Watch the major speeches and full plenary presentations from the Facing Race 2008 Conference, Nov 13-15 in Oakland CA. The Conference was attended by over 900 participants. **** Check back to racewire.com for more followup videos and blogs on the Facing Race Conference and the Compact for Racial Justice
America still has lines of division. But Obama's many majorities are, in some, the measures of a unity not seen in some time. Obama won with overwhelming support from African Americans (96 percent), Jews (77 percent), gays and lesbians (71 percent), first-time voters (68 percent), Latinos (67 percent), Asians (63 percent), voters under 30 (66 percent), union members (59 percent) and women (55 percent). But, in key battleground states, the Democrat was taking one in 10 votes cast by Republicans, one in five cast by conservatives, one in three cast by evangelical Christians.
Obama was, as well, redrawing that map of red and blue states, winning across every time zone of the continental U.S.: all of New England, the Great Lakes states, three states of the old Confederacy, three states of the southwest and all of west coast.
The map is still red and blue. But the mix is such that it is possible to imagine a blurring toward purple. Impossible? The president-elect would suggest that we think again. "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy," Obama said in victory, "tonight is your answer."
Over 80,000 voter calls have now been received at the Election Protection Command Center.
Some emerging trends:
· Broward County leads Florida in voter requests for assistance.
· Registration-related problems rank #1 in nearly every battleground state - hundreds of calls focus on that problem, most often in Texas, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Florida, Colorado, and California
· Georgia voters are reporting more incidents of voter intimidation than any other state. Other reports of voter intimidation, scams or misinformation are also emerging in Ohio and Missouri.
· Florida voters rank #1 in requests related to criminal status and voting.
· Early voting problems are also being noticed particularly in Ohio, Missouri, Georgia, Florida and California
Other News
REJECTED REGISTRATIONS.
Officials in Delaware County, Pennsylvania have rejected 250 voter-registration applications and questioned more than 4,000 others, alleging concerns over voter fraud and potential mismatches. In Georgia, Secretary of State Karen Handel is proceeding with an effort to send letters to 4,770 registered voters believed to be non-citizens. The secretary’s office took up the charge after counties stopped their verifications processes over DOJ questioning.
ALL IN POLLWORKERS’ HANDS.
Lines, registration problems, what you can or can’t wear. All of these issues now and on Election Day may come down to how they are handled by volunteer pollworkers. Pollworkers work long hours often with minimal compensation. Many states and localities are actively recruiting more volunteers in an effort to stay ahead of the rush on Election Day.
Voting rights advocates are alarmed over the Florida Secretary of State's September 8th decision to enforce the state's "no-match, no-vote" law, a voter registration law that previously blocked more than 16,000 eligible Florida citizens from registering to vote, through no fault of their own, and could disenfranchise tens of thousands more voters in November.
Secretary of State Kurt Browning's last-minute decision to implement the law in the final month before the registration deadline will post a significant hurdle to eligible Florida citizens hoping to vote in November. It will disenfranchise voters who do not send or bring a photocopy of their driver's license to county election officials' offices after voting, even though these voters will have shown their driver's licenses when they went to vote at the polls.
"This 11th-hour decision is an ill-advised move to apply a policy the state has never enforced in its current form, at a time when registration activity is at its highest," stated Beverlye Neal, director of the Florida State Conference of the NAACP, a plaintiff in a lawsuit that challenges Florida's matching law. "The Secretary's decision will put thousands of real Florida citizens at risk due to bureaucratic typos that under the 'no-match, no-vote' law will prevent them from voting this November," said Alvaro Fernandez of the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project, another plaintiff in the case.
Mr. Obama has received overwhelming support from black voters, many of whom believe he will help bridge the nation’s racial divide. But even as they cheer him on, some black scholars, bloggers and others who closely follow the race worry that Mr. Obama’s historic achievements might make it harder to rally support for policies intended to combat racial discrimination, racial inequities and urban poverty.
They fear that growing numbers of white voters and policy makers will decide that eradicating racial discrimination and ensuring equal opportunity have largely been done.
“I worry that there is a segment of the population that might be harder to reach, average citizens who will say: ‘Come on. We might have a black president, so we must be over it,’ ” said Mr. Harrison, 59, a sociologist at Howard University and a consultant for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies here.
