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| DC Statehood Greens Establish Electoral College Task Force. |
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THE D.C. STATEHOOD GREEN PARTY WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The D.C. Statehood Green Party has established an Electoral College Task Force to work for full democracy and fair representation in the Electoral College system. The Task Force, chaired by Asa Gordon, will work to restore citizens' rights as enacted by Congress under Section 2 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Task Force intends to educate D.C. residents and other Americans about the need for a democratic Electoral College, and to work with other organizations seeking the same goal, such as the Douglass Institute of Government. "The Statehood Green Party's Electoral College Task Force will develop and implement strategies for the democratization of the Electoral College," said Gordon, a well-known democracy activist who has championed enforcement of the 14th Amendment. 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 votesin 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 CRS report highlights Gordon's work over all the lawsuits filed by the NAACP and other civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, and notes that Gordon is "challenging voting policies and practices in some states electoral processes." 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." "Statehood Greens are dedicated to the promise of the 14th Amendment," said Asa Gordon. "After the 14th Amendment was passed, Democratic and Republican legislators throughout the U.S. betrayed the equal protection it offered to exslaves and to all American citizens, beginning with the establishment of Jim Crow laws in the South. We demand that these protections be restored, beginning with the mandate for fair representation in the Electoral College, as guaranteed under Section 2." MORE INFORMATION |
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