Barack Obama's 50-State Voter Registration Drive is coming to Austin, on Saturday, May 10th. Obama is already focused on making more voters eligible to join his movement for change, but he needs your help.
Head over to my.BarackObama.com and sign up here for the event. If each of us works to register new voters, we can grow our party and increase the support for Barack Obama.
On Super Tuesday, the nation saw the growing influence of the Asian American vote. Texas has the fourth largest Asian American population in the United States and the Asian American population continues to grow at high rates.
For Democrats in Texas, winning the Asian American vote means being the first to reach out to this oft-ignored constituency. To that end, our organization is hosting an event this Wednesday to raise money to turn Central Texas Asian Americans blue! We'll also be honoring three terrific local Democrats. Come enjoy the free food at the event before heading over to the US Senate debate between Rep. Rick Noriega and Ray McMurrey at 8 PM.
Capital Area Asian American Democrats
2008 Fundraiser and Democratic Awards Ceremony
Wednesday, February 13
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
AFL-CIO
1106 Lavaca St.
2008 Honorees: Lifetime Achievement Award - Judge Jeanne Meurer
Democratic Legislator of the Year - Representative Mark Strama
Democratic Activist of the Year - Nicholas P. Chu
Money raised will help support CAAAD's 2008 in 2008 Project to increase Asian American voter registration and turnout in Travis County for the 2008 municipal and general elections and our efforts on behalf of our endorsed candidates.
Appetizers and heavy hors d'oeuvres generously provided by Buffet Palace (4608 West Gate Blvd, Austin, TX).
For sponsorship or questions, please contact Ramey Ko at 512-577-5729 or ramey.ko@gmail.com.
Please make checks payable to "CAAAD Asian American Progress PAC." Tickets can be purchased at the door.
Pol. adv. paid for by CAAAD Asian American Progress PAC
I received my notice and re-registration form in the mail last Friday, signed by Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector, Nelda Wells Spears.
I vote in every election including the most recent Constitutional Election, so I was very surprise to find myself on the suspense list.
The most infuriating part of this is that the form that Nelda is sending out to the thousands of purged voters REQUIRES THE VOTER to respond.
All of us who were purged have already done our part. We have registered to vote and it was a mistake of the Tax Office that took many of us off the list and put many more on the suspense list.
Either add us back to the active voter rolls or show us the part of Texas Statute that requires voters who have been accidentally removed to re-register.
This diary is cross-posted from Project Vote's Daily Kos entry and our own blog, Voting Matters.
Weekly Voting Rights News Update
By Erin Ferns
As we count down to the new year - a time when the Supreme Court will weigh-in on the voter ID debate and we will cast ballots for the next president of the United States - Texas lawmakers continue to aggressively present the alleged issue of non-citizens voting. This week, voter ID was added to the list of topics to be studied by the House State Affairs Committee for the 2009 legislative session, an action deemed a partisan ploy to reintroduce the "discriminatory and divisive" legislation of 2007. Stirring the so-called voter fraud plot in Texas to greater heights, a coalition of legislators requested Secretary of State Phil Wilson "implement more stringent proof of citizenship requirements before casting a ballot in Texas" in November 2008.
Glen Maxey is running for tax assessor-collector and voter registrar for Travis and we haven't even mentioned it here on BOR. I can see Glen not starting the thread, but no reason someone else can't. I think it's great news!
Austin Chronicle Campaign Buzz: June 29, 2007
In declaring for the race, Maxey is taking on 16-year incumbent Nelda Wells Spears, who had been rumored to be considering retirement. Asked Monday whether she's running for re-election for another four-year term, Wells Spears responded simply, "Yes, I am." She said she has "several projects in the works" that she wants to see to completion, citing specifically a computer-imaging system for records retrieval still in development that will "smooth the work flow," as well as additional training programs for employees. "We don't get many complaints about our public service," she adds, "but one is too many."
We're all hoping the Texas Senate will kill HB 218, the flawed "Voter ID" bill that solves a problem that doesn't exist in Texas. But don't let your guard down- HB 218's sick and twisted relation sponsored by Rep. Phil King is hitting the House floor on Monday. Instead of dampening the ability of already registered voters to actually vote, this bill takes aim at the beginning of the process, setting up a barrier that would effectively shut down all voter registration in Texas.
Austin Chonicle: This bill requires proof of citizenship for voter registration, and get this: It will mandate presentation of a birth certificate (not a photocopy, but the actual thing), or U.S. citizenship papers, or an unexpired passport. You know all those ways we've tried to boost voter registration, things like registration drives on college campuses and in poor neighborhoods, or while you're at the drivers license office, etc.? They'll be gone. Bye-bye.
The Statesman's John Kelso beat us to the best description of what will happen: "This would kill the common practice of voter registration drives in supermarket parking lots. When was the last time you took your passport to an H-E-B to pick up a roll of paper towels?"
Welcome to Texas, where only the well-educated and affluent are allowed to vote. Hmmm … sounds mighty familiar. Perhaps Travis County should only set up voting booths in West Austin in the next election.
I've helped to personally register hundreds if not thousands of students in my three and a half years at UT. With those requirements I can guarentee you that literally 99% of those would never have taken place. Then again, I guess that's the intent of King's bill now isn't it...because Texas strives to be last in everything.
Percentage of Eligible Voters that are Registered - 41st
Percentage of Eligible Voters that Vote - 44th
Texas is one of several states subject to the Voter Rights Act Section 5 pre-clearance whereby election practices or procedures are frozen until the new proposed procedures have been subjected to review by the US Department of Justice. You wouldn't be too surprised by our state neighbors in the VRA Section 5 pool. You also wouldn't be too surprised that under the Bush administration DOJ pre-clearance has been relatively easy.
LA Times 3/25/2007 Justice Department tugged to the right
Under Bush, the department has been tainted by politics, many say.
(snip)
The Civil Rights Division veterans focused their criticism on major voting case decisions over the last six years that they say have generally benefited the GOP.
The most recent case concerned a 2005 Georgia law that required voters to provide photo identification. Staff attorneys raised concerns about the law after the Georgia secretary of state supplied data showing that tens of thousands of voters might not have driver's licenses or other prescribed forms of identification. They said the plan could effectively disenfranchise large numbers of black voters.
The rain dampened voter registration efforts this afternoon (no pun intended) but things have still been going strong here at the UT Co-op. 712 (300 from Co-op, 412 campus) registration cards were turned in from UT Monday, and we just sent 420 to the office about an hour ago from the Co-op.
Here's a pic of some of our deputy registrars, many of them UDems including President Nick Chu (3rd from left and former UDems president Alex Hunt (far right) who worked for Juan Garcia this summer. I'm poking my head in there 2nd from left.
This picture is pretty decent considering I took it with the webcam from my new macbook. Yes, I'm now an Apple blogger.
No the police didn't stop us because of anything illegal, we stopped them in order to register them to vote!
