Source: National Coalition on Black Civic Participation

1.VERIFY your registration status and your poll location before Election Day by calling your local Board of Board of Elections, 1-866-MYVOTE1 or visit www.unityvoterempowermentcampaign.org.

2.VERIFY the proper identification needed to vote in advance. Be sure to TAKE PROPER ID TO VOTE. To check ID requirements for your state visit www.costoffreedom.info or download the Election Protection App. Text OUR VOTE to 90975.

3.VERIFY that YOU will be in town on Election Day - If available in your community, vote early or by absentee ballot

4.DON'T BE AFRAID TO REQUEST HELP from poll workers. Poll workers are there to help YOU.

5.YOU HAVE A RIGHT to file a complaint if you think your rights have been violated. If you need assistance call 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

6.STAND YOUR GROUND - If there is a problem at the polls you have a right to cast a provisional ballot. However, not all provisional ballots count, so call 1-866-OUR-VOTE to verify your status FIRST.

7.VOLUNTEER to be a poll worker or monitor in your local community at www.ncbcp.org and www.866OURVOTE.org.

Protect Our Vote Sunday Announced for Oct. 28 and Nov. 4

By Hazel Trice Edney

President Barack Obama receives an update on the ongoing response to Hurricane Sandy at the National Response Coordination Center at FEMA headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Sunday. FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, right, and Richard Serino, FEMA Deputy Administrator, are seated next to the President.  PHOTO: Pete Souza/The White House

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Only days before the presidential election, a mega-storm slowed down both candidates and threatened to knock out power in at least 10 million homes across the East Coast. But, even as the storm hit, a Black voter operation used every possible mechanism to continue get-out-to-vote and voter protection efforts for Nov. 6.

“The Black community is facing one of the greatest challenges ever against malicious schemes and laws deliberately aimed at stopping and discouraging our people from exercising their right to vote. Only a unified effort by the Black Church can protect the vote won through the blood, sweat and tears of our people over the years,” said Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, chairman of the Conference of National Black Churches, in a release announcing "Unity: Protect Our Vote Sundays” sponsored by a string of civil rights organizations Oct. 28 and Nov. 4.

Meanwhile during the storm, “We have robo calls featuring Actress Vivica Fox telling the people in the states to vote early and the people in the states who can’t vote early, she’s just telling people what they need to do to be prepared to vote,” says Edrea Davis, a spokeswoman for the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation one of the civil rights organizations involved in the Unity movement. She says calls are also going out encouraging people to “Walk a friend to the polls,” a special outreach to the youth.

“The hurricane is going on but the work is also still going on,” Davis said. Live calls were also being made across the South. “Yes they’re working, encouraging people to exercise their right to vote.”

Escalating activities toward Nov. 6, “Unity: Protect Our Vote Sundays” is a plan for Civil Rights and Black church leaders to join forces to protect Black voters.

The partners include The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) the Conference of National Black Churches (CNBC), National Action Network, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), Samuel DeWitt Proctor Project and A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI), according to a release.

“The Unity: Protect Our Vote Sundays goals are to mobilize Black faith leaders in a call to action to Black denominational and congregational leaders to take up arms to mobilize and protect their congregations from voter suppression tactics across the country by providing them with tools and information to protect their vote through Black Youth Vote, Black Women,’’ said NCBCP President/CEO Melanie Campbell in a release.

As the storm approached, President Obama – on a break from campaigning – issued a warning.

“Obviously, all of us across the country are concerned about the potential impact of Hurricane Sandy. This is a serious and big storm,” he said in a statement released immediately after a meeting with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) on Sunday. “But the other thing that makes this storm unique is we anticipate that it is going to be slow moving. That means that it may take a long time not only to clear, but also to get, for example, the power companies back in to clear trees and to put things back in place so that folks can start moving back home.”

Hurricane Sandy was expected to affect some 50 million people from South Carolina to the New England states. Authorities speculated that it could also affect election turnout and voting if major damage and power outages continue into next week. Encouraging everyone to take the storm seriously, Obama said the federal, state and local governments are working together to protect residents and their homes.

Meanwhile, Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, both continued television advertisements, but stopped email fundraising and canceled some travel as the storm came closer to land earlier this week. Maryland cancelled early voting as the state and Washington, D.C. declared a state of emergency.

With threats of voter intimidation at the polls amidst the close race, plans for Election Day continue. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Election Protection are providing voter protection tools including its national nonpartisan Election Protection Hotline, 1-866-OUR-VOTE. They also have a free mobile app to download and use in case voters are blocked in their effort to vote or have questions (Text OURVOTE to 90975).

“As we have done for over 10 years, the Election Protection Coalition will be there for all voters to safeguard their fundamental right to vote and have that vote counted on Election Day,” said Barbara Arnwine, President and Executive Director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Meanwhile, volunteers are also needed to serve as poll monitors, says CNBC President, Jacqui Burton.

She is encouraging denominational leaders, pastors, clergy, lay leaders and attorneys "to volunteer to serve as poll monitors in our massive effort to mobilize an ‘Army of Poll Monitors’ to be a moral presence at the polls against efforts to intimidate Black voters.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oct. 28, 2012

By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Ninety-one-year-old Rev. Joseph Lowery may not have been able to campaign as much as he did four years ago at the age of 87. But, canvassing the state of Georgia for the Obama re-election, is doing all he can to turn out the Black vote.

“I think it’s an imperative that we turn out in large numbers…It’s imperative that we turn out in mammoth numbers to re-elect him because I think he deserves re-election,” says the civil rights icon who four years ago gave the benediction at the inauguration of the nation’s first Black president. But, Lowery makes it quite clear that race pales in comparison to the real reason that he favors Obama over his Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

“He saved this country from a terrible actual catastrophe with his creativity, with his raw courage to do the stimulus thing,” Lowery said in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire. “And, in spite of the bloodletting, ‘Let them go bankrupt’ and ‘Let them die’ [suggestion] of Mitt Romney, Obama insisted on saving industry; particularly the automobile industry and others. And I think he deserves re-election. I think we need to do everything we can to turn out the vote and to encourage others to cast their vote for Obama.”

But, it is clear that an invisible opposition – that has little to do with political issues – will shave some votes from Obama.

The Associated Press poll has concluded that “racial attitudes have not improved in the four years since the United States elected its first Black president...Those views could cost President Barack Obama votes as he tries for re-election.”

As a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Lowery is an old pro at recognizing racism.

“I’ve never seen such fierce determination on the part of some people in this country to prevent his re-election,” Lowery said. “He’s done very well in spite of the fact that he’s had very little cooperation from Congress.”

Just in from a rally in the 68 percent Black city of Macon, Ga., Rev. Lowery recognizes that the Black voter enthusiasm from four years ago has somewhat waned in the face of high unemployment and other community needs. But he is hoping that in the few final days before the election, voters will get their druthers.

“They have to understand that it’s not Obama’s fault. He inherited this critical state of affairs when he came to office,” he said in a voice raising to a convincing pitch. “That’s a difficult sell to say, ‘Things would have been worse if I hadn’t done so and so.’ But, it’s the truth. And he saved us from a calamitous situation.”

Despite the determination of Lowery and other get-out-the-vote activists, polls show Romney leading comfortably in Georgia, a state not considered a must win for the President. Republican Sen. John McCain also won Georgia in 2008. Democrats haven’t won Georgia since Bill Clinton over President George H. W. Bush in 1992.

In final days of the campaign, Obama and Romney are focused largely on Ohio, Florida and Virginia in their quest for the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. Recent polls show the following: Obama leading Romney 51 percent to 47 percent in Virginia (Washington Post poll); Obama leading Romney in Ohio 50 percent to 46 percent (CNN) and the candidates appear to be tied in Florida, according to a CNN/ORC poll.

Despite national polls showing the candidates within five points of each other, Lowery is among those who doubt the race is as close as predicted. He speculated that Black voters, expected to turn out for Obama more than 90 percent, have probably not received the phone calls from polling agencies.

“I don’t believe it’s as close as they say it is,” he said, “They haven’t been counting us for years. That’s nothing new. I prayed and I believe a lot of voters who have not made up their minds, when they get ready to go in that booth, they will recognize that we need this and that Romney is not good for this country, the kind of financials that he’s talking about, he’s not good for this country.”

Oct. 21, 2012

To Be Equal 

By Marc Morial

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “I will continue to champion practical regulations, while making sure they work for consumers and the financial sector, a sector which has the right to be profitable but the obligation to be fair, two concepts which are not mutually exclusive.” Representative Maxine Waters

It is always big news whenever ethics charges are brought against a Member of Congress. Convictions, though rare, also make headlines. We understand that bad news sells. But we also think it is a big deal when a respected Member of Congress is completely exonerated of ethics charges -- especially when that Member is someone as powerful and effective as California Congresswoman Maxine Waters. In case you missed it, in September, after a three-year investigation, Representative Waters, a 21-year veteran of the House and a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, was cleared of all charges related to her role in assisting minority-owned banks get bail-out help through the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). While her husband owned stock in one of those banks, the investigation found that the help that bank received was the result of a request she made on behalf of all minority banks. House Ethics Committee Special Counsel, Billy Martin concluded, “The evidence in the record does not support a knowing violation of ethics rules or any standard of conduct with respect to Rep. Maxine Waters.”

Since her initial 1991 election to the House, Representative Waters has been a staunch advocate for middle and working class families and has fought hard for minority inclusion in the financial services industry. In fact, she wrote the legislation creating the Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Dodd-Frank puts in place the most comprehensive financial regulatory reform measures since the Great Depression and is intended to prevent a repeat of the reckless Wall Street behavior that caused the financial crisis of 2008. In her role as a senior member of the Financial Services Committee, Rep. Waters played a key role in shaping that legislation and was successful in including provisions specifically designed to protect low-income and minority citizens. Because of her, there is now an Office of Minority and Women at each of the federal regulatory agencies such as the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and others. These Offices will work to reverse years of underrepresentation and ensure the gender, racial and ethnic diversity of the workforce and senior management, as well as increase contracting opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses.

Representative Waters also fought to ensure that in winding down struggling financial institutions, regulators considered the impact on low-income, minority, and underserved communities where access to mainstream banking is a problem. And to help stem the tide of housing foreclosures, she secured $1 billion – with an additional $1 billion commitment from the Treasury Department – to help unemployed homeowners receive low-interest loans to pay their mortgages.

As a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Representative Waters has also traveled the country to shine a spotlight on the problem of urban unemployment and has worked with Congressional Members of both parties to pass critical jobs legislation. With the retirement of Barney Frank, Congresswoman Waters is in line to be the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. We applaud her leadership and are pleased that her Ethics Committee exoneration removes any obstacle to her ascendency.