Organizing for America | RAWSpoon's Blahg: Be Prepared on Voting Day! Don't fall for the tricks in the trick-bag

Be Prepared on Voting Day! Don't fall for the tricks in the trick-bag

By Rawspoon - Oct 30th, 2008 at 11:09 pm EDT

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Tags: 2008 Elections, barack, barack obama, Hatfield, Lansdale, Montgomery county, Obama, Pennsylvania, philadelphia

For those of us in PA, keep this in mind when you go to vote:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/29/judge-pa-must-have-paper-ballots-ready-if-half-of-machines-fail/

Also, you should have received your new voter's registration card in the mail by now if you're newly registered OR if your district's poling place changed since the last election. Please make sure to check your registration status with your county Board of Elections office. You can find this at www.votespa.com. We've heard over the last few months that newly registered voters need to also bring photo identification and a current utility bill with them to the polls. But that is NOT entirely true.

You will need valid identification, but it does NOT have to be photo id and a bill. Please check out the GUIDE FOR FIRST TIME VOTERS at www.votespa.com. If you have a valid photo id, fine; have it with you. However, all you should have to produce is your voter's registation card/confirmation. Sign it when you get it in the mail. That will serve as identification for the purposes of being eligible to vote. No pollster has the right to insist you produce anything other than that. I am not giving legal advice, but am reading directly from my voter's registration card and the information on Pennsylvania's website.

Also, you should know about provisional voting. A provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there is some question regarding a voter’s eligibility. You have the right to vote by provisional ballot if:

Even though you are properly registered and eligible to vote in the election district, your name does not appear on the district register (poll book) and Election Officials cannot determine your registration status.
You do not have an approved form of identification the first time you appear to vote in an election district (this is required regardless of whether your name appears on the general register).
An Election Official asserts that you are not eligible to vote.

More info on provisional voting is on the above website. Also check out the part about OVERVOTES and UNDERVOTES. This is important to know because voting machines can vary from municipality to municipality. Please share this information with your local loved ones. If you can be off from work or school on November 4th and have elderly family members, friends, neighbors, or anyone you know that may require a ride to the poll (except Cheryl), please try and assist. Remind people to wear layered warm clothes, comfortable shoes, hat, gloves, and to bring a book, magaizine, iPod, Blackberry, something to keep entertained other than the chatter that will surround them (unless you're into that... I won't be primarily because I'm in HOT RED territory!).

There has been several conflicting emails about voting straight Democratic ticket in the booth, versus pressing the button for President first and then voting straight ticket, which purportedly will cancel out the initial POTUS vote. Some of these emails have confirmed information from other parts of the country, where machines also vary from place to place. Speaking only for myself, although I am inclined to vote the straight ticket, I am not going to stand in that long line for an hour or better and take 10 seconds to cast my vote by pressing one hightlighted straight ticket button. For me, this is not only important for the change our county needs, but also for historical reasons. I want to physically press the button with Barack Obama's name typed next to President of the United States. Then I will go on to individually press each other button needed. I may miss some others (probably not), but the most important button will have been pushed and I need not worry about canceled or doubled voting. Besides, there are other matters on our local ballot that I need to address. If you're not sure of how your voting machine may operate, take the time to ask a pollster. Don't risk getting it wrong!

Lastly, I've created an Event which can be found at: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gsxz5y

I invite everyone to take part in a 1-minute prayer on Monday night, at 8:59pm. Whereever you are, whatever you are doing, please stop and pray to whatever God you believe in, that the Obama family will be our next First Family come January 20, 2009.

~Robin Ann

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