elections
Return
to Common Sense
January 27, 2010
Section: Domestic – Elections
“Government must return to its roots of term limited
citizen legislature, with simpler and easier elections and voter identification
guaranteed and with overseas servicemen’s votes counted.”
Philosophy (Background, Issues,
Objectives):
Government
was designed to serve the people.
- Politicians were assumed to be
citizen representatives (no professional politicians).
- Civilian representatives brought
diversity and business knowledge to government.
- Election campaigns have become
longer and more expensive.
- Excessive focus on re-election
detracts from serving the public.
Constitution
17th Amendment (1912) changed Senator selection
from state legislature to direct popular election.
·
Amendment
changed the first paragraph of Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution to
provide that each state's senators are to be "elected by the people thereof" rather than being "chosen by the Legislature thereof."
·
State
legislature selection was intended to maintain balance between federal and
state governments power.
Electoral
College is an anachronism designed to protect states rights and power.
- Each state is separate election
with winner getting all the votes.
- Can win Electoral College vote
while not winning total popular vote.
In
1965, the Voter Rights Act was enacted to combat racial discrimination that
denied equal access to voting.
- The VRA now requires racial discrimination in
the name of guaranteeing effective voting by certain preferred
minorities (blacks and Hispanics), because of judicial interpretations and
legislative amendments.
- Effectiveness is understood as successful racial or
ethnic bloc voting, with success understood as electing members of those
blocs.
- Proof of citizenship requirements have been struck
down as discriminatory in Georgia.
Redistricting
of election boundaries has resulted in artificial districts.
- Public
Law 62-5, 1911, set
the number of members of the House of Representatives at 435.
o Originally each representative
represented about 40,000 people.
o Today each representative represents
close to 700,000 people.
- Gerrymandering based on the 1965
Voting Rights Act redraws voting maps to deliver safe political districts,
election after election.
o The U.S. Supreme
Court had interpreted the relevant provision (Section 2) as applying only where
it was possible to create a majority-black district when whites had been
demonstrably voting as a bloc to deny black voters an equal opportunity to
elect the candidates of their choice.
o Boundaries defined to artificially
combine uniform voting constituents.
o Voting districts do not conform
between local and municipal government boundaries.
o Gerrymandering has defined voting
districts that are uniform and deliver “automatic” voting results.
o An unintended consequence of
gerrymandering is a suppressed voter turnout since the result is
“rigged.”
Political
party candidate selection has become excessively expensive and time consuming.
- Primaries begin two years before
the election.
o The succession of state primaries is
very expensive.
§
Candidates
can choose to campaign or not on a state by state basis.
o It is estimated that $5 billion will
be spent on the 2008 presidential and congressional election cycle.
o It is estimated that $1 billion will
be spent on the two presidential nominees alone.
- 2002 McCain-Feingold Bipartisan
Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) was designed to remove large donor influence.
o Large donors used 527 organizations to
channel contributions to target politicians.
o Seven of the Top 10 political
contributors are labor unions and predominantly Democrat.
o 2005 only 9% of filers elected to
support the Presidential Election Campaign Fund.
o BCRA reforms aimed at
political parties did not limit money but rather scatter it
throughout the system.
o Due to the differences
between the two political parties in America, the BCRA dispersion of finances
tends to benefit Democrats because their political culture includes more allied
groups who benefit from a distributional big bang.
Term
limits have been instituted in several states.
·
At
present, 36 state have term limits of various types for their governors
·
In
·
Term
limits were at issue in various cities and counties in
·
In
localities ranging from
·
Eight
of the ten largest
Participation
in national elections is around 50% of eligible voters.
- Many American voters are unfamiliar with the
candidate positions and promises.
- The Help America Vote Act (HAVA)
set a deadline for states to have a statewide voter registration list and
list verification procedures.
o Voter fraud has been caught
haphazardly as no identification requirement impedes enforcement.
- Both major political parties
sponsor voter registration efforts, but recent illegal election practice
convictions have been overwhelmingly Democrats.
o Chicago Democrats have a long history
of stolen votes since the 1980’s.
o In 1984 the case was publicized where
for 14 years Brooklyn Democrat politicians operated a successful voting-fraud
ring responsible for thousands of fraudulent votes.
o In 2007 a voting rights lawsuit in
- Association of Community
Organization for Reform Now (ACORN)
is a leftist political group which has been caught numerous times turning
in fraudulent voter registrations.
o
The
U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform published a paper
that both documented ACORN's widespread criminal activities, and determined that
appropriate legal remedies for this criminal organization include applying the
RICO statutes to seize their assets:
§
ACORN
has evaded taxes, obstructed justice, engaged in self dealing, and aided and
abetted a cover-up of the $948.607.50 embezzlement by Dale Rathke,
the brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke.
§
ACORN
has committed investment fraud, deprived the public of its right to honest
services, and engaged in a racketeering enterprise affecting interstate
commerce.
§
ACORN
has committed a conspiracy to defraud the United States by using taxpayer funds
for partisan political activities.
§
ACORN
has submitted false filings to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the
Department of Labor, in addition to violating the Fair Labor Standards Act
(FLSA).
§
ACORN
falsified and concealed facts concerning an illegal transaction between related
parties in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
(ERISA).
o
In Pennsylvania,
official are investigating ACORN for filing fraudulent voter registrations and
one ACORN worker is facing 19 counts of perjury for making false statements.
o
In Ohio there were four
counties where voter registration exceeded the number of voting-age people in
the counties.
o
In Michigan, ACORN
enrolled 200,000 voters and a sizable number of duplicate and fraudulent
applications.
o
In Wisconsin election
officials turned in 32 more voter registration workers to the district
attorney’s office for possible prosecution, bringing the total to 39.
o
In Colorado, ACORN
registered some individuals 40 separate times.
o
In Nevada, nearly 1,000
felons were illegally registered to vote in 2004.
o
The Clark County, Nevada,
registrar claims that there has been rampant fraud, and counts roughly 40% of
registration applications submitted by ACORN from January through July had been
rejected or questioned.
o
In Washington State,
felony charges were brought against ACORN workers and some went to jail.
o
ACORN has never tried
to hide that it was a Democrat voting and advocacy organization.
§ ACORN has been accused
of providing liberal causes with protest-for-hire
services and coerced donations from the targets of demonstrations through a
mob-style "protection" racket.
o FBI has initiated a
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) investigation into the
series of ACORN voting abuses as a criminal enterprise.
§
Employees
who did not meet quota of 20 new voters daily were fired.
§
ACORN
considered 40% an acceptable level of accurate registrations turned in.
§
ACORN
briefed workers how to deny that voter registration fraud existed.
·
Military voters have long been
disenfranchised, both at the state and federal level, by a voting process that
fails to recognize the unique challenges created by a military voter's
transitory existence or the delays associated with delivering an absentee
ballot to a war zone halfway around the world.
o All
military personnel and their dependents, as well as overseas citizens, are
guaranteed the right to vote by absentee ballot in federal elections by the
Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA).
o
In recent elections, only 5 to 20
percent of eligible voters cast absentee ballots that are counted.
Principles:
No
more professional politicians.
- Limit the impact of money in
campaigning.
Voting
is a national service obligation by each citizen.
- Voters must remain knowledgeable
about the country and its issues.
- Voters need to feel their vote
counts above party politics.
Recommendations:
Short Term, Reengineer election
process to be more representative and more participative.
- Conduct nationwide Presidential
primary(s) available to all states.
o Primaries would be a rotating series
of regional primaries.
- Increase number of House
representatives to 600, to allow better representation.
o Base representation on number of citizens, not number of people (legal or illegal).
o Redistrict conforming as nearly as
possible to state or local government boundaries.
§
Redistrict
design based on Minimal distance to district center or zip codes.
o Return voting rights to criminals
after they complete their sentences, parole and probation.
- Individual states enforce their
own election requirements.
o
Require all voters to present photographic
identification, issued by the federal, state, or local government, when they
vote at their polling place, or to send copies of such identification when
submitting an absentee ballot.
o
Require all individuals who register to vote to
provide documentation establishing that they are United States citizens.
o
Require state and local election officials to verify
the accuracy of new voter registration information against other available
state and federal databases.
o
Require an individual who registers by mail to vote
in person the first time they vote.
o
Require all individuals who register to vote through
the use of mail-in forms, whether they are mailed back to election officials or
hand-delivered by the individual or third-party organizations, to comply with
the applicable HAVA provision.
o
Require all third-party organizations (like ACORN)
that conduct voter registration drives to put the name of their organization
and the volunteer or employee handling each registration on the voter
registration form and require all completed forms to be returned to election
officials by such organizations within ten days of the date the forms are executed
by the voter.
o
Facilitate voting by overseas members of the
military by requiring that all absentee ballots being sent to UOCAVA voters be
mailed at least 45 days prior to the election deadline or alternatively by
express mail or electronic means so the ballots will be received by voters in
time to be returned.
o
Require all state courts to notify election
officials when individuals whose names are drawn from the registration rolls
are excused from jury duty because they claim they are not U.S. citizens or no
longer live in the jurisdiction.
o Require the
state to enter into agreements with other states, especially neighboring
states, to compare voter registration lists to find voters who are registered
in more than one state.
o Prosecute election fraud to the
fullest extent of the law.
- Utilize electronic voting
machines for rapid, accurate results, with electronic voting accepted.
o Ensure all valid
absentee ballots are counted.
o
Designate
Military Offices as Voter Registration Agencies.
o
Develop
systems allowing servicemen overseas the ability to vote electronically and
their votes counted back in their home districts.
·
Eliminate direct campaign contributions
o Repeal Bipartisan Campaign
Reform Act (BCRA) passed in 2002 as structurally unfair.
o Require all campaign
contributions made to general campaign fund, distributed by the government
based on predetermined spending limit.
o Lobbyists are forbidden from direct
candidate contributions.
o Each candidate would be restricted to
a fixed amount of government money for campaigns.
Long Term, Ensure Congress composed
of citizen legislators.
·
Repeal the 17th Amendment, returning Senator selection to the state legislatures.
·
Enact Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits for all federal
political offices (12 years max).
o No more than two full four year terms (10
years max) for President.
o No more than five full two year terms (10
years max) for members of the House.
o No more than two full six year terms (12
years max) for Senators.
·
Enact Constitutional Amendment to extend concept of Recall to
members of Congress, both representatives and senators.
·
Enact Constitutional Amendment to adopt a Presidential federal line
item veto.
- Restrict lawyers
from serving in the legislative branch of government.
·
Encourage every eligible citizen to vote.
o Require national photo identification
cards to ensure only citizens can vote.
o Enable electronic e-voting to enable
citizens to vote remotely.
o Enact tax incentive to encourage
voting participation.
- Enact a lifetime ban on any
elected official at the state or federal level from ever being a
professional lobbyist.
References:
“Life Without Lawyers” by Philip K.
Howard published by W.W. Norton & Company, 2009.
“Six Political Reforms Most Americans Want” by George Gallup
dated August 1978 published in Readers Digest.
“Term Limits Lessons for Campaign Reform”
by Patrick Basham dated
“Voting Wrongs” by Quin Hillyer dated
“Campaign-Finance Reform Has Been a Bust”
by Ryan Sager dated
“Trash the ‘Compact’”
by Pete DuPont dated
“Totally De-voted: 9 Things Destroying
Democracy” by Lowell Ponte dated
“Don’t Coerce the Vote” by
Barry Farber dated
“Let the Recounts Begin” by Brian Friel dated
“America Deserves Better Politicians”
by Edward H. Crane dated November/December 2006 published by The Cato Institute
at http://www.cato.org/research/articles/cpr28n6-2.html .
“Trumping the Race Card” by Peter Kirsanow dated
“The
Case for a National Primary Election System” by Doug Patton dated
“Our Corrupt Congress” by Lynn Woolley
dated
“Primary compression calculus” by
Donald Lambro dated
“
“An
“In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter
Fraud” by Eric Lipton and Ian Urbina dated
“Top 10 Most Generous Organizations to
Political Campaigns” by Timothy P. Carney dated
“E-Voting Threatens Election Integrity”
by Timothy B. Lee dated
“The Myth of the Rational Voter” by
Bryan Caplan dated
“Primary Fix” by Michael Barone dated
“Vote-Fraud Demagogues” by John
Fund dated
“Dumbocracy in
“Voting Rights Turnabout” by John
Fund dated
“Whose Ox is Gored?” by John Fund
dated
“New Analysis Shows Voter Identification Laws
Do Not Reduce Turnout” by David B. Muhlhausen
and Keri Weber Sikich dated September 10, 2007
published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/LegalIssues/cda07-04.cfm .
“Plan On Voting, Plan Now” by John Longenecker dated
“The Bargain of Democracy” dated
“
“Why Most Voters Shouldn’t Vote”
by Selwyn Duke dated
“Stolen Identifies, Stolen Votes: A Case
Study in Voter Impersonation” by Hans A. von Spakovsky
dated
“Where There’s Smoke, There’s
Fire: 100,000 Stolen Votes in
“Disenfranchised Over There” by
Hans A. von Spakovsky and Roman Buhler dated
“The Art of Buying Politicians: The Facts about
Institutional Campaign Funding” by JB Williams dated
“Gerrymandering’s Lower Turnout” by David Broder dated June 26, 2008 published by Real Clear Politics
at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/06/gerrymanderings_lower_turnout.html .
“Rampant Voter Fraud by Illegal Aliens
Ignored by Government and Media” by Jim Kouri
dated
“McCain Fears Voter Fraud” by Dave Eberhart dated
Identification
Required” by Deroy Murdock dated
“Political Monopoly Power” by
Walter E. Williams dated
“Gerrymandering Democratic Votes”
by Abigail Thernstrom dated
“In open contests, voters beat politicians”
by Paul Jacob dated
“ACORN, meet RICO: Let the prosecution begin”
by Peter J. Parisi dated December 9, 2008 published
by The Washington Times at http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/09/acorn-meet-rico-let-the-prosecution-begin/ .
“Voting Rights Gone Wrong” by
George Will dated March 13, 2009 published by Town Hall at http://townhall.com/columnists/GeorgeWill/2009/03/13/voting_rights_gone_wrong .
“ACORN Accused of Mob Tactics” by
S.A. Miller dated March 19, 2009 published by Front Page Magazine at http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=53C80309-B44E-4BB3-9C51-05DD3AFDF6B2 .
“Former ACORN Employee: More Than Half Voter
Registrations Invalid” by Ronald Kessler dated March 19, 2009
published by News Max at http://www.newsmax.com/kessler/acorn_voters/2009/03/19/193797.html .
“Splitting districting of all 50 states + DC + PR” by Ivan
Ryan dated April 19, 2009 published by RangeVoting.Org at http://rangevoting.org/SplitLR.html .
“Shortchanged” by Gary Andres dated
April 23, 2009 published by The Weekly Standard at http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/415sqvdl.asp .
“A System Eroding” dated June 3,
2009 published by Investor’s Business Daily at http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=328920251728142 .
“Fair Redistricting” by
Brian Olson dated June 17, 2009 published by Bolson.Org at http://bolson.org/dist/ .
“ACORN ‘always been Democrat
operation’” by Chelsea Schilling dated June 18, 2009 published
by World Net Daily at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=101493 .
“America’s Military Voters: Re-enfranchising the Disenfranchised”
by Hans A. von Spakovsky and M. Eric Eversole dated July 28, 2009 published by The Heritage
Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/LegalIssues/lm0045.cfm .
“Democracy in Danger: What States Can Do to Safeguard America’s
Election System” by Hans A. von Spakovsky
dated July 17, 2009 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/GovernmentReform/hl1129.cfm
“Confronting Unlimited Government: Lessons
from the Term Limits Movement” by H. Abbie Erler dated August 31, 2009 published by The Heritage
Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Thought/sr0048.cfm .
“Two Tweaks to the Constitution” by
Jon N. Hall dated September 22, 2009 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/two_tweaks_to_the_constitution.html .
“Eric Holder, ACORN, and Cloward
Piven justice” by James Simpson dated
December 1, 2009 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/eric_holder_acorn_and_cloward_1.html .
“Washington Knows Best” by Peter
Ferrara dated December 30, 2009 published by The American Spectator at http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/30/washington-knows-best
.
“Repeal the 17th Amendment”
by Tony Blankley dated January 27, 2010 published by Town Hall at http://townhall.com/columnists/TonyBlankley/2010/01/27/repeal_the_17th_amendment
.
