Green Party Position Statement on Reforming the Electoral
College.
DC Statehood Green Party; Black Caucus; Green Party
of Pennsylvania
October 03, 2004.
Congress enacted the 14th Amendment in order to
ensure equal protection under the law and voting rights for all
citizens, including newly enfranchised African Americans. But local,
state, and federal government bodies quickly undermined the 14th
Amendment, especially through Jim Crow laws, restrictions on the right
to vote, passage and maintenance of winner-take-all and at-large
voting systems, and application of the 14th Amendment to corporations
under the principle that corporations were 'persons' under the U.S.
Constitution.
By the late 19th century, the 14th Amendment was no longer used to
protect the rights of all Americans (especially African Americans, for
whom it was enacted), but to protect corporate power. "The 14th
Amendment was converted into a Magna Carta for business."(The
American Heritage History of The Law In America, by Bernard Schwartz,
p.130, 1974).
After nearly a century, U.S. government was compelled, thanks to the
civil rights movement, to enforce Section 1, the 'equal protection'
provision of the 14h Amendment. But Section 2 has remained unenforced.
According to Section 2 of the 14th Amendment, "Representatives
shall be apportioned among the several States according to their
respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each
State.... But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of
electors for President and Vice-President of the United States,
Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a
State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any
[citizens qualified to vote], or in any way abridged,... the basis of
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the
number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
citizens twenty-one years of age in such State."
Winner-take-all voting for electors disenfranchises large numbers of
American voters. Up to 49% of a state's voters may be disenfranchised,
since all of a state's several electors are chosen by the political
party of the winning candidate.
The Congressional Research Service report entitled "The Electoral
College: Reform Proposals in the 107th Congress" (Order Code
RL30844: Updated March 29, 2001) includes the observation that
"By awarding all electoral votes in each state to the candidates
who win the most popular votes in that state, the 'winner-take-all' or
'general ticket' system effectively disenfranchises everyone who voted
for other candidates. Moreover, this same flawed arrangement is the
centerpiece of one category of electoral college reform proposals, the
'Automatic Plan'."
Section 2 of the 14th Amendment calls for a penalty to be exacted on a
state that would deny or abridge in any way citizens of the United
States "right to vote at any election for the choice of electors
for President and Vice-President of the United States." In
exacting a penalty for disenfranchisement, this section confirms that
all votes must be counted and counted fairly.
Section 2 of the 14th Amendment contradicts the Supreme Court's Bush
v.Gore ruling. In the 2000 voting scandal in Florida, manipulation of
the national election in Florida by Republican Party officials
received the Court's sanction, when the Court ruled that "The
individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for
electors for the President of the United States". In Florida, a
class of citizens was disenfranchised, throwing the total of the
state's Electoral College votes to George W. Bush in violation of
Section 2 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States of America.
The Douglass Institute of Government, the D.C. Statehood Green Party,
and the Green Party's national Black Caucus have already called for
reform of the Electoral College.
According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), "On
December 29, 2000, [Gordon] and Lawrence D. Jamison, members of the
Douglass Institute of Government and residents of the District of
Columbia, filed suit (Gordon v. Albert Gore, Jr., President of the
U.S. Senate (1: 00CV031 12)) in the U. S. District Court for the
District of Columbia to enjoin Al Gore, then President of the Senate,
from counting the full slate of Florida's presidential electoral votes
in Congress on January 6, 2001. DIG claimed that to allow Florida's
full slate of presidential electors to be counted would have diluted
and diminished the rights of presidential electors from states that
have conformed with the 14th Amendment." (CRS report on The
Voting Rights Act of 1965, As Amended: Its History and Current Issues
(Order Code 95-896 GOV); prepared for members and committees of
Congress)
The Statehood Green Party Platform's section on election reform states
"We demand that the District of Columbia replace the 'winner take
all' method of apportioning presidential electors which effectively
disenfranchises votes for all runner up candidates with a requirement
that electoral votes shall be divided in proportion to the popular
vote for each candidate."
Proposal: Position statement on constitutional remedies for
disenfranchised voters, specifically, reforming the Electoral College
by enforcing the 14th Amendment's safeguard of voting rights.
POSITION STATEMENT
The Green Party of the United States supports efforts to address
presidential Electoral College abuses, democratize the electoral
process, and ensure that voters enjoy equal protection and treatment
in their representation by the Electoral College.
The Green Party calls on the U.S. government to enforce Section 2 of
the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was originally intended
to correct the disenfranchisement of African Americans following
emancipation. This Amendment is a mandate for the reduction of state
representatives to the United States Congress and the Electoral
College, proportionate to the disenfranchised class of its citizens'
deprived of the Constitutional 'right to vote' in national elections.
The Green Party demands that apportionment of Electoral College votes
reflect the actual votes within states. The Green Party holds that
awarding Electoral College votes on a 'winner-take-all' basis
constitutes an unconstitutional abridgment of the right of all
American citizens to have their votes counted, effectively
disenfranchising them and violating Section 2 of the 14th Amendment.
The Green Party of the United States encourages all public policy
organizations and political parties that champion democratic electoral
rights to support this demand and affirm that every vote be counted.
Resources:
References: Mal-Apportionment Penalty Civil Actions
http://www.electors.us/
http://members.aol.com/electorsus/map.htm
D.C. Statehood Green Party release: "D.C. Statehood Greens
establish Electoral College Task Force", December 19, 2003
http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org/pr/2003/pr121903.php
"A Color-blind Supreme Court?" by Asa Gordon, featured
commentary in the Current Issues section of the February 2004 print
issue of The World & I.
http://members.aol.com/dignews/fdonct.htm
