Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Oregon Open Primary Campaign

The Oregon Open Primary would replace the current closed, party-member-only system with one that gives every voter the same ballot, containing the names of all candidates running for offices now elected on a partisan basis, including U.S. Senate, Governor and State legislator. Voters would then choose whoever they think is best -- regardless of their party registration status, or the candidates' -- and the top two vote-getters regardless of party affiliation would then advance to the general election ballot. The initiative requires 82,579 valid signatures in order to be certified for the November ballot. Supporters of Oregon Open Primary aim to submit more than 120,000 total signatures by the July 3 deadline.

Use the above link for more information and if you are an Oregon resident to sign the petition.

Michael H. Drucker
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Monday, April 28, 2008

FL Courting Electoral Trouble

According to independent elections experts at Pew’s Electionline.org and other organizations, it is now harder to vote in FL than in nearly every other state in the nation. Some critics predict that tens of thousands of potential voters will be kept off the rolls — many of them poor, black or Hispanic.

Three laws in particular are at issue, including a “no match, no vote” measure, rejecting potential voters whose Social Security numbers or driver’s license numbers did not match state databases; the provision managing voter registration drives conducted by third parties, like the League of Women Voters, FL plans to enforce strict deadlines and fines of up to $1,000 for groups that lose voter registration forms or turn them in late; and a law that would keep a voter from correcting mistakes or omissions on a registration form in the final month before an election and would bar that person from having his or her vote counted.

Two recent federal rulings have gone in the state’s favor.

On March 25, a Federal District Court in Miami rejected a challenge to the provision on corrections and omissions. An oversight can be as simple as failing to check what many Florida residents call the “crazy box.” It asks people to affirm: “I have not been adjudicated mentally incapacitated with respect to voting or, if I have, my competency has been restored.” So far, about 3 percent of voter registrations collected by the Florida chapter of Acorn, a national organizing group, have lacked the required checkmarks.

In the second decision, on April 3, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, sent a case challenging the “no match, no vote” law back to a Federal District Court, reversing an earlier injunction without ruling whether the law was unconstitutional.

Other states, meanwhile, have been moving in the opposite direction. Now, 33 states allow voters to amend forms after their registration deadlines. In 2006, a judge in Washington State struck down a “no match, no vote” law, and at least six other states have abandoned similar provisions.

Election lawyers say Florida’s Republican-controlled government has introduced more restrictions on the voting process than other states since 2000 and has fought harder to keep them. Critics say state officials are subtly trying to block new voters, many of whom tend to vote for Democrats, from participating. “It’s really about politicians trying to game the system,” said Michael Slater, deputy director of Project Vote, a voting rights organization based in Arkansas. “They’ve done that by adding all these bureaucratic obstacles to voting, and then when people can’t jump over them, they blame the voter.”

Michael H. Drucker
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Voter ID Laws

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional rights, validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws.

In a splintered 6-3 ruling, the court upheld Indiana's strict photo ID requirement, which Democrats and civil rights groups said would deter poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots. Its backers said it was needed to prevent fraud.

The law "is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting 'the integrity and reliability of the electoral process,'" Justice John Paul Stevens said in an opinion that was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy. Stevens was a dissenter in Bush v. Gore in 2000. Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas also agreed with the outcome, but wrote separately. Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented, just as they did in 2000.

More than 20 states require some form of identification at the polls. Courts have upheld voter ID laws in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, but struck down Missouri's. Monday's decision comes a week before Indiana's presidential primary. The decision also could spur efforts to pass similar laws in other states.

Indiana provides IDs free of charge to the poor and allows voters who lack photo ID to cast a provisional ballot and then show up within 10 days at their county courthouse to produce identification or otherwise attest to their identity.

Michael H. Drucker
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Friday, April 25, 2008

Fight for Local Control


On April 24, 2008, I went to the Court of Appeals in Albany, New York, the highest Court in New York, to hear our lawyers auguments for Local Control.



The Court heard the case for Local Control for the Independence Party and Working Families Party of New York.



The State Executive Committees' of each party are trying to control who can put candidate names on the ballot of local counties. In New York, if a person of a different party wants to run on the Minor Party line, they have to get the parties' Certificate of Authorization (Wilson-Pakula). The State Executive Committee is trying to take away Independence Party's New York City's County Committes's ability to make their selections. For the Working Families Party, their State Executive Committee is trying to take away Suffolk's ability. But the State's Election Law gives that right to the County Committee. The debate is, does the Parties Rules or State Election Rules apply. The Court usally takes six weeks to write an opinion.

Michael H. Drucker
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Monday, April 21, 2008

Numbers

If the Democrat Primaries were winner-take-all like the Republicans the number would be around (using CNN):

Hillary - 1,360 + super 254 = 1,614
Obama - 1,169 + super 230 = 1,399

Michael H. Drucker
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Superdelegates Again

What are superdelegates looking for? First, there are members of Congress. Their primary interest is in getting reelected. They want to know which candidate will help them most or, conversely, which one will hurt them least. Will Obama's "Change" mean voters will want to replace them to? Second, are members of the DNC. They are looking at which candidate can better pull together the swing states in November to win 270 electoral votes. The key argument here is who is going to be able to stand up to the incoming fire from Republicans. And it will be withering.

If "CHANGE" is your mantra, the only way to change Washington is to rid it of the current crop of legislators.

What do you think?

Michael H. Drucker
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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

FEC Board In Stalemate

The top Democratic nominee for the Federal Election Commission has withdrawn his name from consideration, deepening the nomination meltdown that has effectively shut down the commission during a critical election year.

Former FEC Chairman Robert Lenhard, the Democratic nominee, dropped out because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) couldn't guarantee timely confirmation by the Senate, according to a letter Reid sent to the White House.

"This development now makes a resolution of this conflict more difficult because I have lost an exceptional leader for the FEC," Reid wrote.

Due to a nominations standoff between Reid and the White House, the FEC has been rendered completely dysfunctional and unable to make major decisions on campaign finance and other key election issues.

Now, with Lenhard dropping out, the Democrats have no nominee for the commission. And Reid says the standoff "has derived the agency of a functional quorum" and "taken the nation's campaign finance watchdog off the beat."

Michael H. Drucker
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Friday, April 4, 2008

Join the Independent Revolution

In a recent study by the Wall Street Journal, 42% of Americans now identify as independents. That's 72 million Americans who identify as independents.

IndependentMovement.Org, with members in all 50 states, can be the political force we need to make change in America.

IndependentMovement.Org. is the only political action committee in America that's focused on fundamental political restructuring and government reform. A growing majority of Americans believe, that these structural reforms are a pre-requisite to getting any new and substantial policy solutions to the table. All of our funding will come from ordinary Americans -- not from special interests!

IndependentMovement.Org will support candidates and ballot measures, which advance a truly nonpartisan independent progressive movement. With your help we can begin to address the problems that continue to fester under strict two-party rule, such as the war in Iraq, growing poverty in America, the dire need for real health care reform, and the privatization of public infrastructure.

IndependentMovement.Org believes that it is the fundamental right of every American to have a voice in the political process. That's why, with your help, we can make these reforms part of the national dialogue:

- Open primaries (allow independent voters to vote in party primaries)
- Equal media access for all qualified candidates
- Redistricting reform (taking the power to redraw district boundaries out of the hands of self-interested career politicians)
- Universal voter registration -- so all US citizens are permanently registered to vote.
- Eliminate the electoral college and initiate direct popular vote for presidential elections.

IndependentMovement.Org is both long overdue and right on time. We won't be waiting on the sidelines to "see" what comes next. We'll be shaping the outcome when millions of independent-minded Americans have an organized movement to make it happen.

Use the above link to Sign Up now and make a Contribution.

Michael H. Drucker
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New 2008 Presidential Opinion Poll

Take the new 2008 presidential survey!! The results of this new survey will be used in a new widely distributed report issued by CUIP this summer about independents and the presidential primaries, so your participation is vital.

Use the above link to take the survey.

Michael H. Drucker
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Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Are Caucuses Fair?

When we as independent activists call for opennes in the election process we have to look deeper into the Caucus process. I think it is a very negative process. When we complain that so many do not take part in the political process, why would a state want to reduce the opportunity for the public to vote? The only fair process is open primaries where everyone has the opportunity to go to the polls and select their choice from all the eligible candidates.

When a primary selection for the most important position, president, is selected by only a few, how can you say it is the will of the people? In some states it is the will of a few. Then there is this: when a fight judge decides the winner they take both the number and quality of the punches.

What do you think of the Caucus process?

Michael H. Drucker
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