It was bound to happen eventually. Republican attempts to suppress Democratic votes are so extensive, that they are now trying to move my polling place, along with sixty-two others in Philadelphia:"It's predominantly, 100 percent black. I'm just not going in there to get a knife in my back."

--Matt Robb, Republican ward leader in South Philadelphia, on his last-minute request to move five Philly polling places in African-American neighborhoods.

Pennsylvania and its 21 electoral votes are the second-biggest "battleground" prize after Florida. John Kerry can't win here without a huge turnout in Philadelphia, especially in black neighborhoods that vote 90 percent Democratic. As a result, it's the first place you'd expect a GOP voter suppression effort.

And now it's here.

Chris Brennan (with a big assist from Dave Davies) has the scoop in today's Philadelphia Daily News. They learned that high-ranking state GOP and Bush operatives asked local Republicans to try to move 63 polling places at the last minute. Some 53 of the 63 polling places are in districts less than 10 percent white.(...)

Bob Lee, Philadelphia's voter registration administrator who's normally not given to partisan statements, said flatly: "They're trying to suppress the vote."

The move is almost certain to fail -- especially now that it's been exposed. Lee said it appears that the applications came into his office too late to allow for a hearing before Election Day.

I live in overwhelmingly Democratic and African-American West Philadelphia. In 2000, as you can see from the "Democratic" link in the previous sentence, West Philly went for Gore by close to 100%, so it does not take a genius to figure out that many of the precincts they want to move are in my neighborhood.

I can give a lot of reasons why I will never vote for a Republican. However, the fact that racist Republican leaders like Matt Robb (who has probably never crossed 40th street in his life) are trying, on orders from the Bush campaign, to disenfranchise me because I live in a predominantly African-American neighborhood is #1 on that list.