DNC gets involved in New Orleans election controversy

[funkybutt]

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl033006khdmc.779e791d.html

AP

The Democratic National Committee is setting up a toll-free telephone line and will air spots on black radio stations in Atlanta, Houston and Baton Rouge to inform displaced New Orleanians of their voting rights.

The DNC is the latest group to get involved in the city's contested April 22 mayoral election. Besides the mayor's race, city council seats, tax assessors and other key city offices are up for grabs.

Black activists and civil rights groups claim that many evacuees living outside of New Orleans may find it hard to vote. They also have sought, so far unsuccessfully, to get satellite polling stations set up outside of Louisiana.

1-888-DEM-VOTE.

[BOSSHOG]

1. I have to offer an alternative opinion

There is no New Orleans election controversy. It is contrived by political operatives. If a registered voter of New Orleans wants to vote he/she can. It might take a little effort on their part, but perish the thought. Per yesterday's Times-Picayune, the candidates showed up in Houston for a forum and damn near no one showed up. If New Orleans residents care about their city they will vote and then they will get their butts back to the city and take that shovel from the guy from Minnesota or Utah or Oregon who has been cleaning up the city. Maybe the right thing to do is let all the volunteers from out of town who have been working their asses off for months cleaning up the city vote for the next Mayor.

[funkybutt]

2. I agree...mostly

i think if people really want to vote they will put effort into it and find out. However, I didn't know how to find out where I vote as the school we used to vote in was underwater. I just happened to find out b/c it's at this church that's been helping the community and someone there told me.

[BOSSHOG]

4. Yo Funkybutt

I love New Orleans immensely and intensely. You can't show your love by letting the NAACP file lawsuits in your name. I humbly suggest to all those citizens not living in New Orleans who want to come back, MAKE A NIKE COMMERICIAL, Just Do It!

God Bless Ya Dear. We are gonna raise a quaff one of these days.

[funkybutt]

5. I'm not associated with this lawsuit

just posting the info that DNC was getting involved with the helpline.

I've been in NOLA since early October and I'll be voting on April 22.

Hopin to get back in the house in time for the next hurricane season.

thanks BOSS

:hi:

[autorank]

3. An alternative, alternative...

Maybe they didn't show up at the "forums" because they were poorly planned or because the people in Houston are working two jobs to keep going; or because they couldn't get transportation.

Maybe there's all this effort because the State of Louisiana has BARRED any voter outreach or satellite voting in Houston, Atlanta, LA or the other evacuee centers; they've even barred the Secretary of State from running ads about registration and voting and doing mailings to get the people registered.

Maybe they can't get back to NOLA to take the shovel from those "volunteers" you talk about (would that be Halliburton or the folks making billions on no-bid contracts) because they'd get the same grief anyone who does a demonstration in this country gets, to wit the Miami police riots in full regalia.

Here's what happened to set this up. Take a look, it's very straight forward. Take a look and see how "fair" this is. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0603/S00016.htm#

In 2004 Republican Congress gave Louisiana $24 million for voting machines under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). In the same year, the Republican Congress stripped $24 million or so funds from levee maintenance for New Orleans.

It's a rigged game with an intended result...as few votes as possible outside of NOLA. The city is 1/2 white now.

Who benefits?

[BOSSHOG]

6. So your solution is what?

The city is 1/2 white now? Is that supposed to be a bad thing? I've been to NOLA often in the past two months. Volunteers from all over the country are all over the city, cleaning up and building up and those volunteers are not making billions on anything. For whom? Those who choose to not come back to the city but would rather whine about their plight in life and the "fact" that the NAACP says their voting rights may be compromised?

The only reason a registered voter of New Orleans will not vote in the April 22nd election is because they haven't put forth the effort to do so. Period.

[autorank]

7. Read the article. n/t

[JackORoses]

8. hey Hog,

It's not like these people moved away from NO of their own free will.
A Hurricane wiped their homes and former lives away.

Perish the thought that something be done to allow all those who were shipped off across the country a way to vote in their own election.

These people didn't have the resources to get out of NO when a Hurricane was coming. Do you really think they have the means to make the trip back for the elections after losing everything and struggling for the past few months just to stay afloat.

We set up polling stations around the country so that Iraqis here could vote in their elections.
But when it comes to Americans, that's just too much to ask, right Hog?

If you've been moved to LA or Houston or Utah and are trying to put food on the table, do you think it makes any sense to take what money you have and spend it on the long drive to NO?
Sounds like a poll tax to me...

[madfloridian]

9. I disagree. I say kudos to the DNC.

People who have been displaced, lost their homes, have no home base, many still in shock....sometimes find it easier to have some guidance.

Sounds like you may be blaming the victims, some of whom have no way to get back, no place to stay, blaming them for leaving.

Maybe I am misreading your statement.

I wish the party would also get involved with Medicare D, because seniors are hurting badly. Many of them are unable to cope with all of the complicated issues involved.

I say good for the DNC. I like this. It sounds effective, it sounds helpful.

[autorank]

13. madfloridian, You're on target. The alliance for democracy...

DNC and NAACP. What's so controversial about voting rights. Nothing. It's a natural issue and if it applies to Katrina evacuees, then great. It's a must.

[Pacifist Patriot]

16. I hope I am misunderstanding you. As it is, your comments...

are too reminiscent of the folks who blamed the Katrina deaths on the victims because they just wouldn't get out of the city. Completely overlooking the reality of means. I think this situation is entirely too complicated to write it off as no controversy because people are simply too lazy to get their butts back to a city that may not be ready for them yet. Every story is different. In some cases you'd be right but in others you'd be wrong.

[BOSSHOG]

19. The city and the state

are making every effort to ensure all registered voters get the opportunity to vote. I welcome the DNC efforts as I do any effort to get out the vote. I'm not blaming anyone for anything. But we are going on eight months now. If a resident wants to vote, then they can do so. But I can just see the news stories after the election from Houston and Atlanta and elsewhere - citizens denied right to vote! I love New Orleans more than any city on the planet. I want it back to where it was before 29 August. I want the citizens to come back. And I must say, the white guys running for Mayor want them to come back as well and are working to make that happen. What I see now is critics of the election judging those who have rolled up their sleeves and have worked tirelessly to aid and abet the city in many ways by the color of their skin not the content of their character, and I find that wrong.

[madfloridian]

22. Not what I hear from some TX areas....

where someone I know is working with those who were rendered homeless. There is great confusion in some quarters about how to vote, because some don't even have a semblance of their lives back.

[BOSSHOG]

24. In recent city elections in New Orleans

less than 50% of registered voters voted. Now all of a sudden many are concerned about how to vote. Prior to the hurricane in a relatively peaceful and easy way to vote, the majority of those who could vote chose not to. Candidates have gone to other states and there have been voting information meetings outside the state with very few people showing up to get information. This all out push to get the vote out boggles my mind. Where was the NAACP in previous elections?

[Jack_DeLeon]

23. I agree with you.

Also plenty of Hispanics are in New Orleans working to bring the place back.

[madfloridian]

10. I had posted this in GD before I saw this. Link and a recommend for Funky

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x797003

This is the press release with the audio by Donna Brazile. I can not imagine any Democrat thinking this is not a good idea.

Sometimes something simple is the very best way. Listen to the audio.

[Vidar]

11. Good for Howard!

[Igel]

12. And yet the easiest link, that would easily be turned up,

is

http://sos.louisiana.gov/elections/DisplacedVoterFAQs.htm

All the necessary forms. I don't know about Atlanta, but most any public library in Houston would be able to produce the necessary forms. It requires not so much computer literacy as the willingness to ask somebody that's computer literate to search and print. Then a couple of stamps.

The computer literate could go to a Kinkos.

Evacuees may find it hard to vote. But they also may find it relatively simple to vote.

One thing I found distressing was being able to download a 1.5 Mb Excel-formated "list of Displaced Voters who have requested mail ballots." Should that really be public knowledge?

[autorank]

14. The "computer literate"...the evacuees are from the two poorest wards

in the city.

I'm not sure they've got a Dell laptop or Thinkpad to haul out and request forms.

Tens of billions of dollars are going to Halliburton and other fat cats to rebuilt the city, without the requirement to use local labor. Yet the Secretary of State isn't given one dime, in fact is prohibited by law from publicizing the primary or general election. No satellite voting outside the state of Louisiana.

Iraqis in America were given satellite voting privileges by the US government and Mexican citizens in this country could go to satellite voting places sponsored by the Mexican government.

Why can't Americans get satellite voting? It's obvious, the state legislature wants as few Katrina evacuees voting as possible to change the power structure in NOLA. Then the NOLA government will be quiescent in allowing the displacement to go on indefinitely.

Who benefits?

[Igel]

18. Your point is why I wrote ...

"It requires not so much computer literacy as the willingness to ask somebody that's computer literate to search and print. Then a couple of stamps." Even staff would probably help during downtime at a Houston Kinkos.

I guess it does require knowing that things like the Internet might have this sort of info. Perhaps a radio campaign would help? Getting stations to broadcast PSAs would be a simple matter for something like this.

[autorank]

20. Check this out...

Check out this article, it will provide background essential to understand where we are now. Since I wrote it, the state legislature has added more restrictions that prevent the contact of out of state evacuees for the purposes of a) registration, b) public information on candidates and c) voting.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0603/S00016.htm

How would they even know there was a primary or what the date was? the dates have been changed. Had they run at the time they were supposed to, there would have been NO ability of remote voters to register, NONE. That's the dog that didn't bark clue. They don't want them to vote.

Now, there is a restriction on dealing with people out of state, letting them know. Surely with all the billions going to contractors to rebuild the city, there is enough money, maybe a couple of hundred thousand, to inform remote voters a) about the date and b) about how you get voting information.

Why would they have to intuit when the primary is, get a psychic hotline message as to what URL to use at the library or how to search google, just in order to vote.

The LA Secretary of State Atter had a multi step program to mail information to evacuees, run PSA's (he even had major celebs lined up), and introduce satellite voting (which Iraqis and Mexican nationals get in this country). HE WAS TURNED DOWN BY THE STATE LEGISLATURE. Who benefits? This is a scam and a travesty. Who benefits?

Baring outreach efforts for poor disbursed, predominantly black voters evacuated from NOLA due to the utter stupidity of federal, state and local leaders ultimately rewards those leaders because the evacuees would certainly vote their interests, which would exclude the idiots who let this happen.

[rucky]

15. Question: How do Katrina refugees get their mail?

and why can't they be sent absentee ballots?

:shrug:

[PATRICK]

17. The Postal Service

From a distant perspective(it would be great to hear from someone working at a Gulf Coast facility) there has been a large realignment of delivery centers for the coast. In the past, the convenience of having New orleans as a hub for everything ringing the coast is a thing of the past. Now we have a lot of exotic splits that seem fairly permanent. This has to be slowing down and dividing the efforts to restore that hub and the forwarding and change of addresses has to be another permanent drag. Whatever else, it has to costly and slow with the problem of deciding how to increase budgets and facilities now and in the future.

I can only imagine from the NOLA end having to deal the loss of past service standards and hubs how it affects an absentee mailing. I don't think the location of refugees is complete. Maybe the end of tax season will bring in more proper re-addresses.

[madfloridian]

21. The text of the DNC radio ad about how to vote...toll free number.

I see Sharpton and Jackson are there in NO this week-end. I am very proud to see our Democrats take this on.

Text of Radio Ad No. 1: Absentee Ballot

For audio of this ad, please insert the following link in your browser: http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/democratic1.downlo...

You may have lost your home. You may have even lost a loved one. But you have not lost your right to vote.

Hi, this is Donna Brazile.

If you are a displaced resident from New Orleans and were registered to vote before Hurricane Katrina, you have the right to vote in the April 22nd elections.

If you have not received an application for an absentee ballot please call our toll free number 1-888-D-E-M-VOTE to have one mailed to your current address.

In order to vote you must mail your application request before Tuesday April 18th. Again the number is 1-888-DEM-VOTE or 1-888- 336-8683. Don't give up your right to vote."

Here is the link to the press release by the DNC.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=63278

I posted it, kicked it twice myself the other day...then it dropped for lack of concern, or lack of something that we should not be lacking in. Is it caring? Is it fatigue?

Another hurricane season is on the way soon. I am still tired from all the other ones, and we did not have damage physically..just emotionally. There seems to be a lack of concern by many here for those who are living in tents and other makeshift places...facing a new season.

So a kick for this thread and the link to Donna's message.