we can't beat Bush

[pasadenaboy]

unless we increase the number of voters. The reason we come out so bad on the likely voters polls is because so many people that will vote democratic are discouraged. Whomever the nominee is will need to reach out to all the people who aren't voting. If we just try to keep the same voting population, split the middle, and get one more vote, we will lose. We cannot win this way.

[Epoch]

1. Hear Hear...or here here

We need to go out and register new voters!

[F-5]

2. I'm doing my part here on campus

on registering new people for voting! (hopefully for a Democrat)

[Epoch]

6. awesome

me too! we're having 8 dorm storms in the next two weeks where we will knock on every door and register voters..in southern MD. where are you?

[aquart]

3. A nice, normal, routine tactic.

Get Out The Vote. GOTV.

Maybe they won't be so discouraged if we finally have a candidate who calls a spade a bloody shovel.

If you're angry and there is no outlet, you get discouraged. Democrats are angry. Especially at the wusses in our own party who lay down and let Bush walk on them.

[BigDaddyLove]

5. Do you think that anger is bad enough to prevent.......

Democrats from voting for a Democrat in November because they're angry at Democrats?

[BigDaddyLove]

4. But, we won the last election.........

how many people do you think who voted Democratic or Green in 2000 are going to vote Republican this time around?

You think there are enough of them to swing the vote (legitimately) in Bush's favor? I would submit that there are a lot more people who are pissed off at Bush enough these days to get them to vote this time around whether or not they've ever voted before.

Bush is his own worst enemy in my opinion.

[pasadenaboy]

8. I think the incumbent has the advantage, particularly with the security

issue. We will have to get a lot of discouraged voters to the poll to win.

A lot of repubs are very motivated, a lot of dems are more willing to vote for Bush because of the media and DNC love fest with him the last couple of years. NOw, the DNC will get tough (hopefully) for the next couple of months heading into the election, but I don't see them being able to drive Bush's negatives high enough with the current voting base.

[BigDaddyLove]

9. I partially agree, at least with regard to the security issue......

but I only think he'd have success there if in fact he had done a good job in that arena.

I wholeheartedly disagree that Democrats would be willing to vote for Bush (under any circumstances)...regardless of how the Media and DNC feel about him; at least I REALLY hope not.

[Dr.Phool]

7. First rule of registering

If you don't know how they're going to vote, don't encourage them!!!!

Talk to them for a while first, but don't give the opposition a new voter.

I don't know that it's illegal, but it's certainly unethical to toss their registrations. Talk to them first, and if you don't think they're on our side, don't OFFER to register them.

[piece sine]

11. that's not very good advice

It is illegal to toss their registrations, once taken. And you have an obligation as a citizen to treat every person justly. You have no right to second-guess anyone who who seeks to excercise their right to vote.

[mlawson]

14. I agree completely, rrrick51.

Time is past, when we assumed numerically that *most* new voters will be Dems. Hell, if the last four years have not been enough to get voting aged people to learn about the issues and vote, then let them stay at home! There is no telling what criteria they would use, if dragged into a voting booth, but it would probably not be what we would like.

[barbaraann]

10. National Voter Registration Form

http://www.fec.gov/votregis/vr.htm

I think this can be a valuable tool in taking back our democracy.

[buycitgo]

12. couldn't agree more.....here's the goldmine

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=934348

unregistered women voters represent like SIXTEEN MILLION potential votes, and lean VERY VERY heavily toward dems.

it's of the UTMOST importance to get them to the polls

but, as you can see, practical advice often dies aborning

[buycitgo]

15. see?

"Unmarried women, given what they think and feel, are the group with the greatest potential to be agents of progressive change in this country because of their size, their desire for change, and their record of under-voting," says Page Gardner, manager of the "Women's Voices Women's Vote" project.

Never-married, divorced or widowed women constitute a whopping 24 percent of the electorate and 42 percent of all registered women voters. In the 2000 elections, they represented the same percentage of the electorate as Jews, blacks, and Latinos combined. In terms of voting muscle, few can compete with the girl power of this constituency.

The good news is that they overwhelmingly vote Democrat. In fact, when viewed strictly in terms of percentage points, Bush led by one point among married women in 2000, while unmarried women preferred Al Gore by 31 points.

The liberal tilt among unmarried women voters is less a matter of feminism than economics. Chris Desser, who heads the Women's Vote project, says that unmarried women's politics are shaped by their position as the sole breadwinner. "From an economic perspective, they make less money and they're living much closer to the edge," she says. "They're just one income away from disaster if anything were to happen."

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17289

and this......

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/12/16/mgrind.day.dating/

But back to single women, who pollsters Celinda Lake and Stan Greenberg will report today are "progressive" (read: Democratic friendly), are "seeking change" (read: open to ousting President Bush) and "have the power to decide elections" and "can be convinced to participate."

Census numbers show that unmarried women make up 46 percent of all voting-age women and 56 percent of all unregistered women, according to the poll. As of 2000, there were 16 million unmarried, unregistered women and 22 million unmarried women who did not vote. If unmarried women voted at the same rate as married women, there would have been more than six million more voters in the electorate.

[buycitgo]

17. so, by the numbers in those links, if those six million women voted.......

at a 70-30 ratio, well, do the numbers

it's staggering.......over TWO MILLION more votes for ABB!

I don't hear ANYbody talking about this, much less organizing some sort of movement targeting this easily identifiable demographic.

[mlawson]

16. But that is what I don't get.

If they lean heavily towards the Dems, then WHY are they not registered?? It costs nothing but a very few minutes' time, and it's about as easy a task as any I can think of. If they can't bother to even register, why do we think they would be reliable voters (for the Dems)?

No one had to GET me to register, or anyone that I know. We could not WAIT to do it! I simply can't comprehend this.

[BigDaddyLove]

18. Aborning...........

Had to look that one up; thanks for the new word.

I keep thinking that this election will be one of the biggest draws for voters on record, simply because these last few years have been SO volatile and explosive that you simply cannot help but feel (relatively) passionate one way or the other toward Bush.

He has affected this country more than any President in recent history....everyone has been touched by him and his policies; and it's up to us to decide whether we want him to continue to touch us or not....I for one no longer want to be touched.

[kaitykaity]

13. Oh, stop with the negativity and the doom and gloom

please. :eyes:

[pasadenaboy]

19. I'm not being negative

we can win, we just can't win doing business is usual. We must have a candidate and campaign that will expand the electorate. Instead, we keep speaking to the people who voted in the last election. Let's have a message that incorporates way more people than "tax cuts for working families" and other tired slogans.

[FredScuttle]

20. oh I don't know

"tax cuts for working families" seems just fine to me...more so to my friends who are actually in working families.

calm down, have some dip. I completely agree that we need a big voter registration outreach in the coming year, but let's decide on a nominee first before we get all weepish over missing votes, eh?

[AlinPA]

21. A lot of people who voted "against Clinton" through Gore

by not showing up will come back.

[Must_B_Free]

22. Bush is NOT like a sore peter,

he CAN be beaten!

[Deja Q]

23. Don't forget the people who won't vote because they think it makes no

difference, or that all politicians are for the same.

These people put "Avoid politics" in their personals ads. They choose to accept the current system and work within it.

And when they refuse to take part in one of the few freedoms we (supposedly) have left, they're getting rammed without realizing it.

How do we get the "not interested" folks interested? That'll save our bacon.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

24. Anger and voter registration

Don't you feel that the polarization from this administration favors Democrats in registrations? All the mythology from Rove, with some support from the media seems to support a Bush juggernaut/landslide. While I worry somewhat about this it would tend to support complacency among Republican voters. The outrage is not on their side. Much as he'd like, there is no Clinton/Lewinsky to run against.