campaign reform

2016 Elections, campaign reform, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton November 21, 2016

Did the GOP Strip & Flip the 2016 Selection?

Columbus Free Press by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman November 18, 2016 Hillary Clinton’s margin of victory in the 2016 vote count continues to climb, at this point well over a million. But her impending defeat in the Electoral College comes with familiar signs that the election was stripped and flipped. These indicators include the realities of pre- and post-election polling; the massive stripping of primarily black, Hispanic and Asian-American voters from computer generated registration rolls mostly maintained by private partisan companies; unverifiable “black box” electronic voting machines and central tabulators, also mostly manufactured and maintained by private corporations, and…

2016 Elections, campaign reform, Democracy, Donald Trump, political corruption October 23, 2016

Yes, our elections are rigged

By Mark Dunlea Donald Trump is right that our elections are rigged – though not in the way he describes. We will never have an accurate vote count on election day as long as we leave the counting (and administration) to the two major parties, who throughout our history have repeatedly stolen votes to benefit those in power. Robert Caro, the Pulitzer-prize winning biographer of President Johnson, wrote about how LBJ got elected to the US Senate after he realized that he had allowed the Republicans to do a better job of vote theft in his first run; he wouldn’t…

2016 Elections, campaign reform, Democratic Party, Green Party, Jill Stein, Ralph Nader October 3, 2016

Evil of the Two Lessers

OpEd News By Chris Robinson Permit me to offer a brief history lesson, which might convince some to see the world from a different perspective. The first election campaign I volunteered in was that of President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964. I was then a student at Dickinson College, but I was not yet old enough to vote. During the half century since then, I have been an active participant in politics, and I have learned two interesting lessons, which I plan to share with you if you keep reading. I can see now that I was a young fool…

campaign reform, Democracy April 26, 2016

Reflective Democracy in Santa Monica

Santa Monica Daily Press By Michael Feinstein April 25, 2016 The best electoral systems give voters a realistic chance to elect candidates who reflect their views. In most industrialized democracies, this is accomplished by electing people using a form of voting called proportional representation. Under systems of proportional representation, if there are 100 seats in a state legislature and Democrats get 40% of the vote, Republicans 30%, Greens 20% and Libertarians 10%, then Democrats would win 40 seats, Republicans 30, Greens 20 and Libertarians 10. This is how most democracies work, in countries the United States is most often compared…

campaign reform, Green Party, New York, State Politics, Third Party April 23, 2016

The Twilight of Liberalism: Decline of the Working Families Party

counterpunch By Peter LaVenia April 22, 2016 The Working Families Party – darling of The Nation-reading liberals in New York State – is in trouble. The NY Daily News reported this week that major unions (SEIU 1199, United Federation of Teachers, and the Hotel Trades Council) had quietly dropped financial support of the organization in late 2014. Those of us who have long fought for an independent, radical left will not mourn what is likely to be the slow decline of the WFP, though if we are lucky it may take the form of a quick implosion. The party’s stated…