People for the American Way is launching a campaign today aimed at getting our new Congress to take up the cause of election reform. Here’s a bit of the into to their petition:
Tell Congress to make Election Reform a top priority.
In the first 100 hours of the new Congress, the new Democratic House majority will be tackling many of the issues they were sent to Washington to fix, including ethics and corruption, the minimum wage, prescription drugs, implementation of the 9/11 Commission suggestions and stem cell research.
Let’s make sure ELECTION REFORM is at the top of their agenda as well!
When it comes to fair elections, we are not there yet. Despite encouraging results on Election Day, the fact remains that tens of thousands of eligible voters were disenfranchised this year — possibly making the difference in a few key races, but undoubtedly presenting us with an immediate problem to solve. Together, we need to send the message to Congress that before we can move our democracy forward, we need to make sure we have a democracy in the first place.
Help make election reform part of the new Congress’ “100-hour plan.”
Our goal is to hand-deliver stacks of petitions to the new Democratic Leadership before session starts and show them, in black and white, that there is a real groundswell around election reform, and Americans demand fair elections.
PFAW’s proactive 2007 agenda for expanding democracy and protecting the right to vote includes the following objectives, on the federal and state levels.
Resolve problems with electronic voting machines. Recurring machine errors, inadequate poll worker training and serious security flaws with both the machines and their vote-tabulating software are enormous threats to the integrity of American elections. These problems must be addressed, not only to restore voter confidence, but to protect the fundamental right of every voter to have his or her vote accurately counted. Unaccountable, unverifiable, unauditable voting must end.
Stop deceptive practices and voter intimidation by passing federal and state legislation to prohibit and punish dirty tricks, deliberate misinformation, and other misleading measures that keep people away from the ballot box (like the misleading robo-calls you may have seen news reports about).
Repeal or overturn restrictive voter ID requirements that disenfranchise eligible voters without improving the integrity of elections.
Eliminate restrictions on voter registration that disenfranchise entire communities (like burdensome proof of citizenship and ID requirements).
Continue to protect minority voting rights and important legislation like the Voting Rights Act.
If this is an agenda you support, take the first crucial step with us and sign our petition urging the House to make election reform part of its platform during the 110th Congress’ first 100 hours.
If you have a minute, consider signing the petition… Remember, nothing else matters if we don’t have a way to verify the vote.
One Comment
I’d add net neutrality to the list. Although loss of net neutrality is not as big of a potential risk to democracy, it is important in ensuring that everyone has a voice in the political process. Sites such as youtube, which are bandwidth-heavy, could be less useful and less accessible without net neutrality. And such media sites will play an increasing role in elections.
Although it bugs me to think that a video of the Dean scream, or “macaca”, could swing an election, it is entirely possible that it will. So, it is important that everyone have equal access.