Saturday, April 23, 2005
Voter Confidence Resolution
NOTE: The Voter Confidence Resolution is intended for City Councils across America. As unified communities make this collective declaration, they call to question: Has the Consent of the Governed been withdrawn, YET? The resolution is a template that should be customized locally through bridge-building, consensus-seeking teach-ins. For a more thorough understanding, read A Blueprint For Peaceful Revolution (NEW 9/22/05). For abbreviated talking points, please see the Guide to the Voter Confidence Resolution.
(v6.1, LAST UPDATED: 5/14/05 5pm)
Whereas an election is a competition for the privilege of representing the people; and
Whereas each voter is entitled to cast a single ballot to record his or her preferences for representation; and
Whereas the records of individual votes are the basis for counting and potentially re-counting a collective total and declaring a winner; and
Whereas an election's outcome is a matter of public record, based on a finite collection of immutable smaller records; and
Whereas a properly functioning election system should produce unanimous agreement about the results indicated by a fixed set of unchanging records; and
Whereas recent U.S. federal elections have been conducted under conditions that have not produced unanimous agreement about the outcome; and
Whereas future U.S. federal elections cannot possibly produce unanimous agreement as long as any condition permits an inconclusive count or re-count of votes; and
Whereas inconclusive counts and re-counts have occurred during recent U.S. federal elections due in part to electronic voting devices that do not produce a paper record of votes to be re -counted if necessary; and
Whereas inconclusive results have also been caused by election machines losing data, producing negative vote totals, showing more votes than there are registered voters, and persistently and automatically swapping a voter's vote from his or her chosen candidate to an opponent; and
Whereas inconclusive results make it impossible to measure the will of the people in their preferences for representation; and
Whereas the Declaration of Independence refers to the Consent of the Governed as the self-evident truth from which Government derives "just Power";
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
Because inconclusive results, by definition, mean that the true outcome of an election cannot be known, there is no basis for confidence in the results reported from U.S. federal elections; and
Be it also resolved:
The following is a comprehensive election reform platform likely to ensure conclusive election results and create a basis for confidence in U.S. federal elections:
1) voting processes owned and operated entirely in the public domain, andBe it further resolved:
2) clean money laws to keep all corporate funds out of campaign financing, and
3) a voter verified paper ballot for every vote cast and additional uniform standards determined by a non-partisan nationally recognized commission, and
4) declaring election day a national holiday, and
5) counting all votes publicly and locally in the presence of citizen witnesses and credentialed members of the media, and
6) equal time provisions to be restored by the media along with a measurable increase in local, public control of the airwaves, and
7) presidential debates containing a minimum of three candidates, run by a non-partisan commission comprised of representatives of publicly owned media outlets, and
8) preferential voting and proportional representation to replace the winner-take-all system for federal elections;
When elections are conducted under conditions that prevent conclusive outcomes, the Consent of the Governed is not being sought. Absent this self-evident source of legitimacy, such Consent is not to be assumed or taken for granted.
Palo Alto, CA Human Relations Commission
David Cobb, 2004 Green Party Presidential Candidate
Voter Confidence Committee of Humboldt County
Green Party - Eureka, CA, Humboldt County, CA
Progressive Democrats of WA
Veterans For Peace, Humboldt Bay Chapter 56
Black Box Voting, Inc.
Velvet Revolution
Paul R. Lehto, Attorney at Law
Jane Allen, GuvWurld contributing editor
Submit your endorsement or the version of the resolution that your City Council is considering; or post your comments HERE.
The permalink for the Voter Confidence Resolution is:
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2005/04/voter-confidence-resolution.html
The permalink for the Guide to the Voter Confidence Resolution is:
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2005/06/guide-to-voter-confidence-resolution.html
An archive of related prior works can be found HERE.
5 comments
5 Comments:
All of this is a major step in the right direction. However, simply ensuring an accurate count at the poll will not ensure a fair election. Voter fraud and supression has and does take many forms. Look at what Katherine Harris did in Florida in 2000. She illegally purged over 80,000 voters from the rolls (most were black / Democrats). This cost Al Gore a net loss of ~30,000 votes and the Presidency of the United States. Look at the crap that Ken Blackwell pulled in Ohio in 2004. He did a dozen different things to supress the Democratic vote. Read the Conyers report for the painfull details. These issues will still have to be dealt with in the upcoming months and years. Only then will we have the fair and accurate elections that we must demand.
By 
, at
8:38 AM
Thank you, Dave, for fighting this fight. Each day we hear of more illegal behavior perpetrated against America and Americans. I’m imagining the sound of NO hands clapping followed by a thunderous “We Do Not Consent!”
J
By , at
1:52 PM
Our Vote is the only consent we give to be governed by this government. It is the only record of our consent. When it comes to the accurate counting of our Vote I have only two words:
PROVE IT!
By , at
6:58 PM
"Not one line of software between a voter and a vaild election."
Thank you for all you have done.
UL
By , at
10:39 AM
The Republican Party is a sick joke, and the people of this country are fed up with them.
From Nixon to Bush, and from Scooter to Larry "Toilet Stall" Craig, the Republicans have proven themselves to be a bunch of lying, corrupt, evil, perverted, over-spending crooks.
When you look at all the money Bill Clinton left this country, it makes us all cry to know that Bush spent it all. Wow!
When the money was gone, Bush went to China for help.
Just think, we owe money to China!
That is the Bush way.
Cheney is no better.
You can't trust either of them.
No one does.
Why are we in Iraq?
The war should be on terror, not in Iraq.
Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and yet Bush has spent all that money to fight "his" war.
Yes his, because many Republicans have backed off from the war.
By the way, the war in Iraq has cost the U.S. almost five hundred billion dollars.
Forget Rudy.
Rudy Giuliani is no hero.
While he is often called the hero of 9/11, the truth is that Rudy was a terrible leader during his years as mayor of New York City.
He made bad decisions and even took a girlfriend while being married.
In fact, he even wanted his lover to live in the same house with his wife.
Most people would call this perverted.
New Yorkers were so sick of his antics, that they wanted him out of office.
Then came 9/11.
The only reason people call Giuliani a hero today, is because he just happened to be NYC's mayor during that bad time.
Any mayor would be looked at as a hero if they showed their face under those circumstances.
If there was no 9/11, Rudy would have become a joke.
This is not the kind of leader we want in the White House. In closing, the New York Post reported in their paper on April 23, that Giuliani spent more than $48,000 dollars of campaign money on posh hotels while claiming to have spent the least of all the Republican candidates.
Rudy is a good time leader, and does it with other people's money.
Forget Mitt.
His ads look bad.
He can't seem to get his facts right, and will say things to make himself look good.
Red flags go up around him.
I spoke with his son Tagg at the New Hampshire debates back in June (2007), and while he seemed like a nice man, Tagg could not get his facts right either.
The worst Republican as of late, though, is Larry Craig.
He is a lying pervert who wanted gay sex with a strange man on a dirty toilet seat.
He pled guilty, then said he was not guilty.
Say what?
He is another Republican moron.
Did you hear about Washington State Republican Rep. Richard Curtis?
He offered $1,000 to a young man for unprotected sex while dressed in women's lingerie.
This sort of thing just goes on and on with them.
Remember Mark Foley?
Here is a letter I wrote that was in many newspapers and Web sites:
Once again, the Republicans have turned my stomach with shocking and repulsive behavior.
Mark Foley, a Republican member (now ex-member) of Congress, has sent many e-mails with perverted sexual content to a sixteen year old boy.
This is the same man who while in Congress, backed a bill that was meant to protect children from child predators.
Foley himself, is a man who preyed on a child with lust.
What is also incomprehensible, is the fact that some Republicans knew of Foley’s behavior, and yet, did not take a hard stand against this until it became public news. If I had a teenage son and/or daughter, I would not want them to go near any Republican leader for fear of either or both becoming a victim of a sick Republican pervert.
George Vreeland Hill
There are more than three hundred such letters this year alone in newspapers.
Many of them in New Hampshire.
There are thousands on the Internet.
No lie.
THOUSANDS!
In fact, one Republican in California wanted me stopped once, because I was hurting some Republicans in their elections.
I just want to do my part in helping to get rid of every Republican scumbag.
From phone scams to the Union Leader (NH) covering up for Republicans, the garbage never ends.
But the Republican Party will end.
Did you know that George W. Bush once made fun of the issue of Weapons of Mass Destruction?
He did, and in front of some shocked people during a black-tie event in 2004.
He said.... (While looking under a piece of furniture) "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere."
Then, while pretending to look out of a window, Bush laughed as he said..... "Nope, no weapons over there."
While he was laughing, there were men and women fighting and dying in Iraq because of WMD.
George W. Bush should be removed from office because of that alone.
Face it, Bill Clinton lied about having sex, and was impeached because of it.
George W. Bush however, did far worse, as he laughed at the very people who are fighting for the United States of America!
That about sums it all up!
(By the way, this Bush/WMD was part of an article and letter I wrote as well.)
John McCain laughs at war as well.
He changed the words to a popular Beach Boys song to Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Iran.
What a jerk.
He bashed Hillary for her Woodstock plans because it would cost one million dollars.
He even tried to put the Woodstock goers in a bad light with his own ad.
Someone running for such a high office should never use people for his own gain.
McCain also needs to get his facts right.
He says the Democrats are big spenders, but it is the Republicans who have spent so much money.
The Republican Party is a mess, and getting worse.
People do not trust any of them, and we are all tired of their act.
I am doing my best to make sure that no Republican wins an election.
Thank you for your time.
George Vreeland Hill
By , at
10:59 PM
