Criss,

Wouldn't it be nice if our elections were decided by voters making informed decisions based on issues? Tonight is the first debate. But the Wall Street bail out isn't the only issue that Republicans are nervous about debating in front of the American people. They don't want us to know that they count on suppressing votes as much as earning votes in order to win elections.

I don't know about you, but I've had enough. That's why I co-founded the Secretary of State Project. If you are concerned, as I am, about Republican election chicanery this November and beyond, help us defeat GOP cronies running for Secretary of State.

Too often, the outcome of our elections are decided by partisan election officials who use the power of their office to decide whose vote counts and whose vote doesn't. Who can forget the devastating effect Katherine Harris had on the Florida election in 2000? And Ken Blackwell's effect on the Ohio election in 2004? In both cases, these Secretaries of State made crooked decisions about which voting machines to use, who was registered, and who got to vote - decisions that delivered the White House to George W. Bush.

In this fall's critical presidential election, thanks in part to the 2006 work of the Secretary of State Project, we'll have five fewer GOP cronies running their state's elections. We helped elect reform-minded Democrats to the Secretary of State office in Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, New Mexico and Nevada - all pivotal swing states. Imagine the dirty tricks we'd see if the Republicans still controlled those offices.

This year, the Secretary of State Project is supporting reform candidates in the pivotal states of Missouri, Oregon, West Virginia and Montana. They need our support today to protect our votes tomorrow. Please give whatever is possible.

Rest assured that the Republican dirty tricks machinery is working overtime to find ways to disenfranchise poor, minority and other likely Democratic voters. In Michigan, they are threatening to use lists of voters who homes are in foreclosures to challenge their votes based on residency rules. In Ohio they are threatening to throw out the votes of tens of thousands of students who register and vote during early voting. They're trying to impose onerous ID requirements, blocking nonprofits from registering voters, and even committing outright crimes like giving poor voters incorrect directions to their polling place. This stuff happens every day, and disenfranchises literally millions of voters. It's out of sight for most Americans - hidden in arcane voting rules and regulations. And who sets those rules? Secretaries of State.

Contribute today to our slate of clean election candidates:

Linda McCulloch of Montana
Kate Brown of Oregon
Natalie Tennant of West Virginia
Robin Carnahan of Missouri

Electing clean Secretaries of State is the least expensive, most surefire way to protect America's elections. And, as the past eight years -- and the impending 700 billion bail out of Wall Street -- prove, letting Republicans control elections has been unfathomably costly to our economy, to peace, and to America's standing in the world.

If you agree that we can't sit by and continue to let the Katherine Harrises of the world suppress, steal and manipulate our votes, then join me in funding the Secretary of State Project today.

Thank you for protecting our democracy,

Michael Kieschnick
Co-Founder, Secretary of State Project

Paid for by the Secretary of State Project, www.secstateproject.org, Becky Bond, Treasurer, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.