I love that Facebook is making it virtually impossible for any of its users to not get out and vote. Facebook has a very cool rising tally ticker thingy of how many Facebook members have voted so far. As of 6;30 pm EST 3,676,320 Facebookers have cast their ballot and the number keeps growing.

takepart and check out the Facebook election page which also features tools to help you find your polling place, learn if your state allows late registration and who to contact if you’re having voter issues.

Ah it’s so nice to know there is more to Facebook than stalking people…well at least for today.

Running late to the polls? Don’t give up just yet! It may not be too late to vote! takepart and visit http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/ to find out where polling hours been extended.

Election Law @ Moritz is a web publication that covers developments in the law of election administration– laws dealing with voter registration, voter ID, early and absentee voting, provisional balloting, poll workers and polling place procedures, recounts and election contests, and other related issues.

Early this morning I joined the Obama campaign at the Hyatt in Century City to make calls to swing states. It was glorious to speak with inspired and excited folks from Virginia. Here are some pics from the morning! (psst! Donald Sutherland was sitting in the front of the room!)

The call room

Blogger Sarah Newman

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The non-partisan Pew Trust issued the results of its final election survey yesterday which found Barack Obama leading John McCain by 6 points (52% to 46%). There are many forces that can explain this significant difference. Obama has run a fantastic grassroots campaign that has solicited the support of many first time voters and youth who have been his stalwart supporters since the beginning. He also offers a vision for our nation that defies racial, economic and social divisions that will bring much needed healing to our country after 8 years under George W. Bush. Last, we’ve all lived through one of, if not the worst, presidency ever. Bush’s reactionary vision for our country has left us in a shaky position as he has dismantled thousands of regulations, laws and international treaties designed to ensure environmental protection, human rights, civil rights, worker-place safety, health care access, torture policies, veterans benefits, educational access and many more that I don’t have room to list. The New York Times reports today that Bush is scrambling in his remaining 77 days (can they end any quicker?) to implement his final rollbacks on civil liberties, abortion access and environmental protection.

I hope you will be an active participant in our democracy by voting today! And, don’t forget that there are plenty of other things to vote for in addition to the presidency, such as Congressional races, state propositions and state elections. Your vote will make a difference in bringing about change our country desperately needs.

Happy Voting!

takepart and GOVOTE!!

It’s here! I can’t believe it…. I almost don’t believe it.

IT”S ELECTION DAY!!!

Here’s a mix of TakePart’s recent election day related posts. Give a read to make sure your voting rights are upheld and to see the free stuff you can get.

And of course, takepart with GOVOTE and make sure you have the correct voting information! (my brother just voted - and for the first time!!!!)

Do Your Last Minute Homework and CAST YOUR VOTE TOMORROW

For weeks I’ve scoffed at Sarah Palin supporters who say they like her because she’s “like them.” The obvious rejoinder is, “don’t you want someone who’s BETTER than you to be a heartbeat away from being President?” But this morning the brick hit me on the head, and I realized that I’ll be excited if Obama wins, because by and large, he’s the candidate that’s “most like me.” That’s not why I’m voting for him (I hope). I’m voting for him because I think he has the best judgment, the most discipline, and the superior collection of advisors surrounding him. But those are observations and calculations, not emotions. The emotional part of my support for Obama comes from identifying with his education, his way of talking, his way of carrying himself, etc. It is hubris, to be sure, for me to say Obama is “like me,” but I can certainly aspire, just as certain hockey moms may aspire to combine Sarah Palin’s energy, good looks, and love of high school hockey.

So I no longer scoff at that particular tendency, and I simply content myself with my conviction that Obama/Biden will make a far better administration than McCain/Palin. And I hope that behind certain people’s desire to have a beer or shoot a moose with Palin, there is at least a belief (however misguided, in my opinion) that she could make a capable…sorry, I can’t even finish the sentence.

But whatever your emotions, whatever your convictions, now is the time to do your last minute homework, and get out and vote.

Cast your vote for President. It’s the most momentous presidential election in decades.

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It’s election eve and I can’t help but feel the same way I did on Christmas Eve as a child - I’m excited, nervous and eagerly anticipating what tomorrow could bring.

It is in that spirit that I post this video.

It will be hard to sleep tonight for sure. I just hope I don’t get coal in my stocking tomorrow…

But for now, please please please takepart and find out where you vote and VOTE!

The media continues to report about a potential Bradley effect (named after Los Angeles’ former mayor Tom Bradley who was ahead in the polls but lost the election. Pundits attribute it to white voters being afraid of publicly admitting their fear of voting for a black person, hence the difference between the polls and the outcome).  However, during this extremely long election, every state has already had a primary which has allowed millions of voters of all races to support Barack Obama. There was no Bradley effect in the primaries so why is the mainstream media hyping up this story?

The real concern for voters should be election fraud and problems at the polls. Evidence of voting problems already are rampant. Oprah already experienced problems at her voting booth. If there’s one person who shouldn’t experience voting problems, it’s the most powerful media woman in America.  There’s already video documentation of voting flipping in West Virginia and Texas, Missouri and Tennessee from Obama to McCain or Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney.

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“We don’t need perfect political systems;
we need perfect participation.”
–UFW founder Cesar E. Chavez

What a beautiful message from the late Cesar Chavez and how true. Active and engaged citizens who demonstrate their commitment to our democracy by voting are crucial to bringing about much needed reform in our country. I just want to remind all of you–in case you missed all of my other election blogs–that activist citizens are required to protect all of us against voter intimidation and election fraud. If you observe or experience any voting problems or have questions, simply call 1-866-OUR-VOTE or visit 866ourvote.org. For Spanish, call 1-888-Ve-Y-Vota. If you need to find your polling location, click here: http://www.vote411.org/pollingplacebystate.php

I’m looking forward to an election day when all registered voters are able to participate in our beautiful process without any intimidation or fraud tactics. Once the election is over, we can all take a big sigh of relief and resume our normal hell-raising activities!

takepart and GO VOTE TOMORROW!

(From baratunde’s flickr photostream)

After producing the film Election Day and witnessing the hard work and commitment of pollworkers around the country, I was inspired to work as a pollworker myself. So in the mid-term election of 2006, my friend Anayansi and I got up at the crack of dawn to serve as election officials in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We had been through a rather pathetic 2-hour training at the board of elections a couple weeks earlier. (If you passed the open-book exam at the end, you got a $30 bonus. If not, no problem! Go ahead and work the polls anyway!)

One piece of information that clearly did not sink in with most pollworkers was the nature of a provisional ballot. The biggest problem we had during the day was people whose names were not on the voter list. In some cases, they had been voting at that site for many years, and we presumed it was a database error. In other cases, we had to help them figure out if they were at the correct precinct, which sometimes they weren’t. In other cases, they were newly-registered voters and it was unclear if their registration had even been processed. If the voter’s name was not on the list, had moved within New York City, had a missing or wrong signature, or did not have the required ID, the voter had two options: vote on a provisional (aka affidavit) ballot or march down to the local board of elections office to obtain a court order to vote on an election machine.

This second option was rarely presented to voters. Instead, they were often assured, “An affidavit ballot is the exact same as voting on the machine; it will be counted.” But the pollworker doesn’t know that. It is the board of elections office that will later determine if that provisional/affidavit ballot is valid. And it will be days or weeks after Election Day, after the vote is final, when the voter has no recourse.

In their article on voting pitfalls in Rolling Stone, Bobby Kennedy and Greg Palast wrote:

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