IVN Steele on Electoral Reform Part 12: The Stakeholders

Access
Robert David STEELE Vivas
Robert David STEELE Vivas

Steele on Electoral Reform- Part 12: The Stakeholders

As a result of the viral video on electoral reform out of my briefing to the Occupy NYC working group on electoral reform, a number of stakeholders got in touch with me.  Others I have identified via searches for major civil society elements with defined electoral reform programs.

Below are the ones I have identified.  They can also be seen, with their logos, at Directory of Activist Individuals & Organizations (USA).  I welcome nominations for others to be added to this list, and I must say up front, that while some of these were quick to give me their inputs for the Act itself, all of them, without exception, have failed to respond to my letters seeking their assistance in moving toward a Statement of Demand being read publicly soon, ideally on President’s Day.

American Association of People with Disabilities VOTE Project Among other objectives we promote political participation for people with disabilities.

American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights  Ballot Access»   Election Reform»   Redistricting»   Voter Disfranchisement»  Voting Rights Act»

Americans United to Rebuild Democracy An Alliance Between Conservatives & Progressives For Fundamental Election Reform

Ballot Access News The long-standing and comprehensive monitor for all ballot access news.

Center for Democracy & Election Management (American University) The mission of the Center for Democracy and Election Management (CDEM) is to provide education, research and public engagement on the full range of democracy issues in the United States and around the world.

Center for Election Science We are a nonpartisan not-for-profit organization made up of engineers, mathematicians, and voting theorists. We educate the public based on our study of voting theory. Voting theory looks at the way votes are expressed and calculated.

Center for Voting and Democracy FairVote acts to transform our elections to achieve secure access to participation for all, a full spectrum of meaningful ballot choices and majority rule with fair representation. As a catalyst for change, we build support for innovative strategies to win a constitutionally protected right to vote, universal voter registration, a national popular vote for president, instant runoff voting and proportional voting.

Century Foundation / Electoral Reform Progressive ideas that advance security, opportunity, and equality.  We co-sponsored the National Commission on Federal Election Reform and contributed to the Help America Vote Act.  All Our Electoral Reform Items

Citizens in Charge The organization works with activists, legislators, media, opinion leaders and voters to protect the initiative and referendum process where it exists in 26 states and to expand the process to the 26 states where voters currently lack that right.

Coalition For Free and Open Elections We champion the principle, “Full and fair access to the electoral process is a right central to democracy.”

Commission on Federal Election Reform Issued report in September 2005 with 87 recommendations  Summary of RecommendationsFull Report

Committee for a United Independent Party We are a national strategy, communications, and organizing center working to connect and empower the 40% of Americans who identify themselves as independents.

Common Cause We stand up for ordinary people, root out corruption in the halls of power, and lead a true citizen’s movement to fight for a government that works for all of us—not the special interests.

Constitution Party  Join the Constitution Party in its work to restore our government to its Constitutional limits.

Electoral Knowledge Network  The ACE network promotes credible, and transparent electoral processes with emphasis on sustainability, professionalism and trust in the electoral process.

Free and Equal Elections Foundation  The Free & Equal Elections Foundation is a non-partisan, non-profit public policy advocacy group dedicated to election reform and improving ballot access laws in the United States.

Free Speech for People This Amendment to the U.S. Constitution will put an end to the ridiculous idea that corporations are people.

Green Party We stand for democracy, social justice, and both ecological and economic sustainability.

Kevin Kipp VIDEO: Gerrymandering ExplainedVIDEO: The Alternative Vote ExplainedVIDEO: The Problems with First Past the Post Voting Explained

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law  Legal Mobilization Redistricting Voter Registration Modernization Voting Rights

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights  Voting Rights  Women’s Rights  Workers’ Rights

League of Women Voters We work to educate and register voters, and to improve elections and government.

Libertarian Party  We are the third largest party in the USA.  We believe all individuals can freely exercise the natural right of sole dominion over their own lives, liberty and property.

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund Safeguarding the voice of Latino voices, working to protect the rights of all voters having unimpeded access to the polls.

National Association for the Advancement Of Colored People Voter Fund NVF has embraced the challenge of registering, educating and turning out thousands of new African-American voters.

National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials   Census 2010 Profiles The Latino Vote Redistricting 2011

National Coalition on Black Civic Participation Black Youth Vote Black Women’s Roundtable Voices of the Electorate Civic Engagement & Voter Empowerment Big Vote Training Academy

National Committee for Voting Integrity In keeping with the goal of public election administration we are working to ensure that election systems preserve the secret ballot, accuracy, privacy, integrity, and the proper tabulation of the voter’s intent regardless of his or her physical condition, language of origin, or literacy ability.

National Council of La Raza Focus on discrimination including voting.

Occupy NYC Politics & Electoral Reform Working Group Devoted to brainstorming recommendations for political and electoral reform.

People for the American Way Thousands of eligible Americans still experience challenges at the polls in part due to an organized effort to disenfranchise voters.

Public Campaign ($)  Public Campaign is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to sweeping campaign reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics.

Public Citizen ($)  The best and most comprehensive reform is voluntary public financing of all federal elections where candidates have strong incentives to replace private money with public funding.

Reform Party We stand for ethics and reform across the electoral system and government to include a reformed tax system, a balanced budget, and the promotion of jobs for citizens.

US Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs)  Elections & Government Reform New Voters Project Fair & Open Elections Campaign Finance Reform Lobby Reform

Verified Voting Foundation Computer and network security experts are virtually unanimous in pointing out that online voting is an exceedingly dangerous threat to the integrity of U.S. elections. There is no way to guarantee that the security, privacy, and transparency requirements for elections can all be met with any practical technology in the foreseeable future.

Wikipedia / Electoral Reform Electoral reform is change in electoral systems to improve how public desires are expressed in election results.

Learn More

Previous: Part 11: Constitutional Amendment

Next: Part 13: Overview of The Ethics

2012 Reality Sandwich: The Battle for the Soul of the Republic

Articles & Chapters, Culture

The Battle for the Soul of the Republic

Reality Sandwich, 10 April 2012

steele1.jpg

The National Security Agency (NSA) mega-data center, combined with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) special relationship with Google, and the federalization of local police using Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funds to pay for monitoring both the locations and the conversations of anyone they wish — without a warrant –suggest that the government of the United States of America (USA)-from local to national-is no longer in friendly hands.

As a professional intelligence officer and a retired Marine Corps officer, I am deeply offended, personally threatened, and patriotically alarmed.  Evil has triumphed across the United States of America.  Every single institution — from academies to civil society to commerce to the government and law enforcement at all levels, the media, the out of control military-industrial complex, and the bottom-feeding non-governmental and non-profit organizations that suck at the federal government tits gorged with printed money — has failed to respect the Constitution.  There is neither intelligence nor integrity at the highest levels of all of our institutions.

2012 is a year of confrontation and convergence.  On the confrontation side, we have a federal government that dismisses the Constitution across all three branches — a Court that believes corporations are citizens and strip-searches for parking tickets are “okay”; a Congress that abdicates its Article 1 responsibilities, instead serving as foot-soldiers to the corrupt two-party tyranny that excludes the majority from the ballot and the vote; and an Executive that borrows a trillion a year in our name, wastes two trillion a year, and has claimed the right to kill US citizens without due process, and to lie to the Courts when it deems it necessary for “national security.”

Continue reading “2012 Reality Sandwich: The Battle for the Soul of the Republic”

IVN Steele on Electoral Reform Part 11: Constitutional Amendment

Access
Robert David STEELE Vivas
Robert David STEELE Vivas

Steele on Electoral Reform – Part 11: Constitutional Amendment

Congress shall work toward a Constitutional Amendment that places Election Integrity outside the power of the government. That amendment, whose terms shall be formulated via the National Initiative for Democracy (National Ballot Initiatives). It might include but not be limited to such initiatives as: 1. Elimination of personhood for any organization

2. Affirmation of universal voter registration
3. Abolishment of the Electoral College
4. Balanced Budget
5. Termination of the Federal Reserve
6. Constraint on size and budget of the US Government
7. Re-enfranchises convicts who complete their sentences

NOTE: DC Statehood does not require Constitutional Amendment.

As with all of the other elements (this makes eleven in all), this one is still subject to crowd-sourcing and perhaps a mix of Citizen Wisdom Councils and National Ballot Initiatives.

My bottom line is that the eleven element together are more than able to attract, unify, and mobilize 100 million voters who can “occupy” the home offices of their Senators and Representatives and DEMAND, as a condition for NOT beginning recall actions against each of them, that this bill be introduced, passed into law, and signed by the President before 4 July 2012.

Time is the one strategic variable that cannot be bought nor replaced.  In my view 2012 has the potential to be a transformation year, but only if We the People mobilize, unify (Reform Coalition), and demand in unison–publish and read across the land a Statement of Demand, while insisting that each Member sign a Pledge as the price of being allowed to remain — on probation — as an incumbent.

Learn More

Previous: Part 10: Legislation

Next: Part 12: The Stakeholders

IVN Steele on Electoral Reform Part 10: Legislation

Access
Robert David STEELE Vivas
Robert David STEELE Vivas

Steele on Electoral Reform – Part 10: Legislation

All proposed legislation without exception be published on line, normally one month prior to vote but no less than 24-72 hours for emergencies, to include explicit geospatial pointers for all “earmarks” each of which must be publicly announced.

– – – – – – –

“Put enough eyeballs on it, no bug is invisible.” America — as with other countries, but most in contradiction with our Founding Fathers’ intent — has been “ruled by secrecy,” not only from the financial world, where banks counterfeit credit they do not have to earn interest they do not merit, but also in Congress, where secrecy, obscure language, and blatant corruption have combined to make every law a corrupt law, generally containing earmarks that are not in the public interest, but result in the sponsor of that earmark receiving a 5% bribe (the standard “fee” on Capitol Hill for delivering an earmark).

What this really means is that the public treasury is being discounted 95%, and given away for so many things across the military, energy, health, and agricultural sectors, to name just four, that the public is a loser twice: first in having corrupt Members who divert five percent of the public treasury to their own “need” for huge war chests to fund their campaigns, and second in having corrupt Members who sponsor one another’s earmarks despite the fact that at least half the money is known in advance to be fraud, waste, and abuse–this is true, for example, of the Pentagon budget, where 1% of that budget pays for the 4% of the force that takes 80% of the casualties — the other 99% of the Pentagon budget goes to contractors, and I feel very confident in suggesting that half of that 99% or 44.5%, is fraud, waste, and abuse.

By mandating publish posting of all legislation in advance, we make it possible for alert citizens to enforce integrity on their individual Members.

Learn More

Previous: Part 9: Funding

Next: Part 11: Constitutional Amendment

IVN Steele on Electoral Reform Part 9: Funding

Access
Robert David STEELE Vivas
Robert David STEELE Vivas

Steele on Electoral Reform – Part 9: Funding

Qualifying candidates will receive public funding in equal amounts. Political campaign committees are made illegal and lose their public charters. For the purposes of this Act corporations are not people and may not contribute nor cause to be contributed, any campaign funds. Issue advocacy and advertising are not tax-deductible. Air time and media print space for all candidates is free and equal.

Continue reading “IVN Steele on Electoral Reform Part 9: Funding”

IVN Steele on Electoral Reform Part 8: Districts

Access
Robert David STEELE Vivas
Robert David STEELE Vivas

Steele on Electoral Reform – Part 8: Districts

Gerrymandering is outlawed. It will be replaced by any combination of compact computer drawn districts using open source software and/or citizen wisdom councils selected from jury duty pools, and/or at-large districts. All gerrymanders in progress in 2011 are stopped by this Act and replaced by tightly-drawn districts. In light of the 1:1 representation provided by national referendums, no increase in the number of Representatives is necessary.

Continue reading “IVN Steele on Electoral Reform Part 8: Districts”

IVN Steele on Electoral Reform Part 7: Representation

Access
Robert David STEELE Vivas
Robert David STEELE Vivas

Steele on Electoral Reform – Part 7: Representation

Enact Open Registration. Enact Proportional Representation via the Voting process (Part: 3) with full integration of the Electoral Integrity Principles (Part: 1) and full use of national referendums (Part: 4). What this means is that no voting block comprising 5% or more of the population, across the country or across any state, will lack for designated representation in the national or the respective state legislatures.

– – – – – –

I confess that all these calculations make my head hurt.  A Citizens Wisdom Council would be helpful here.  The bottom line is that while the other elements of the Electoral Reform Act of 2012 mandate aspects of process, this one focuses on a desired outcome.  If there are enough Light Party members across the country to comprise 5% or more, then the Light Party must be represented by at least one Member in the House of Representatives.

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

This is an element that requires further deliberation and adjustments in how we vote.  This is very complicated.  A major part of the problem in the past has been the result of the two-party tyranny displacing the center and making it impossible for the diversity of voices across America to be heard.  In the graphic here to the right, created, with permission, on the basis of a simpler depiction in Michael Crane, The Political Junkie Handbook: A Definitive Reference Book on Politics (SPI Books, 2004).

Of special concern to me in the manner in which the two-party tyranny has repressed the common-sense centrist views of their moderates.  Those moderates desperately need alternative parties, and while I certainly believe the existing certified active national committee parties should continue to grow (Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Reform), there is no question but that the Justice Party, being created this year, meets a need.

Learn More

Previous: Part 6: Cabinet

Next: Part 8: Districts