Don't fool yourselves, we may be the good ole' US of A, but we need international election monitors as much as any third-world government today.

I received an email yesterday from my book agent. One of her clients is Connie Rice, not Condi, but Connie. Connie is Conoleeza's cousin, but the connection ends there. She may be family but she's Condeleeza's polar opposite in political beliefs and actions. Anyway, Connie has been been working on the legal side of voter registration and fighting disenfranchisement in both south Florida and Ohio, and apparently she's shocked by what she's facing in those two battleground states.

Robert Kennedy Jr. has written articles on the disenfranchisement of voters. And I know, as I write this, that the GOP is doing everything they can to disqualify Hispanic and African Americans from voting in this election. I was an election monitor in Miami-Dade in '04, and even then, with Miami-Dade, already notorious as a hot-spot for voter disenfranchisement (especially in the election of 2000), the hand of the GOP was palpable. I saw polling stations not opening up on time, or at all. Directions for alternate sites were vague or non-existent, leaving people confused. Many black voters had received calls that has misinformed them as to polling and voting rules.

So as we face this contentious election, election monitors who know the rules, who help voters find their polling stations, and help them understand the rules of voting, is everything. Without an accurate or fair vote count, everything we've worked for for the past two years will mean nothing. Like I mentioned, we don't have impartial, international election monitors to help us keep our voters from being violated-- it's up to us. We could lose it with this; we have before. So for those of you who can-- vote absentee. In some states there is NO EXCUSE ABSENTEE VOTING or EARLY VOTING for students.

Then volunteer for election protection at:
http://www.nationalcampaignforfairelections.org/page/s/vol08ep

We can't afford to lose a single vote!