{news} March on the Capitol Sunday

[NECT Greens]

JOIN WITH US!


"YOU STOLE MY VOTE" 51 CAPITAL MARCH http://www.51capitalmarch.com/


SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12TH 2004
at Noon Everywhere!


On December 12th 2004 at 12 noon, before the steps of your State Capitol and 
the Federal Capitol, join with us to protest the theft of our votes and our 
voting rights in the 2004 election.

As citizens, it is our duty to protect those basic rights that insure the 
survival of our democracy and constitution for present and future 
generations of Americans.

Egregious infringements of our voting rights occurred in the 2004 election: 
our voting systems were compromised and our votes violated. The line was 
crossed: we no longer trust our voting systems. As citizens, we must stand 
together and demand:

Of our fellow citizen state electors,
Do NOT cast your ballots for president and vice-president until state 
election officials provide a complete, fair, accurate and verified manual 
vote recount
Of our state elected representatives,
Direct state election officials to immediately undertake a full statewide 
supervised manual vote recount
Launch an immediate public investigation into all reported incidents of 
voter intimidation, misinformation, and other acts by state employees 
intended to dissuade, interfere with, or prevent voters from exercising 
their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote
Act to restore integrity to our voting systems by adopting state provisions 
of the Voter's Bill of Rights and eliminating unsecured vote tabulation PCs 
and software
Of our federal elected representatives,
Investigate vote fraud and vote count manipulation in the 2004 elections.
Enact legislation incorporating federal guarantees protecting our voting 
power and the integrity of our voting systems, and all federal provisions of 
the Voter’s Bill of Rights.
Join with us in a people's uprising, a citizen protest. Volunteer to help 
mobilize the citizens of your state to converge on your state capital in 
peaceful protest of our stolen rights.

On December 12th, go to your state or federal capitol and make your voice 
heard.

Make a sign and show up!

Kip Humphrey
The 51 Capital March


THE VOTER'S BILL OF RIGHTS



1. Guarantee a Voter-Verified Paper Trail for All Voting Machines
Every voting machine in the United States must be equipped to produce, and 
store, a voter-verified paper and electronic record of every vote cast. 
Electronic voting machines must incorporate "open source" coding tested by 
an independent agency before and during the election to guarantee a 
transparent and fair process. A national standard for voting machines should 
be implemented to insure that by 2008, every vote cast in federal elections 
is cast using the same voting technology.
2. Replace Partisan Oversight with Non-Partisan Election Commissions
It is time to overhaul our federal, state, and local election agencies to 
guarantee fair elections. We must replace the current system of partisan 
election administration, in which partisan secretaries of state, county 
clerks, election commissioners, and other partisan officials are able to 
issue rulings that favor their own political parties and themselves, with a 
non-partisan, independent system of running elections. We must also insure 
that independent international and domestic election observers are given 
full access to monitor our elections.
3. Celebrate Democracy: Make Election Day a National Holiday
Working people should not be forced to choose between exercising their right 
to vote and getting to work on time. While the laws of 30 states guarantee 
the right to take time off from work to vote, many workers and employers are 
unaware of these laws. Holding national elections on a national holiday will 
greatly increase the number of available poll workers and polling places and 
increase overall turnout, while making it much easier for working Americans 
to go to the polls.
4. Make it Easier to Vote
Many citizens are discouraged from voting by unnecessary bureaucratic 
hurdles and restrictions. We must simplify and rationalize voter 
registration so that no one is again disenfranchised for failing to check a 
superfluous box, as occurred this year in Florida, or for not using heavy 
enough paper, as nearly occurred in Ohio. To ensure that all qualified 
voters are able to vote, we must follow the lead of states like Minnesota 
and Wisconsin by replacing restrictive voter residency requirements with 
same-day voter registration, allowing qualified voters to register at the 
polls on Election Day itself.

Our current system forces millions of voters to wait up to ten hours to 
vote. This is unacceptable, and it disenfranchises those who cannot afford 
to wait. To increase access to the polls, all states must provide sufficient 
funding for enough early voting and election-day polling places to guarantee 
smooth and speedy voting. To ensure equal access and minimize the wait at 
the polls, election authorities must allocate resources based upon the 
number of potential voters per precinct. We must put an end to the 
government-backed practice of allowing partisan activists to challenge the 
voting rights of individual voters at the polls.
5. Count Every Vote!
Voters must know that their vote will count and make a difference. Every 
recent presidential election has been marred by the discounting millions of 
spoiled, under-vote, over-vote, provisional and absentee ballots. This 
discounting of votes has disproportionately impacted people of color, 
especially African American, and is a fundamental voting rights and racial 
justice problem. Election officials must ensure that every voting precinct 
and wards is adequately staffed with sufficiently trained personnel and 
professional supervision; that old and unreliable voting machines are 
replaced; that absentee ballots are mailed with a sufficient time for 
delivery; and that provisional ballots count for state and federal contests 
regardless of where the vote is cast.
6. Re-Enfranchise Ex-Felons
The permanent disenfranchisement of former felons, a practice that falls 
outside of international or even U.S. norms, is an unreasonable and 
dangerous penalty that weakens our democracy by creating a subclass of four 
million excluded American citizens. Because the criminal justice system 
disproportionately penalizes African American males, this disenfranchisement 
is racist in its impact and is constitutionally suspect. Those states that 
permanently disenfranchise felons (Florida, Virginia, Nebraska, Mississippi, 
Kentucky, Iowa, Arizona, and Alabama) must amend their laws and practices to 
restore full citizenship to ex-offenders.
7. Implement Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)
We must replace our current “first-past-the-post” system with Instant Runoff 
Voting (IRV), which insures that the will of the true majority, not a mere 
plurality, produces the winner of each election. IRV allows voters to rank 
order the candidates in order of their preference (first, second, third 
choice). If a candidate wins a majority of first choice votes, they are the 
winner. If no candidate gets a majority of first choices, the lowest 
vote-getting candidate is eliminated, and the second-choice votes of those 
voters who backed the eliminated candidate are reallocated to the remaining 
contenders. Counting continues until one candidate has received a majority. 
In this way, a runoff count can be conducted without the need for runoff 
election. IRV gives voters the opportunity to vote for those candidates they 
like the most without worrying that their vote will help candidates they 
like least. Instant Runoff voting has long been used successfully around the 
world, from Ireland, to Australia, to, most recently, San Francisco.
8. Proportional Representation
The right of representation belongs to all citizens. Our winner-take-all 
elections award representation to the largest factions and leave everyone 
else, often the majority, unrepresented. The winner-take-call system 
unnecessarily restricts choice, polarizes politics and limits political 
discourse. We must adopt proportional representation for legislative 
elections to ensure the fair representation of all voters. Millions of 
Democrats in Republican areas and Republicans in Democratic areas are 
unrepresented in our system, and the majority of Greens, Libertarians, and 
other independents are unrepresented at all levels of government. Our system 
should provide fair representation to all voters, in proportion to their 
numbers.
9. Replace Big Money Control With Public Financing and Equal Air-Time
In a system where the amount of money a candidate spends is directly related 
to their likelihood of winning, it is not surprising that voters think 
politicians are more concerned with big campaign contributors than with 
individual voters. We must follow Maine’s lead by establishing a nationwide 
system of full public financing for all ballot-qualified candidates. We must 
require the broadcasting corporations that license our public airwaves to 
provide airtime for debates, and free time for all ballot-qualified 
candidates and parties.
10. Guarantee Equal Access to the Ballot and Debates
In our current electoral system, independent parties such as the Greens and 
Libertarians face a host of barriers designed to limit voter choice and 
voice. Ballot access laws and debates specifically designed to exclude 
independent party candidates discourage voting and undermine the legitimacy 
of our elections. In most cases, the established parties have never 
themselves met the signature requirements they impose on independent 
parties. We must eliminate prohibitive ballot access requirements, and 
replace the partisan Commission on Presidential Debates with a non-partisan 
Citizens Debate Commission.
11. Abolish the Electoral College
It is time to end the safe state/battleground state dichotomy and make all 
votes equal, no matter the state of the voter. We must amend the Federal 
Constitution to replace election of the President by the Electoral College 
with direct election by the voters. At the same time, for so long as the 
Electoral College persists, we must amend our state laws and constitutions 
to allocate each state’s electors proportionately to the popular vote.


GET INVOLVED NOW!