AMAZING interview today with Ellen Kaplan of the Committee Of 70 in Philadelphia.  Her organization has take the lead on creating and managing (and funding!) the Pennsylvania Voter ID Coalition, working to prepare voters for election day.

Ellen was SO generous with her time - we talked for about 1 hr 45 minutes.  She gave me tons of detail - it's really disturbing how the law - bad on its face - is being implemented.  The state dept of PA is either inept, ill-motivated, or both.

I don't know how those people do this work without losing their minds, but I gather that there is a lot of camaraderie and enthusiasm shared amongst the ground teams, so I guess that makes it possible.

So much to do to get my VIVA page ready - feel bad every day that goes by because of raised expectations on the part of a number of family members, plus of course I want to help get the word out.

But better to have it like I want it before I publish.  So stay tuned...

I'm so excited right now!  I have a project coming together on this website - it's on "hide" right now but I'll have it up by Monday afternoon.  It consolidates all the work I'm doing on voting concerns across the country.  It's amazing to me how bad the situation is, and I was starting to get really depressed and stressed about it.  So my excitement comes from the fact that I finally realized that complaining about it on facebook and writing a couple of posts on it here wasn't going to help anything. 

I started focusing on 4 specific areas; voter ID laws, early voting hours, voter-roll purging, and this new creepy area of "poll watchers".  (I'll be explaining the latter one on my new page.)  And I narrowed down a list of states to keep an eye on.  There are a couple of swing states where this kind of tomfoolery could actually have an impact on the election.

(Did I just use the word "tomfoolery"?  It must be because I'm turning 50 in a couple weeks.  I'll probably be saying "land's sakes alive!" soon.)

Once I started digging in, I was energized and encouraged right away.  I was definitely taken aback by the scope and inventiveness of what I'm getting very comfortable calling purposeful voter intimidation.  But wow, the response in the cities most affected is intensely heartening.  I think one reason Republicans hate the idea of "community organizers" so much is they're afraid of us.  Nobody can mobilize to protect marginalized people like a bunch of pissed off, bleeding heart liberals.

I have an interview scheduled for Monday morning with a woman who is the media contact for the coalition in Pennsylvania that has come together to make sure voters who don't have the required ID will have it in time to vote November 6th.  I can't wait to get a sense from her about how things are going up there, and how people in other states can help, if possible.

So, I'm off to save the rights of voters across the country!  And this evening when I break for the night, I think I'll turn up a glass to the great American tradition of activism. 

Cheers!