Midterms Matter: Get Out the Vote Efforts Key to 2014 Elections

USW International Vice President Fred Redmond and progressive talk show host Leslie Marshall this week discussed the vital importance of voting in this year’s midterm election.

“I think the Republicans are betting on this being a typical midterm election where blacks and Latinos stay at home, where organized labor, feeling the pinch of this economy, is going to stay at home. And what we have to do is turn that around,” said Redmond.

Only about 40 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the 2010 midterm election. As a result, right wing extremists were able to pass a spate of legislation that has been catastrophic for workers, students, the elderly and the poor.

Twenty-two states enacted regressive measures making it harder to vote, and dozens have slashed their states’ social safety nets, launched attacks on organized labor, cut money from education, and advanced corporate interests at the expense of working people.

“What we need to do is to take it upon ourselves to make sure our families and neighbors understand the stakes in this election,” said Redmond.

“Election day is the one day that the Koch brothers and the average working person are the same. Every citizen in this country is eligible to vote, and everyone is entitled to one vote,” said Redmond.

“We can’t match them dollar for dollar. There’s no way we could do that. What we have to do is knock on doors, get on the phone, and explain to people what’s at stake in this election.”

To hear the whole conversation, click the audio below.

 

Background Material

Next Gen, WOS, Rapid Response Out in Force on National Voter Registration Day

Here Are All the Ways You Can Celebrate National Voter Registration Day!

Voter Registration

Elections officials urging online voter registration

Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections Position Paper: Online Voting

Since 2010, Republicans have passed voter-suppression laws in 22 states, and nearly half the nation’s population could be affected in November’s balloting. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP have succeeded in postponing and overturning some. That includes the one in Pennsylvania, where the law’s Republican supporters conceded in court they had absolutely no evidence of in-person voter fraud. In Texas, the expert called to testify by Republicans supporting the law admitted when cross-examined that he was unaware of a single case of in-person voter fraud there. In Wisconsin, Republican officials acknowledged in depositions that they could not produce one example of in-person voter fraud in the entire state history.

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