Some Republicans see the voting booth as a country club where a few people decide that others just don't belong. They reject the foundation of our democracy: we believe in the sacred principle of One Person, One Vote.
Now that fundamental right is under threat. Every day we hear of new GOP tactics to corrupt the system and prevent people from voting.
Our volunteers have made direct contact with voters in thousands of precincts. But the prospect of intimidation and legal manipulation grows every day. Please help us ensure that every American who wants to can get to the polls:
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/contribute
We finally started living up to the One Person, One Vote principle only a generation ago. For a hundred years after the Civil War our laws systematically blocked millions of people from voting. It took until 1965 to pass federal law that ended the schemes of Jim Crow.
We outlawed poll taxes and literacy tests because they are undemocratic. But those bad laws were made even worse by selective enforcement -- to discriminate against opponents of those in power.
The tactics today are the same as in the bad old days.
The 2000 election opened the eyes of the right-wing fringe that runs the Republican Party. When conservatives on the Supreme Court stopped votes from being counted in Florida, they saw an opportunity. They could again manipulate the legal system to justify denying people the right to vote.
Now we have a Republican in Ohio trying to throw out heavily Democratic new voter registrations because the paper isn't thick enough.
We have a Jeb Bush appointee in Florida drawing up a wildly inaccurate list of supposed "felons" that included thousands of innocent African-Americans -- but almost no Latinos (who are much more likely to vote Republican).
Republican officials in Pennsylvania tried to move polling places out of inner-city neighborhoods for "safety" reasons.
Right-wing Republicans question whether new voters -- particularly the young and the poor -- "deserve" to vote. They wonder out loud whether Americans who they think aren't "informed enough" or need a ballot in another language should be allowed to vote at all. Suggestions like these are disgusting and immoral.
They know that George Bush's failures have affected people who until now never gave politics a second thought. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Americans have registered to vote for the first time this year.
Republicans say they fear fraud. But they really fear defeat.
We cannot wait for judges or legislatures to stop them. We have to protect Americans at the polls on Election Day and defend against any attempt to tamper with our fundamental rights.
There are two ways you can help. Find your polling place and make sure that you and everyone you know votes:
http://www.mypollingplace.com
And make a contribution now to help get voters in swing states to the polls on Tuesday:
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/contribute
We have just a few days. Please act now.
Governor Howard Dean, M.D.
