[If you're in the DC area, please consider attending. --BG]
Press Advisory
April 13th, 2005
For more information:
Brad Friedman, brad@velvetrevolution.us,
Alysia Fischer, 513-330-0063, Ted Glick, 973-338-5398
Scores of voting rights and electoral reform organizations
nationwide have united to demand real electoral reform
proposals from the private, blue ribbon, Baker/Carter
Commission on Federal Election Reform. They are organizing a
visible presence at 10:00 a.m. in front of the Kay Spiritual
Center on the American University campus where the
Commission is planning what they call "public hearings."
These groups, including Code Pink, Progressive Democrats of
America, U.P. (United Progressives) for Democracy and Velvet
Revolution, are opposed to the inclusion in any form of
James Baker III on the Commission. Baker was the lead
attorney in Florida for the 2000 Bush/Cheney campaign which
engineered Bush's selection as President by five Supreme
Court justices.
The pro-democracy groups are also opposed to two other
members of the Commission who have direct ties to Mr.
Baker's law firm, Tom Phillips and Robert Mosbacher, and to
Ralph Munro, CEO of VoteHere, a company that manufactures
vote-counting machines.
On April 11, Congressman John Conyers, minority chair of the
House Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to Jimmy Carter
expressing his concern about the inclusion of Mr. Baker and
strongly urging that the Commission include members of the
voting rights coalition.
The last two national elections here have been marred by
irregularities that have called into question the legitimacy
of the results. In 2004, there were literally tens of
thousands of documented cases of impropriety that, in many
cases, significantly affected the vote count. Over the past
five months, grassroots electoral reform groups have joined
together in a pro-democracy campaign calling for a range of
reforms in order to restore integrity, trustworthiness and
accountability to the elections process. Some of their
demands include: a constitutional right to vote for all
citizens, paper ballots as the official record of all votes
cast, independent analysis of all vote machine software and
hardware before and after elections, unified national
standards for national elections, election day registration,
independent and non-partisan administration of elections, a
strengthening and reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act,
public financing of elections and fair ballot access for all
candidates and parties.
The pro-democracy coalition will hold a press conference
outside the Kay Center following the conclusion of the
"public hearing" at 2:30 p.m.
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