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The Association of State Green Parties Media Advisory: Sham Election Reform: Wednesday, April 04, 2001 |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Members of the Association of State Green Parties have criticized the recent announcement of a National Commission on Federal Election Reform to help fix our damaged election system, saying that its agenda reveals some profound biases and omissions. The distinguished list includes Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Bill Richardson, and others, but these names fall into a narrow range of mainstream Democratic and Republican political allegiance. Missing are names like election reform scholar Lani Guinier, John Anderson, Independent candidate for president in 1980 who now heads the Center for Voting and Democracy, and Ralph Nader, a leader in the movement to expand citizen participation at all levels of government. In fact, no one from the Green Party, or any other third party is listed, even though third parties suffer rigged ballot access and campaign financing laws which in many states hinder all but major party candidates. "We find it unlikely that the Commission will take the grievances of third parties and independents seriously," said Scott McLarty, one of two media coordinators for the Association of State Green Parties. "The Commission's worthy but limited agenda -- mechanical reforms like ensuring accurate vote counts -- suggest that ideas like instant run-off voting and proportional representation and the reform of ballot access laws are not on the table." Greens note that Commission's list includes members with possible ambivalence or even hostility towards third parties and independents. Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 presidential race in part because of Independent candidate John Anderson. Bill Richardson's would-be Democratic successor to his New Mexico seat in Congress lost to a Republican in a race in which Green candidate Carol Miller drew 17 percent. The Commission on Presidential Debates denied American voters the right to hear prominent candidates like Ralph Nader and the important issues they raised in 2000. Like the Debates Commission, the Commission on Federal Election Reform is run by and for Democrats and Republicans. The National Commission on Federal Election Reform also ignores some of the more deep-rooted ways the voting rights of Americans get thwarted: disenfranchisement of ex-felons who've served their sentences (including a third of African American men in states like Florida); drug laws that turn people into disenfranchised felons for nonviolent minor offenses; voter illiteracy (inadequate education on civics as well as basic reading skills); and lack of available information about all candidates on the ballot. Democratic and Republican elected officials bear equal responsibility for these policies. Greens advise Americans to recognize the real purpose of this sham, self-appointed Commission: strengthening the two-party system, rather than strengthening democracy. MORE INFORMATION: National Commission on Election Reform The Center for Voting and Democracy search: elws, elct, cpr |
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