I've been writing to the CDEM (Center for Democracy & Election Management) in an effort to get their director, Dr. Robert A. Pastor, to actually get some election reform passed. Dr. Pastor is Executive Director of the Commission on Federal Election Reform with Baker and Carter. Only a form letter was sent in reply the first two times. To be fair though, my first e-mail was just a form letter itself. I entered my e-mail address and clicked using the
Velvet Revolution site. There is a diary with the back story on this
in this diary.
Frustrated with the form letters, and with little hope that anyone was really reading the e-mails, I just vented on my third letter.
The body of the third letter is below:
You ask me for ideas? Oh, come on! You KNOW what to do.
Get rid of the corruption, voter suppression, and vote fraud. Prosecute those who threw away registration forms, jammed phone lines, sent out misinformation about where and when to vote. Get rid of those in power who force the infirm and the poor to stand in long lines while giving the rich voters all the breaks. Get rid of voting machines that do not work correctly, and do not give a paper receipt. Oregon uses a mail-in ballot and it works fine, as long as the creepy "observers" are only allowed to "look, but don't touch."
Look closely at the claims of Clint Curtis and others who have risked so much for the truth to come out. Bloggers are not the enemy, they are the people. We want to be heard.
I want to feel good about living in the US again. I am so ashamed of our fraudulent elections. You should be too.
Do it now! Otherwise take the word "Democracy" out of the name of your organization. There is no democracy when the election process is corrupt, and ours is corrupt. The whole world knows it.
Guess that the third time was the charm, because there was a reply from a real person this time. See the text of that e-mail below:
That's a tall order! But we're working on it. I'm glad you mentioned Oregon's system; I've been doing a great deal of research into their system over the last week and it does look promising.
We have received an email from Clint Curtis and I passed his contact info along to Dr. Pastor; I hope that we will be able to engage him further on this.
I agree with you wholeheartedly that bloggers are not the enemy, but caution is necessary just as with any other source of information. I read blogs as well, but try to look at them as critically as I do mainstream media (well, maybe not quite as critically as I look at FOX...)
Please stay engaged and continue to watch the Commission. I sincerely hope that their recommendations allay the doubts of many who have written to us.
Success at last! I was really LOL at the comment about FOX. However, I'm a real newbie on being political and would appreciate some feedback from those more experienced. I'm formulating a reply to this "real live person" who wrote, but haven't a clue how to proceed any further.