Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Voter Suppression in New York City

WE'VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com

Do you know Tim Robbins? The Player, The Shawshank Redemption, The Hudsucker Proxy, Bull Durham? Yup, that Tim Robbins.

He lives in NYC and wanted to vote in the 2008 election. He's a registered voter, and he'd been voting for years in the same lower Manhattan precinct.

Mr. Robbins knew what to do when he suddenly disappeared off the rolls: he got a judge's order to preclude having to cast a provisional ballot. The Times has the story. The thing that impresses me most is that Mr. Robbins votes in NYC, which needed an extra vote as much as Carter needed an extra little liver pill. But the point is, he lost a whole day because VOTING MATTERS, even in a state where one vote wouldn't have affected the 62% that the Obama-Biden ticket won with. He knows that every vote matters.

Not everyone knows what to do when their vote is challenged. But read the story, print it out, stick it in a file folder, and then read it again before you work the polls next time. (I have faith...) It's the kind of information that can come in very handy.