Progressive Dems Summit on Electoral Reform Jan 21-23 Wash DC

[marions ghost]

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0111-03.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 11, 2005
9:40 AM CONTACT: Progressive Democrats of America
Kevin Spidel, 602-373-6990

Lead Group in Movement to Challenge Ohio's Electoral Votes Plans Summit to Address "What's Next"

WASHINGTON -- January 11 -- Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) will meet with hundreds of activists from across the country in Washington DC on January 21 -23, 2005 to discuss election reform and other progressive plans for 2005 and beyond. Key leaders of the movement to contest the 2004 Presidential vote will convene a panel to discuss the lessons learned. In the audience will be hundreds of activists committed to PDA’s 9-point electoral reform package, which calls for:

1) A Constitutional amendment confirming the right to vote, as advocated by Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
2) Required paper reports for all electronic and electronically tabulated voting systems
3) Same-day registration for all Americans
4) The creation of unified federal standards for national elections
5) Meaningful equal protection of voting rights by such means as equal voting systems, equal numbers of machines, and equal time to vote
6) An end to partisan oversight of the electoral process
7) Extended voting periods to allow all voters a meaningful opportunity to vote
8) Instant Run-off Voting, Proportional Representation and Fusion
9) Publicly financed elections for federal offices

Panelists include Gregory Moore (NAACP National Voter Fund), David Cobb (Green Party Presidential Candidate), Gary Flowers (Policy Director Rainbow PUSH/Coalition) and others. The election reform panel, one of dozens scheduled during the Summit, will convene at 2:00 P.M. on Sunday, January 23rd at the David A. Clarke School of Law Auditorium, 4200 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. as part of a larger program to advance and bolster the Progressive movement within the Democratic Party and alliances between progressive Democrats and other progressive organizations. Tim Carpenter, Director of PDA, says of the Summit, "The Progressive Democratic Summit in Washington, DC on January 21 -23, 2005 is an historic gathering where progressive grassroots activists and progressive allies from across the country will strengthen our collaborative ties and efforts, lay concrete plans to end the war in Iraq, to unite in our call for single payer health care, and challenge the Bush administration in it's short sighted avaricious views and practices, whether of social security or the environment."

The Summit is an active "working weekend" with hands on action panels and small group meetings on regional issues and alliances. Already confirmed participants include Amy Goodman, Tom Hayden, Medea Benjamin, William Rivers Pitt and dozens of other respected activists. Planners hope to leave the Summit with a synchronized time line of how to take back the heart and soul of the political process and the Democratic Party and of our economy and our institutions from the moneyed interests and the military-industrial complex now controlling them. More information about the summit agenda and registration is available at www.pdamerica.org

[seito]

1. Thanks

I was thinking about attending this.

[marions ghost]

2. Hopefully

somebody who's going will give us a report.

[marions ghost]

3. Looks like a well-organized, well-timed pow-wow

The only Q I have about the 9-point "package" is #2--
"Required paper "reports" for voting machines and tabulators."
Is this the best way to go? What does it mean?

Are there other points, or do these 9 cover it?

Otherwise, it seems like a comprehensive plan to me, with the constitutional amendment right up front.
Thoughts?

[Philly Buster]

4. I don't like same day registration

It's open to fraud (multiple registration).

Some of the other stuff is good though.

I know it isn't popular but I would like an ID requirement for all voters. Right now only first time voters need it. There is quite a bit of flexibility as to what can be used so that ID isn't a problem. I was an election judge and was a little concerned about it at first but people knew they needed ID and came prepared.

There is a lot more to fraud than the electronic kind. There is still the old fashioned methods of dead people voting, voting for people who have moved, fictitious names, etc. It still happens and cannot be ignored.

I don't see the solution for any of that in the above proposals.

[Peace Patriot]

5. You think the BushCons are going to restore our right to vote?

These are excellent proposals**, but I think there is great danger in the notion of a national solution right now.

1. The BushCons are NOT going to agree to any bill that restores our right to vote that is not replete with poison pills that actually take more of our rights away. For instance, if, in their new zeal for election reform, Democrats agree to reducing the states' control over election rules, they will have cut off the ONE AVENUE of election reform that ordinary citizens can pursue: local, state, county.

2. It's my opinion that the Democrats in Congress have NO POWER to enact these changes, and don't even have power to BLOCK any new bad provisions. So opening this up in this hostile Congress is very perilous.

3. A Constitutional amendment is a pipe dream. BushCons will NEVER agree to it, and will delay and obstruct ad infinitum. It is a very long term project that will never be realized UNTIL we restore our right to vote and can elect a progressive congress and/or president. It also gives Democrats an easy out (something I criticized it for, when J Jackson first proposed it.) They can say they are for a C. amendment and then slack on reform efforts, oppose local reform efforts, and go on denying that the BushCons have stolen TWO elections in so small part due the failure of Democratic leadership.

4. I see only one way left to restore our right to vote: highly focused, grass roots groups working in local jurisdictions, on local voters and officials. Most people would agree that elections should be transparent. It is an easy sell locally. But I'm not sure most Congressmen and other BushCons agree. They have fought it tooth and nail. It is a HARD sell federally.

5. The corruption, and wining and dining, associated with electronic voting machine companies must be looked at. It is probably partly responsible for Dem inaction and blindness to BushCons owning and controlling the voting system.

6. **NOTE: Paper receipts for electronic voting need to be described something like this: "A first count paper receipt that takes precedence over electronic tallies in any recount."
They can write the law so as to ignore a paper receipt and say the electronic result wins.

I wish I could be there! I hope someone will convey my warnings about reducing state and local power over election rules.

For difficult states, like Ohio and Florida, where BushCons are in charge, all I can say is that it is going to be easier to change those states than it is to change Congress.

[euler]

6. I think #4 will also require a constitutional amendment.

Could be wrong, but I think the constitution gives states the right to choose their electors however they want, which means that without a amendment, the states would decide the standards to use.

[electropop]

10. I don't think so

It is a _federal_ election, so the _federal_ government has every right to regulate it. They have done so previously, for example before the amendment reducing the voting age to 18, there was a law passed for the same purpose. The courts had no problem with the law.

[ivorysteve]

7. What's missing in the PDA proposal is ...

10) All software used to count votes will be open source, developed, tested and certified in a public forum, and available to be viewed by anyone.

This is what bugs me about their proposal. No mention of the elephant in the room - the software!

[raipoli]

16. PDA Is A Member of VelvetRevolution

PDA is a founding member of http://velvetrevolution.us, which has as one of it's tenets the use of open source and verifiable software and hardware. VR will be launching a unique and massive campaign in the next few weeks that will surprise and please all of you on the electoral reform front. PDA will be part of that campaign. Also VR will be at the PDA summitt to gather support for its upcoming campaign so please don't worry about PDA, they are on board, and the changes are coming faster than you may think.

[iconoclastNYC]

18. BINGO - excellent point

There should be no voting on anything but paper, and no counting by anything but humans.

Period. No compromise on this.

[anaxarchos]

8. One approach to the tactical problem...

is to package up the applicable provisions of a national program (registration, voting standards,etc.) into a generic states program. The tactic then is to fight for conforming to such a national initiative at the state levels using referendum and legislative mechanisms where they make sense. This gets us into the game in the next year to two years and eliminates waiting for anything other than the drafting of such a program. State conformance has limits and becomes redundant if comprehensive national legislation is passed but in the meantime:

1) It pushes the program of a national VRA (?voting rights ammendment?) immediately without waiting for a congressional majority.
2) It makes the fight for such an effort both very broad and geographically distributed (i.e. "grassroots").
3) It links directly to the fraud in the 2000 & 2004 elections and starts practically eroding Republican fake majorities very quickly.

[electropop]

9. #2 needs to be more strongly stated

"Paper reports" could be interpreted as "push a button at the end of the day and it prints out the claimed totals". What's needed is a piece of paper printed and verified at the time of each vote, with the voter's option to send it to the shredder if it's for the wrong candidate. Better yet, skip the stupid machine and use a hand-marked piece of paper.

[marions ghost]

15. yeah kinda what I thought--thanks for putting words to it--

Peace Patriot says also:

6. **NOTE: Paper receipts for electronic voting need to be described something like this: "A first count paper receipt that takes precedence over electronic tallies in any recount."
They can write the law so as to ignore a paper receipt and say the electronic result wins.

[OKthatsIT]

11. We need an ONLINE LIVE camera crew there

Will CSpan be there? If not, we need a crew with 4 cameras, server set up for Live Streaming.

Who is going to do this?

[emcguffie]

13. Don't know, but --

At least for webcasting you don't have to have the high quality video you need for television. I think you can get by quite well with home video cameras.

Beyond that, I don't know anything about this. Just got it in my e-mail.

[Fly by night]

12. Great start, but one panel on election reform is not nearly enough

We are promoting the idea of a three day conference on election reform which will shine a bright light on the 2004 election theft and discuss a national agenda for election reform. Our goal is to have this conference within the next 60 days. Here are the issues we intend to cover: (Please forgive the capitals -- I am cutting and pasting.)
-----------
AT THIS POINT, THE CONTENT I AM ENVISIONING IS AS FOLLOWS, WITH INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS AND/OR PANELS COVERING THE ISSUES:

1) KEYNOTES FROM THE "DEMOCRACY 32" AND OTHERS (JESSE JACKSON? AL GORE?)
2) STATISTICAL EXPERTS (FREEMAN, BERKELEY GROUP, TRUTHISALL, ETC.)
3) THE OHIO INVESTIGATIONS
4) OTHER STATES' INVESTIGATIONS ( NM, WA, FL, NC, NV, ETC)
5) THE HACKABILITY OF ELECTRONIC MACHINES
6) THE SILENCE OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA
7) THE NON-MAINSTREAM MEDIA AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS
8) SUCCESSFUL STATE VERIFIED VOTING MODELS (E.G., OREGON, NEVADA)
9) NEEDED LEGISLATION AT THE STATE LEVEL
10) PENDING US LEGISLATION TO IMPROVE ELECTION INTEGRITY
11) CIVIL RIGHTS ERA LEADERS ON LEARNING FROM THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE
12) "WHISTLE BLOWERS" (E.G., CLINT CURTIS)
13) MOBILIZING FOR DEMOCRACY -- LOCALLY AND GLOBALLY

IN ADDITION, I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE BREAK-OUTS FOR REGIONAL FORUMS TO EXCHANGE IDEAS AND MODELS, COALITION BUILDING PANELS/WORKSHOPS AND "NEXT STEPS" GROUP DISCUSSIONS THAT WOULD REPORT OUT TO THE FULL CONFERENCE. I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO DEVELOP A CONFERENCE CONSENSUS STATEMENT TO BE ADOPTED BY THE CONFERENCE AS OUR BLUEPRINT FOR CHANGE.
--------------
Today, I am meeting with Fisk University officials in Nashville (one of the staging grounds for the successful civil rights movement here in the 1960s) about hosting the conference. I am also actively solicitng sponsors for this event. Please respond if you support this idea and/or PM me with your ideas and suggestions. You can also comment on the thread below which is focused on the conference idea.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x274772

[emcguffie]

14. sounds great --

And also sounds like you know what you are an able conference organizer. How about the League of Women Voters?

[seito]

17. I received this e-mail from the Cobb-LaMarche Campaign

FROM: DAVID COBB, 2004 GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE



Dear Recount Supporters and Fellow Greens,

I am writing to let you know about a conference you may be interested in attending in Washington, D.C., on January 21-23, 2005, where I and other voting rights activists will be speaking.

The conference, organized by the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), will address the necessary electoral reforms that the Green Party and other voting rights activists support.

Though some Green Party members may be uncomfortable attending a conference sponsored by people aligned with the Democratic Party, I can tell you that PDA not only clearly supports the right of the Green Party to exist and participate fully in the electoral process, but that we worked closely with PDA in putting together the very successful Rally and March in Washington on January 6.

It is important to understand as well that the PDA is not controlled by the Democratic Party and is committed to building the progressive movement both inside and outside the Democratic Party. PDA explicitly recognizes that organizing within the Democratic Party will not be sufficient to move the nation.

Like the Green Party, PDA believes that the only way to redirect the nation is to build a base of tens of millions of well-informed Americans who demand and support progressive transformational policies. And like the Green Party, PDA wants to build this progressive movement through positive, issue-driven organizing.

One of the most important components of any electoral reform package has to include instant runoff voting, which will remove the “spoiler” dynamic from elections and give the Greens and other third parties a chance to compete on a more level playing field with the corporately funded establishment parties. This is the topic that I will be specifically addressing at this conference. Other Greens, including Medea Benjamin, will also be presenters on the various panels.

There is more information about this conference linked on our home page at www.votecobb.org.

Thanks for your support for our recount efforts in Ohio and New Mexico, both of which are still on-going. The Ohio recount is before a federal judge; we’ve asked for the judge to order that the recount be done again—this time in conformance with the law! In New Mexico, where we deposited over $100,000 to initiate a recount, state officials have twisted New Mexico law to illegally insist that we pay the entire cost of the recount—over a million dollars—in advance. We have offered to have the state conduct a partial recount—which would save time and resources yet would also allow us to audit the integrity of the voting process—but so far, the Governor has been completely uncooperative. Our lawsuit in New Mexico, seeking to get the recount started in accordance with state law, is now pending before that state’s Court of Appeals. Once again, check our www.votecobb.org website for updates.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone for your help in prompting the historic challenge to Ohio’s tainted Electoral College votes. A New Voting Rights Movement has come together and I’m proud of the role that our campaign and its supporters have had in its creation.



In Peace and Solidarity,

David Cobb