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Username: admin
Post Number: 269
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? 
Votes: 6 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 - 6:15 am: | 
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Briefing on today's challenge to the electoral college:
The bold action by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) in challenging the Ohio members of the electoral college, made possible by the actions of committed, relentless citizens and voting integrity groups nationwide, gave discussion of election improprieties a forum on national TV. More important, it could lead to proposed corrective legislation, and possibly a Constitutional amendment.
A Constitutional Amendment granting a "Citizen's Right to Vote?"
In the United States, we have no federal right to vote -- instead, a citizen's right to vote is really a state resident's right to vote. With voting, there is no equal protection under the law.
If we do enact federal equal protection legislation for voting, many of the inappropriate actions taken by state officials would be struck down in court.
Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) described the problem that may very well lead this nation to electoral improvements by way of an amendment to the Constitution. In the 2000 Supreme Court decision, Gore v. Bush, all boiled down in the end to state's rights. Despite multiple Constitutional Amendments which already guarantee equal protection, these equal protections are not carried over into our voting system -- yet our vote provides the very underpinning our our republic.
Different states = different rights, Jackson explained, illustrating his point by describing wildly discrepant voting rights rules in Florida (which bars ex-felons from voting, for life) and Maine (which allows felons to vote even while in jail). In fact, the varying voting rights in 50 states, combined with variations in equipment and administration in 3,067 counties, create a situation where our basic right to vote is unequally protected.
And here's one crux of our current problem with integrity of our voting system: A state right to vote is NOT a citizenship right to vote. Most other countries that call themselves democracies provide the right to vote on a national basis. The U.S. is one of only 11 countries that provide no constitutionally protected right to vote.
"This is not about Republicans, but about the Republic," said Jackson. He urged us not to build our electoral system around HAVA (the Help America Vote Act), but to begin repairing electoral integrity by enacting a citizen's right to vote. Jackson quoted a biblical passage, about the foolishness of building a house on sand, and then said, "Our voting system is built on sand," he said: "State's rights."
When Florida was allowed to systematically disenfranchise voters, it hid behind state's rights. When Ohio's Secretary of State Ken Blackwell successfully disenfranchised voters in Ohio, through inappropriate rules on provisional ballots and other measures, he hid behind state's rights.
Through the leadership of John Conyers and Senator Barbara Boxer, a public debate has commenced. The brilliance of the Congressional Black Caucus today may provide a significant step to return to the "one person, one vote" principle set forth when our nation was founded. |
