It is too late to correct certain substantive and procedural deficiencies of the 2008 election, but we can be ready and regulating in 2010 while securing the fairness and accuracy of our elections. We need election regulation to reduce voter suppression. Read more
It is too late to correct certain substantive and procedural deficiencies of the 2008 election, but we can be ready and regulating in 2010 while securing the fairness and accuracy of our elections. We need election regulation to reduce voter suppression. There are three major voter suppression obstacles to the attainment of a fair election process for Congressional and Presidential elections. Each lies in wait to cyclically sabotage my right and yours to power—the democratic control of our federal government. These two legal impediments have, by their existence, changed the results of numerous unknown Congressional and at least three Presidential elections. On my home website, I have previously editorialized about two of these three voting suppression obstacles to democracy-- the inherently anti-democratic Electoral College and the apparently unconstitutional denials and restrictions of voting rights to ex-felons. Undeniably, the Electoral College contradicts the promise of "one person, one vote." If the Electoral College were not in the Constitution, it would be unconstitutional. Had the Electoral College never existed, a busy President Al Gore might not have won a Nobel Prize, a more regulated financial sector might have been less predatory, and, Saddam Hussein would still be complaining about no-fly zones. The repeal of the Electoral College will likely be one of the most popular and important proposed amendments of a Second Constitutional Convention.
You may ask why the Electoral College is a voter suppression issue. I am a Californian, and my vote is ignored or effectively denied by the Electoral College process because all votes for any candidate who receives over 50% of the total votes are not counted for electoral purposes. In addition, the Electoral College process also ignores those who vote for the losers--whose votes would otherwise be counted in a popular vote election.
Denying felons their right to vote appears to contradict the 15th Amendment’s proscription to not deny the right to vote to any person on account of "previous condition of servitude." (According to the 13th Amendment "involuntary servitude" applies to those persons who receive it as punishment for a crime. Therefore, the right of felons to vote is especially protected by the 15th Amendment. It is not unreasonable to ask why the overwhelming majority of our states continue to restrict or prohibit the right to vote to felons (including those who have served no time)? Furthermore—why aren’t more politicians raising this issue? Is it because felons are such a small constituency?
If the state and federal court systems fail to nullify the state laws restricting and denying ex-felons the right to vote, this issue could become another proposed amendment at a Second Constitutional Convention.
The third voter suppression impediment will not require an amendment to the Constitution in order to improve the fairness of federal elections. Instead, Congress must act to expand the powers of the Federal Election Commission as there is currently a lack of standardized federal laws, rules and regulations for Congressional and Presidential elections. Currently, the rules of the Federal Election Commission deal with campaign finance. There are no regulations dealing with standardization of voting methods, verification of electronic voting machines, and how voter registration and eligibility is administered and verified; the requirements for serving on a board of elections; a code of ethics; federal approval and oversight of local election plans and procedures. Federal laws would standardize the penalties for violations of these new federal election laws and regulations. Federal or state courts could be separate courts of original jurisdiction. The glaring failures of fairness of partisan state election officials in Florida and Ohio in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 have made citizens more aware that Presidential elections can be sabotaged by just a few well-placed persons who have an agenda for the benefit of a few to the detriment of the whole. We now know that we are being irresponsible to ourselves and our country not to have a well-defined electoral process covering both the substance and mechanics of an election that is applicable to all fifty states, Washington D. C., and our Territories and Commonwealths. Until, there is a standardization of all procedures for Congressional and Presidential elections we will lack the national integrity that should be an enforced component of our right to societal power--our right to vote.
Congress is in the process of re-regulating our financial system for the benefit of our nation’s economic safety. Let us, then also persuade Congress to federalize and regulate our Congressional and Presidential elections so Americans can feel secure that their vote counts equally to every other voter; and that their vote is counted; reliably and accurately.
Read more about this and related subjects at www.2concon.org which is commited to a Second Constitutional Convention .