Are You Registered to Vote? Are You Really Sure?

by: DocJess

Mon Aug 13, 2012 at 04:46:50 AM EDT

I spent a lot of this past weekend working voter registration in suburban Philadelphia. My compatriots and I had signs, we had tee shirts. We were, for this time of year, inundated with potential voters, people needing to update information, people who needed absentee ballot applications, and most interestingly, people who wanted to check if they were registered, or had potentially been purged.

In the past month, the state of Pennsylvania has purged 758,000 voters from the rolls. If you think these are people who have died, or haven't voted, you'd only be partially right. They've also purged active voters.

The first night, we checked about 20 people, and found 3 of them had been purged, including one who had voted in the May, 2012, primary. I posted the information to Facebook and Twitter, asking everyone I knew to check their status, and between them and the table checks over the weekend: 7 people purged. And that's just people I came in contact with.

If you live in Pennsylvania and want to check if you've been purged, you can click this link. Having a voter registration card does NOT mean that you are still registered. If you live in any other state, you can use this link to find your state's registration check website.

More after the jump.

Starting on Saturday, there were a lot of people who approached asking what Mitt's choice of Paul Ryan meant for the outcome of the election. Since all voter registration drives MUST be non-partisan, meaning that whoever wants to register, to any party, is treated kindly, and his/her application is accepted and processed. Therefore, it was necessary to respond in a non-partisan fashion. The best I could come up with was that the conservative Republicans were very happy with the choice of someone who had written the Ryan Budget plan which dismantles Social Security and Medicare, along with holding all other government spending to 3% of GDP and vastly increasing both the overall deficit and taxes for everyone earning under $250,000/year, and the Democrats love the choice because it gives them a far better chance of winning. If you're a Democrat and want a free "Save Medicare, Vote Democrat" bumper sticker, click here.

No matter how you vote, it's important TO vote. My maternal grandmother was arrested, and went to jail, twice in the 19-teens so that my mother and I could vote today. I come by voter drives honestly, and in Grammie Sadie's memory.  Perhaps you'd like to join me. It's fun, it's interesting, and it's important. Even my 17 month old puppy worked a shift, her first of what will be many. If you're interested, please drop me a line at docjess at demconwatchblog dot com.

Make no mistake. This is a seminal election, and its outcome will influence what kind of America our country becomes. We'd love to have you at registration, but you may prefer to work in some other capacity: I can get you hooked up there, too, whatever your choice of volunteering.