Independent Voters: Moderation Is Not the Solution

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Less conformity is the answer (LETTER LA Times) Before we can truly liberate our vote from the corporate political parties, we must first liberate our thinking from people like Masket and Noel and base our vote on what we really want instead of what we believe others are going to do.
• Where’s Howard Dean? (by Randy Shaw‚ Beyond Chron) Dean often claimed that he represented “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party,” and was a hero to the progressive netroots. Yet at a time when President Obama is openly ignoring this “Democratic wing” while currying favor with “independents,” Dean is publicly silent over the president’s rightward shift.
• President Obama's Tipping Point (By Reid Wilson, National Journal/On the Trail) Obama's high personal-favorability ratings show swing voters are rooting for him to succeed, while his low job-performance rating demonstrates they don't like where he's going so far. If Obama's favorability ratings start sinking to match his approval numbers, it may be a sign that those critical independent voters have washed their hands of his presidency.
• With economy, poll numbers low, Obama asks voters to give him leverage (By Donovan Slack, Boston Globe)
• Independents gain, while big parties lose voters in Arizona (By David Rookhuyzen/wick communications) Registered Republicans dropped by more than 3,000 voters since April, while Democrats hemorrhaged nearly 8,000 voters in the same period, the report showed. However, the number of independents, those registering without a party or with an unrecognized party, jumped by more than 13,000.

Americans Elect to be Interviewed by an Independent

Hello Independents!

Americans Elect is gearing up to hold a parallel presidential election in 2012. They hope to actually qualify as a political party in all 50 states. (I hope they are being advised by Ralph Nader's legal team!) They will have nominations in June. Presumably, they will hold their own vote in November. They hope to present the Electoral College with a difficult dilemma: that is, suppose their voters elect someone whom the two major parties did not elect – and they do it with more votes than the Dems or Repubs had? If the EC doesn't follow the "real" popular vote, resentment against the two-party system will get even more intense than it is now. That is good for us! Independents need a really frustrated and angry population before the iron grip that the two majors have on our political system can be broken.

Sol Kleinsmith has an interview lined up with an AE spokesperson. He is soliciting questions that he might ask in the interview. I wonder, for example, will it be legal for a voter to vote in the AE "primary," and also in their state's Dem/Repub primaries? The AE vote will be all Internet voting. This raises a whole slew of questions by itself. I'll tell you what I have suggested to Sol to be asked of AE. You can make your own suggestions at,
http://riseofthecenter.com/2011/08/01/serious-question-what-would-you-ask-americans-elect/#comment-6861

Bill wrote:

Hi Sol!

I respectfully suggest that you have an Internet voting security and election integrity section in your interview.

The biggest problem they are going to have after they run their election will be defending the integrity of the Internet voting process. Remember Ohio in 2004? A lot of vocal people cried "foul," because the DREs were suspected of being rigged. Opponents of Internet voting will say that the program could have been fixed to elect a specific person, or to prevent the election of someone. They must be able to defend the integrity of their system, or the whole exercise will be a laughing stock.

Malicious code can be slipped in to their operating system, do its dirty work, and then erase itself so that it will be undetectable. This can be done anywhere along the line, from the original programmer through everyone with access to their server. A security guard could do it with a USB at night. BTY will they have one server in one location, or more than one in different locations? How will physical access to their server be controlled?

Who, or what company, set up and will operate their Internet voting server? How can we be sure there won't be another DC-like hack?

Are they using "open source" software – that is, code that any computer scientist can inspect for its integrity? If they are offering the public open source code, how do we know that it is the same code running their server? They could pull the ole switch arue.

Before the election, folks will want to know how they are planning to protect themselves from a denial of service attack (DOS)-- i.e., a zillion computers all call in at once and jam the system? Will they have an intrusion detection capability? The system in DC claimed to have such capability, but it failed. The Board of Elections did not learn about the intrusion by Halderman until voters called in to complain about the football fight song.

How can they insure the one person, one vote principle? That is, how will they prevent anyone from voting early and often? Checking voter registration will be a nightmare, and may be impossible in many cases. They could have over twenty million voters. They will need fifty million votes to out vote the majors! How on Earth can they be sure that each one votes just once? Can they defend against "program voting," or "robo voting"?

Suppose they deny the vote to someone because they say she isn't registered, or otherwise eligible? How will they defend themselves from a law suit (for breach of contract, or for damage to reputation, or emotional distress)? Will every voter have to sign a universal waiver of all their rights?

Who will be in control of the vote count? What are their checks against insider shenanigans – i.e., who is watching them? Is it somebody from outside the AE inner circle, or do we have to trust the inner circle to be honest?

Do they plan to have someone from outside their inner circle who can have access to all of their inner circle members, and later vouch for the trust-worthiness of the AE team?

Good luck w/ the interview! And good luck to AE! (They'll need it)

Bill

William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
Internetvoting@gmail.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/WJKPhD

Rudy Appeal to New Hampshire Independents??

2012

• Rudy Will Fail (By David Weigel, Slate) Giuliani’s path, according to Semprini, would be less fundraising-driven than last time, offering a center-right alternative and that would appeal to [New Hampshire's] roughly 40 percent swath of independent voters, most of whom voted in the Democratic primary last time.

2010: The Year of the Open Primary

As 2010 draws to a close, open primaries remains front and center among political reform.

OPEN PRIMARIES

• ‘Candidate’ has a vision for Pennsylvania (John R. Ingram II, president and CEO of Ingram Real Estate Group, Allentown, Centre Daily Times/Focus o Harrisburg) CALLS FOR: The elimination of closed primaries in Pennsylvania, to be replaced with open primaries, where any registered voter would be allowed to vote for any candidate, whether Republican, Democrat or independent.
• Moving to the center (EDITORIAL Press Democrat - Sonoma County CA) These two changes — redistricting and the open primary system — offer the best hope in a long while that Californians will see Sacramento move more toward the center and toward progress. From that perspective, 2011 looks to be a promising year already.
• Party leaders out of step with voters (THE OLYMPIAN) The unanimous decision out of California is good news for Washington state voters, too, because it’s yet another legal decision on the right of voters to select the candidate of their choice regardless of party affiliation. 
• POLITICAL CHANGE IS COMING TO CALIFORNIA (by Greg Lucas, CAIVN) Both changes -- Proposition 14 in June and Proposition 20 in November -- were opposed by most incumbent politicians. Proposition 20 expanded the powers of an independent 14-person redistricting commission approved by voters in 2008 to include California's congressional delegation. Voters defeated a rival measure, Proposition 27, backed by the congressional delegation and incumbent state legislators which would have abolished the commission.
• Political reform/Looking back (By John Howard, EXCERPT Capitol Weekly) Big year for California political reform
• Open primaries could stymie tea party success (James Rufus Koren, San Bernardino Sun) Because of a change in how California's primary elections are conducted, candidates likely won't be able to win primary elections with so few votes, and tea party groups might not see any such victories in the future, said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College.
• Top 2 primary system still standing (EDITORIAL Daily News - Lower Columbia WA) There's no mystery as to why party officials here and in California are so determined to scuttle or, failing that, change the Top 2 primary system. It's a system in which voters have the freedom to choose who they deem to be the best candidate, regardless of party affiliation.

REDISTRICTING

• CITIZENS REDISTRICTING COMMISSION REFLECTS GROWING INFLUENCE OF INDEPENDENTS IN CALIFORNIA (by Damon Eris, CAIVN) In his application for the Commission, M. Andre Parvenu of Culver City apparently first identified himself as a member of the Peace and Freedom Party but then sent a follow-up email stating that he is in fact a decline-to-state voter, not registered with a political party.

NO LABELS

• Brown: A time when "no labels" was a reality (By Fred Brown, The Denver Post) I can remember a time in the Colorado legislature when party labels really seemed not to matter so much. Legislators got elected and became more loyal to the legislature than they were to their parties. Party leaders were not often seen at the Capitol. Members of the Joint Budget Committee, in particular, became JBC members more than Republicans or Democrats.

2012

• Obama Can Win by Securing the Middle (Ronnie Shows-Former Congressman, Mississippi's 4th District, Huffington Post) The only way he can get back these independent voters that he won in 2008 is to adopt more centrist positions and reduce unemployment. If he cannot, the President will be vulnerable to a Republican challenger who will appeal to these independent voters by campaigning on conservative policies to end the current employment slump. To keep the White House, we need a President who appeals to moderate voters -- not just hope that Republicans nominate Sarah Palin.
• And the Tea Party's next target is ... Scott Brown?! (BY STEVE KORNACKI, Salon/The War Room) That said, if Brown is challenged, he should be boosted by the ability of independent voters to participate in Massachusetts primaries.

NEW YORK

• Regime change to put insiders out in the cold - State jobs to end for Pigeon, pals (By Robert J. McCarthy, Buffalo News) Pigeon was instrumental in the June 2009 coup that produced Senate gridlock for a month and eventually resulted in Espada becoming majority leader.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 9/27/10

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Independents Abandon Democrats Ahead Of Midterms (by JOEL ROSE, NPR) Still, Bullock says she supports President Obama. So do Mark Balsam and Yvone Vazquez of rural Bucks County, Pa. They both voted for Obama two years ago, but neither seems excited about the candidates in this election. I will vote for somebody, probably," Balsam says. "I don't feel highly motivated, I guess." "I might not vote at all, period," Vazquez says.
• Tired of 'tea party' sniping, moderates organize (By James Oliphant, LA Times) The No Labels effort, expected to launch later this year, is backed by Republicans such as McKinnon, the former Bush advisor, and Nancy Jacobson, a powerful Democratic fundraiser married to pollster Mark Penn. Another Washington group, think tank Third Way, advocates "a moderate ideology" built around such issues as free trade and clean energy.
• Obama looks to youth vote for a late midterm surge (By Philip Ruckerand Anne E. Kornblut, Washington Post) NOTE: Independents voted in 2008 for Barack Obama, not the Democratic Party. And there's really nothing the Dems can do about that. When you're a Dem, you're a Dem all the way. That's what partisanship IS! And that's what independents don't like. Looks like a nice little political trap for the parties. Good luck fellas! - NH  PS -- About 45% of youth under the age of 25 consider themselves independent. But knock yourselves out!

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Power plays: Propositions 25 and 26 - they're both bad policy dressed up as reform (EDITORIAL LA Daily News) There is a solution to this abuse of government and partisan political fights, and that is to elect a better class of leaders. That's why we support structural reforms such as independent redistricting and open primaries that we think will help elect politicians who put the public's interest before their own. But these two propositions, while dressed up as reforms, will do nothing but make our political problem worse. Vote no on Propositions 25 and 26.
• Perspectives: Bipartisan - or nonpartisan?; What if we rid Congress of petty party politics? (By William J. Kelleher, San Gabriel Valley Tribune) In 2003, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg strongly supported a referendum that would change city election practices from highly partisan to almost completely nonpartisan. If passed by the voters, the law would have opened primary elections to all voters by eliminating the partisan ballot.

MIDTERMS

• Brown: Who wants to be endorsed by a billionaire? (By Fred Brown, The Denver Post) We've reached such a state in this country that hardly anyone is in the middle of the road about anything, even being in the middle of the road.

2012

• Bloomberg's centrist presidential test (By Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift, Pocono Record)

COLORADO

• Analysis: Curry’s Long-Shot Election Bid Grows Longer (By Brad Jones, FACE THE STATE, State Bill Colorado) Curry said she’ll press on with her legal fight, but after U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer turned down her motion last Thursday to block the state campaign-finance law in time for the November election, even an eventual favorable outcome will do her little good in raising contributions toward her re-election bid. It’s also little solace to voters who might want to support her or other candidates outside the GOP-Democrat loop.
• One legal hurdle down, about a dozen more to go (By Marianne Goodland, THE COLORADO STATESMAN) In June, Judge Marcia Krieger ruled in favor of Buescher and co-defendant Linda Daley, clerk of La Plata County on the ballot access issue. Under state law, a person who wants to run as an unaffiliated candidate must disaffiliate from a political party within a specific time before the next general election. Curry and Riddle sought an injunction against that law, stating that it violated their 1st Amendment and 14th Amendment rights. That case is now on appeal with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

NEW YORK

• Where Have All the Political Parties Gone? - Working Families swoops into the void. (By Chris Smith, NY Mag) That the WFP, the biggest institutional local political success story of the past decade, finds itself wobbling between enormous influence and extinction is emblematic of a larger drama: the highly fluid state of the New York political Establishment not named Michael Bloomberg.
• Cuomo Facing Criticism From Blacks (By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, NY Times) Mr. Cuomo is also being challenged from the left by Charles Barron, a black city councilman in New York who is running on the Freedom Party line.

Talk Talk: Who is Obama in 2012?

Every week CUIP's president Jacqueline Salit and strategist/philosopher Fred Newman watch the political talk shows and discuss them. Here are excerpts from their dialogues compiled on Sunday, February 28, 2010 after watching selections from "Hardball with Chris Matthews," "The Charlie Rose Show," "Tavis Smiley" and "Meet the Press."  

Newman: So choosing comprehensive healthcare reform as their dominant cause meant that the partnership, such as it is, between Obama and the Democratic Party, was going to be dominated by the Democratic Party.

Salit: So, it's not that Obama turned the issue over to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. It's that it came from them.

Newman: Yes. I don't know that Obama fully agreed to that part but I don't think he had much choice. The party did win that "internal" fight.

Salit: Yes.

Newman: And now Obama is obliged to lead this fight.

Salit: I'm assuming the Democrats have a Plan B.

Newman: Of course. The Democratic Party are not dumbbells.

Read Talk/Talk in its entirety here.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS -- Is it too early to talk independent in 2012?

OPEN PRIMARIES
The parties will continue to open or close their primaries depending on what they stand to gain or lose in the next election based on media polls. That's why we need national policy that supports a primary voting system that allows independents the right to participate.

• NC Republican Party Could Limit Primaries -- Move Could Close Primaries To Independents (WXII 12)
• Republicans consider closing primaries (By MARK BINKER, News Record Greensboro/CAPITAL BEAT)

BLOOMBERG 12
Interesting speculation brewing on Mayor Bloomberg's prospects for an independent run at the White House in 2012. While Katie Connolly imagines that independents are "too fickle, picky and non-committal" to provide a base of support for such a run. She also snarks that maybe Mike could pay people to stand on street corners. (What Connolly either doesn't know or chooses to ignore is that hundreds of volunteers stood on street corners on November 3rd, doubling the NYC Independence Party vote.) Meanwhile, Mark McKinnon on The Daily Beast makes a very good case for that 2012 run. I'd say the race is on!

• Does Palinmania Really Help Bloomberg? (Katie Connolly, Newsweek/The Gaggle)
• How Palin Helps Bloomberg (by Mark McKinnon, Daily Beast)