LOD: What is Vulgar?
Comedian Sarah Silverman has a wicked short video on YouTube about f**king voters in unpleasant ways. If her language seems offensive, what about the guts of what she’s describing? Nasty stuff.
LOD: 60,000+ New Young Voters
Thanks to a unique law in North Carolina, more than 100,000 16 and 17 year olds have preregistered to vote over the past 32 months and about 63,000 of them will be 18 and automatically fully registered by November 6, 2012. In many tight races, these young voters could make a big difference; and an [...]
LOD: Growing Latino Vote in NC
A report released today reveals that North Carolina has 115,000 registered Latino voters or nearly 25,000 more than the official count at the State Board of Elections (which only began asking voters their ethnicity in 2002). That's a 35% increase over the number in October 2008. In addition, the report says another 100,000 unregistered Latino [...]
LOD: Lightning Bolts In Our Spirit
Check out this video of slam master Bluz of Charlotte rapping on more than you hear at first listen; it begins 1 minute into the video, after Robert Dawkin’s introduction. Thanks to the Democracy Summer team in Charlotte for hosting the “Shade of Democracy” event – a “fusion of art and activism.”
LOD: Top-Down Voter Suppression
Editorial writers in Asheville, Wilmington, Raleigh, and other cities are rightly blasting the General Assembly’s leadership for eliminating $660,000 in the state funding that would have released $4.1 million in federal money for voting machines, poll workers, and Early Voting centers. Why give up a $7 return on a $1 investment? Word on the inside [...]
LOD: Daily Show in Florida
Want to know what kind of havoc an anti-voter governor can inflict on citizens he doesn’t like? You can get a taste from the initiatives of Gov. Rick Scott in Florida, including ridiculous rules for registering new voters that drove away the League of Women Voters and mean-spirited ethnic cleansing of voters already on the [...]
LOD: Youth Alert
A father in coastal Carteret County writes about his daughter’s hectic week of a senior prom, body piercing, and first time voting - a glimpse into the promising world ahead for us and the value of good parenting. Tucked inside Brad Rich’s story is something else, too: His daughter, Summer, was handed the wrong ballot [...]
LOD: Ask the Moms
Hey, check out this blog posting from Beth Messersmith of MomsRising. Maybe it will bring back fond memories or introduce you to timely resources for this election – plus, it describes a kids/family friendly event this Saturday. Another mother called Democracy NC today to let us know she was given the wrong ballot by the election [...]
LOD: Participatory Democracy
Video: Fifty years of “participatory democracy” – from 1962 to 2012, from the Freedom Movement to Occupy Wall Street – as told by SDS co-founder Tom Hayden in a video interview today with Democracy Now. Hayden was the principal author of the “Port Huron Statement,” the 1962 manifesto of the white student movement; his cover article in this week’s [...]
LOD: A Fighter for You
VIDEO: Former Marine Tim Thompson is nervous about his first protest, but nevertheless confronts elections officials in Tennessee on Super Tuesday and refuses to show the required picture ID in order to vote. He has the proper ID, but sacrifices his ability to vote on behalf of thousands of low-income, older, and college-age citizens [...]