then into the ultimate insider's seat at the DNC? Did the blogger community defeat DLC darlings to push progressive candidates in historically conservative states? Did the blogger community put together a massive and historic conference that attracted national press and federally elected senators, congressional candidates, and governors? Yes, Yes, and Yes.
If we want to, we can do this. We still have roughly five months before the elections. If we want to go forward with this, what we need to do is compile a precinct database of every state, and then put it somewhere so that people can sign up. Think of the impact: Community of U.S. citizens collectively rises to perform civic duty. We'll scare the shit out of them!
Now, I know most everyone works full-time (where the hell is that national voting day holiday?). Hopefully one of us per polling place can spare a day of work/part of one. I'm sure most folks don't want to sit around at a polling place all day. Bring a friend. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that I can man the database, but we can discuss the logistics of that if we want to do this. What do ya'll think about it?