[EL] Project Vote v. Project Vote

[Dan Johnson-Weinberger]

Why Project Vote?

Perhaps because the Obama campaign refuses to play to the lowest common
denominator of those who lie about voter fraud conspiracies in order to
reduce.the number of citizens who vote. Instead, perhaps, the Obama campaign
is proud of the President's lifelong work at expanding the electorate and
will not allow the enemies of full participation to tarnish the name of a
successful registration campaign that the President helped to lead in 1992.

Perhaps it is less of a "stupid name" and more of a confident choice from
those who will not concede the truth to their enemies. The meme is a lie. I
suspect their choice of name reflects that bedrock understanding.

I should say I am neither an employee nor vendor to the Obama campaign so my
thoughts are mine alone.

Dan



On Thursday, August 25, 2011, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu> wrote:
> Project Vote v. Project Vote: Dept. of Dumb Names <
http://electionlawblog.org/?p=22241>
>
> Posted on August 25, 2011 8:47 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=22241> by
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> Mike Allen today reports <
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62049.html>for Politico that
“President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign on Thursday announced ‘Project
Vote,’ a campaign-within-a-campaign that is aimed at increasing registration
and participation among Democratic base constituencies — including young
voters, seniors, African Americans and Hispanics, plus Native Americans and
gay and lesbian voters.”
>
> While the move to increase participation among the Democratic base may be
a smart one, I cannot think of a more stupid name for the initiative—it is
going to feed into the right-wing Democratic voter fraud meme.  “Project
Vote” is also the name of this organization <http://projectvote.org/>, an
organization aimed at getting out the vote as well.  Although non-partisan
in the sense that it is not affiliated with any political party, the group
works toward enfranchisement of groups that have been disenfranchised,
especially pushing the provisions of the National Voter Registration Act
(NVRA) which require states to take steps to register voters at welfare
offices and other government agencies.
>
> Project Vote has long been affiliated with ACORN (and there has been some
dispute about the entangling of the two organizations).  ACORN is now
defunct, but the cries of voter fraud against ACORN are now being directed
to Project Vote.  Just today, for example, the Washington Times has run a
story <
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/24/watchdog-suspicious-of-federal-ties-to-project-vot/>
on a FOIA request by Judicial Watch to seek information about ties between
Project Vote and the Justice Department.
>
> In conducting research for my book, The Voting Wars, I came across a
nauseating amount of unsubstantiated claims against President Obama as
promoting voter fraud to help him win his election.  Much of this writing
stems from work Obama had done as a community organizer in Chicago and
briefly as a lawyer for the Project Vote organization.
>
> Why on earth would the Obama campaign seek to stoke these conspiracy
theories, and cause confusion, by naming its efforts Project Vote?
>
> </mail/u/0/s/?view=att&th=13201a4eddf94059&attid=0.0.1&disp=emb&zw> <
http://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D22241&title=Project%20Vote%20v.%20Project%20Vote%3A%20Dept.%20of%20Dumb%20Names&description=
>
> Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,
fraudulent fraud squad <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8> | Comments Off
> --
> Rick Hasen
> Professor of Law and Political Science
> UC Irvine School of Law
> 401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
> Irvine, CA 92697-8000
> 949.824.3072 <tel:949.824.3072> - office
> 949.824.0495 <tel:949.824.0495> - fax
> rhasen at law.uci.edu
> http://law.uci.edu/faculty/page1_r_hasen.html
> http://electionlawblog.org
>

-- 
Dan Johnson-Weinberger

Attorney at Law
111 West Washington, Suite 1920
Chicago, Illinois 60602

312.867.5377 (office)
312.933.4890 (mobile)
312.794.7064 (fax)
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