Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Will your vote count?---you should check.

In the recent media coverage of Acorn we are all hearing, yet again, about voter fraud. However there are a few things we aren't hearing covered adequately and that we need to understand....then check to make sure our vote will count.
The recent media blitz began when we learned that Acorn may have some "bad" registrations. And just so you know...bad registrations do occur however Acorn is not, by law, allowed to purge a registration it thinks may be bad. It can only flag them and point them out. Like Mickey Mouse---it gets flagged. Now...truly in this day and age there could be someone named Mickey Mouse. Which is why Acorn has to flag it and can't purge it. The state government is the one that will do that after it checks out whether it does or does not have a state resident named...you guessed it: Mickey Mouse. By hiring down on it's luck people (drunks, homeless etc) Acorn has helped get some individuals paying jobs. Some of these individuals, however, have shirked their duty and responsibilities and instead of finding unregistered voters have instead filled in random names. Now, let's at least applaud the fact, that like the Salvation Army, Acorn has used people that generally can not get jobs. Unfortunately they are paying a price for it. And instead of going on about this I would like you to read a very good article about voting fraud and disenfranchisement both of which are different than Acorn's voter registration issues.

If you haven't seen Robert F Kennedy Jr. interviewed this week, or read his article yet in Rolling Stones magazine titled "Blocking the Vote" do so now. Please.

Did you read it? Now pass it on to someone else. Voting is important and voting fraud and disenfranchisement outweighs voter registration fraud (or more accurately registration problems) by a long shot.

Then? Find your Secretary of State web site. It will have all the information about voting on it somewhere. Check information as to whether or not your state requires exact id match --- and I do mean exact in some states. Right down to whether you did or did not use your full middle name or just the initial. Or maybe your name is similar to someone who committed a crime and so it is purged for that reason. Or a data entry clerk made a mistake...and your purged.
If your state does require such exactness...and your name doesn't match correctly...or maybe your were illegally purged....you still have time in most places to fix it. (Don't wait, and don't not do it, every vote is important and every vote should count)
I don't know exactly how the web site will be set up but if you live in Georgia, their poll checker site here. When you click on that link go down to the section titled voting procedures. Read the paragraph and you will come across a somewhat hidden blue colored link that says: poll locater. Click on it and you can fill in your information. It is a link to help you find your voting precinct, and if it gives you your polling site then you are still on the rolls as of today. As far as I understand anyway.

1 comment:

Robbyn said...

It's interesting you wrote about this very thing, Monica. We were researching our candidates here and the woman currently in charge of the voting setup here is the same one on whose watch 18,000 votes were mysteriously missing due to "electronic error" of the voting machines she authorized adoption of...18,000!!! She does not have a stellar record of adequate response to concerns that have been reported, and broke a state or perhaps federal law by putting brochures touting the safety of the electronic machines right at the voting sites. She will NOT be getting re-elected if my vote has anything to do with it...uh, you know, my vote on one of those electronic voting machines...