Voter Registration

Changes In Voter Registration Across America

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Changes in voter registration, while not a guarantee of voting patterns, are in flux in recent years.

Examples include the following trends:

The more educated one is, the more likely that such people are registered Democrats.

The less educated one is, the more likely that such people are registered Republicans.

The more rural location of an individual, and the more religiously devout an individual is, the more likely he or she is Republican.

Evangelical Christians, devout Catholics, and Orthodox Jews are more likely to be Republicans.

Those who live in urban areas are still much more likely Democratic registered, while those in suburbia are more evenly divided, but more Democratic than traditionally in recent decades when they were more likely Republican.

The Hispanic-Latino population is less reliably registered Democratic than in the past, particularly those who identify as evangelical Protestants, while if Catholics, still more likely Democratic.

While women are more likely to be registered Democratic, white women have moved toward Republican orientation.

With the reality that all of these trends are in flux, it is clear that trying to predict future voting patterns and election results is a gamble, and there are no guarantees.

Oregon Sets A Higher Standard: Making Voter Registration And Participation Easier, As Other States Make Voter Registration More Difficult!

Ronald 2 Comments

The state of Oregon has set a new and higher standard by making voter registration and participation easier, at a time when other states make voter registration more difficult.

Already allowing all Oregonians to vote by mail, now everyone in Oregon who owns a motor vehicle or has a drivers license will be offered the chance to register to vote automatically, although they have the ability to opt out for 21 days after registration.

But if they do not opt out, they will receive a voter ballot, and can participate in our democratic system of government, although, of course, they can choose not to vote.

The point is that at a time when states are making it more difficult to register and to vote, and lines are long at many voting places, discouraging many from voting, Oregon is putting other states to shame, particularly those in the South and Great Plains, Republican states that work to undermine democracy and do not trust people as being legitimate to have a right to vote.

Oregon was the first state, along with Wisconsin, to set up direct primaries in state elections a century ago, and now Wisconsin has been moving against democracy under Governor Scott Walker.

But Oregon continues to be a paragon of virtue in the concept of encouraging and promoting direct democracy.

So kudos to Oregon as a model for other states, it is hoped, in the future!

Republican Party Fraud In Voter Registration In Florida: Time To Hold Rick Scott And Other State Republican Leaders Accountable!

Ronald 3 Comments

The Republican Party has been earnestly working to prevent “voter fraud” in all of the states governed by Republican Governors and legislatures, claiming it is widespread.

In actual fact, the only voter fraud going on is by Republicans in many states, trying to prevent senior citizens, college students, African Americans, Latinos and Hispanics, and poor people from their guaranteed right to vote under the Voting Rights Act of 1965!

Fortunately, in most cases, state courts have prevented many of these pieces of legislation, interfering with the right to vote, from moving forward.

But Florida has been one of the worst of all states, cutting down the number of early voting days to only eight, and not including the Sunday before the election, when many black voters go to church and then go to vote, and now cannot do so! Thirty states have already started voting, but Floridians are being denied that until late October.

Florida Governor Rick Scott, who should be in prison for Medicare and Medicaid fraud, has been incessantly working to make voting impossible for many, and yet, it now turns out that a Republican consulting firm has been involved in promoting voter fraud in Palm Beach County and nine other counties in the Sunshine State!

This consulting firm is only registering those voters who say they are Republican! Also, dead people are being registered; fake signatures that look alike for many applications are being submitted; fake addresses, birth dates, and Social Security numbers have been put on the forms; and Democratic registrations have been voided!

A criminal prosecution is being pursued, but this horrible situation demonstrates that the Republican Party in Florida and elsewhere has no limits in their aim to deny people the right to vote, and yet themselves be engaged in what they claim is the reason for restrictive voter registration laws!

The governors of these Republican states, plus the state Secretaries of State responsible for voter registration on the state level, and the Attorneys Generals who “wink” at this illegal activity, need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law!

Maybe this could be the way to get Rick Scott out of office and in prison, where he belongs! He is a disgrace to his party and to the state of Florida!

Only through voter fraud and voter suppression, and allowing billionaires to spend inordinate amounts of money, can the Republican Party have a chance to win!

It is time to give the right wing extremists the sound defeat they deserve for the Presidency, and both houses of Congress, and in the states having local and state wide elections!

Two Year Anniversary Of Citizens United Supreme Court Case: The Corruption Of American Politics A National Tragedy

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Two years ago, the Supreme Court, controlled by a conservative majority of 5-4, made a decision considered among the worst ever in their history.

After a century of regulation of corporate involvement in political campaign fundraising and advertising, the majority, claiming freedom of speech, allowed corporations and labor unions to have totally free access to spend and promote candidates and parties.

On first blush, some might have thought that it was not such a bad decision, as labor unions were permitted to do the same as corporations. On second thought, it became noticeable that labor unions could not compete with corporate money, and the result was the distorted political atmosphere of the midterm 2010 Congressional and state elections, which led to the success of the Tea Party Movement and the right wing direction of many state governments and the US House of Representatives. This has created a stalemate in Congress, and attacks on labor, the elderly, the poor, minorities, and the environment in many state legislatures, and the widespread attempt to limit the right to vote by discriminatory voter registration laws.

We have witnessed the damage done, and the continual enrichment of the top one percent in America, and the Super PACs are in operation, poisoning the political atmosphere for the 2012 election campaigns for President and the Congress, as well as many state governments.

Our democracy is being lost, negating a century of reforms under the Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society.

A move is on to attempt a constitutional amendment to overrule the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, but that is not going to be easy, and meanwhile, or maybe for good, we are seeing corporations regain complete control of government at all levels, and bringing us back to the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

This is a national tragedy of massive proportions!

Republican State Governments Attempting To Create Hurdles For Voting In 2012

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One of the manifestations of the election in 2010 of Republican Governors and state legislatures around the nation is that they have been busy passing restrictions and hurdles on the basic right to vote, in order to discourage or prevent likely Democratic voters from being able to participate in the Presidential and Congressional races of 2012.

More than a dozen states, including Florida, have passed laws requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, cutting down early voting periods, and putting new restrictions on voter registration drives.

About five million voters could be affected, mostly poor, young, college students, and African American, but also disabled, rural, elderly and homeless, all of whom tend to vote Democratic.

The claims of voter fraud, of people voting who are not who they say they are, has been shown to be almost totally untrue, and to have had no effect on elections, but making it more difficult to vote WILL have the effect of deciding close elections!

The Department of Justice is investigating these laws, in order to determine if they violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and it seems likely some will be overturned by such investigation, as well as by some referendums being conducted in this fall’s election.

It is not a good sign when governments try to cut back on the right to vote, particularly when it is promoted by one party against likely voters of the other party!