Life After November 2nd

This project is now six months old. I really do want to thank everyone for this experience. We have distributed hundreds of CD's around the city. Most Milwaukeans were happy to receive it (with a few exceptions, like the guy on Brady Street last night that smashed his copy in front of Katie and I). It's kind of unfortunate that this website was slowed down to almost a halt at the time when most of the discs were being distributed. This was a problem with the Blogger feed and not Urbanstar.com or our host. Nonetheless, most people who visited the site during this time were unable to read it. Urbanstar has been receiving an average of over 1000 hits per day. So, we are being seen, and now, heard!

Thanks to Mary (Myra), Dennis (Doc), Kelly, Jay, Mike (M.T. Hat), and Ken (The Mayor) for the insightful interviews. And, thanks to Kate, Ed, Joe, Lance (Roy), and Christian (Wingnut) for all of the great posts.

I am impressed by the form political protest and dialogue have taken on the Internets. Everyone has a voice now. I'll have to admit, when we started out, I didn't think we would be so focused on the elections. But, that seems to be what was on everyone's mind. Now that it's almost that time, it makes me wonder what will happen, not just to this site, but to all of us who have been living our lives as activists, working to an end, that being a November 2nd victory.

Personally, my work for this cause is done now, except for the one most important thing of all, to VOTE ON TUESDAY! I go to work over the next three days. On Tuedsay, I'll spend the day with my neice and two daughters. Around 5:30 P.M. I'll head to the polls to vote. Then I'll come home, open a bottle of wine with Kate, turn on the T.V. and watch everything unfold.

It will be nice to get past Tuesday, and start doing something more fun and creative with the site, and my life for that matter. I have a strong feeling about a Kerry victory, as long as you all get out there and make your voice heard, and as long as there isn't more funny business at the polls like in 2000. Doc is on the job in this regard, as a poll watcher. The Bush administration has been like a horrible bad dream for many of us. On Tuesday, we will hopefully be able to start waking up from the nightmare. If not, well, let's just say the flag I fly over my next home will probably have a maple leaf on it. After all, at Kate's work they have a campaign going called "Vote Kerry, Keep Kate!"

Peace to all,
Jim

Fox News Claims Student Voter Registration is a Felony

By J.R. Engeriser, Milwaukee Urban Star

If you are a student in Arizona and try to vote, Fox News wants to let you know that you are possibly committing a felony. A women's advocacy group in Tucson found themselves on the local news as potential criminals for their "Get Out Her Vote" campaign late last month.

"The reporter asked if we knew that we were potentially signing students up to commit felonies," says Juliana Zuccaro, a representative of the Network of Feminist Student Activists. Although out-of-state students may register to vote under Arizona law, Fox News insisted that it was a crime.

Here is a portion of the transcript from that broadcast:

Tejeda: What many don't realize is that legally, students from out of state aren't eligible to vote in Arizona because they're considered temporary residents.

Chris Roads [Pima County Registrar's office]: If they are only here to attend school and their intention is to immediately return to where they came from when school is over then they are not residents of the state of Arizona for voting purposes and they cannot register to vote here.

Tejeda: ...Those caught misrepresenting their residency can face a severe punishment.

Roads: The form in Arizona is an affidavit; it is a felony offense if you are lying on that form.

Tejeda: So how easy is it to get caught? Well, starting this past January all voter applications are crosschecked with the Motor Vehicles Department and Social Security Administration. If they find that you are falsifying your residency you could be prosecuted.

The problem is, all students who can legally vote in the United States of America have the right to do so where they attend school. The Supreme Court made sure of that by means of a 1979 ruling. Certain states, arguably in direct defiance of the Supreme Court ruling, still require that an absentee ballot be used, causing confusion for students wishing to excercise their right to vote. However, in Arizona, students may legally use their new address to register. Amazingly, that fact did not stop the Registrar's office or Fox from sending out this false 'you can't vote here' message.

You can lean more and take action by clicking here: CECAction Center. Don't let anyone intimidate young voters or suppress their votes. Send a message to Fox to retract the wrongful claims and to set the record straight regarding student voter rights.