Tens of Thousands “Vote Early” as Republican officials purge the rolls

While the Trump/MAGA administration is purging voters in an attempt to steal the election, the movement to protect the vote and count every vote is organizing across the country.

The national call for voters to cast their ballots early swept through Connecticut this week as early voting opened on October 19 and continues through November 1 at most town halls from 10 am to 6 pm daily.

Residents in 46 Connecticut towns gathered for No Kings – Vote Early rallies, marches, sign drops and information leafletting urging residents to be part of a huge turnout and to vote early. Joined by state and local elected officials, they expressed determination to stop Trump/MAGA open attempts to disenfranchise voters in the Midterm elections.

The fear mongering and voter suppression tactics were reflected in hate letters containing a suspicious white substance sent to Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas among other election officials.

Thomas is a state and national leader in protecting voting rights and expanding voter participation. She has refused to turn over voter rolls to the national administration in response to their unlawful demands.

In stark contrast Republican Secretaries of State are purging voters from the roles, turning them away from the polls and bragging about their voter purges.

Most politicians would think twice before boasting about how many of their own constituents they’ve knocked off the voter rolls, but not today’s crop of Republican secretaries of state.

With the midterm elections just over two weeks away, GOP election chiefs across the country are competing over who can post the biggest numbers—and they’re doing it with the encouragement, and the databases, of the Trump administration.

In Kentucky, Secretary of State Michael Adams recently announced more than 318,000 removals from the rolls since he took office. His summary of the effort: “We’ve vigorously purged voters who have moved away, passed away, or been put away.”

Missouri’s Denny Hoskins took nearly 240,000 people off the rolls last year. More than half of them—some 135,000—weren’t dead or convicted of anything; they were simply classified as “inactive.” Hoskins says it’s his job to minimize ineligible voters.

In Ohio, Frank LaRose last month published a list of nearly 209,000 registrations slated for cancellation, declaring that the Buckeye State keeps the “cleanest voter rolls in the country.” LaRose’s record suggests “clean” is in the eye of the beholder. In 2023, he quietly canceled more than 26,000 registrations just days after ballots went out for that fall’s abortion rights referendum. A Democratic state legislator who dug into the records found over 1,000 voters wrongfully removed in Cuyahoga County alone.

And in Georgia, Brad Raffensperger’s office wrapped up one of the largest mass cancellations in the state’s history last year, with roughly 478,000 inactive voters targeted. Groups like Fair Fight have long warned that such purges fall hardest on Black voters.

Republican officials insist all this is routine list maintenance required by federal law. Some of it is, but the pride with which they make their announcements tells you something has changed. Purging voters is no longer simple database management and information updating. It’s now a loyalty display for a president who still won’t stop wrongfully claiming that hordes of non-citizens are stealing elections (at least the elections he and his party lose).

Another reality when it comes to these Republican-led voter purges is that it’s the same people who always get swept out first: working-class renters who move to new addresses often, young people, shift workers who miss an election or two, immigrants who became citizens. “Use it or lose it” rules don’t hit country club members; they hit people already squeezed by capitalism’s economic crisis.

The Trump administration has supercharged the purge operation. After it expanded the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) citizenship database, at least 67 million voter registrations—mostly from Republican-controlled states—were run through the system. At least 25 states have used it.

The results have been riddled with errors. In Missouri, 70 county clerks from both parties warned lawmakers that SAVE kept flagging people they personally knew to be citizens. In Travis County, Texas, officials found that between 10% and 21% of voters SAVE flagged as apparent noncitizens were actually citizens.

In June, a U.S. District ruled the revamped database unlawful, writing that the government had trampled Americans’ privacy in a way that threatens “the sacred right to vote.” On Sept. 25, though, the Supreme Court lifted those restrictions, handing Trump a win just weeks before Election Day.

There’s precedent for where this leads. Federal law bars systematic purges within 90 days of a federal election, a quiet period that began Aug. 5 this year. That rule tripped up Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen in 2024, when a judge halted his “non-citizen” purge after about 2,000 eligible citizens were swept up.

In a separate case, the Supreme Court has also agreed to hear a Republican National Committee appeal from Arizona claiming database-driven citizenship checks are exempt. If the GOP wins, experts warn, voters wrongly struck on the eve of an election may have no remedy in federal court.

Commentator Thom Hartmann argues that purges in 2024 helped deliver the White House to Trump, and that Republicans are running the same play now.

The MAGA movement can’t win a fair fight on its record of exploding prices, tariffs, cuts to health care, an inflation-fueling war on Iran, and attacks on workers, so it is trying to shrink the electorate instead.

The answer is organizing. Unions, voting rights groups, and community organizations are urging everyone to check their registration status today, bring a friend to do the same, and know their right to cast a provisional ballot if their name has gone missing.

Republican secretaries of state are proud of how many voters they’ve erased. The best reply is a turnout so big their numbers don’t matter.

Get it Done! VOTE EARLY Oct 19 - Nov 1 at your Town Hall

The mid-term elections will determine much about our ability as working class people to organize for a better future. A massive vote turnout in every state for offices up and down the ballot will send the message to protect the vote and stop the MAGA destruction of livelihoods and lives. Early voting begins in Connecticut on Monday October 19. Communities are organizing marches and car caravans to vote together as an act of collective resistance. Get it done! Vote Early at your town hall. Voting on election day November 3 will be at regular polling places.

Labor-Community Coalition Supports Regulations for Short-Term Rentals

Filling the steps of New Haven City Hall. a coalition of unions, church and community groups, joined by Mayor Justin Elicker, announced their support for legislation initiated by New Haven Rising regulating non-owner occupied short term rentals. The legislation, part of an affordability agenda, is under consideration by the Board of Alders. At a packed hearing it passed committee with a favorable vote and now goes on to the full Board of Alders for any amendments and action.

As Yale and its partner developers move to transform New Haven into a biotech and travel destination, the question for working class residents has become, “a boom for whom?”.

“Development and growth should translate into good housing and jobs for working people, not displacement,” they said, releasing data showing that over 1,000 short-term rentals were listed this summer in New Haven, while, since 2020, rents are up 53% and home unaffordability by 345%. 

Many short-term rentals managed by corporate entities are advertised in luxury housing buildings that have been recently developed. The growth in short-term rentals is estimated to have cost New Haveners up to $29.9 million in extra rent over the last three years.

Over the summer, New Haven Rising volunteers collected over 4,500 petitions in support of three demands: regulating non-owner-occupied short-term rentals, a fully-funded city where Yale pays its fair share, and better paying jobs that allow New Haven families to live and thrive.

“We are in an affordability crisis. The rents are too high. Buying a home is out of reach. Racial inequality has only grown,” declared New Haven Rising director Rev Scott Marks. “The racial income gap between Black and white workers has doubled between 2011 and 2024.”

“I am a young Black man who born and raised in New Haven,” said canvasser Lamar Alston. “I want to see a New Haven where residents come before profits and families like mine can afford to stay in the community they call home. Today we are taking one step of many needed to make that dream a reality.”

Clara Dewey, one of the youth who knocked on doors said, “For all this money coming into the city we'e united to make it clear,” she said. “New Haven is not for sale!”

CT Tenants Union Grows During Housing Crisis

The housing crisis is one of the big issues in the upcoming elections as more and more families can't afford their rent and receive low pay while corporations thrive.

Across Connecticut tenants are gaining their voice and power through collective action as part of the growing Connecticut Tenants Union, forming organization to bargain with landlords.

Most recently, tenants at Old Post Village in Tolland held a press conference announcing their tenants union which seeks to resolve long-standing issues with negligence and disrespect towards tenants, to re-build eroded trust, and to win a seat at the table in deciding the future of their homes and community.

They are the third affiliate chapter of the CT Tenants Union to form in the past month.

Old Post Village is a senior living community owned by the Tolland Housing Authority and managed by an affiliate of New Samaritan Corporation. The tenants have experienced mold, burst pipes and flooding and absentee management. Tenants have not seen any renovations despite the fact that the town received a $2 million grant last year for infrastructure upgrades to this complex.

In Stamford, tenants in Friendship House, a 122-unit housing complex owned by New Neighborhoods, formed their union in September with the support of allies and elected officials as they battle recurring mold outbreaks, sewage leaks, a defunct laundry room and retaliation after contacting the Stamford Health Department on these concerns. They have now won a negotiating meeting with management in October.

In Meriden in September, residents at the 221 unit Community Towers announced their union alongside allies from SEIU 1199, the NAACP and lawmakers. It is the 28th chapter, and one of the largest statewide. Residents have dealt with unsecured doors, at least one building fire without emergency exit plans, mold issues, and a broken HVAC system that expels fiberglass.

Following the launch, a delegation of Community Towers residents delivered a petition to collectively bargain to City Hall. As a result, a meeting with Community Towers union and the Meriden Housing Authority board is now set for October.

The housing crisis is one of the big issues in the upcoming elections as more and more families can't afford their rent and receive low pay while corporations thrive.

Across Connecticut tenants are gaining their voice and power through collective action as part of the growing Connecticut Tenants Union, forming organization to bargain with landlords.

Most recently, tenants at Old Post Village in Tolland held a press conference announcing their tenants union which seeks to resolve long-standing issues with negligence and disrespect towards tenants, to re-build eroded trust, and to win a seat at the table in deciding the future of their homes and community.

They are the third affiliate chapter of the CT Tenants Union to form in the past month.

Old Post Village is a senior living community owned by the Tolland Housing Authority and managed by an affiliate of New Samaritan Corporation. The tenants have experienced mold, burst pipes and flooding and absentee management. Tenants have not seen any renovations despite the fact that the town received a $2 million grant last year for infrastructure upgrades to this complex.

In Stamford, tenants in Friendship House, a 122-unit housing complex owned by New Neighborhoods, formed their union in September with the support of allies and elected officials as they battle recurring mold outbreaks, sewage leaks, a defunct laundry room and retaliation after contacting the Stamford Health Department on these concerns. They have now won a negotiating meeting with management in October.

In Meriden in September, residents at the 221 unit Community Towers announced their union alongside allies from SEIU 1199, the NAACP and lawmakers. It is the 28th chapter, and one of the largest statewide. Residents have dealt with unsecured doors, at least one building fire without emergency exit plans, mold issues, and a broken HVAC system that expels fiberglass.

Following the launch, a delegation of Community Towers residents delivered a petition to collectively bargain to City Hall. As a result, a meeting with Community Towers union and the Meriden Housing Authority board is now set for October.

Coalition Says “Hands Off Connecticut”

Hands Off CT, a growing collective of organizations, churches, unions, and activists is committed to protecting our immigrant neighbors from ICE enforcement — building independent community defense networks in every city and town is stepping up their organizing to make Connecticut safe for everyone who lives here..

The coalition reports that 632,000 Immigrants live in Connecticut — 17% of the state, with 198,000 estimated undocumented residents statewide and 9,000 Temporary Protected Status holders in Connecticut.

The coalition is calling for those concerned with the rise in ICE abductions and violence to write to their state and city representatives. Their sample letter reads in part:

“Connecticut must not be complicit in the federal government's abusive immigration enforcement tactics or its creeping authoritarianism. Connecticut is not immune to ICE’s violence. We call on Connecticut’s elected officials — from the governor to mayors to the General Assembly — to take every possible action to protect our communities and resist federal overreach.

“Governor Lamont: Create a $10 million emergency fund for legal defense and family stability to ensure that people fighting deportation can access legal representation and that families facing the detention of a loved one can get immediate financial assistance for basic needs like food, housing, childcare, and transportation.

“Attorney General Tong: Create a portal through the Attorney General's office to collect reports of excessive use of force and discrimination by ICE agents and federal law enforcement, and file lawsuits against the federal government.

“To all State Leaders: Ensure our laws are enforced. Open an investigation into TRUST Act compliance and create an independent body with real authority to audit and enforce our laws, and close the records loophole ICE is using.”

Hands off CT says they are “committed to building independent and democratic community defense networks in every city, town, and neighborhood in our state. We say NO to mass deportations. NO to militarized raids. NO to fear. YES to dignity, safety, and sanctuary. Connecticut must be a safe and welcoming place for all of us, regardless of immigration status.”

Raise your voice about climate change

by John Harrity

If you watched the news over the last days of August, you saw video of an almost inconceivable wave of destruction in Nepal.  Untold numbers of people and both the infrastructure and cultural heritage of this ancient region were swept away.  Glaciers in the mountains above a populated valley were weakened by rising global temperatures and came cascading down in a deadly tsunami.

It may have seemed a world away, but the reality is you and I caused that disaster as surely as if we had pushed a big red button that released the deluge.  You may roll your eyes but it is literally true.  Why?  How?  

We have failed over many years to take any significant action on climate change. Meanwhile we consistently produce the most carbon emissions of any country on earth — emissions that are causing the globe to get hotter. 

Nepal may seem too far away.  Put it aside for the moment.  What about the weather forecasts seemingly day after day for the past several months putting literally millions of Americans on alert for extreme weather.  

Record-breaking weather of every description.  Snowfall measured in feet instead of inches.  Rainfall amounts considered once in a thousand years occurring annually.  Los Angeles burning down!  There is no need to list them.

The majority of Americans now recognize that this extreme weather is the result of human-generated climate change. It’s also clear that at a time when “affordability” squeezes every household, climate degradation is getting costly.  Maybe it’s just the added cost of running the AC more or having to crank the furnace higher.   Millions of Americans have endured moderate to severe storm damage.  The cost of repairs comes either from your own wallet, insurance companies, or some level of government.

 Inevitably we will all bear increased costs due to these continuing catastrophes. Considering all this, why is virtually no one in political leadership or mainstream journalism talking about it!  Why?  You know what?  It does not matter.  As of today — right now — you and I have to start hollering.  Imagine if your kids were in a locked car that rolled into the river - that is how loud, and frantically, and

persistently we have to yell.  Yell!

Do not grasp for a complacency based on today’s already eroded standards, thinking we can adjust to this “new normal.”  Because this is all only going to get worse.  And all the data indicates that the rate of decline is quickening.   First target of our new-found rage: No candidate for office, either challenger or incumbent, should get our support unless they are committed to a strong position of climate safety action.

YOUR commitment in the elections is to make sure to vote! And get everybody you know out voting too, to make sure climate champions are elected.

Complain to the media about their pathetic coverage of the most important story, maybe, in human history. How can they report the weather forecast every 10 minutes but fail to provide any analysis about how rapidly weather is becoming more severe, why that is happening and what the future holds unless we eliminate carbon emissions?

Get on your marching shoes. We need to be gathering in large numbers to protest this lack of action by those who control the levers of power in this society. In government, that means both the federal and state leadership. Those culpable include the executive and legislative branches of government for

generally gutless lack of action across the board. True, more is happening on the state level than nationally, but nearly enough.

The prime target of our ire ought to be the private sector, which continues to engorge itself at the profit smorgasbord while they kill the earth. They have so far successfully lulled most of the population into somnambulant acquiescence to their path of destruction. But no more. For God;s sake, no more.

At this moment, within the aura of Labor Day, Unions must take up the call: “Workers DEMAND a safe planet!” If unions’ primary role is to safeguard the rights of working people and ensure they enjoy a decent, stable quality of life, what could be more important, more urgent, than fighting to maintain/ restore our climate? If the members do not understand it, teach them.

DO NOT Continue to be complacent. Do not surrender the future of your children and their children. Complain. Confront. Holler, Yell. Vote, vote vote! Raise hell! DEMAND a safe planet.

John Harrity is the former president of the Connecticut State Council of Machinists. He lives in East Hartland.