Voter Registration

The Rev. Al Sharptonwas in Philadelphia yesterday to encourage voter-registration and to help ensure that alleged voting irregularities in the last two presidential elections are not repeated this year. On Locust Walk on the Penn campus, he handed out voter-registration forms and spoke to about 200 people. "In 2000, they robbed us of votes in Florida; in 2004, they robbed us of votes in Ohio," Sharpton told the outdoor crowd. "I'm on tour to make sure you are registered to vote before Oct. 6 in Pennsylvania.

As this year's presidential election campaign enters the homestretch, the League of Women Voters of the Media Area is attempting to enlarge the pool of area voters. Last week, the league began a voter registration drive at the Plum Street Gazebo in downtown Media. On Wednesday, league workers will visit the Delaware County Campus of Pennsylvania State University in Media. And, on Sept. 27, they will visit Delaware County Community College. Katherine Miller, president of the Voters Service for the league's Media chapter, said the league has a good reason for spending so much time at local high schools and colleges.

A statewide petition drive for voter-registration reform, sponsored by Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, was unveiled in Camden yesterday as officials sought to build momentum for legislation that would make voter registration more accessible. Lawrence Hamm, state chairman of the New Jersey Chapter of the National Rainbow Coalition, and various state and city officials said they wanted to keep voter-registration reform in the public eye to build support for state and federal legislation.

Voter-registration hours have been extended in Delaware County so prospective voters can beat tomorrow's deadline to be eligible to cast ballots in the Nov. 3 general election. The Voter Registration Commission office at the County Government Center in Media will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today, said William A. Lovejoy Jr., the county's public relations director. Anyone in line to register at 7 p.m. will not be turned away, Lovejoy said. But those arriving after 7 will not be permitted to register.

They were just slips of paper, but when Christopher A. Lewis shook them in a cardboard box, they produced a sound he called "magical. " They were voter registration forms. And until yesterday, a citizen couldn't find them - or register to vote - at state agencies in Pennsylvania. "Hear that sound?" asked a delighted Lewis, who is secretary of the commonwealth and in charge of elections, as he shook the box at the state's Uptown Job Center at Fairmount Avenue and Broad Street.

The Philadelphia Board of Realtors is hoping to make it easier for home buyers to register to vote at their new city address. Under a plan announced Monday, the board is trying to get all 2,200 Realtors in the city to provide voter-registration forms to buyers at settlement. Last year, a slow one for real estate, there were just under 4,000 real estate transactions in the city. The board is following the lead of the National Association of Realtors, which has been urging local boards to encourage voter registration.

Area Leagues of Women Voters are gearing up for Election Day 1988 by participating in the nationwide voter registration day on Friday. Pennsylvania residents must meet an Oct. 11 registration deadline to vote in the Nov. 8 presidential election. Those who are 18 or will turn 18 by the day after Election Day may register to vote. In addition, those who have moved, have changed their names or have not voted in two years must re- register to vote. College students who live out of state should register in their hometowns and arrange to vote through absentee ballot.

He's back on the road again, dutifully pleading for support while other erstwhile presidential candidates have long since retreated to the obscurity of life outside the range of TV cameras. But now when former candidate Jesse Jackson clutches a microphone in some Southern gymnasium, his pitch is for voter registration pledges instead of campaign contributions wadded in empty Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets. It is not the massive voter registration drive that Jackson announced in June with enthusiastic press releases and a news conference on the steps of a California church.

By Rebecca Rimel Catalogs, credit card offers, and college alumni newsletters always seem to find us when we move. Many Americans - one in four - assume their voter registrations also keep up. Not so. The "world's greatest democracy" still largely depends on an outdated, inefficient voter registration system, using handwritten paper forms and manual data entry. It is curiously resistant to modern technology and cannot keep up with our mobile society. While many transactions with government today can be done effectively with modern technology - paying taxes or parking tickets, renewing a driver's license - many states lack a way for voters to conveniently register or update their registration online.

WITH MORE than $1 million a year in payroll contributions from its members, Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has been a political powerhouse in city and state campaigns. And now the union has doubled down on political spending. John Dougherty, the union's local leader, says members voted unanimously last week to double the amount they contribute from paychecks to Local 98's Committee for Political Education (COPE), its main political-action committee.

Monday is the deadline to register if you want to vote in Pennsylvania's April 24 primary. Residents can apply in person at various locations, including county registration offices, PennDot photo and license centers and area agencies on aging. They can also download a registration form - at www.votespa.com - and mail it to their county registration office. In the primary, Republicans and Democrats will vote for nominees for president, the U.S. Senate and House, state attorney general, auditor general and treasurer, the state Legislature as well as delegates to the national nominating conventions.

Last week, the Philadelphia Bar Association sent a legislative action alert e-mail urging members to immediately call their legislators to oppose the voter ID bill that was being considered in the state Senate. The e-mail included a convenient "quickly generate a letter now" button. With the click of a mouse, a form letter full of Democratic talking points against voter ID and sprinkled with references to Philadelphia as the birthplace of democracy was spewed out. As a member of the association, I was among the recipients of this e-mail with the alarmist title "Your Action Needed Now to Preserve the Right to Vote.

By Rebecca Rimel Catalogs, credit card offers, and college alumni newsletters always seem to find us when we move. Many Americans - one in four - assume their voter registrations also keep up. Not so. The "world's greatest democracy" still largely depends on an outdated, inefficient voter registration system, using handwritten paper forms and manual data entry. It is curiously resistant to modern technology and cannot keep up with our mobile society. While many transactions with government today can be done effectively with modern technology - paying taxes or parking tickets, renewing a driver's license - many states lack a way for voters to conveniently register or update their registration online.

One ad depicts Republican candidates in rainbow-colored beanies with propellers. Another shows a gnarled zombie hand reaching up from the grave to indicate how "scary" it would be if the Democrats win. They have blamed one another for layoffs, wasteful spending, tax hikes and policies that strangle small businesses. But one thing the candidates running for the Assembly in Burlington County's Seventh Legislative District all seem to agree on: "tough choices" for one man is "bad policy" for his opponent, and "twisting the facts" for one is just "making excuses" for another.

If you're an ordinary Philadelphia voter, you go to the polls once or twice a year, and the experience is routine: The poll workers find your name among the registered voters, ask you to sign in, and take you to a voting machine, where you duck under a curtain, push buttons for your candidates, open the curtain, and go on about your business for the next six months. If there's a single person to thank for that routine, it's someone most Philadelphians have never heard of: Robert Lee Jr., officially listed on the city payroll as "voter registration administrator," but unofficially, the guy who has been minding the nuts and bolts of the city election machinery since the 1980s.

AUGUSTA, Maine - A trend by states to restrict voters' rights has brought a backlash in Maine, where a "people's veto" referendum seeks to restore same-day voter registration. On Nov. 8, Maine voters will decide whether to repeal a new state law that requires voters to register at least two days before an election. Repeal would effectively restore same-day registration, which has been in effect in Maine for nearly four decades. The law allowing people in Maine to register at the polls up to and including Election Day is strongly favored by Democrats, who say it encourages voter participation.

Three people trying to run for City Council as independent candidates were ruled ineligible Friday by a Common Pleas Court judge. Judge Allan R. Tereshko ruled that two candidates in the Ninth District, Rhaim A. Dawkins and Bobby Curry, could not run as independents because they tried to get onto the ballot as Democrats last spring. James Foster, a Germantown newspaper publisher trying to run for the Eighth District seat, did not have enough valid signatures on his nominating petitions, Tereshko ruled.

Tom Knox changed his voter registration Monday back to Democrat from independent, again saying he won't challenge Mayor Nutter in November's general election. The wealthy businessman, who came in second to Nutter in the 2007 Democratic mayoral primary, had switched to independent before last month's primary election. The reason, he said then, was to position himself to challenge T. Milton Street Sr., Nutter's only rival, in case Street won. That did not happen, so Knox announced Monday that he was keeping his word, and he reiterated his support - pledged in February - for Nutter.