Sunday, August 3, 2008

North Carolina Voters In Danger?

As many on the campaign trail are turning their attention to voter canvassing for Obama over the next 100 days and volunteering to register voters across North Carolina, there are others who are volunteering and being paid to remove citizens from the voter rolls. In other states it is the lawmakers who are purging voters of their right to vote. Greg Palast reported on various activities of voter purging during the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections--and it is happening again, according to Palast.

While Florida and Ohio garnered most of the attention of those past stories, voters are being purged in many more states during this run up to the 2008 presidential elections. Colorado has purged 1/5 of all voters and Nevada along with Ohio have a "new federal law which is knocking out tens of thousands of voters who lost their home to foreclosure. In...New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor." [1] It should also be noted that these states are mostly swing states, like North Carolina, so this could wreak havoc on democracy as we know it come November.

In the most recent Rasmussen poll for North Carolina, Obama currently trails John McCain by three points, which is consistent with previous polls showing McCain in the lead by a margin of 2-5 points. [2]

John McCain 47
Barack Obama 44
Bob Barr 3

"Every North Carolina poll since Hillary Clinton left the race has shown the race close but with John McCain in the lead, and this one continues that trend. There's also continued evidence of the enthusiasm gap between Barack Obama and John McCain. Although McCain leads the poll overall, just 23% of respondents view him very favorably compared to 31% for Obama." [3]

Photo courtesy D. Shumate.

References:

[1] http://www.gregpalast.com/obama-doesn’t-sweat-he-should/

[2] http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2008/07/north-carolina-president.html

[3] http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-stability-in-nc-polls.htm

No comments: