Year: 2018

Why We Need to Get Out the Vote

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Arizona registered voters & the turnout so far:

DEMOCRAT REPUBLICAN OTHER
REGISTERED 1,151,745 1,288,332 1,238,038
EARLY VOTERS 325,598 429,283 222,713
28% 33% 18%

We can do better! The election is in 8 days.

The Get Out The Vote effort only works when we have enough people who are willing to reach out to all those that are reluctant to vote, don’t know how to vote, or don’t think it matters if they vote.

Will you partner with someone to Get out the vote?

Yesterday we canvassed near Prince Rd in Flowing Wells School District, where I have volunteered for many years with Literacy Connects-Reading Seed Program and with the Jewish Community Relations Council-Making a Difference Every Day: The Homer Davis Project . . . Two exemplary programs that benefit our community. Many people weren’t home, so we left information to help them vote. Those that were home were happy to have more info about the propositions.

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An Open Letter to Stacey Abrams

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Dear Representative Abrams: I wholeheartedly support your candidacy. Your election would be great for Georgia, and great for America. No candidate to my knowledge ever has faced a more blatant, corrupt case of vote rigging than you have. Your fight against the most despicable of Republican vote suppression tactics has been an inspiration to millions, … Read more

Robert Mueller refers alt-Reich media sex assault hoax targeting him to FBI for investigation

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Mark Sumner at Daily Kos has the set up for this story:

[N]oted figures in the most radical edges of the white nationalist media, including conspiracy theory central The Gateway Pundit, are spreading the “a big story is coming on Mueller” seeds. The gist of this upcoming “story” seems to be claims that Mueller is guilty of sexual harassment. As journalist Scott Stedman reports, this idea has been percolating among the alt-Reich ranks for some time.

Stedman: Two weeks ago, I was contacted by a woman who claimed to be a former associate of Mueller who said that she got a phone call from a man working on behalf of a GOP operative who was paying women to come forward to make up sexual assault allegations.

It’s unclear if these operatives have been able to find any takers, or if the story will simply be completely unsupported bullshit.

* * *

But this doesn’t appear to be a “story breaking.” It appears to be “story making.”

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Donald Trump adopts Rep. Steve King’s racist idea to end birthright citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment

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President Donald Trump is reviving an old chestnut of the racist white nationalists and nativists led by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) – ending birthright citizenship in the U.S.

Michael Bryan and I have done many posts on this topic since 2010. But here is one I did from 2015 that predicted today’s move by “Dear Leader.” The Mass Deportation Party wants to nullify constitutional ‘birthright’ citizenship (excerpt):

“Birthright” citizenship is contained in the 14th Amendment, Section 1. It is not a “policy,” it is a constitutional right. If Steve “cantaloupe calves” King wants to change this, it will require a constitutional amendment. But his bill is proceeding on the assumption that he can nullify this constitutional provision by a simple legislative act. The right-wing National Journal even goes so far as to suggest that the “next president” (presumably a Republican) could do this by an executive order. This is how unhinged the leaders of the Mass Deportation Party are.

Cue today’s New York Times report, President Wants to Use Executive Order to End Birthright Citizenship:

President Trump said he was preparing an executive order that would nullify the long-accepted constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship in the United States, his latest attention-grabbing maneuver days before midterm congressional elections as he has sought to activate his base by vowing to clamp down on immigrants and immigration.

“We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years, with all of those benefits,” Mr. Trump told Axios during an interview that was released in part on Tuesday, making a false claim. “It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end.”

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Turning out the youth vote – you can make a difference

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There have been numerous reports in recent weeks speculating about whether or not the youth vote will turn out in a midterm election. Historically, they do not. This election, however, may be different.

After The Parkland Shooting, Youth Voter Registration Surges: States with critical elections that may decide control of the U.S. Senate and House showed large increases in youth registration, including Pennsylvania (16.14 point increase), Arizona (+8.2 point increase), Florida (+8), Virginia (+10.5), Indiana (+9.9), and New York (+10.7).

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NextGen America, which was founded by California billionaire Tom Steyer, has put up $3 million in Arizona this year to register young people, specifically those aged 18 to 35, and get them to the polls. In Arizona, an effort to register young people to vote was a success.

They were aiming to register 15,000 new young voters this year and instead netted more than 21,000.

But history isn’t on their side — younger voters have the lowest turnout rates in Arizona.

A report from the Morrison Institute for Public Policy found only 19 percent of votes cast in the 2016 election in Arizona came from Millennials, while 37 percent came from Baby Boomers, despite the fact that there are more Millennials than boomers here.

Only 29 percent of Arizona Millennials voted during the 2016 election, the report said.

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