You, Too, Could Be A Poll Watcher

Unable to counter the bad news with stories of major successes, the Bush campaign has turned almost exclusively to the so-called war against terror. The message in a nutshell: be very afraid.

A Bush campaign commercial released a few days ago shows wolves advancing menacingly toward the camera. A voice in the ad says, "Weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm."

At the same time, the Republican Party is doing what it can in key states to block as many Democratic votes as possible. Party officials have mounted a huge organized effort to challenge - some would say intimidate - voters in states like Ohio and Florida, in a bid to offset the effects of huge voter registration drives and a potentially heavy turnout of voters opposed to Mr. Bush and his policies.

Election officials in Ohio said they'd never seen such a large drive mounted to challenge voters on Election Day.

Voter suppression is a reprehensible practice. It's a bullet aimed at the very heart of democracy. But the G.O.P. evidently considers it an essential strategy in an environment with so little positive news. (Bob Herbert)

The Republican sponsored Jim Crow 2004 campaign is in full swing. Decent, democracy-loving people are rightfully enraged. There is renewed talk about the important Election Protection campaign to protect voting rights. If you'd like to help but cannot travel to one of the high stakes locales, check out election Match. There, you can plug in the info about where you'd like to work and they'll match you up with a local, non-profit, non-partisan poll-watching group.

I personally cannot travel because of my family obligations, but I'm going to do poll watching in my own community, in the Boston area, where Kerry's victory is assured. Even where there are not outright attempts at election theft, the system is broken (lost votes, polling sites) and probably won't get fixed without local activism throughout the country. Our electoral system is so decentralized [pdf] that even good, well funded federal legislation to fix the problems (as compared to the Help America Vote Act) would be quite difficult to fashion and implement. Get involved now because you're afraid the Republicans will steal another election—and use this is as an opportunity to stay active in making our electoral system democratic.

(Note that poll watching organizations need to train their volunteers and time is running low. You probably need to act now if you want to take part in this important means of improving our democracy.)