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By Renée Paradis & Theresa J. Lee – 07/03/08
When you work in election reform, often at the end of a panel discussion or a presentation you've just given, you'll look out at a sea of people you've thoroughly disheartened as to the health of the republic, one of whom has just asked you, "But what can I do to make a difference?" Usually, the answer is frustratingly remote - join an advocacy group, lobby your elected representatives, try to draw attention to the chronically ignored and un-sexy topic of election administration. But in an election year like this one, the answer can become gratifyingly immediate: Go become a poll worker. Poll workers are those overworked, undertrained, usually somewhat harried people who check you in at the polls on Election Day and shepherd you through the voting process. Poll workers usually have to be registered voters in the county they're serving in, and in many states, they must also be registered in one of the two major parties. It's hard to find qualified, dynamic poll workers, especially given how little most states pay for the day's work, and harder still to adequately train them in election law and procedures. Poll workers have to wake up at five in the morning to open the polls, stay at the polls late to process ballots, giving up an entire day, and spending a large part of that day being yelled at by disgruntled voters. But without poll workers nothing in the system works: Even if registration lists were perfectly managed, and voting machines 100% accurate, poorly trained poll workers can lose hundreds of votes in a single precinct.
In the long term, we need to figure out a way to recruit good poll workers. Current innovations include having high school students, many of whom would ordinarily be too young to serve as poll workers, staff the polls as part of their civics classes. We'd like to see other innovations: states could consider exempting poll workers from jury service for some period of time-surely many of you would rather serve one day than possibly get put on a weeks-long trial. Another innovation might be offering continuing legal education (CLE) credit for service at the polls. (Lawyers usually need to take some sort of continuing education classes to maintain their bar license, but often alternative activities such as judging moot courts or writing articles will count for credit as well.) Like jury service, CLE requirements can be a hassle to fulfill, and working the polls might be a nice alternative. In the credit framework, colleges and universities could also offer credit for work at the polls, either course credit or towards community service requirements.
But in the short term, anyone interested in electoral reform should consider taking that interest and dynamism and working the polls this fall. In a national election year, it can often seem like any real affect on the system or the outcome is out of the grasp of just one person, but there is something you can do to make real change now. Go become a poll worker.
Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Election Day Issues
By Thaddeus Kromelis – 06/25/08
Yesterday, I managed to catch Larry Lessig's latest "Change Congress" Power Point presentation at the Personal Democracy Forum (PDF) here in New York City. Addressing the distorting effects of money on goverment policy (oil industry influence on global warming research, pharma money at the FDA, the sugar lobby on recommended caloric intake), the Stanford professor's performance was easily one of the more rousing presentations that morning and sparked a discernable buzz from the bloggers gathered in Rose Hall, the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
It doesn't appear Lessig has posted yesterday's version on YouTube just yet, so I've gone ahead and included one that's pretty close. However, one notable bit of information missing in April's presentation at UCSB posted below are the numbers he cited from MAPlight.org (where he's a board member). Released yesterday, the organization points out that of the House Democrats who changed their votes from March to June clearing the way for a FISA bill with immunity for the phone companies to pass, on average, those politicians received $8,359 in PAC contributions. Specifically:
Comparing Democrats' Votes (March 14th and June 20th votes):
Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint gave PAC contributions averaging:
$8,359 to each Democrat who changed their position to support immunity for Telcos (94 Dems)
$4,987 to each Democrat who remained opposed to immunity for Telcos (116 Dems)
88 percent of the Dems who changed to supporting immunity (83 Dems of the 94) received PAC contributions from Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint during the last three years (Jan. 2005-Mar. 2008).
Now, no one can say those contributions caused recipients to change their votes. But it certainly doesn't project the appearance of an open, honest, and accountable government for the people.
Tags: Democracy, Campaign Finance Reform, Justice, Liberty & National Security
By Emily Berman – 06/23/08
The issues were preliminary and the result of any ruling likely to be. But despite its preliminary nature, a simple Monday morning hearing in the D.C. District Court had the feeling of something much more. Perhaps it was the last-minute change of venue to the District of Columbia's ceremonial courtroom in order to accommodate the larger-than-usual expected crowds. Maybe it was the presence of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Representative John Conyers at the Plaintiff's counsel's table and White House Counsel Fred Fielding on the Defendants' side. Or it could have been the momentous constitutional ramification that flow from any ruling in the case.
Whatever it was, the argument in preliminary motions in the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee's suit against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten to enforce congressional subpoenas issued in the course of the Committee's investigation into the controversial firings of several U.S. Attorneys in late 2006 was not the court's usual Monday morning fare.
And Judge John D. Bates, the presiding judge, at times seemed to wish he was anywhere other than in a position requiring him to reach a ruling on the issues before him. "I didn't volunteer for this," he reminded the parties at one point.
Read the rest of this story ...
Tags: Justice, Liberty & National Security, Checks & Balances, Domestic Counterterrorism
By Kahlil Williams – 06/20/08
Yesterday, Governor Charlie Crist (R) reported that Florida
has restored voting rights to 115,232 people with felony convictions since the
state revised its clemency procedure. The new clemency rules that Crist pushed
through in 2007 ease the restoration process for some who have committed lesser
offenses, like low-level drug dealing. The impact of the change is notable, and
Governor Crist should be acknowledged
for taking an important first step. But there is still much work to be done.
First, the total number of people stripped of their voting
rights because of a criminal conviction is about 950,000, meaning that only
about 12% of those who are disenfranchised have regained the right to vote
since the 2007 change. According to the Florida Department of Corrections,
nearly 300,000 of these people are "Level I" offenders convicted of crimes that
permit them to regain their voting rights under the new rules. But because of
backlogs created by the still cumbersome process, the majority of those
potential voters remains unable to cast a ballot in November.
Read the rest of this story ...
Tags: Democracy, Voting After Criminal Conviction, Voting Rights & Elections
By Michael Waldman – 06/20/08
An edited version of this posting appeared as a guest post on the Anderson Cooper 360 blog June 20.
Barack Obama's decision to opt out of public funding for the general election is not a surprise. It was so well telegraphed, he should take out a patent.
The presidential public funding system worked well for three decades after it was enacted in the early 1970s. It leveled the playing field, boosted competition and reduced corruption. Think of it this way: in the first five elections under presidential public funding, a challenger beat an incumbent president three times. There's no congressional district in America with that much competition!
But the presidential system needs repair, for reasons among those prompting Obama to turn away the federal funds. Principally, candidates simply don't get enough money to mount a fully strong race in a modern election. The amount, when it was set, was about two thirds of the amount spent by the McGovern campaign of 1972—in other words, two thirds of the least successful presidential campaign in modern history!
The real question is what will Barack Obama—or John McCain—do to reform the system when one of them takes office?
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Tags: Democracy, Campaign Finance Reform, Contribution Limits, Other Reforms, Disclosure, Public Financing
By Kelly Williams – 06/16/08
Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff will be sentenced this September, according to papers filed by prosecutors and defense attorneys this week in federal court. Mr. Abramoff has been safely tucked away in a federal prison camp in Maryland since 2006 on bank fraud charges. Congress reacted to the scandal by passing reform legislation: This past January 1, the
Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA) of 2007 went into effect, requiring more substantive and accessible disclosure of political and charitable contributions by registered lobbyists, among other changes. The first reports of these contributions are due on July 30 and should make for interesting reading.
With reform legislation in place and Mr. Abramoff's expense account out of reach, one might be tempted to breath a sigh of relief. One piece of this important legislation has yet to be implemented, however—HLOGA required the FEC to adopt rules for disclosing "bundling" by lobbyists. "Bundling" is the gathering of checks from multiple donors otherwise meeting the requirements of law which are then turned over "in bulk" to politicians—the virtues and risks of this practice should be self-evident to those who care about meaningful campaign finance reform. The lack of a quorum at the FEC has prevented the adoption of the rules, effectively neutering this part of the only ethics reform legislation to come out of Congress in recent years. True reformers should insist that passage of these rules is at the top of the agenda of a reinvigorated FEC.
Tags: Democracy, Campaign Finance Reform, Contribution Limits, Other Reforms, Disclosure
By Laura MacCleery – 06/13/08
Some cases are just too ugly even
for the Supreme Court, it appears. Last week it refused to grant review to a
claim from Washington State that challenged an important principle: the
requirement that outside groups disclose their electoral spending.
The group in question, called the
Voters Education Committee (VEC), was a classic astroturf 527 group (named thus
for a section of the tax code), that omitted to register with the state as a
political committee. Its one donor—the Chamber of Commerce—funneled it a
whopping $1.5 million as part of a 25-state campaign in 2004 to push
its agenda in key Attorney General and state Supreme Court races around
the country.
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Tags: Democracy, Campaign Finance Reform, Other Reforms, Disclosure
By R. Patrick Wyllie – 06/12/08
Today, the Supreme Court's decision in
Boumediene v. Bush was a clear rebuke of the Administration's attempt to deny Guantanamo detainees' basic rights. Another decision, in
Munaf v. Geren, upheld the Administration's view that the U.S. government cannot interfere with foreign criminal proceedings, even if foreign detention may result in the torture or death of an American citizen.
Together, these cases present some of the questions facing the U.S. as it moves towards a new post-Bush era detention policy. But without the facts, you can't answer the questions, so here you go:
Read the rest of this story ...
Tags: Justice, Liberty & National Security, Checks & Balances, Detention & Habeas Corpus
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