“Reports of voter suppression tactics have also surfaced across the country from Texas and Arizona to North Carolina and
Indiana”
Here’s the sad truth: Many people in this country simply don’t want
Latinos and our allies to vote.
This year’s most blatant evidence came from a conservative group in
Nevada that ran an ad telling Latinos: “Don’t vote this
November…”1 But reports of voter suppression tactics have also
surfaced across the country from Texas and Arizona to North Carolina and
Indiana.
On November 2, you can fight back by casting your vote and encouraging
your friends and family to do the same. But you can also help monitor
problems that occur in your area through an important project called
VideoTheVote.org.
Click here to protect the vote in your community. It’s simple and easy!
Video the Vote is a national network of everyday people on who watch out
for problems on Election Day. The project helps people report things they
see when voting and also document incidents that occur in their area.
Started in 2006, Video the Vote volunteers have helped raise national
awareness of voting problems by recording over 1,000 videos that have been
broadcast on networks like CBS, CNN, and ABC and viewed over 1 million
times online.
It’s essential that voter suppression problems get reported right away
and that their full story is told by the media on Election Day. Video the
Vote urgently needs more volunteers, especially in your area, so if you
want to help protect the right to vote, join today us and tell your friends
about the program as well.
Click here to protect the vote in your community. It’s simple, and
incredibly important!
Sadly, Latinos and our allies have been increasingly targeted with voter
suppression tactics this election cycle.
In Texas, a voter registration group called Houston Votes has been the
victim of a systematic suppression campaign, including baseless
allegations of fraud by the local registrar, and a string of threatening
emails saying things like: “Your [sic] nothing but a bunch of white guilt
ridden assholes, NIGGERS and greasy mexican spics!” The result:
registrations have dropped from 1,000 per day to under 200.2
In Arizona, Senator Russel Pearce — the same man who authored SB 1070 –
is accusing organizations like Mi Familia Vota of “voter fraud” in a
thinly veiled effort to hamper their registration activities and scare
Latino voters from the polls.
These efforts are a reminder of what’s at stake in this election.
Radical conservatives are so desperate to pursue their agenda that
they’re relying on 1960s-style scare tactics in an attempt to keep
Latinos and other communities from the polls.
Video the Vote is an important way to help overcome these dirty tactics.
Few things are as threatening to the people behind voter suppression
campaigns than citizens armed with video cameras watching their every
move. Please sign up for Video the Vote today, and encourage your friends
and family to do the same.
Thanks and ¡adelante!
Favianna, Roberto, Laurie and the rest of the Presente.org Team
References
1. “Univision Accepts $80,000 To Air GOP Group’s Ads That Tell Latinos
Not To Vote,” Think Progress, October 19, 2010
http://act.presente.org/go/188?akid=231.925.zOcHhq&t=7
2. “Voter Registration Group Targeted By TX Tea Party Group Received
Threats (VIDEO),” Talking Points Memo October 20, 2010
http://act.presente.org/go/192?akid=231.925.zOcHhq&t=9 &
“In Texas’ Biggest County, A Minority Registration Drive Is Crippled By
Fraud Allegations,” Talking Points Memo October 5, 2010
http://act.presente.org/go/193?akid=231.925.zOcHhq&t=11
3. “Massive voter fraud in Arizona and Colorado,” Sonoran Alliance,
October 23, 2010
http://act.presente.org/go/194?akid=231.925.zOcHhq&t=13
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