Totally blitzed after a day spent registering voters at the college, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. More talking than I do in a month normally. But it was a great day. Most of those I registered were young students, many of them African American, all of whom seemed quite politically aware. It's student registration this week at the college, and we're set up right outside the Bookstore, where everyone has to come load up on their textbooks for the semester. It's interesting to me, but entirely understandable, that many of the young voters register as Independents - they don't want to commit themselves to a party. Again, the African American kids are an exception to this - they have all registered as Democrats. Universally. Tim, if you're reading this - have you found this to be the case where you're doing registration? Of course, you're not at a college - so it may be entirely different. I'll be continuing this for the next two days of class registration. More volunteers to help out tomorrow and Thursday, no more eleven hour shifts for me. I can't believe how exhausted I am. So, then, off to recuperate by falling into dreamland.
Did you know that if you don't vote in national elections in Peru you are charged a rather hefty fine? Interesting, huh?
Peace, love and power to the people! 
4 comments:
Good work! You should be proud of yourself! And cool graphic from FCNL. I have one of their bumberstickers on my car!
A voter does not have to declare his or her party when registering in Missouri as we have open primaries. In the open primary system, a voter declares which party ballot he or she wants to vote at the election site whenever there is a primary election. This system give all voters the right to switch parties whenever they choose, even on primary election day at the very last minute. I think this is the way it should be in all states. However, the politicos normally hate it as it gives the opposition the potential to "stack" a primary election -- a potential I believe is GREATLY overstated. So to answer your question, when I register voters I have no way of knowing, unless the registering voter tells me voluntarily, which party they belong to. Nonetheless, I do encounter a whole lot of people who don't want to affiliate with any party. I have a response for them, but I'll save that for another comment.
Here's my response to those who don't want to affiliate with any party: First, don't assume that because I'm a Democrat that I ALWAYS vote for the Democratic candidate. I vote for the person whom I believe is the best candidate, regardless of the candidate's party. True, more often than not that candidate is, for me at least, a Democrat. But not all Democrats are good; there are some real scumballs in my party. So saying you're a Dem. or Rep. or Green or whatever, doesn't mean you can't make independent voting choices. In fact, I encourage everyone to make "independent" voting choices based on a candidate's talents and integrity. However, by refusing to declare a party, a voter cuts him or herself off from about 75% of the REAL political process in our democracy: the intraparty deliberations that shape and propel legislative policy and executive actions. If you really want to fully participate in and safeguard our Democracy, then I encourage you not only to declare a party affiliation, but to work within that party to shape its values and priorities. Work in a partisan way; vote independently.
For my responses to make sense, read the bottom one first and then work upwards. AOL loads the reponses last-in/first-up. My response under this one is a continuation of my first comment.
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