By now everyone here has heard about the Cleveland Plain-Dealer's reprinting of the federal Election Assistance Agency's generic voter registration form. When both
Atrios and a disenfranchisement-happy Republican Secretary of State agree that the
federal form is bulletproof, regardless of the paper stock it's printed on, it seems to me that we've got a valuable voter registration tool at our fingertips. (They used the word "avalanche" to describe the people registered in Cuyahoga County as a result of the Plain-Dealer registration form.) So to replicate that success, all we need is the cooperation of the newspapers. Why not ask for it? (More after the jump. --> -->)
Obviously we'd want to concentrate our efforts on blue or purple states with deadlines that still leave the papers a few days to print a registration form and readers a few days to get around to mailing it in. That seems to suggest newspapers in the following states (October postmark deadlines in parentheses):
California (18th)
Connecticut (19th)
Delaware (20th)
Iowa (18th)
Maine (18th*)
Massachusetts (13th)
Maryland (12th)
Minnesota (8th*,^)
New York (8th)
North Carolina (8th)
Oregon (12th)
West Virginia (13th)
Wisconsin (20th^)
* Deadline appears to be for receipt by the state, not postmark--this is a "safe" estimate to allow for postal delays.
^ Election Day polling place registration also available.
So, I'd like to suggest that we politely ask our local papers to follow the Plain-Dealer's good example and print up a registration form--those of us who live in places where Kerry and downticket progressives can benefit from it, of course. The form is readily available in PDF form here or here--all the papers have to do is reproduce the form in legible size with the appropriate state instruction text nearby.
It might not be easy even to get sympathetic papers off their duffs on short notice--after all, this would take up potential ad or copy space. However, I think we could make a pretty compelling case that reproducing this form is a valuable public service that would generate reader goodwill. In any event, I don't think there's any harm to be done in trying. That one paper alone may be our margin of victory in Ohio, after all.
To get the ball rolling, you can go to this page for a pretty good list of newspaper homepages. (I clicked through a bunch of them, and in every case there's a "Contacts" or "Feedback" link on the front page that will take you to a page with publishers' or editors' phone and e-mail information.) I think papers will be most susceptible to lobbying by locals, so I'm not sure there's any advantage to mass e-mailing the papers on the list, but if you live in even a vaguely blue or purple area, it's worth giving your local paper a call.
Please let me know, either in the comments or at mblavine at wisc dot edu, if you have any luck, comments, or feedback. If I'm missing some blindingly obvious flaw, please let me know--but if this seems like a workable idea to you, it might be worth recommending, the better to harness the now-enormous Kos traffic.