No Voter Left Behind

Article I found at No Voter Left Behind

KENNEDY TOWNSEND: ACORN SMEAR IS EFFORT TO COVER UP MASSIVE GOP PUSH TO

UNDERMINE 2008 ELECTIONS THROUGH COAST-TO-COAST VOTE SUPPRESSION

Democrats Urged to Volunteer, Contribute to NoVoterLeftBehind.net to Fight Republican Attempt

to Bar “Many Tens of Thousands” of Voters From Exercising Their Right to Vote.

WASHINGTON, D.C.///October 15, 2008///The ongoing Republican attack on the lawful voter registration

efforts of ACORN is a “desperate smokescreen maneuver” masking an extensive coast-to-coast GOP

push to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters through a wide range of vote suppression tactics,

according to Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former lieutenant governor of the state of Maryland and a

member of the board of advisors of NoVoterLeftBehind.net (http://www.NoVoterLeftBehind.net).

Urging concerned Americans to get involved through NoVoterLeftBehind.net, Kennedy Townsend said:

“The attack on the voter registration efforts of ACORN may go down in the record books as the

ultimate case of the ‘dirty’ pot calling the ‘clean’ kettle black. ACORN is being savaged for doing

its duty to openly self-report all cases where there may be any kind of issue with specific voter

registration forms. By contrast, the GOP is skulking around out of the public eye across the

nation in a sub rosa attempt to use a host of outrageous and desperate vote suppression tactics

to steal the election.”

She added: “For every potentially problematic ACORN voter registration form that will never

result in anyone casting an illegitimate vote, there are literally hundreds of voters who the GOP

will go to any lengths to keep out of the voting booth. This attack on ACORN is a sad and deeply

cynical tactic coming from a party that seems to have concluded that they can’t win the election

on their own, so they have to prevent the other side from voting.”

Kennedy Townsend said that NoVoterLeftBehind.net is seeking to raise the necessary funds and

volunteers (including legal experts) to fight the expected GOP challenges of the election outcome.

NoVoterLeftBehind.net is monitoring voter registration and the actual vote leading up to and on Election

Day in 2008. The campaign will shine a public spotlight on every last irregularity. The

NoVoterLeftBehind.net Web site shows interested Democrats how to donate to support the effort, where

to learn more about how Republicans steal elections and also ways to volunteer before and on Election

Day 2008.

EXAMPLES OF GOP SUPPRESSION ABOUND

ACORN has come under attack in Nevada, Missouri, Ohio and elsewhere by Republicans attempting to

block the many thousands of primarily low-income citizens that ACORN has registered. Under the law,

ACORN must report irregular registrations that result from its process. The GOP is seizing on these

entirely routine and voluntary reports as "fraudulent" filings, when in fact this is not the case at all. In

nearly every state, ACORN is required to turn in all completed applications, even the ones we know to be

problematic, and then to identify the ones involving possible concerns.

The ACORN situation pales in comparison the outright vote suppression efforts underway nationwide:

· In Florida and other states, ''no match, no vote'' law are being used by Republicans to strike as many

voters as possible from the rolls – based on the slightest inconsistency between voter registration

information and driver’s license data.

· Misinforming college students in Colorado, Virginia and South Carolina about their right to vote. For

example, the Republican clerk of El Paso County, Colo., informed local students: ''. . . if your parents

still claim you on their income tax returns, and they file that return in a state other than Colorado, you

are not eligible to register to vote or vote in Colorado.'' The same tactic is being used in other states

in sometimes even starker ways to keep young people from voting.

· The Philadelphia Daily News has reported that fliers showed up in African-American neighborhoods

of Philadelphia recently showed up warning residents that undercover cops would be prowling the

polling places, arresting would-be voters with so much as an unpaid traffic ticket on his or her record.

· U.S. District Court Judge George C. Smith, a Reagan appointee, has approved a GOP lawsuit

demanding that the state give county boards of elections great leeway in attacking new voter

registration forms. The decision would allow Republican challengers access to data from the Bureau

of Motor Vehicles and the Social Security agency to challenge new voters. Smith noted that Ohio law

permits challenges to absentee ballots, thousands of which have been pouring in to elections boards.

If allowed to stand, it could give the GOP the right to shred ballots already cast in the Buckeye State,

with the precedent possibly being used to further enable a GOP nationwide disenfranchisement

campaign.

· The New York Times has reported that boards of elections in at least nine crucial states, including

Ohio, have violated federal law in conducting purges and have been illegally using Social Security

data bases as part of those purges. The Times quotes Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman as

asking the Colorado Attorney-General to review how some 2,500 citizens were removed from the

registration lists there. The Times has cited purges in Colorado, Louisiana and Michigan that have

apparently been conducted within 90 days of the upcoming November 4 election, violating federal law

that allows states to expunge only those who have been convicted of a felony, moved out of state or

died. The Times has also reported that boards of elections in Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan,

Indiana and Ohio have illegally used federal Social Security databases to flag and possibly eliminate

voters whose registration applications were suspected of irregularities.

· A CBS News report has revealed organized vote caging attempts by the GOP to eliminate registered

voters from the rolls in 19 states.

(The preceding examples are based on or, in some cases, quote directly from articles appearing at

http://www.sltrib.com/Opinion/ci_10707178 and

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2008/3229.)

On October 8, 2008, three leading former elected officials from Maryland, Illinois and Oregon called on

every state attorney general and every state election head to come out publicly against any “lose your

home, lose your vote” strategy that might be used to keep home foreclosure victims from exercising their

right to vote. Organized by NoVoterLeftBehind.net (NVLB), the outreach effort was undertaken by:

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend; Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, former U.S. Senator from the state of

Illinois and a 2004 presidential candidate; and Barbara Roberts, former governor of Oregon and also a

onetime Oregon Secretary of State. In a September 17, 2008 news release, NoVoterLeftBehind.net

emphasized the four things every American going through home mortgage foreclosure needs to know

about their vote in the face of an expected “lose your home, lose your vote” suppression campaign by the

GOP.

ABOUT NOVOTERLEFTBEHIND.NET

Launched on August 29, 2008, NoVoterLeftBehind.net is a project of Democrats for America’s Future

(www.americasdemocrats.org). In his appeal to Democrats launching NoVoterLeftBehind.net, Robert F.

Kennedy, Jr. writes: “No more 2000s and 2004s! … The Republican Party mounted a coordinated,

criminal campaign to steal the 2004 Presidential election -- and it worked. Now, as another

election approaches, you and I need to stand together to make absolutely certain it doesn’t

happen again … We need your support to raise the funds now to make sure that ‘no voter is left

behind’ on Election Day!”

ABOUT DEMOCRATS FOR AMERICA’S FUTURE

Democrats for America's Future (http://www.americasdemocrats.org) is dedicated to getting everyday

Democrats involved in returning the Democratic party to its roots – and success at the ballot box.

Democrats for America's Future makes a difference by: recruiting grassroots Democrats across the

country and providing them with up-to-date information; urging Democratic leaders to stand up to

President Bush and his right-wing allies; and educating the public about the Bush Administration's true

record. Membership sign-ups and member donations are accepted through the Democrats for

America's Future Web site at http://www.americasdemocrats.org.

The DAF board of advisors consists of: James Carville; former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich;

Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, former U.S. Senator from the state of Illinois and a 2004 presidential

candidate; Donald L. Fowler, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee; David Bonior,

former Michigan member of Congress and majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives; and

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former lieutenant governor of the state of Maryland.

CONTACT: Ailis Aaron Wolf, (703) 276-3265, or aawolf@hastingsgroup.com.