voter registration myths and realities June 29, 2008
I sat at the voter registration booth yesterday at Palmer Park for a couple of hours, but I decided to skip Pride Fest today. The DNC is sending people, so they don’t need me, and studying beckons. Today, I feel like cocooning and getting very geeked out on community property.
Our booth was very popular yesterday. We registered quite a few people who have moved to New Orleans from other places, including an Englishman who has just become a U.S. citizen and will be voting in his first election. We also had quite a few transplanted northerners who were changing their registration to New Orleans.
It’s surprising how many people said, “I bet you are going to toss the cards out if they register as Republicans.”
I have to tell you, there is no way we would do that. We could get into big trouble, but that’s not even the reason. We are trying to get people to participate, period. In New Orleans, there are dozens of races and issues where political party just doesn’t matter. As I have learned through my recent political involvements, southeast Louisiana’s voters are registered overwhelmingly Democratic but many of them obviously vote Republican. So, whose fault is that?
Patrick Armstrong came by the booth and we harassed him relentlessly until he changed his registration from Georgia to here. I knew that he wasn’t registered, because I used my super stalking powers to check. Cousin Pat from Georgia is going to have to change his name to Coozan Pat from Looziana.
He thought, as do a lot of people, that you have to have a Louisiana driver’s license to vote here. Not so. In Louisiana, you have to show I.D. at the polls, but it’s just for I.D. If you are on that list, you can vote. To register, you just have be 18 at election time, an American citizen, and living here indefinitely. Registering here cancels your registration at wherever you’re from, and that keeps you from voting twice. Here is La. R.S. 18:101, which tells you the qualifications. If it’s not in there, it’s not a requirement.
It’s kind of mystifying to me that people think you have to have a Louisiana driver’s license to do anything. You don’t even need a Louisiana driver’s license to drive. Any state’s license will do as long as it’s still valid. A person lives where he lives, not at the place on his driver’s license.
In fact, a lot of people thought they had to show us their I.D. before they could register. Dude, we are not the police. If you’re illegally registering to vote, that is between you, the registrar of voters, and god. You can be fined up to $1,000 and be jailed for a year for voter fraud, by the way. Voting twice is not worth a year of eating rancid bologna sandwiches for breakfast, if you ask me. Neither is destroying a person’s voter registration card because they don’t vote the way I do.
I generally get peeved at people who say they aren’t going to register because they don’t want to be called for jury duty. I don’t want to hear it. If you don’t want to serve on a jury, then don’t complain when a murderer walks or your insurance company has to pay a million dollars in damages for a tort.
There were also some people who blamed voter registration for all those phone calls we get during election time. Wrong. You would not believe the wily ways we employ to get your phone number, we don’t need voter registration cards. The phone number is for the registrar’s employees to call you if there is a mistake on your card.
As was discussed a lot during the last election, I think the numerous phone calls are counter-productive and a nuisance, especially when they call frequent voters (who are presumably informed already and know when and how to get to the polls) but that has nothing to do with voter registration. I don’t know anyone who has been swayed to vote for a candidate because of a robo-call. I make a point of hanging up on all non-human callers.
at least he wasn’t talking on a cell phone June 27, 2008
This video was making the rounds at the office today.
kung-fu pandering
Boddy Jindal is really making a name for himself, isn’t he? He turned up on one of my favorite blogs, Pharyngula, for his support of Bogalusa Ben Nevers’ creationism bill. It’s just one great move after another with this guy.
OPDEC update June 26, 2008
Well, exciting things are happening here at Dangerblond World Headquarters. I am now the chairman of OPDEC District A. “Chairman Kim.” Hmmm. Has a nice ring to it. Where have I heard that before?
Tonight I was introduced to the wonders of the Voter Activation Network, known as The VAN. This is a powerful tool for party organizing, voter canvasing and internet stalking. I’ve already looked up a few of you to check out your voting frequency. Some of you are getting letters of reprimand, I’m sorry to say. On the other hand, Jeffrey gets a gold star for his stunning voter turn-out score of 19 out of 20.
The VAN training was run by my favorite young Democratic party organizer, Stephen Miles. If anyone wants to get involved with Democratic party organizing for the upcoming elections, write to me and I’ll hook you up with Steve.
OPDEC meetings are being held on the first Tuesday of every month, and they are open to the public. The location is the Jury Room at Civil District Court, on the corner of Loyola and Poydras. The meetings start at 6:00.
Along with some other folks, I’m working two voter registration booths this weekend. On Saturday, I’ll be at the Palmer Park Art Market, and on Sunday at the Pride Fest in Washington Square Park. Come by and visit.
iowa v. new orleans June 25, 2008
It’s nice when someone says everything I wanted to say and I don’t have to get my fingers all tired from typing. Of course, he left out the part where over 400,000 of us evacuated safely ahead of the storm, but nobody’s perfect.
Via Oliver Willis
kennedy v. louisiana
I have to agree with the Supreme Court that the death penalty is not appropriate for a child rapist. I’m not in favor of the death penalty at all, for many reasons, but in the case of child rape I think it’s a particularly foolish solution. The opinion contains many relevant reasons to confine the death penalty to cases in which a life has been taken. The best reason to me is that if the rapist knows he will face death for his crime, then why not kill the only witness? Besides, what’s wrong with life at hard labor, no TV, no soap-on-a-rope?
obama ‘08
I kinda love sporting my Obama bumper sticker in the office parking lot. I work in Metairie, and I’ll wager that I’m the only person in the building who is a registered Democrat. Some of the other cars still have their tattered “W” stickers from years back. Heh heh.
photo | untitled June 22, 2008
100_5599
Originally uploaded by dangerblond.
photo | the gov and me
Kim and The Governor of Montana
Originally uploaded by Karen Apricot New Orleans.
Here is Karen’s photo of me and governor Brian Schweitzer, Montana’s answer to Huey Long. Schweitzer is being talked about as a possible VP candidate for Obama.
photo | paula and me
Paula and Kim
Originally uploaded by Karen Apricot New Orleans.
Paula Brown is running for judge in Civil District Court. She sat with Karen and me at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.
older posts »
