What Is Our Plan B?

I had a bad feeling yesterday, and I need to write about it. I see the video above, and I worry about election day. I think we all know that there have already been massive attempts to suppress the vote by the Republican Party. And this morning The New York Times has a story about registration irregularities in the swing states.

Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.

The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run.

Still, because Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new voters this year, according to state election officials, any heightened screening of new applications may affect their party’s supporters disproportionately. The screening or trimming of voter registration lists in the six states — Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — could also result in problems at the polls on Election Day: people who have been removed from the rolls are likely to show up only to be challenged by political party officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and heated tempers.

The Republicans have already said that they will be challenging voters. I expect that there will also be attempts to intimidate canvassers and GOTV community organizers. And after watching the video I wouldn’t count out the possibility of mob violence at the polls, especially if McPalin keeps whipping up the racist frenzy. And if I really let my paranoid fantasies get the better of me I see mob violence leading to the shutdown of the election, Martial Law, the end of America. Now that’s just MY paranoid fantasy, but remember that you heard it here first.

Now, there’s another thing. We all know that the Republicans are going to try to steal this election. And I remember all too clearly the anger, hurt and frustration I felt in 2000 and 2004 when those elections were stolen, and I do not relish feeling those feelings again, but I have to consider this possibility and how I will react to it. So here is the question:

If we wake up on November 5th to find out that this election has been stolen from us, what are we going to do?

When I asked this question yesterday in a comment at dKos I was chastised for “hanging out the crepe”. I guess that means that that particular commenter thought I was being negative with my question, but I haven’t seen any plan of action for this eventuality. I think that this is something we should all be thinking about. What will we do? Will we sit at home and watch on TeeVee as another election is stolen? Or will we take to the streets the way the Ukranians did during the Orange Revolution?

In our excitement and joy at the implosion of the McCain Campaign and the prospect of a new progressive era being born with the presidency of Barack Obama, we need to also have a Plan B. And if, as I really expect, Barack is indeed elected and everything turns out all right on election day, then we can then turn it into a really big block party.

h/t: Blogger Interrupted for the video

UPDATE: From a commeter at dKos, where I cross posted this:

it wont be stolen

let me ask you a frank question: are you working in your area with the Obama campaign at all? I ask b/c i find that working closely with them gives me insight into just how together they are. They are anticipating all angles but you would’nt know it if you’re not working with them. I live in FL, BTW.

Examples:

1. when we register voters, we bring the registration forms FIRST to the campaign office. They log them into their OWN system before taking them BY HAND to the SOE office.

2. we just spend a week calling every single person in our county who registered on VoteForChange.com to remind them to send in their registration form. We logged if they said they already did.

3. we spent another week calling every single 18+ voter in my county who was NOT registered to vote. I have NO idea where the campaign got this info but it turns out that it generated a lot of new voters, once they were prodded.

4. behind the scenes Obama’s legal staff has gotten FL’s election office to publicly state that the driver license address no longer has to match the voter card address as long as the person is at the right precinct that is on the voter card. This ruling came down about 17 days ago and is a victory for us herein FL.

This is just a very small example of how tightly this ship is being run. I could easily give you many many more.

Obama has been very on it right from the start. What you’re feeling is the jitters. Its like preparing for the Boston marathon and suddenly ts TIME.

Relax.

And to make you really understand the position we’re in right now, here this from Lambros otherwise laughable article today:

As of this week, the freshman liberal senator led or held the edge in Iowa, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico and Colorado – eight states that can deliver 111 electoral votes to the winner.

President Bush previously won all these states along with a bunch of others that gave him 286 electoral votes to John Kerry’s 251. Mr. McCain can’t afford to lose any of these Red states, unless he can offset his losses by picking off a number of Democratic Blue states and that seems rather problematic right now (though polls show the race tightening in Minnesota and Wisconsin).

But with a little more than four weeks remaining in the presidential race in a brutal economic environment, the grim reality facing Mr. McCain is that his rival leads in more than a half-dozen Red states, while he cannot point to a single Blue state where he is ahead.

OBee-JoeBee ’08

Whew! That helps, but I still won’t really relax until Barack Obama is sworn in on 1/20/09.