Internet Voter Registration Day: pledge to vote, and get your friends to pledge, and scare the piss out of SOPA-loving DC insiders

Tiffiniy from the SOPA-killing activist group Fight for the Future sez,

Remember when we worked together and beat back internet censorship and SOPA, and changed the world earlier this year? 2012 is a historic year for our basic rights on the web - the year the internet came alive and fought for free speech and freedom. Sites like Boing Boing depend on an open and free web, and so doesn't much of what you love and do on the web.

Unfortunately, Congress still only cares about the opinions of likely voters. If everyone who cares about internet freedom stays at home this election, Congress will bring back SOPA. That's why we've been working on a campaign to turn out a massive number of internet users at the polls, and we're asking people to join us tomorrow for Internet Voter Registration Day, right before a bunch of state deadlines, by pledging that you'll vote, and register if you need to: internetvotes.org.

Washington insiders thought SOPA, PIPA, and CISPA were all 'certain to pass.' How did the internet win against those bills? Because people stood up to protect free speech and the transformative power of the internet in their lives.

Let's dramatically increase the number of people egging each other on to vote, which has shown to get people to the polls. The first thing we're asking people to do is to get our friends to pledge and register to vote starting Tuesday, National Voter Registration Day (right before a bunch of state deadlines with time to send in your forms). Then we'll work together to mobilize millions of internet users to get to the polls. People can use our tools to see which of their friends are voting and registered, mobilize their audiences into voting blocks for their cause, site, or group, get important voting information, and make sure their friends go vote.

Promise to vote for the internet in 2012 (Thanks, Tiffiniy!)

• [Ito Kagehisa]

  Websense blocks the site for “potentially damaging content”, just FYI.

  • [Cowicide]

    We should all contact them and inform them of their error. I’m contacting them now:
    http://www.websense.com/content/contact-us.aspx

• [Brainspore]

  Also, if you’re one of those people who brags about not voting because you think it only lends legitimacy to an inherently corrupt system: please just shut up. Being too lazy to fill out a ballot doesn’t make you Patrick Henry.

  • [septimar]

    That’s a straw man. If someone is e.g. a genuine anarchist they simply regard voting as evil. I disagree, and you too, but people have other reasons not to vote besides laziness.

    • [Dave MacLachlan]

      If they’re a true anarchist, then they should not partake nor benefit from being a part of a democratic republic.

    • [Brainspore]

      I disagree, and you too, but people have other reasons not to vote besides laziness.

      That could be, but I’m generally suspicious of idealists whose ideals just happen to coincide with the path of least resistance.

• [cellocgw]

  I suppose it would be undignified to suggest only those favoring a certain (non-Loxodontic) party register.

• [jandrese]

  Oh boy, I can’t wait to make a statement about internet freedom by voting for the candidate that doesn’t support it, as opposed to the other candidate who also doesn’t support it.

  If you really wanted to push this issue in Washington, you would set up your own well funded lobby that counterbalances the MPAA/RIAA/etc’s massive lobbies.  The reason these laws keep coming up is because lobbyists keep pushing for them behind closed doors and unopposed. 

  • [Brainspore]

    Voting alone isn’t sufficient to change the system, but it’s neccessary for doing so. Don’t neglect any of the tools you’ve got.

    • [davidasposted]

      Why is it necessary for doing so?

      • [Brainspore]

        O.K., you’ve got me. Voting isn’t technically necessary to change governments. 

        Just any government that I care to live under.

        • [davidasposted]

          Then you will settle for an unresponsive government, which is your choice of course.

        • [Brainspore]

          When you take the electorate out of the equation, “responsive government” means “government that can muster a quick military response to peaceful protests.” 

          If you think we have too much of that now then just wait until the politicians all get lifetime appointments.

        • [davidasposted]

          If the citizenry decided to change the system by any means other than elections, the elected government of the time would respond in exactly the same way.

  • [Shashwath T.R.]

    Right… I don’t usually comment on these US-centric threads, but…

    You do realise that you have the choice of voting for a third party candidate, right? Yes, I know “they never win”, but unless you show enough support for them on voting day, they never will.

    Reducing the vote count for the mainstream candidates isn’t enough. You have to show an increase somewhere else too. Otherwise, you look apathetic, instead of concerned.

• [Jonathan Vanasco]

  My friend runs this site – http://CountMore.org

  If you’re a college student eligible to vote in your home & school state, it shows you which state is the more impactful ‘battleground’ , and provides you with all the voter registration and absentee ballot information.  

  Incidentally the 501c3 that put together the site, http://LongDistanceVoter.org , is widely regarded as the top Absentee Ballot group and is the data partner for most of the well-known registration efforts.