Moyers writes: "So, come out from under the covers or get off your couch, and stop wringing your hands; as the old song goes, there's nothing to it but to do it. Find people near you who are standing together to tackle a wrong and make it right, clean up a mess, turn the rascals out."

Bill Moyers, 08/24/11. (photo: PBS)

Share Your Stories of Voter Suppression

By Bill Moyers, Moyers & Company

17 August 12

here's plenty you can do and the more of you who do it, the more effective and powerful the results. It's a chain reaction, democracy.

Here's an example: Three high school girls in Montclair, New Jersey, got fed up when they learned that no woman journalist has moderated a presidential debate in 20 years. So they put together a petition and collected nearly 200,000 signatures. And a few days ago, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that on October 16, CNN's Candy Crowley will be at the wheel during the second presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Coincidence? If these three high school kids can do something, you can, too

Another example: Michael Waldman and Keesha Gaskins are a couple of level-headed realists from the Brennan Center for Justice -- smart people who know how bad the world can be. You heard them on Moyers & Company talking about what citizens are doing to fight back against attempts across the country to suppress the vote.

In Maine, voters "vetoed " the politicians by mounting a campaign to overturn a bill that would have required a government issued photo ID to vote. Ordinary everyday citizens of Maine repealed a state law that would have forbidden registration on Election Day.

The fight against suppression of the vote is taking place all over the country. And here's one thing you can do: Tell us if you and your friends and neighbors see efforts underway to make it harder to register or vote where you live. Share your stories with us. Send them to us and we'll spread the word.

So, come out from under the covers or get off your couch, and stop wringing your hands; as the old song goes, there's nothing to it but to do it. Find people near you who are standing together to tackle a wrong and make it right, clean up a mess, turn the rascals out.

I'm Bill Moyers and I approve this message. I hope you do, too.

Comments

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- The RSN Team

+3 # MidwestTom 2012-08-17 19:52

I looked for some votr suppression victims while visiting our City-CountyAdmi nistration Building where about 150 people work, and where you must go to deal with anything involving local government. Then I realized that there would noy be anyone there without a government issued Photo ID, because you can't get into the building without a photo ID.

+36 # CL38 2012-08-17 20:39

We do approve your message....than ks for what you're doing!

+15 # Bill Clements 2012-08-17 21:07

Bill Moyers is a National Treasure for keeping hope alive and for encouraging and reminding all of us that we are not powerless victims going up against an invincible foe. All that is lacking is our full participation.

-6 # dick 2012-08-17 21:16

Love you Bill, but given TOTAL surveillance, Indefinite Detention, Criminal Syndicate MegaBanks, bizarre CONCENTRATIONS of WEALTH&POWER, & bought off politicians, it's going to take a lot more than female moderators at phony debates & voting for candidates who ALL turn out to represent the 00.01%. We face the greatest domestic threat to our country since the Civil War.
The Of the People, By the People, For the People Union was not preserved with bromides & petitions; people should not be misled. Either extraordinary sacrifices will be made, or Lincoln's vision will indeed perish. Slavocracy will rise again.

-2 # Harold R. Mencher 2012-08-17 21:36

Why are we only blaming the Republicans in attempting to suppress the Democratic vote. Obama and the Democrats in Washington are supposed to be intelligent and experienced politicians and could have prevented all of this when they had strong control of both Houses of Congress in January of 2009 by repealing HAVA, the Help America Vote Act, and passing a new law requiring all elections within the United States, be it local, state or federal, to use paper ballots only with the counting to be done by human hands and eyes rather than e-voting machines. They should have also strengthened the Voting Rights Act to prevent what the Republican controlled states are doing right now. Everything that the Republicans are doing were completely predictable when Obama took office, most especially since the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. The Democrats, like ostriches, had their heads stuck in the sand and refused to see the truth. Even today Obama and Democrats refuse to admit the danger in using these fraudulent and corruptible e-voting machines.

+10 # JAM65FUR 2012-08-17 23:26

I whole heartedly approve this message. We are only as sick as our secrets, I read once. Of course people should have an option for early voting. Why wouldn't they in a democracy?

+12 # humanmancalvin 2012-08-17 23:36

Thank you Mr. Moyers for pointing out the need for action to stop the purging of Democratic leaning voters by the Radical Right Insurgency. Sound bite spewers like MidwestTom are content with this illegal voter suppression as it effects the Liberal base & it is already proven that stealing the presidential election works. ( re: Bush steals White House, 2000 & 2004)
This is not the time to sit idly by; our country needs & deserves we progressive Liberals to fight & fight hard.

+5 # barbaratodish 2012-08-18 00:33

How's this for voter suppression: The people who are the paid poll workers are usually BULLIES! They are usually mean, rush you when you vote! Try to ask for help to write in a vote &/or ask ANY questions! They have PENCILS tied to the machine that either are not sharpened, the write in vote can be erased if a pencil is used! More recently since write in voting is now typed in, at least in Essex County NJ,if you ask for instructions to do a write in they treat you like a child,like you are an idiot for needing to ask. There's always "goons" handing out vote cards! We NEED on line write in voting to escape poll bullying! No wonder there's voter apathy!We need alternatives to recruited, groomed, vetted, "bought" candidates! We need to RISK expanding write in voting with ON LINE WRITE IN VOTING-even IF theres a chance it could be "FIXED" because the machines can be HACKED,etc,to THROW an election-see the recent programmer whistle blower who testified in congress @ how votes are switched using programming "formulas", terminology escapes me, its a term like "vector", mathematical "code". Theres an absence of any candidates that are AT ALL able to RELATE to the voter cause they're airhead "puppets", that description is being KIND, so it's IMPORTANT that we TRY to have alternatives to walk in voting, like ON LINE, or even CALL IN (WRITE IN) VOTING. Maybe we should all demand EXIT POLL CALL IN VOTING that would at least, POSSIBLY, be a CHECK on the voting machine results! lmao

+8 # ritaague 2012-08-18 03:34

Yes indeed, Bill M., thanks and go, man, go! Here are a few sad but true stories for you re. voter suppression:

Google: Rita Ague, Colorado Independent, and pull up my getting kicked out, in 2006, of G.O.P. El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Balink's office, as I attempted to do an 'early vote'. Reason for getting kicked out: wearing my little "Grandmother's for Peace" button.

Then Google what Balink did, two years later, to attempt to disenfranchise Colorado College students, i.e. threaten that their parents could be investigated by the I.R.S. should students, even though legitimately registered to vote, proceed to vote. Then Sen. Mark Udall marched with approx. 200 C.C. students to Balink's C.& R. office to protest. Balink later recanted. He is still an elected pol., now County Treasurer.

Then, there were all the registered voters, mainly low income and minority, who were intimidated/har assed in southeastern Colorado Spgs. in '08, resulting in a lawsuit brought by Common Cause in '08, with court supervised settlement agreement coming in Jan. '09. Neither the G.O.P. nor Dem. local parties notified reg. voters of this case/settlement agreement.

Protest we must to OCCUPY LIBERTY & JUSTICE FOR ALL !

+10 # Bookmark 7 2012-08-18 05:15

Bill Moyers, you are a national treasure!
We're so glad you are back on PBS because you do thorough and fair interviews...yo u are probably one of the very few real journalists left.

-17 # JackB 2012-08-18 07:20

Why the hue & cry over picture IDs. The poor, minorities & elderly have no problem with anything else that requires a photo ID. Why is voting a problem.

When I registered to vote I was issued a voter ID. No picture - it was before photo IDs. It had to be presented to vote. No card. No vote. The poor, minorities, elderly - you name it & with their card they could vote. No problem.

Doctors, banks, hospitals, supermarkets, stores & on & on want to see a photo ID to verify a person is who they claim to be. No one seems to have a problem with it. I guess liberals haven't gotten around to that yet.

Photo IDs are an inconvenience. They do not disenfranchise anyone. To suggest the poor, elderly & minorities cannot get the IDs is an insult to them. That's telling them they are too damn dumb to survive with a liberal supporting them.

If you look at this issue closely it sure looks like the liberals are trying hard to remove obstacles to voter fraud.

+10 # stoher9 2012-08-18 07:59

If you look at this issue closely it sure looks like the liberals are trying hard to remove obstacles to voter fraud.
People with voter ID cards, issued by the state when people registered in person, are now not allowed to vote without buying a picture ID. Theis is an obstacle to voting. All studies done over the last 20 years have shown that THERE IS NO VOTER FRAUD by people impersonating a registered voter. This is all the fraud that photo ID would prevent.

-4 # JackB 2012-08-18 09:11

A good post.

The Jimmy Carter led commission recommended the photo ID to protect the integrity of the electoral process.

The Supreme Court upheld the Indiana law.

In neither instance was there much, if any, evidence of voter fraud yet the decisions supported the photo IDs.

I still think it is a good idea.

I do not attach any importance to the "inconvenience" argument. Every time one leaves their house it is a form of inconvenience. People go to school, church, the store, the doctor, the movies, wherever & it's no problem.

Cost is a different issue. I think you are absolutely right about the cost factor. There should be none to the applicant. Actually I think the cost is not for the ID but rather for what is needed to prove you are entitled to it. Either way I think that is wrong.

+11 # Reductio Ad Absurdum 2012-08-18 09:37

You severely underestimate the many burdens such a needless solution to a non-existent problem heaps on millions of Americans. If this isn't outright voter suppression, how do you explain the Republican's ALEC-coordinate d campaign to suppress early voting, military voting, absentee voting, extended voting hours, registration drives and their purging of qualified voters from the rolls based on inaccurate data? And don’t forget their voting-day intimidation and their spreading misinformation to trick voters into not voting. Don’t forget the strategy of Republican-cont rolled voting commissions that purposefully under staff polls in poor Dem districts like we saw in Florida with Katherine Harris in 2000. If the Republicans really were concerned about voter fraud, they would offer a multitude of ways to ensure in-person voter validity without unduly encumbering voters. They offer none. How do you explain their complete lack of concern for the most dangerous and likely fraud of all — VOTE TAMPERING, especially since we're still voting on easily hacked Diebold machines from a company that’s run by a Republican operator? How do you explain outright statements from Republicans admitting that voter suppression will favor Republicans and ensure a win? Stop trying to rationalize voter suppression and admit it’s a cowardly, craven attack on democracy itself — about as un-American a thing as you can imagine, until the Republicans come up with something even more vile.

+7 # Ajijico 2012-08-18 07:38

Voter suppression isn't new. My wife and I moved out of the US shortly before the second Bush election so we had to vote by absentee ballot. However, we were back in the States, Ohio in fact, before all the ballot counting was done. However, we were back in Ohio before the ballot counting was done. On TV we saw the Republican Secretary of State announce that they weren't going to count the absentee ballots because there weren't enough of them to change the outcome of the election. Our votes were never counted! OUCH!

+1 # JackB 2012-08-18 09:18

Interesting. I can see where that could easily tick a person off. While there is logic to it there seems to be a sort of division into two classes of citizens - ballot box & absentee.

I had always been under the impression the absentee ballots were counted first. They were already there & there were never enough of them to skew the election except on a local level where the total overall vote is not that great.

I hope the experience didn't sour you on voting.

+2 # 6thextinction 2012-08-18 11:16

i live in michigan. i.d. is asked for but not required if you sign the back of the slip given to you before voting. this year i was asked for picture i.d. (not required in Mich) and when i said i'd ridden my bike, and would just sign the back as required, i was told in no uncertain terms, that i must have a picture i.d. (which is not legally required.) i insisted i did not, and after a few uncomfortable exchanges, i was allowed to vote.

a person unsure of the law, would have caved in, i am sure.

+1 # 6thextinction 2012-08-18 11:19

absentee ballets are where fraudulent counting really does occur. (just think about it a moment--how easy "losing" ballots would be.) that's why i never vote absentee, and neither should you.

+2 # zeep 2012-08-18 12:27

The next worst voter suppression is self inflicted when individuals fail to inform themselves and vote irrationally or do not vote at all!

0 # JackB 2012-08-19 19:23

Odd. No mention of the Black Panthers in Philadelphia in 2008.

0 # gtoser@comcast.net 2012-08-20 12:51

As a Democratic precinct judge in Harris County Texas (contains Houston), the most populated county in the US, I attend annually voter law updates. I always ask about voter fraud in the county. Most times I am asked to privately contact the Harris County ADA for voter irregularities. Only once did I receive a detailed report from the ADA. The report involved the election of 2008. There were about 800 complaints reported from poll workers and the general public. All complaints were investigated by the office of the ADA. The vast majority involved older voters who were confused as to whether they had voted in the early voting period or not. There was only one case that indicated voter fraud, where a voter impersonated his deceased father. He was indited, but the ADA said that the outcome of the trial was unknown at the time. Therefore we have a concrete and reliable of the extent of voter fraud in the largest county in the US.
George Oser, gtoser@comcast.net

0 # sirvertual 2012-08-24 16:12

When I was a little kid...hanging out with my dad (a European Infantry Vet & career State Cop, Racism (in OUR home, even back in those 1960's - was NOT tolerated - AT ALL)...Because I rode with him many times even on criminal stops (They were allowed to use their State cars as family vehicles, back then), I did witness him knock a ouple of rednecks clean-out with a single backhand (ONLY after disobeying numerous warnings to behave..I never saw a guy in handcuffs, but always knew I was safe)...At any rate, I grew up having THE DEEPEST RESPECT for IMMIGRANTS (& UNFAIRLY TREATED BLACKS, as well) who wanted to be AMERICANS & IN OUR DEMOCRACY SO BAD, they did the things that 'WE' (those born here) did NOT HAVE TO UNDERGO...Today 's republicans are a DISGRACE IN EVERY ASPECT & REALLY SHOULD BE DISBANDED COMPLETELY (until they learn to behave in a democratic - 'AMERICAN' manner)...MANY SHOULD BE SERVING HARD TIME...BUT MONEY WILL BUY THAT TOO...Lastly, ANY PERSON WHO SEEKS TAX SHELTERS OFFSHORE (to avoid paying INCOME TAXES, SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO SEEK ANY ELECTED OFFICE WHATSOVER!..(IT 'S COMMON SENSE!)...

0 # sirvertual 2012-08-25 08:34

Ryan budget will immediately cut 20-million OFF from the disability insurance (Medicaid) They've depended (DEPEND) on for basic survival.

The elderly will be comletely traumatized and that rumor of 'DEATH PANELS (the horrible term 'made-up' by the shifty, lying republicans in an attempt to hurt the Obama administration) early on WILL SUDDENLY BECOME THE REALITY FOR OUR ELDERLY AMERICANS!...In reality, the ryan budget (a farce to shelter and accumulate even greater wealth for the richest 1%) WILL BE SHIFTED TO THOSE ELDERLY PEOPLE IN NURSING HOMES, Wheelchairs, respirators, etc. will somehow HAVE TO FIND OVER $6500.00 MORE MONEY JUST TO KEEP FROM BEING THROWN INTO THE STREETS WITHOUT MEDICAL ASSISTANCE or THE MEDICATIONS THEY NEED!...The UNBRIDLED GREED and complete lack of any morally or ethically treatment towards Our own people is criminal at the very least...Of the worst people who exist in this world are the greedy-types like Romney, ryan, cheney carl rove and we certainly can't forget the creepiest of the creepy like the hannity's and the rush limbaughs of this world!...It's amazing (to me anyway), that we allow these types of greedy bastards, criminal in every breath they take, hurting people in greater numbers than many wars have. THE RIGHT TO VOTE (Carl Rove & cronies) KEEP AMERICANS FROM EXERCISING THEIR RIGHTS! Today's republicans are simply criminals within our political system and FOR THE SAKE OF OUR DEMOCRACY MUST BE STOPPED!

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