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Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media and the host of Declaring Independence, a one hour weekly political talk show on WPRR in Grand Rapids, Michigan.(static)

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How to Handle Trouble at the Polls

Posted on: November 3, 2008 9:37 AM, by Ed Brayton

If you go to the polls tomorrow and have problems with voter suppression or intimidation of any kind, this is what you should do: call 1-866-OUR-VOTE. This is the national election protection hotline set up by the the ACLU, the National Lawyers Committee and other groups. They will intervene and even dispatch mobile legal teams if necessary.

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And this is good, not so much for yourself, personally, but to spread around to newer voters and poorer voters, who are likely to be targets of voter suppression.

Posted by: gwangung | November 3, 2008 10:14 AM

They will intervene and even dispatch mobile legal teams if necessary.

"Quick! To the Lawmobile!" [Theme music]

Posted by: Alex, FCD | November 3, 2008 10:43 AM

It looks like I'm going to be spending the day tomorrow in a call center for this hotline. Should be very interesting.

Posted by: Ed Brayton | November 3, 2008 11:00 AM

I'm a first time poll worker and I really hope things go smoothly, with only minimal problems (not likely to be many at all in my state). I heard there were problems getting enough poll workers and figured I'd help since having long waits may cause voters to walk away. I guess I'm not the only one. At my training session, they said they have a waiting list of poll workers, at least for our county.

Please vote!

Posted by: bumblebrain | November 3, 2008 12:01 PM

Good work, Ed. I do have a couple of questions.

Do you have a means of dealing with robocalls disrupting the hotline? Also, what're the prospect for effective legal sanctions for anti-democratic behaviour?

Posted by: eddie | November 3, 2008 4:41 PM

MESSENGER: Mr Smith, Mr Smith - there's trouble at poll
MR SMITH: What kind of trouble?
MESSENGER: I don't know, Mr Jones just told me to tell you 'there's trouble at poll', I didn't expect some kind of Spanish Inquisition -
&etc. :) DJ

Posted by: DingoJack | November 3, 2008 9:05 PM

We have a precinct that uses our church as a voting site. In the six years I have been there, I have grown to know and appreciate the precinct leader. If every precinct in the US has a leader like him, there would be few issues.

BTW I am looking forward to the big breakfast he makes for the precinct workers...and the church staff;-)

Posted by: Rev. AJB | November 3, 2008 11:37 PM

I say anyone who is convicted of voter suppression should be in maximum security federal prison, general population, for a decade, provided they live that long.

Posted by: jws | November 3, 2008 11:56 PM

"Mobile Legal Teams"?

They can't do SHIT! They need a judges order, and whoever is involved can be done before the Mobile Storm Troopers get there.

Here in KC, thousands and thousands of flyers saying Obama is sympathetic to Muslims have appeared on walls all around the polling places.

What are the Mobile Legal Teams gonna do about that?

Posted by: Julie Westhues | November 4, 2008 8:20 AM