Subject: [big campaign] Fwd: West to East, we're fighting the Right - for our right to vote.
From: Aniello Alioto <[email-masked]>
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2012 11:48:27 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Friends - I want to make sure you see this update we are sending out today.
Please let me know how you think ProgressNow and ProgressNowEducation are
doing and what we should be doing re: our many election protection efforts.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Aniello Alioto <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 11:22 AM
Subject: West to East, we're fighting the Right - for our right to vote.
To: [email-masked]

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Friends,

It's a busy time for all our affiliate organizations, but we want to take a
step back and let you know about just some of the great work we are
witnessing in our states. Since everyone has election fever these days,
this snapshot focuses on election protection, voter education and our many
efforts to fight voter suppression. In some states we've mounted legal
fights (Wisconsin & Virginia), in most of our states we are creating and
widely publishing Progressive Voter Guides, in too many of our states we
are having to counter the ultra-Conservative "True the Vote" astroturfing,
and in all our states we are working closely with partners and striving to
ensure that elected officials uphold and enforce the law and the spirit of
election protection.

Below is a snapshot, moving west to east, of the kind of work we are doing
across all of our states. Please enjoy this update and please let me know
how you think ProgressNow and ProgressNowEducation are doing and what we
should be doing.

Forward – together!

Aniello Alioto
National Political Director
ProgressNow
ProgressNow Education

*New Mexico*

*ProgressNow New Mexico* made national news when they released undercover
video <http://progressnow.pnstate.org/site/R?i=C6eCEbxk-PcWFVbO0VOVSA> of a
Republican Party poll worker (and leading Tea Party activist) training NM
poll challengers to blatantly violate election law. This video shows a GOP
party official instructed participants to illegally demand identification,
deny translation assistance and to force some legal voters to use
provisional ballots. The video went viral having reached more than 49,300
views in six days.  The video was played in the lead segment on the 10/4
edition of “Politics Nation with Al
Sharpton”<http://progressnow.pnstate.org/site/R?i=PRBs4ynu6-ed1tKzpNkFhA>
on
MSNBC, earned a front-page Op-Ed in the HuffingtonPost from Ambassador Joe
Wilson <http://progressnow.pnstate.org/site/R?i=XzX4MooX2klFmGKwdxXQ2g>,
front page stories on Salon.com
(here<http://progressnow.pnstate.org/site/R?i=mUZKz__GDronm4zmC0n4RQ>
 and here <http://progressnow.pnstate.org/site/R?i=li6QGND6_U_jHsk2qiAGZg>),
ThinkProgress (here<http://progressnow.pnstate.org/site/R?i=jlpiIyObLpGcqegKFLbd4A>
 and here <http://progressnow.pnstate.org/site/R?i=2BYh93NPanSqidgmFUNe2Q>)
and The Nation<http://progressnow.pnstate.org/site/R?i=WLCf0CqTsHA_12a6nbA7YQ>
where
Congressman Steve Pearce (R-NM) was quoted as saying he was aware of and
sanctioned the illegal tactics as the way Republicans would win back the
state. ProgressNowNM later returned to the training and found the state
True The Vote director teaching the Republican-party training (a violation
of IRS rules).  On day 5 of the story, New Mexico’s Attorney General
announced <http://progressnow.pnstate.org/site/R?i=H2dehBoEdmbCpvNMuxSZiA> an
official investigation into voter suppression, calling it a “concerted
effort to discourage some voters.”  Though the story continues to develop,
to date more than 80 news stories about ProgressNowNM’s voter suppression
expose have been tracked.  Not bad for a new state, a determined team and a
used video camera.

*Colorado *

Colorado's current Secretary of State (SOS), Scott Gessler, is the most
partisan person to hold that office. As an Elections Attorney who built his
career on helping conservative special interests get around election law,
we knew we had to take him seriously as soon as he took office. *ProgressNow
Colorado*, along with several partners, built a long-term plan to brand
Gessler and consistently hold him accountable for his actions. This 18
month plan which includes legal, earned and social media, public education,
and surrogate development, has held Gessler back from his weekly attempts
to put unnecessary obstacles in front of voters. This long-term plan has
directly resulted in consistent, negative, and truthful coverage of
Gessler's activities.

As we approach the election, ProgressNow Colorado has plans to counter
Gessler's friends at True the Vote with "voting heroes" who will have the
back of anyone whose ballot is challenged. ProgressNow Colorado is also
currently working with local and national press to ensure they are aware of
potential last-minute games that Gessler could play between now and
certification of the election. Our team will be live-blogging any instances
of voter intimidation to ensure the issue brought into the public sphere.
All of this will be done with a keen eye toward empowering voters - not
making them afraid of turning out.

*Michigan*

*Progress Michigan* is working hand-in-hand with the Michigan Election
Coalition on a number of different voter protection angles. They are
aggressively pushing back on the Secretary of State's citizenship checkbox,
which requires every voter to affirm citizenship before they are giving a
ballot. The bill was vetoed by Gov. Snyder, but the SOS is still putting
the checkbox on ballots anyway (although she won't deny ballots to people
who refuse to sign). Progress Michigan helped place op-eds, push out
statements, etc. They are also heavily promoting the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline
with earned and paid media and the recently past voter registration
deadline with local media events.

*Ohio*

*ProgressOhio *will utilize a multi-faceted strategy to engage, educate and
empower voters across Ohio to participate in the November 6th general
election. ProgressOhio will employee every method and tool at their
disposal (numerous email reminders, aggressively publishing the election
protection Hotline number, a one-stop-shop website resource development for
partners, media training on messaging and rapid response mechanisms to
ensure maximum media exposure, production and dissemination of a "How to
Vote" video,  Secretary of State outreach and
relationship maintenance (will also allow us to have direct access to the
Ohio Secretary of State office on Election Day should problems arise in
Ohio), Poll Monitor recruitment - heavily relying in pastors
and ministerial alliances, continuous and aggressive outreach to
traditional media and social media.

*Virginia*

*ProgressVA* continues to staff the communications needs for Virginia's
election protection coalition. Over the past month, ProgressVA has worked
to increase coverage of grassroots voter registration and education
efforts, with a particular emphasis on story placement in college campus
media. Additionally, they've also been reviewing public records requests
seeking information on True the Vote, and their Virginia affiliate,
Virginia Voter's Alliance, communications with the State Board of Elections
and local registrars. All this voter protection work has been done with an
eye towards January, when we expect to face several bills seeking to
restrict voter registration and participation. They're laying the
groundwork now to be able to point to valuable, legal, and effective
grassroots civic engagement work when the time comes to help combat the
false voter fraud narrative. Basically, they are winning the future - now.

*New Hampshire**
*

Over the past two years *Granite State Progress & Granite State Progress
Education Fund* has participated in an Election Law Coalition convened by
America Votes to help fight voter suppression legislation in New Hampshire.
This has included public education, legislative testimony and
hard-hitting media communications. With the election just around the
corner, Granite State Progress have teamed up with America Votes and the
New Hampshire Citizens Alliance (NHCA) to create and publicize an election
protection and voter education website to empower citizens with the ability
to have their vote counted.

This year a new state law in New Hampshire requires voters to present photo
identification or sign an affidavit before casting a ballot. The September
11th State Primary was supposed to be a test run of the system, but it was
a complete failure as voters were turned away from the polls.
This heightens concerns for the November election. We are currently in the
process of adding materials so that the website can go live the week of
October 8.

The website will contain:

   - Information on how to contact a voter protection hotline maintained by
   NHCA Voter education materials (recent court decisions, handouts, fact
   sheets, posters, and brochures) by the ACLU, LWV, NHCA and America
   Votes Information on where to vote, voting absentee, and registering to
   vote PSA videos covering different demographics in English and Spanish,
   possibly French, produced by Granite State Progress & Education Fund;

   - a media center where all clips regarding the election will be made
   easily available for voters and journalists alike; and,

   - a Twitter feed with hash tags of interest.

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-- 
Aniello Alioto
National Political Director
[email-masked]
502.664.2420

CA: Courage Campaign
CO: ProgressNow Colorado
FL: Progress Florida
GA: Better Georgia
IA: Progress Iowa
MA: ProgressMass
MI: Progress Michigan
MN: Alliance for a Better Minnesota (ABM)
MO: Progress Missouri
NC: Progress North Carolina
NE: Bold Nebraska
NH: Granite State Progress
NM: Progress New Mexico
NV: ProgressNow Nevada
OH: ProgressOhio
PA: Keystone Progress
TX: Progress Texas
UT: Alliance for a Better Utah
VA: Progress Virginia
WA: Fuse Washington
WI: One Wisconsin Now (OWN)

Twitter: @ProgressNow
Facebook: ProgressNow

www.ProgressNow.org

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