Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Here is an interesting email I received just before the election. I figure my readers might enjoy it. Here it is with no commentary from me:
This [is an] e-mail that I received as part of the grad-student e-mail distribution list.....
Okay, everyone (except for the 1 or 2 Republicans in the Dept),
Moveon is organizing a huge push this Wed to have volunteers talk to registered, but unlikely, voters. Motivating Kerry voters who tend not to show up at the polls could make all the difference for Pennsylvania.
Come to the church at the corner of Murray and Forbes this Wed at 5:30 to get involved.
This is a good cause and it is important. Republicans are doing everything they can to suppress the vote, including organizing Jim Crow-era intimidation tactics in Ohio -- see articles in NYT.
I put together the following reply, but wimped out and decided not to send it -- I'm not quite ready to come out of the closet as a Republican yet:
I assume you're alluding either to the GOP's challenge to about 35,000 newly registered voters in Ohio, or to the fact that the GOP has been recruiting so-called "vote challengers" to monitor polling-places. In either case, the comparison to "Jim Crow-era intimidation tactics" is unfair.
First, mail sent to those new registrants (including "Jive Turkey, Sr.," "Dick Tracy," and "Mary Poppins") was returned as undeliverable -- not conclusive proof that the registrations themselves were fraudulent, but disconcerting enough that no one concerned with the integrity of the electoral process ought to oppose the proposition that Mr. (or Ms. -- who knows with a first name like "Jive") Turkey, Mr. Tracy, and Ms. Poppins should at least present some form of identification as a prerequisite to casting a vote.
Second, Ohio law (O.R.C. ยง 3505.21) expressly permits political parties to appoint one challenger to serve at each polling-place. Far from being illegal, this practice is obviously designed to help prevent voter fraud -- something that, presumably, members of neither party would support.
Believe it or not, I'm not spoiling for a fight here. I just think your e-mail crossed the line between calling for civic engagement (which is great) and purely partisan advocacy (which is arguably an inappropriate use of the e-mail distribution list, just as it's arguably rude of me to send this kind of e-mail to someone that I have yet to meet in person!).
I liked it well enough that I didn't want to waste it, and, while wandering disheartened through my bookmarks, decided that you might possibly get a kick out of it.
This [is an] e-mail that I received as part of the grad-student e-mail distribution list.....
Okay, everyone (except for the 1 or 2 Republicans in the Dept),
Moveon is organizing a huge push this Wed to have volunteers talk to registered, but unlikely, voters. Motivating Kerry voters who tend not to show up at the polls could make all the difference for Pennsylvania.
Come to the church at the corner of Murray and Forbes this Wed at 5:30 to get involved.
This is a good cause and it is important. Republicans are doing everything they can to suppress the vote, including organizing Jim Crow-era intimidation tactics in Ohio -- see articles in NYT.
I put together the following reply, but wimped out and decided not to send it -- I'm not quite ready to come out of the closet as a Republican yet:
I assume you're alluding either to the GOP's challenge to about 35,000 newly registered voters in Ohio, or to the fact that the GOP has been recruiting so-called "vote challengers" to monitor polling-places. In either case, the comparison to "Jim Crow-era intimidation tactics" is unfair.
First, mail sent to those new registrants (including "Jive Turkey, Sr.," "Dick Tracy," and "Mary Poppins") was returned as undeliverable -- not conclusive proof that the registrations themselves were fraudulent, but disconcerting enough that no one concerned with the integrity of the electoral process ought to oppose the proposition that Mr. (or Ms. -- who knows with a first name like "Jive") Turkey, Mr. Tracy, and Ms. Poppins should at least present some form of identification as a prerequisite to casting a vote.
Second, Ohio law (O.R.C. ยง 3505.21) expressly permits political parties to appoint one challenger to serve at each polling-place. Far from being illegal, this practice is obviously designed to help prevent voter fraud -- something that, presumably, members of neither party would support.
Believe it or not, I'm not spoiling for a fight here. I just think your e-mail crossed the line between calling for civic engagement (which is great) and purely partisan advocacy (which is arguably an inappropriate use of the e-mail distribution list, just as it's arguably rude of me to send this kind of e-mail to someone that I have yet to meet in person!).
I liked it well enough that I didn't want to waste it, and, while wandering disheartened through my bookmarks, decided that you might possibly get a kick out of it.
