By Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing
Former Talking Heads frontman and happiest of all the mutants David Byrne has a great post up about voter suppression, voter registration, and the state of American politics.
Expressing dismay at the popularity of racist and xenophobic messages, Byrne points out that the Americans who are most affected by these hate campaigns are also the least likely to cast a ballot, a situation exacerbated by voter suppression campaigns launched by the Republican state governments that took office in the midterm elections.
Byrne calls on his fans to get involved with the Community Voters Project, a house-to-house, one-to-one voter registration organization; and Project Vote which works for system change in voting, through litigation, legislative lobbying, and “solutions that remove barriers to voting.”
Project Vote is hiring, and both organizations are donor-supported nonprofits. Byrne’s post also embeds a form that lets Americans register to vote in a few easy steps.
A two-pronged approach is required in order for that to happen. The Community Voters Project functions on a more personal level—their staffers and volunteers are in the streets, continuing the fight against disenfranchisement by registering voters one by one and providing clarification into the (sometimes intentionally confusing) registration and voting processes.
The second prong is legal—advocacy and lobbying in order to change laws and policies. Project Vote focuses more on that area by providing litigation, research, and technical assistance in order to promote effective voter registration laws, ensure that list maintenance procedures do not remove eligible voters, and provide solutions that remove barriers to voting.
Both the Community Voters Project and Project Vote are nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations that can use your help, and mine, as well. Below you can find some more information about each group and learn how you can contribute to their cause.
Despite all the heinous things the U.S. has done, we are still looked up to around the world. We are what many other people aspire to—or our good aspects at least.
WE’RE BETTER THAN THIS! VOTE! [David Byrne]