More Voters in More Places

There's a lot of buzz in the political discussion these days about new voters. In general, the buzz comes in two types: young voters (will they, or won't they) and otherwise uninvolved voters (inspired by Obama or not). The narrative on young voters is very hard to break, though many are trying. But if that narrative can be subsumed in a larger "more voters in more places" narrative, there may be some signal through the noise.

Last week Sen. Obama's campaign launched an initiative to register new voters all across the country. This was ostensibly the reason he went on Fox News, to talk about his new voter registration drive. The junior Senator from Illinois appears to be trying an old fashioned tactic for dealing with adversity - change the playing field. In this case, grow your voter base so far and so fast that the minor distractions of a traditional campaign are rendered not just illegitimate but irrelevant. Indeed, if the Senator is able to "bring more voices into the process" he may not only be able to win the White House, but also change the conversation about politics. A grand and perhaps unattainable goal, but what has ever been accomplished by aiming low?

dday has this to say over on Hullabaloo about Obama's new "grow the voter base" initiative to take on the Republicans and remake our polity.

I think Obama's gambit is to register so many voters and find so many new people to enter the process that he isn't bound to any particular political structure, from the right or the left or the middle. He really is trying to make his new mass of supporters his power base. It's an audacious strategy, one that doesn't have a lot of historical basis that you can really look to on the national level. But without question there's a tremendous upside to reaching new voters; you're essentially talking about over half the country, between those who don't vote and those who don't even register. And the technology is now in place to more easily find them, target them and talk to them. - Hullabaloo

It is admirable that Sen. Obama is using his cash advantage to not only help is own campaign, but the campaigns of Democrats up and down the ticket by focusing an effort on voter registration across the country. This initiative has the potential to pay dividends for the Party in elections far into the future, in a manner similar to how the Dean campaign in 2004 lead to DFA and a powerful progressive blogosphere.

Furthermore, a renewed focus on voting and its importance is valuable in this year's election. With the recent Supreme Court decision about voter ID laws, the fundamental principle of giving every citizen the right to vote continues to erode under conservative government. Couple this with Sen. Obama's new initiative and we have another stark contrast between the two parties: One party wants to help you vote, the other wants to hinder it.

Voting is a voting issue. We have a choice in this year. Make it count.