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ELECTORAL DEMOCRACY CHECKLIST:
Key Strategies for Voting Reform
I. Voting Technology & Verification:
Paper Trail - not a receipt, but a durable, printed paper
ballot which can be verified by voter and used for manual recounts.
Reliable Voting Equipment - Independently tested for accuracy, reliability, and security. Most touch-screen systems break down and malfunction at very high rates, are not independently tested, and are vulnerable to hacking.
Publicly-owned Software - a ban on use of proprietary (secret) software in any aspect of vote counting, including mainframe computers. Software must be open to election officials and the public for testing and monitoring.
Manual Recounts - require manual paper ballot recounts
of at least 2% for verification in all elections, and full manual recounts
when warranted.
II. Voter Access & Eligibility:
Polling Place - require enough accessible polling locations
to serve all urban neighborhoods. All polling places must have enough voting
machines in working order (and enough trained election workers) to insure
that no voter waits more than 30 minutes to vote.
End Voter Harassment and Intimidation - prosecute officials who allow racially biased ID checks, police roadblocks, late opening/early closing, or other tactics to discourage voting, especially in Black and other minority precincts.
Provisional Ballots - legally require that they all be counted before any election result is certified. Prohibit mass challenges to provisional ballots.
Weekend Voting - extend polling place hours, and include a weekend day or make election day a legal holiday, to allow greater access for working people.
Universal, Same-day Voter Registration - remove barriers to registering, and allow instant registration with drivers license and high school graduation. (Today 28% of eligible voters are not registered.)
III. Method - More Representative Voting Systems:
End Gerrymandering - require redistricting be done by an
independent, non-partisan public body, along rational geographic boundaries,
with preference for competitive districts.
Instant Runoff Voting - allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, with vote transferring to second choice if first choice cannot win. Ends spoiler effect, allows vote of conscience, guarantees win with true majority (not just plurality), better reflects will of majority of voters. Implement in single-seat races such as Mayor, Governor, President.
Ranked Choice Voting - works like IRV for local multi-seat races such as city council and school board.
Multi-Seat Districts - allows for representation of minority viewpoints, prevents “safe-seat” districts. For example, in a 5-seat district, any party or group with 20% of vote can win a seat.
Proportional Representation - any party receiving at least 5% of vote receives proportional number of seats. This guarantees representation for most political parties and viewpoints, and prevents “safe-seat” districts, over-representation of one party, and partisan gridlock. Compliments geographic representation with party or value-based representation. Implement in large legislative bodies such as US Senate and State Senate.
IV. Money:
Public Financing - ban all private sources of funding for
all candidates and campaigns, and replace with public funding, to level
playing field and reduce corrupting role of big money. This will require
overturning a supreme court decision; in the meantime, other short-term
reforms should be pursued:
Pass the Clean Money Initiative (Prop 89) - candidates
who agree to take no private money can qualify for public funds, paid from
a tax on largest corporations. Also restricts donations from big money interests
and outside groups running ads.
Independent Expenditures - Tighten rules on money spent
by outside groups (independent committees), political parties, and others
to influence elections. Ban corporate donations. Require full and timely
public disclosure of all major campaign expenditures and donation sources.
V. Media:
Access - require free and equal media access for all ballot-qualified
candidates. Host inclusive, non-partisan debates on substantive issues.
News - shift coverage from shallow, sensation-alistic, personality- and scandal-driven infotainment to substantive, issues-based investigative reporting.
Advertising - ban or seriously restrict paid political advertising, and replace with debates and in-depth interviews. Media ads are the biggest single cost in campaigns, and drive the growing influence of big money in elections.
3-month Campaigns - limit campaigns to three months, to limit ad spending, reduce public fatigue, and allow incumbents to do their job.
Accountability - require public control of public airwaves (TV, Radio) to serve community interests, not just corporate profit.
Priorities:
Most public attention is focused on “black-box” voting systems
and the potential for electronic vote fraud. While important, this is only
the tip of a much larger iceberg of our failing electoral democracy.
I estimate that electronic fraud currently affects less than 2% of all votes, that equipment failures and human error affects 3-6%, that voter disenfranchise-ment and harassment affects as much as 10-15%, that the gerry-mandered, single-seat, winner-take-all voting system renders up to 95% of all votes ineffective, and that the culture of civic disengage-ment keeps 50-90% of us from voting at all. Lets fix the whole system, not just the voting machines.
Culture:
Many aspects of our election system, from negative attack ads and shallow
media coverage, to polling place barriers and holding elections on a workday,
are deliberately designed to discourage voter participation. Lower turnout
benefits incumbents and conservative interests. Bad politicians are elected
by good people who don’t vote.
No reforms can succeed unless we shift from passive consumers to active participants in the political process, and develop a culture of civic engagement in which voting and getting involved is seen as a normal part of daily life, not an exception.
Suggested Reading:
Fooled Again -
Mark Crispin Miller
Armed Madhouse - Greg Palast
Steal This Vote - Andrew Gumbel
Fixing Elections and 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy- Steven Hill
Organizations & Websites:
Center for Voting & Democracy - www.fairvote.org
National Voting Rights Institute - www.nvri.org
California Voter Foundation - www.calvoter.org
Prop 89/California Clean Money Campaign - www.caclean.org & www.publicampaign.org
Verified Voting - www.verifiedvoting.org
Open Voting - www.openvotingconsortium.org
Bev Harris/Black Box Voting - blackboxvoting.org