Open source the vote
Summary: There's now an open-source application to let your Web site visitors register to vote in the U.S. elections.

Want to do your part in the upcoming U.S. presidential elections? There's an open-source app. For that.
The Democratic party has released a Ruby on Rails open-source program, Voter Registration that enables you to deploy a Web application that enables U.S. citizens to register to vote. There is also a version that you can simply embed on your site, which is branded for the Obama/Biden campaign. The open-source version is unbranded so there's nothing on it that even a Tea Party member could object to.
To deploy the open-source version, your Web site will need to have Ruby 1.9.3 installed and the the RubyGem "bundler" installed. RubyGem is the Ruby package manager. The campaign branded version can be placed on any Web site by simply embedding the following code:
<iframe id="gottaregister" name="1_1" src="https://gottaregister.com/?brand=embed&source=" width="460" frameborder="" height="500" style="display: block; overflow: hidden; margin: auto; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 20px; border: 0 moz-border-radius: 0; webkit-border-radius: 0; border-radius: 0; "></iframe>
on the appropriate page of your site.
Both versions present a potential voter with a fill-in-the-blank voter registration form. This information is then used to generate a National Voter Registration Form in PDF. This form can then be printed out and turned in to your state voter registration office. If a would-be voter is from a state that allows online voter registration, the form passes you, and your information, to your state's online voter registration page.
If you just want to register online to vote, you can also do so with the non-partisan version of the program from a cloud-based Voter Registration site. There the application runs off the Heroku cloud platform.
The Democrats aren't the only ones trying to make it easy for voters to register. Google has partnered with TurboVote to make it easy to register. So, if you want to have a say in this year's election, it's time to get moving. Registration deadlines are rapidly approaching in most states.
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Talkback
Was it written by...
So only the Republicans
Nah I'm kidding, I know why they're doing it.
If you can't beat 'em, cheat ;-)
The RNC has already stated why they are for voter suppression laws
Wrong Again
Then there is the crazy cat lady in Florida who has registered each of her 50 cats to vote, and casts ballots for each of them.
You are correct that there haven't been any real prosecutions for voter fraud since oh, about 2008. Could that have anything to do with this President being from Chicago?
Oh, and one more thing, Why does the White House not want to allow more time for Military Service members who are overseas to get their ballots back? You can't claim that these fine people are not Citizens, while ballots are being sent in to California, Illinois and New York from Chad and Somalia, now can you?
Sorry, but, establishing Citizenship is a fine thing. Fraud is not.
In addition...
Concern about fraud is the official reason for Republican vote suppression efforts and is definitely the reason they give their supporters, but the primary interest still appears to be to minimize the number of likely Democratic votes.
Oy!
Democrats have been the overwhelming perpetrators of voting crime in the last 130 years in this country. It's in the judicial record, but of course, that may get erased someday, too.
Can you say Black Panthers? Of course, when REAL voter suppression happens, the Dept. of Injustice just blows it off.
yep, rpublicans
So, only the Republicans (can Commit Voter Fraud?)
I think i'll vote mutliple times this year myself
All straight republican ticket..acorn style!