Father Frank Pavone: Good evening, brothers and sisters. This is Father Frank Pavone, Director of Priests for Life. Thank you so much for joining our teleseminar. This is the third national teleseminar that we have had and we are talking about our national elections, of course, and we have benefited in the past seminars with a panel of experts and we're no less blessed tonight in the people that we're going to have address us and lead us through important considerations about this election.
So thank you for joining us. Some of you are joining us by telephone only, others are listening through your computers and are going to be able to follow the various links that we have provided, the key documents and key places on our website where you'll be able to download helpful information. So let's begin, as always, by turning to the Lord in prayer and asking him to bless our time here together tonight.
Lord, as we are united throughout this nation, as we are united in Your word across denominational lines, as we are united across ethnic boundaries, we come before You aware of our need for Your mercy. We come before You aware of how we have been blessed by Your mercy. We come before You, Lord, aware that we have an urgent opportunity on our hands to advance the cause of life, the cause of peace and justice, the cause, ultimately, of Your kingdom. And so we think You, Lord, for this opportunity we have in this nation. We thank You for this opportunity we have right here tonight to be encouraged, to be strengthened, to be led, to be guided and to be fed. We put all things in Your hands, Lord, and we rejoice in the opportunities that are before us. We ask, above all, that we would be faithful in serving You and Your kingdom. We pray, in Jesus' name, Amen.
Well, brothers and sisters, some of you have already submitted questions and we're going to be able to get to those tonight. In the previous teleseminars that we had, we had quite a few panelists and sometimes the consideration we gave to each of the various topics was fairly rushed, and tonight we've left a little bit more of a buffer zone so that we can address each of the topics at a little bit more leisure and give our panelists a little bit more time to explain their points and also give the answers to some of your questions.
Now as in the past, these teleseminars are being recorded and the recordings will be made available on our website immediately after the conclusion of the call, and also a transcript will be made shortly thereafter, and the transcript likewise available over the website. So that any of your friends, families, fellow worshippers, pro-life group members, etc., who would have wanted to be with us tonight but couldn't be can nevertheless have the benefit of reading or listening to the discussion that we're having here tonight.
To review a little bit about what we've done in the past, the first teleseminar that we had, and we've been having one of these each month, in June we discussed the election in a general way and we spoke about a specific campaign that we have been undertaking, about which you'll hear more in the coming month and that is the
“Is This What You Mean?” campaign.
As you'll recall, those of you who were with us on that call, this is a project in which we equip you with a very simple approach that can be used anywhere at any level of government, anyplace in the country, really by anyone who can read. And that is that we give you the quotes from the abortionists, from the medical textbooks, from their testimonies in court and invite you to, whether on blogs or in one-on-one meetings or in town hall meetings, to stand up in front of candidates and public officials who support legal abortion, to quote the abortionists and then to say, “When you say the word abortion, is this what you mean?”
This is an effort of education. People present at that moment will hear these quotes that they've never heard before about how gruesome abortion really is, and therefore, what happens is that no matter what the politician says in response, the point has been made. And this is something that is fully available on our website. The main website being politicalresponsibility.com and you can download all the tools you need necessary for that project.
So that was what we discussed the first month. And you'll notice, those of you who are following by computer, in the lower right-hand side of the screen, the main button there, election info, it goes to the website I just mentioned, politicalresponsibility.com. And that website, that page if you want to take a moment to look at it now, is our election action center and it has a wealth of information, as well as an opportunity for you to communicate with us about what you're doing about the successes or the obstacles that you encounter, about the help you may need, and about the ability to network one with another.
On that page right away at the top you'll see what was the subject of our second teleseminar in July, and that was on voter education and on our voter's guide for the presidential race. We talked a lot about the importance of that and this guide has been legally approved for use in churches and by tax-exempt organizations. Now, the point is that a lot of different groups produce voter's guides and of course, campaigns will produce partisan political pieces advocating for their candidate.
And we talked in our last teleseminar about some of the legal issues. We heard a clip of an interview with Jim Bopp, one of the nation's top experts in this area. This voter's guide for the presidential race is accompanied by more than one legal opinion indicating its suitability for use in churches. Now, obviously, there are always circumstances that can arise that make it more or less appropriate to use materials in churches, but nevertheless, those circumstances are clearly spelled out in these letters and they're not impossible to understand.
So we're encouraging people to download and print and use and distribute these guides, bring them to your priests, to your pastors, urge them - show them the legal letter, urge them to use the guides and distribute them yourself. Besides through the churches we have every right to distribute them in other ways that we can find to get them into the hands of voters.
So we talked a lot about that last time. We also talked about voter registration in the churches. Very critical topic and we are going to talk tonight a little bit about some of the upcoming deadlines because when it comes to this point in an election year, we've got to start thinking in terms of deadlines. When do the deadlines come for registering to vote, and when does the voting begin. We're going to talk a little bit about that tonight too, the concept of early voting, because this is really a gift and an opportunity that's been given to us to increase what is the theme tonight, and that is voter turnout.
So what I'm going to do, brothers and sisters, is ask you to bookmark that page, politicalresponsibility.com, because we'll be updating that constantly between now and election day. You've got the links there. If you scroll down below the voter's guide you'll see the link to the “Is This What You Mean?” project. You'll see the link register to vote, which gives information about voter registration in churches. And then you will also see there a prayer for our nation as we prepare to elect our leaders. And this is a specific prayer that we have written and we'll pray before the conference call is over, that is meant to unite us across the country in prayer each day for the election.
And we've designated a special period of
nine weeks of prayer starting on the first of September. It just counts nine weeks from then to the day before the election, and we ask people to join in saying that prayer from September 1st, even from now of course, it's up there, it's available, and to join together in families, in groups, in churches, to ask God's wisdom. And not only His wisdom on our voters and on our candidates, but His fire that we'll have the passion to work for what we need to accomplish in the course of these weeks remaining until the election.
We have tried to cast that fire in the past. We've been able to do so seeing the fruit of God's work, seeing the fruit of His spirit, and before we go to our first expert panelist, I would like our administrative associate who is on with us tonight, Christa Childs, from our Washington, DC office to share with us a testimonial, one of thousands that we have received from across the country from people who have received the fire, taken it, have run with it, have done the work for God's kingdom and for the elections in the past. Christa, thanks for being with us and for all that you do to facilitate these teleseminars. Share with us one of those testimonials if you would.
Christa Childs: Okay, Father, this one is from Mary in Ohio. “Thanks to Father Pavone's encouragement at the conference at Franciscan University, we made assertive efforts in our parish of greater boldness. We had a voter registration in our church vestibule two weekends in a row. This was difficult for our pastor but he consented. We passed our literature on candidates' voting records on abortion when and where we could. We did a lot of one-on-one sharing and we used Father Pavone's tape from the conference when we met resistance. Thank you and God bless you for your mission for the unborn and their mothers and fathers.”
Father Frank Pavone: Well, thanks, Christa. And it's always so encouraging when I hear that a simple piece of paper or a simple tape recording, things that we can so easily take for granted, end up emboldening and encouraging people and helping them to reach out to others. Brothers and sisters, that's what we're calling on, on all of you to do. We're putting the tools in your hands, we're making them available as are many other groups and leaders. The time is now to act. And so I want to welcome those who have just been joining us now in these last couple of moments, through the computer, through the phone.
If you're on the computer, lower right-hand side of the screen, the first button we've already pointed out, politicalresponsiblity.com. You'll see the big button that says election info, that's our election action center. That's where to go to get the voter's guide, to get a lot of other practical information. And where you can go to let us know how you're doing and what kind of help you need.
So now we're going to go to our first special guest. He is the President and founder of Wall Builders, wallbuilders.com. I always remember the first time that I heard David Barton. It was at a large gathering and as I heard him speak about the founding fathers and their vision for this country, their vision of the role of God in the very destiny of this nation, I knew that this was somebody that I had to get to know better and collaborate with. And he has been an open heart, an open door.
We've been able to do various different things together relating to media, relating to efforts like we've having tonight, relating to strategy, and it's just been such a joy to be able to work with David Barton. We've been together in clergy seminars, where David has brought together clergy in Washington, DC, and of course his spiritual heritage tours of the U.S. Capitol are something unforgettable. David, we appreciate all your work and thanks so much for being with us tonight.
David Barton: Hey, Father, it is my pleasure. Thanks for your work as well. We have had a wonderful time collaborating together on so many efforts and we just really appreciate all that you do and all that you do to help point the nation in the right direction. So it's an honor to be with you.
Father Frank Pavone: David, for our listeners tonight who are not so familiar with Wall Builders, tell us first of all a little bit about the organization.
David Barton: We're a little unique in some ways, for example, we do a lot in history and how history affects public policy. From that standpoint, we've been involved now in seven cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, all of which have dealt with some form of religious expression, whether there could be prayers in public or whether there could be prayers at graduation, invocations and benedictions.
So we've been involved in a number of legal arenas. We're very much involved in policy arenas. We deal with about 500 state legislators on a regular basis, probably about 120 members of Congress. And we have a unique library of about 100,000 documents from before 1812. So as we look at history and really the plan of God for America, we are able to go into the original handwritten documents of the guys who did the Declaration, Constitution, etc. So kind of a unique combination of history and law and politics is really where God has placed us.
Father Frank Pavone: That's one of the things I enjoy so much about your presentations, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, that while many speakers who can be very learned in these things may quote a letter from one of our founding fathers, you pull it out of your briefcase in its original version.
David Barton: Yeah. That has been one of the fun things, because that really does change the whole complexity of the argument. It's not whether I have enough degrees or whether I have enough experience, it's man, what are you holding - is that the original, did they really say that? And so it really is fun to see the argument change at that point.
Father Frank Pavone: It surely is. Well, David, we have, obviously, another critical election coming up, right upon us now. It's less than a hundred days away. And you know, it seems that every time we come up on a presidential election we're saying, “This is the most important election in history.” And you know, it seems we're repeating ourselves each time, and yet, each time it seems more and more convincing that that's actually the truth.
David Barton: Yes, and I have to say it for this election. This is the most important election we've had in our generation, in our history. I've said that the previous few elections and it's been true. But we actually have a new direction at which to look this time. It's something we haven't had an opportunity to do in about 40 years. And I would point, as I mentioned, we do so much at the court level, in the Supreme Courts and other federal courts, but really most of what we would consider to be the culture war, the war against marriage, the war against life with abortion, the war against God in public, religious expression, have not come out of the legislatures, they have come out of judiciary.
We have yet to have a single state pass a law that says we want abortion on demand in all cases but that's what the courts gave us. We've never had a state that said we want marriage to not be between a man and a woman except those states ordered by the court to do so. We've never had a state that passed a law that says we don't want an invocation at a football game but the courts have said that.
So, having said that, with the two justices we've added to the Supreme Court in the last two years, we have picked up the first Ten Commandments win in 26 years at the court. We've picked up our first marriage win at the court in modern history, and we picked up our first two pro-life victories at the U.S. Supreme Court since Roe v. Wade. So just the addition of two new justices, that has only given us really what I would consider to be four strong justices. We still have, by my count, four good ones, four bad ones and one big squish in the middle that's not sure what he believes but occasionally we get him.
And having said that, when the next president is sworn in in January of this coming year, 2009, of the nine justices on the court, six of the nine will be 70 years old or older, and all but one of those justices will be from the side that we would consider to be adverse to these biblical values. So quite frankly this next election is likely to determine the course of the culture for the next 40 years, because the opportunity to select Supreme Court justices.
So I have not seen any election in my lifetime where that there has been that big of an opportunity to change the direction of the court and that's what we have in this election.
Father Frank Pavone: Now, David, elections really rise and fall based on turnout. Tell us, reflect with us a little bit about the critical importance of turnout, what it really means and what we need to do about it.
David Barton: Well, turnout is always key for every candidate, you know, they always have to turnout enough of different constituencies for them to win. What has always been of interest to us and the records that we have kept for the last seven elections is what happens when Christians turn out and vote values, when they vote life and marriage, etc.
And we are able to show statistically that as the Christian vote goes on those biblical issues so goes the election. I'll give you just a great example from the last three elections. Two elections ago, back in 2002 and 2004, Christian vote turnout increased each election, and as it did so, the number of people who said that the primary cause for their voting was the abortion issue also increased. We were at 41 percent of people who voted said abortion was their chief issue in 2002. It was 42 percent in 2004. It dropped down to only 30 percent in 2006.
And we're able to also show that well, we had a 2 percent increase in Christian voter turnout in '02 and a 93 percent in '04, almost doubled it. And then in '06 we had a 30 percent drop. Now, what's significant is, when you look at Congress, in the years where we had Christians actually showing up and voting their values, in those years we elected 94 new house members, of which 65 percent were pro-life, pro-faith and pro-marriage. And the senate in that year, those two elections, we elected 19 freshmen senators, and 79 percent or 15 or 19 of those senators were pro-life, they were pro-marriage, and they were pro-faith.
Now we came to last election where we had a 30 percent drop in Christian voter turnout. The life issue fell significantly as the voting issue. And in that election, only 31 percent of the new members of Congress were pro-life, pro-faith and pro-family. And in the senate we sent 10 freshmen senators to the senate last election and only 1 of the 10 is pro-marriage and only 1 of the 10 is pro-life.
So it's real easy to show that voter turnout is significantly important, especially for these values, these biblical values. And if Christians do not turn out then that affects the direction of the nation on issues like life and marriage and religious acknowledgments.
Father Frank Pavone: Now, I want to welcome those who have just come in in the last few minutes. We're talking with David Barton, President and founder of Wall Builders. Check out wallbuilders.com, and you'll get really a lot of great information and inspiration. David, we’ve got leaders on the phone here tonight, we've got people who have influence in their churches, in their congregations, and then we've got citizens who are simply trying to do their best maybe with themselves and maybe some small pro-life organizations or just a group of friends.
Being that turnout and especially, as you've just illustrated, turnout among Christians is so critical and really does have such an impact on elections, what are some of the practical things that people need to start thinking about and doing even right now to affect turnout and to increase turnout of believing Christians at this coming election?
David Barton: Several things would be important, and one of which is education. Education, the voter's guide that you have is very key, other voter's guides are out there as well. People need to know, for example, that one of the candidates has voted for abortion 13 out of 13 times in the U.S. Senate, has a perfect record. That is significant. That will not be covered by the media. It was not covered by the media. One of the - I would say one of the most recent tools at our disposal is what happened this weekend in the nationally broadcast interview at Saddleback Church.
CNN has a simple link to that. I'm seeing people blast that to their faith friends all over the nation saying you have got to watch this and see what they said about abortion and marriage, etc. So that is a tool that will enable us to educate others. And that's easily done through computer, what we now call viral marketing, I think is the most significant thing that can be done before the election, is people simply informing others by sending out links, by sending out simple messages, saying, hey, you may not have seen this, here's a great voting guide. You may not be aware of this, look at the Saddleback Church thing that just happened. That's a great way to do it.
Another way to do it is simply by reminding folks of what's at stake with judges. Most folks have no clue that we have had so many positive decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court in the last two years. And so being able to take people to those decisions and say here's what's at stake. We're finally starting to see the culture war change. I think when you put out information like that, that is not covered on the media, that you really do give people a reason to vote. And now, more than any other election we've had, viral marketing is the most effective tool that's out there and it's simply people sharing what they know on emails with other people who then share it with others and on through it goes.
Father Frank Pavone: Yes, that is critically important and this would be a good time, again, friends, especially those of you joining us on computer, to point out the link at the lower right-hand part of the screen that says
“Elections Info.” And what David is talking here about in terms of viral marketing, taking information, putting it in your emails, sending it to your whole list. You'll find a lot of that kind of information right there at that page and a lot of links. As you go down you see various articles, legal guidelines, the voter's guide which we mentioned, other kinds of information that you can share.
It really is in our hands to make this particular difference. I'd like now, at this point, and David, with your continued help, to point out some other links that we have on the lower right-hand side of the screen. One of them says
state election information, and those of you who are on by computer if you click that link, you will see a page come up that says register and vote and then it has the 50 states in alphabetical order. What do we have on those pages? We have, when you click on the name of the state, so for example, you see Alabama, it'll tell you whether or not there is a senate race, it'll tell you various dates, such as voter registration deadlines. It'll give you phone numbers and websites for the specific election information and election laws pertaining to that state. It will tell you whether early voting is permitted in your state, and it essentially gives you the lay of the land.
So David, first of all, this is a concept that I know I always found it easy to miss, because we often think in terms of well, we have a national election, and of course, we are electing federal officials and of course, the president and vice president. But really, the electoral process here very much does work on a state-by-state basis, doesn't it?
David Barton: It does. The Constitution has stipulated that states are in charge of elections in their states. It is not the federal Congress nor is it the Constitution that says how state elections will occur or how federal elections within a state occur. The Constitution says, okay, if you're going to run for federal office you have to be of this age and lived in the nation this long, etc.
But the process by which that works is very much an individual state-by-state choice, which is quite literally the way the Electoral College works. It's not what the nation wants, it's what each state wants that is combined together to form the Electoral College, and thereby, every state has a voice in the presidential election rather than just the most popular states.
So it's a great plan. It has worked to really help the nation make its voice known at every level up to the federal level and it is quite different. For example, in my state of Texas, nearly half of our voters in Texas will vote three weeks before the election, and what we have is early voting. Other states do not have early voting. You have to show that you have a reason that you're going to be gone. It's absentee voting. One state actually has all the voting done by mail rather than showing up at a ballot location.
So every state is quite different and you have to keep that in mind as you blast this information around to friends that the way it's done in your state may not be the way it's done in their state, so give them plenty of time to look at those voter's guides and to go to the website and to find out about the Political Responsibility Center and take all that.
So there is very much a difference from state to state. You'll also find that some states are going to have elections for mayor and elections for school board and other things on the ballot at the same time as president, whereas there's some states that will only have larger offices there. So again, it's real important for folks to be informed and see the voter's guides and know what they're going to vote about when they go into those booths.
Father Frank Pavone: So again, folks, at the bottom right-hand side of the screen, state election information. For those of you who are just listening by phone and don't see the page that I'm talking about, if you go to politicalresponsibility.com, you will see a link there for states and that's a website you can check out then later at your convenience.
We also have there, on the second link down, something David that you just referred to,
state early voting information. Now, we've prepared this special document, and if you click on that second link you'll see a PDF file open that says state's permitting early voting, November 2008 elections. You will then see a couple of categories, and the first one being no excuse required for early voting, both in person and by mail unless noted. These states listed there allow you to vote well before Election Day. Election Day this year is the 4th of November.
But David, explain to us a little bit more about this early voting. I mean I've got the states there, Alaska for example, October 20th, Arizona, October 2nd. And let's see, you were just mentioning about Texas, and in person only, okay, October 20th. Tell us about this early - what's the concept behind the early voting allowances in these states?
David Barton: It has really changed over time. The early voting concept first began as an absentee ballot initiative if you knew you were going to be out of the country, if you knew you could not be there to vote they wanted you to have an opportunity. So if you provided documentation on why you were going to be gone, then you could vote early and that was through absentee.
Then as that became more popular people started - they actually, I guess didn't want to make liars out of people. A lot of people just began voting absentee without much excuse because they felt it was more convenient. They didn't want to forget about it, they didn't want to be sick on Election Day. And so states started making the laws more lenient, saying, well, let's just do it out of convenience.
And so for a lot of states now, it's no excuse is required at all. A lot of states will keep the day open - the early voting open for three to five days. Some states will keep it open, as in Texas, we'll have it open almost for three weeks in Texas. So it is really different. And it is much more now to accommodate the varied lifestyles of people, the busy lifestyles, all the activities we have. They just want to make it easy for people to vote and easy for people to show up. And that's why most states now have no excuses required.
Father Frank Pavone: You know, I really get excited about early voting, and I'll tell you why. Because we were talking this evening about the critical importance of turnout. It really all is, in the end, a matter of numbers. You know, as I often point out to people, on election night it's not the opinions of people that are being counted, it's not their beliefs or convictions, it's not the reasons why they voted for or against a particular candidate, it's simply, purely the numbers of votes.
And so if we have early voting, if we know about it, if we help those that we know and that we have influence over, to realize if our state has early voting and to take advantage of that, it literally gives us more time to bring in more votes for the candidates that we're supporting. And I - this really gives rise to a very practical effort, brothers and sisters, and that is the link that I am pointing out there at the bottom, state early voting information, if you take that document, download it to your computer, print it out, utilize it, and utilize it in order to bring about greater turnout.
I want to read the states here that have no excuse required for early voting, you can just vote starting on - and the dates are listed there on the document. And those states are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Now again, not only the dates but other particular requirements vary from state to state, but those states have no excuse early voting. And then there are other states that have early voting but require a particular reason of why you can't vote on Election Day itself and the information for those states is likewise, on this document.
So for example, let's say that we - you're in a state that has early voting, what are some of the ways that we can then bring people in. For example, I think that if someone is part of a prayer group, a pro-life organization, pastor of a church, I mean first of all, it should simply be announced. I mean it should be brought to the attention of people. Okay, folks, you know, next week, even though it's still October, you're able to start voting, so here's where the polling places are and let's get people out as early as possible.
David Barton: Yeah, in New Mexico for example, their early voting starts a month before the general election. So that gives you actually give weeks that you can say all right, folks, this is the week the voting's coming up. And so you can start moving people in that direction. One of the more tactical things that we're able to do with early voting is, in many states you're able to see who has voted early. Now you can't see how they voted, for whom they voted but you can see who voted early. And we're able to say, okay, here's your neighborhood, here's your neighbors and look, seven of your neighbors haven't been to vote yet. You need to call them and say hey, we need you to go vote.
And so with early voting we're actually able to help use early voting information to help know who needs to go vote, who has not voted yet and who needs to turn out. So that's another way that that can be done. But certainly, as Father said, I mean this is a thing where, whatever group we're with, civic group or a prayer group or a pro-life group or whatever, we start pushing em early toward the polls, because then if they forget they've got a second and a third and a fourth chance with early voting, and it gives us more opportunity to emphasize and talk and really push on why this is an important election.
Father Frank Pavone: One of the things that churches can do, and really any organization can do as well as private citizens, is the issue of providing transportation to the polls.
David Barton: Yes.
Father Frank Pavone: And, you know, sometimes people - again, people think well the church is not a political body, yes, but what we're talking about here is participation. And talk to us about some of the ways that that kind of assistance can be offered and organized for people.
David Barton: Yeah, it is a great assistance plan. And a lot of what happens is a lot of times in churches you know that, for example, there are groups more likely to need transportation than other groups, and that would be seniors, that would be folks who may have some type of physical disability. And so within a church or a parish, it's easy to know who within that parish needs that kind of help. And so you can start asking them, would you like us to help get you to the polls.
Some folks that may be within the church or parish that are in a rest home, go to them and say hey, election is coming up, I know you've always been involved in your country and I know that being in a rest home may make it a little difficult, can we help get the ballot for you, can we help you fill out the paperwork for absentee ballot.
And so those are things that are easy to do and it comes from just knowing people in the area and community. Churches are able to take any of their vehicles and make that available for, as you said, and it's a great word, Father, is participation. It has nothing to do with partisanship, it has to do with simply participation. And churches and parishes are able to do that and able to put resources toward helping and participation.
So those are easy ways. It's also easy to put a little note out on email or sign up or other that says if you think you need transportation help here's the number to call and I'll be able to help arrange transportation and make sure you get there. So just starting to think in that paradigm, we come up with creative ways to help do this because we know our own community better than others do and again, it's different state to state.
Some you have to vote early voting in person, others early voting it's not in person, you can do it by mail and simply helping someone know how to fill out a form and where to mail it and how to get it dropped in the mail can be just as important as loading them into a car and taking them to a ballot area where they can vote. And we've been really pleased to see that so many churches and parishes now are actually becoming voting locations, where they're saying, hey, you can have a ballot box at our place. And that's a very good step also for churches and parishes to do.
Father Frank Pavone: Yes. You know, I often speak about the principle of the low hanging fruit and I want to get back to that in just a moment and talk about how that applies too. But first, Christa, why don't you give us another testimonial here about some of the impact that the kind of efforts we're talking about have had on people in the past.
Christa Childs: Okay, Father, this is from Kathy. “Thank you, Father Pavone, Priest for Life and staff. Because of you and your tireless work, Christians across the country have come out to voice their vote. Our area votes for democratic candidates out of habit because our family has done so for decades without researching the candidate's stand on anything. All the candidate has to have is the D next to their name and they get our vote. However, my husband and I have been turned around by Father Pavone. The pro-life message has changed our votes and our lives for good.”
Father Frank Pavone: Beautiful. And that is the power of what we're talking about here, the education, as David's been saying, reaching people with the message, reaching them as early as possible. And friends, I always talk about the low hanging fruit and I remember speaking one time out at Thomas Aquinas College in southern California. Right on the campus they've got an orange grove. And so I was looking at all these trees where the oranges were growing, and I realized that a lot of these oranges you could just pick by lifting up your hand into the air and you'd pick some nice ripe oranges.
And the analogy was perfect, because I thought well, if I had one hour to gather as many oranges as I can, I wouldn't go climbing up to the top of the tree to get the oranges that are way up there, I'd run around and get all the ones that were within arm's reach so that for the expenditure of energy I had to make I'd get as many at the end of that hour as I could.
So it is with elections that we can think about - you know, we all have some friend or relative who always ends up voting the wrong way, voting contrary to everything that we believe in, at least, and we may think, boy, wouldn't it be a great feeling of victory to be able to convince that person once and for all that - you know, to vote the way that I'm trying to convince them to vote. Well, yeah, and you can spend hours or days or weeks trying to convince them, and you might or might not succeed in the end, but even if you do, you've got one vote.
The time and energy between now and the election is better spent going for the low hanging fruit, those that just need a reminder, those that just need a nudge, those who already think and believe the way you do but who just need to hear from you, who just need a little bit of a push. Or maybe, as we were just saying, assistance to get to the polls or to fill out an absentee ballot. Principle of the low hanging fruit, because in the end, it really is about numbers. David, any particular comments on that?
David Barton: You're exactly right on the low hanging fruit, and some of the low hanging fruit is based on the mentality that says just don't make an assumption. You cannot make an assumption that the people around you that have been active are going to be active this election. They may have forgotten something or they may have heard a news report that soured them and made them cynical.
They may - and by the way, I will point out that our statistics show that nearly 50 percent of all votes cast in a presidential election are cast on the basis of 30 second television commercials. So you have an opportunity with low hanging fruit to say, hey, here's a voter's guide because that certainly is not gonna be the issues that are talked about by media. That will not be the issues covered by most of the candidates and if they are you'll not hear about it on the news to know that.
So when you have people around you who may be cynical, who may be turned off to the voting process, don't assume that everyone around you is going to vote. I mean this is part of the low hanging fruit, is we've made that assumption and been disappointed a number of times. So I really recommend that you look at every person around you as an opportunity.
But again, as Father was saying, don't spend all the effort just to go after one person when you can go after a bunch. Use your email blast list, use your prayer group. Find the directory at the church and just call through it personally on your own and say now, don't forget, this next week we're voting and here's a voter's guide that will help you know what to do. Those type of things really do maximize your ability to turn people out.
Father Frank Pavone: Another link at the lower right-hand side of our screen tonight, those of you who are on computer, is the
state voter registration deadlines, and if we can go there and open that document another PDF will open which you can download and print out. This is the list of the dates when in various states voter registration opportunities close. And some of them are a good month before Election Day. David, it's very important for people to be aware of these dates. I see here, for example, the first one that's showing up on this list, October 3rd in Mississippi, October 4th Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington.
So in other words, if people - tell us about the critical importance of this. I mean first of all churches and groups can publicize these dates and remind people about them.
David Barton: That's probably the most important part of having this list is whatever state in which you live, you can take this list and go to your priest, go to your pastor, say, okay, pastor, here's where we are, here's the voting deadline. People have to be registered. So you need for the two Sundays before that to remind
them about that. And at the back of the church put out voter registration cards and make sure they pick that up. And these are all legal activities because they relate to participation, not to partisanship. And so knowing those early voting deadlines becomes significant because you can, again, talk to churches and parishes, talk to clergy and say here it is in our state, you may not be aware of it, but here's the date and you need to do these on the two weeks before.
And there are a lot of organizations that have the materials out there. There are nine legal groups that I know of that will defend churches and parishes for free if they get in - if anybody tries to challenge their right to put this out. It's not a problem but sometimes people try to intimidate. So if they have the legal confidence that yes, I can do this and I'm not going to get in trouble, and if I do get in trouble, I've got the best representation in the nation, these Supreme Court attorneys that will take it for free and they just don't lose these cases.
This is a great opportunity to educate those in leadership around us. But in the same way, whatever organization you're with, if you're part of a civic club, if you're part of an educational group, if you're part of a PTA group at school, use these deadlines and say, now everybody remember, two weeks the voting deadline, so if you're not registered to vote go - it's like voter turnout, it gives you a great opportunity to keep this in the forefront of people's minds. But especially with church leaders, this is a great opportunity to help educate them on what they can do and encourage them to be involved and getting the parish and the churches and congregations moving in this direction.
Father Frank Pavone: So again, friends, it's the last link on the lower right-hand side of the screen, state voter registration deadlines. Go ahead and download that, print it out, look for your state on that list, know the deadline and start getting the word around. Now, David, what happens - I mean if people have moved since the last election? There are a lot of people who show up at the polling place on Election Day and say oops, I'm not on the list here, and they realize it's because they had moved since the last time. I mean they - what should a person do in that sense? I mean - or if in doubt, it's better to go ahead and register and be told you're already registered than to show up on Election Day and find out that you aren't.
David Barton: That's exactly right. And now there are some states that you can show up on Election Day and you can say I moved and I forgot to register and here's a certification that I'm already a registered voter, I just have the wrong address and some states will let you do that. Some states will not let you do that. But anyone who has moved just needs to have it in their mind that they need to go change their voter registration.
And the statistics are right now that about 25 percent of the nation moves every year. So the chances are that those that are around you, one out of four of your neighbors have moved in the last year most likely, or one out of four of those that you worship with have moved in the last year. So for you to say, hey, now if you've moved don't forget to change your voter registration, that's gonna hit home for about 25 percent of folks around you.
So it's a high rate and they cannot rely on the fact that maybe their state has a mercy clause that says well, if you sign this validation document on the day you vote it's a conditional or provisional vote, and if we do find you're registered we'll count the vote, that doesn't work in every state.
So the best thing is just to assume that you're not registered and that you can't get registered unless you do it early and then make the effort to again, push people in that direction. And that needs to be done by that voter registration deadline, which could be three weeks out, four weeks out, two weeks out. But you'll see that on the other PDF that you've downloaded.
Father Frank Pavone: Now, we were talking before about viral marketing. This is a perfect thing to do for your email list. You see your state on this list, you see the date when voter registration closes. You send out a simple email, let's say, for example, I see here, Florida, okay, Florida voter registration closes on October 6th, so everybody in Florida, you send an email to the folks who, of course, live in the state and you say, look, October 6th, it's not that far away, voter registration closes. Have you moved since the last election? If so, get registered again now. Don't delay, don't put it off. And by the way, early voting in this state begins on and then you'd consult the other document we downloaded here, state early voting information and you give them that information as well.
These, my friends, are the practical tools that we're putting in your hands tonight to use, to spread around, bring to your pastor, let's together make this difference. Because again, it all comes down to turnout. David, there's a lot of psychological warfare that goes on. I just want to say a word about that after Christa gives us another testimonial. But Christa, do we have Alveda on the line yet?
Christa Childs: Yes, I believe, she is on the line.
Father Frank Pavone: Alveda King?
Alveda King: Yes, hello, hello.
Father Frank Pavone: Hey, friends, we have Dr. Alveda King with us. She's a pastoral associate of ours at Priest for Life and we're going to continue our conversation with her and with David in these last 11 minutes or so of our call. But Alveda, you are a civil rights activist as well as a full-time pro-life activist, and you come from a family who really knows the importance of everything that we're talking about here tonight. Your dad, A. D. King, a great civil rights activist, brother of Martin Luther King, Jr., and tell us just what's on your mind right now as we're talking about all this, this important, important information about registering to vote and getting as much turnout as we can among our friends and in our community.
Alveda King: Well, Father Frank, you know, everything I've listened to, everything that has been shared. It's phenomenal. I hope people are taking notes, paying attention, praying. You and David, the testimonials from Christa. It's also important because I hear people sometimes say well, Christians don't need to vote. But I think it's over in Romans and it says governments are established by God to bring order. So God is in government. God - our nation was founded under Godly principles and values. And so it is certainly fitting and proper for us to vote.
I was thinking about the technology that you were talking about. Also that text messaging technique is very important. Send out text blasts along with those e-blasts. It's very important. You know, I was elected to public office twice and relationship is absolutely everything. Get out, talk to your friends, tell them why it's important to vote. Tell them why we have a responsibility and an obligation to vote for life and to turn out the vote for life.
This is not the time to be silent nor to be slack or relaxed but to be enthusiastic in prayer and in actions. So these are the things that I'm considering. Everything that has been said has just been phenomenal. Get those senior citizens excited. The absentee ballots to church. The later voter registration, if that's still going on, get that momentum going and it will make a major difference.
Father Frank Pavone: Alveda, we thank you for your activism and witness and Christa do you have a testimonial for us?
Christa Childs: Yes, I do. This is from Gail in Massachusetts. “God bless you and your staff at Priests for Life. You have worked tirelessly for the president and Catholics listened and were inspired by you. The president owes you a large debt of gratitude. I know that the materials you distributed, the prayer that you wrote, which I have been saying everyday since August, the visits you made and the speeches you made all played a large part in the Catholic vote for the president.
“I will be more vigilant in the coming years to keep up with the judges the president appoints, particularly to the Supreme Court. May God continue to bless you, bless your work in leading us out of the culture of death under which we have been burdened for so long.”
Father Frank Pavone: Thank you, Christa, for sharing that. David and Alveda, one final point I want to make is about the, you know, the psychological warfare that goes on, especially in these last weeks before elections. And you know, we hear about the large sums of money that the other side has, and you know, the pro-abortion political action committees and all of the liberal groups, they always outspend us, all the time. And yet, an amazing thing happens, and I want to look at some statistics from the 2006 election here.
The pro-life Susan B. Anthony list which supports pro-life candidates, was vastly outspent by the pro-abortion Emily's list. And interestingly, however, listen to these statistics. The Susan B. Anthony list won 17 of the 29 races that it backed. So it has a success rate of 59 percent in 2006. The pro-abortion, Emily's list won only 13 of the 30 races that it backed, or 43 percent success rate.
And in another comparison, in the races where Emily's list candidates faced off against candidates supported by the National Right to Llife political action committee, again, a committee that had a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the money that the pro-abortion group had, nevertheless, the pro-life, National Right to Life pack won 14 out of the 18 races where they were facing off against an Emily's list candidate.
Now, how we explain this, it seems to me it's everything we've been talking about tonight. It's all about turnout. The other side might have the money but we have the people. Your thoughts?
David Barton: You know, I would also point to what has happened in the 23 states where we have had marriage amendments on the ballot. In those states, 2002, 2004, we were outspent by anti-marriage forces, anti-traditional - in Texas, my state, we were outspent 20 to 1, and yet, of the 254 counties in our state we had actually 100 of the counties that had more than 90 percent support of the voters for the marriage amendment. It was overwhelming, and we were outspent. But what we did was we generated voter turnout and we had the highest voter turnout in the history of the state of Texas, and we did that through viral marketing and through church leaders and through church activities.
And that's what we're seeing - I think California will win their marriage amendment. There will be more than $60 million spent in California against their marriage amendment but I think they'll win that, again, because of voter turnout and because we don't have to have the money, we can have the resources of just turning our people out. And when we do, Emily's list is in trouble and Susan B. Anthony does well.
And I would even point to the two elections previous to the ones Father mentioned. Because in the previous election, 2004, Susan B. Anthony won nearly everything. I think they lost one race, but on the other side, Emily's list did not win a single race in 2004 of what they endorsed and they only won one in 2002. So it does make a difference of turnout when we actually get out there, and Father is exactly right on that. The numbers are very clear, very strong and whether it's the life issue or the marriage issue or whatever, when we show up we win.
Alveda King: Absolutely, David. And Father, even back in those races that I won, and I was the least favorite candidate, had the least money - there were three of us running, and I won without a runoff. And what I did, I - and today we've got the Internet interplay. I would call people and say vote for me, but call 10 people right away, make sure they get out to vote. If you need a ride let us know. We have people driving to the polls.
Now we do have those absentee ballots, the Internet, we can email, we can text message. And so it's the prayer, it's the relationship, it's the activity and the momentum that counts. And really, we have to remember, God is really on our side. He's a God of life.
Father Frank Pavone: Yes.
Alveda King: And so we have to vote for life, yes.
Father Frank Pavone: I want to, in our last few minutes here, play a sound clip from somebody that we all admire, someone who spoke up clearly for the defense list and pointed out why abortion is the key issue of our day, and of course, that applies to every election. That was Mother Teresa of Calcutta. This is a clip from the speech she gave at the national prayer breakfast on February the 3rd of 1994. "But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is really a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that the mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love one another, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion. From here, a sign of care for the weakest and the weak - the unborn child - must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for.”
Mother Teresa told us what we needed to do in this country to live up to our founding ideals and David is certainly an expert on those founding ideals. We thank you again for the work that you've done with Wall Builders, David. And folks, wallbuilders.com is the website that you go to to find out more of David's work, and I recommend his book Original Intent among his many other resources has greatly helped us at Priests for Life. So, David, thanks again for joining us tonight.
David Barton: My pleasure, Father, thank you. And Alveda, Dr. King, thank you for all you do as well. God bless you both.
Alveda King: Thank you, both, God bless you.
Father Frank Pavone: And friends, again, as we conclude tonight, please mark politicalresponsiblity.com as your election website to keep in contact with us. There is a forum on that page by which you can continue to let us know the things that you are doing and the help that we can provide to you with our pastoral team all across the country. Give us your testimonies, successes and through this networking we'll form the teams that will be necessary for us to really make progress in this election.
Now, many of you have sent us questions tonight and in the previous teleseminars. I'm going to start using our blog, which again, you can assess through that same page, Political Responsibility, to answer the questions that - the discussions that we have had, have not yet answered, and of course, you can send questions any time through the forum on politicalresponsiblity.com and we, through out staff, will be back in contact with you.
Finally, September the 1st, our special prayer campaign for the election begins, Nine Weeks of Prayer, and that link is also on that page, and I want to conclude now with that prayer for our nation as we prepare for the elections.
O God, we acknowledge you today as Lord, Not only of individuals, but of nations and governments.
We thank you for the privilege Of being able to organize ourselves politically And of knowing that political loyalty Does not have to mean disloyalty to you.
We thank you for your law, Which our Founding Fathers acknowledged And recognized as higher than any human law.
We thank you for the opportunity that this election year puts before us, To exercise our solemn duty not only to vote, But to influence countless others to vote, And to vote correctly.
Lord, we pray that your people may be awakened. Let them realize that while politics is not their salvation, Their response to you requires that they be politically active.
Awaken your people to know that they are not called to be a sect fleeing the world But rather a community of faith renewing the world.
Awaken them that the same hands lifted up to you in prayer Are the hands that pull the lever in the voting booth; That the same eyes that read your Word Are the eyes that read the names on the ballot, And that they do not cease to be Christians When they enter the voting booth.
Awaken your people to a commitment to justice To the sanctity of marriage and the family, To the dignity of each individual human life, And to the truth that human rights begin when human lives begin, And not one moment later.
Lord, we rejoice today That we are citizens of your kingdom.
May that make us all the more committed To being faithful citizens on earth.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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