Conference Call with Nutter on Voter Suppression

This afternoon Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Will Crossley, Director of Voter Protection at the Democratic National Committee held a conference call on voting in the city. It was in response to Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett's comments on keeping the voting percentage down in Philadelphia. To be fair, directly after the "keep it down" comment he did say he wanted everyone to vote, but from the fuller comments I saw on an extended video, he did seem to be saying he wanted to keep Democratic voting down, and wanted lots of people of all political stripes to vote for him. Sure, every candidate wants everyone to vote for him or her. But there is no denying that Corbett said:

I saw today that the Governor said yesterday that Bob Brady should resign as chairman of the Democratic committee of Philadelphia if he doesn't get 50% turnout....

I don't think he's going to get 50%.

But we want to make sure that they don't get 50%.

Keep that down." (watch video of comments here)

Given the history of voting rights among the African American community comments like that can bring up old and ugly memories. Nutter referenced the many who fought and suffered, even violence, for the right to vote. He called on all Philadelphians to come out on election day and vote.

Crossley referenced other voter suppression tactics across the country:

From sending out flyers with the wrong date for Election Day to misleading voters by telling them that if they have parking tickets or owe child support you will not be allowed to vote.

In Nevada there were ads telling Latinos not to vote.

In concert with Mayor Nutter I would encourage all registered voters to participate in the Democratic process.