Election Reform: fraudulent voting practices were developed by and are fomented by our partisan system

Election reform has never been more important at a time when less than half of people vote in major elections (and somewhere around 10-15% in important local elections) and yet the establishment (partisan) voices drone on about voter fraud and campaign finance. At a time when 40% of the American people identify as independent... Re-imagine the whole of American politics! [See vid below]

Democracy demands a much higher bar -- full participation by the American people -- which will of necessity come from outside the current party system.

Let's face it, the most fraudulent voting practices were developed by and are fomented by our partisan system that requires complete allegiance to a slate of partisan scalawags who vow to betray the democratic values of our nation! To wit:

ELECTION REFORM

• Editorial: Voting laws need big change (EDITORIAL Poughkeepsie Journal) These deflating numbers are clearly unacceptable. A slew of solutions has to be pursued aggressively. They range from scheduling early voting dates, to greatly bolstering the ability of residents to register online. They must involve clearer, cleaner ballots and lengthening registration deadlines. They have to include campaign finance reform to give challengers a fighting chance to compete against entrenched incumbents. They ought to feature an independent process to draw fair, impartial political boundaries rather than leaving it up to the politicians to carve up those lines at will.
• Ark. AG outlines election reform proposals (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, The Republic - Columbus IN) Attorney General Dustin McDaniel on Thursday said he is pushing a package of legislative proposals that would toughen the penalties for fraudulently gathering signatures for a ballot measure and require more disclosures from those working on ballot question campaigns.
• FEC Complaint Could Limit Corporate Donations In Elections (By Alex Gauthier, IVN) Responding to inquiries from the press, Dan Conston, CLF’s communications director told the Hill, “[It’s] an obvious coordinated intimidation tactic from the left masquerading as just one more utterly baseless complaint.”

EDUCATION REFORM
Reform candidates see mixed results in Los Angeles school board race (Brandon Lowrey - Reuters, Chicago Tribune)  Reformers, backed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Coalition for School Reform, want to expand charter schools and change the way the district hires, evaluates and fires teachers. They faced opposition from the local teacher's union, United Teachers Los Angeles, which has funded its own slate of candidates. Voters handed Villaraigosa and his allies one victory outright, one defeat and one draw that will be decided in a runoff election in May.

Hankster News of the Day for Independent Voters - August 10

INDEPENDENTS RISING

• Independents Rising, by Jacqueline Salit (By Kymberly Bays, IVN) Where Salit’s book is most interesting is the anecdotes of independent successes and failures. A deeply entrenched member of two decades of independent movements, she gives insider accounts of campaign activities, deals and negotiations.
• Book Review: Jackie Salit’s “Independents Rising” (Posted by Nancy Hanks, The Moderate Voice) Are you among the 40 something percent of Americans who consider themselves political independents? You will appreciate this new book by Jacqueline Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org, long-time activist and strategist for the independent movement. I urge you to rush to your local bookstore and read this smart, witty and engaging look at American politics in 2012 from an outsider’s inside take.

Q&A with Jackie Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org

June 1, 2012 

Morrison Institute 

Jackie Salit

Jackie Salit, a leader in the independent movement and author of INDEPENDENTS RISING, Outsider Movements, Third Parties, and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America, was recently interviewed by Joseph Garcia, communications director at Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

Salit is president of IndependentVoting.org and managed all three of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s mayoral campaigns on the Independence Party line. She also was a leader in the fight for nonpartisan elections in New York City and consulted with leaders of the coalition that passed Proposition 14, the Top Two Initiative in California that will be in effect this year. 
Salit recently was in Arizona, which could decide in the fall whether to also adopt the top-two vote-getter system for elections.

Audio: Q&A with Jackie Salit (32:33 running time)
MI Briefing: Top-Two Proposition: What Nonpartisan Elections Could Mean for Arizona


INDEPENDENT REFORM
What Are Your Favored Electoral Reforms? (By Damon Eris, IVN) Primary System Reform: In the vast majority of states, primary elections are the means by which the Democratic and Republican parties nominate their candidates for a given office, and in states with closed primaries (roughly half), only party members may cast ballots in those elections, thus disenfranchising millions of Independent voters across the country. Why should tax payers be forced to subsidize an internal party process that they are prohibited from participating in? The solution here is rather simple: primary elections should be open to all registered voters or they should not be publicly funded. If the parties desire to maintain closed primary elections, they can privately fund these elections themselves. Surely, their corporate sponsors would be willing to supply the necessary funding, as, in many cases, they already own the major parties’ candidates.

INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES

• Letter: Inequality exists for independents (Albany Times Union) I am pleased to see the Times Union has adopted my long-held opinion of "one ballot line per candidate" ("Third-party shenanigans," Aug. 3). The editorial makes reference to the petition process but fails to emphasize the inequality that exists between candidates who are truly independent and those who belong to parties recognized by the state.
• The third-party candidate who could derail Mitt Romney (By Scott Bomboy, CONSTITUTION DAILY in Philadelphia Inquirer) With Mitt Romney needing Virginia - especially if President Barack Obama can take Ohio or Florida - Goode could become the little-known spoiler in the national election.

Independent News of the Day, April 26

INDEPENDENTS RISING

• Book review: Independents Rising, by Jacqueline Salit (Ken Bingenheimer, National Common Ground Examiner) Buchanan was also warned that, "if you attempt to turn this party into a right-wing party, we will destroy your campaign." He did and they did.

NYC CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

• Money Is Corrupting Our Elections -- It Can Be Stopped (Ed Koch, Huffington Post) The committee should know that while it would be very helpful to have limits on campaign contributions and expenditures in New York State and elsewhere, as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in this area of election spending limitations, a program of limitations cannot be imposed on anyone. Those covered and bound by any such laws must voluntarily agree to be bound.

CA TOP TWO

• Brad Breithaupt: Independent voters won't be on the sidelines in this primary (By Brad Breithaupt, Marin Independent Journal) VOTERS WHO decline to join any of the political parties have mostly been bystanders in picking party nominees for state and federal offices. But this year, thanks to reforms passed by voters in 2010, they're important players in selecting the candidates who will be on the ballot in November.
• 'No party preference' is new political flavor in California (By Torey Van Oot, Sac Bee) Congressional candidate Linda Parks isn't one for conventional choices. As she tells voters in a recent television ad, her favorite ice cream flavor is not chocolate or vanilla, but the nuts-and-marshmallow-loaded Rocky Road. And her chosen party preference on the June 5 ballot? "None."

IL ELECTION LAW

• Our View: Illinois, where political independents go to die (PEORIA Journal Star) House Bill 2009 quietly became law on March 30, preventing anyone who votes in a partisan primary from running for public office as an independent in the following general election (or from running under a traditional party's banner if different than the ballot pulled in the primary). Even though passage of the bill and the governor's signature came after the March 20 primary, the law is being retroactively enforced so that it impacts this year's general election.

AZ REDISTRICTING

• Supreme Court shrugs off logic - Justices' reinstatement of map-panel head was a transparent arrogation of power (by Robert Robb, The Republic) Instead, the decision is disturbing because of the arrogation of power by the court and the slippery reasoning used to justify it.

NYC MAYORAL 2013

• A controlled disagreement between Christine Quinn and Michael Bloomberg (By Azi Paybarah, Capital New York) City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has taken pains to show that she acts independently of her ally, Michael Bloomberg. But sometimes Bloomberg says things that convey the opposite impression.
• NYDN Poll: Ray Kelly For Mayor? (BY Celeste Katz, NY Daily News/ Daily Politics) “He could be a contender,” said pollster Doug Schoen, who surveyed 600 city voters for The News. “He clearly is the last, best hope of the Republican Party at this point.”
• Ray Kelly for mayor? Nonsense (by Greg David, Crain's New York) The Kelly obsession keeps returning because there is a need for an alternative to the obvious Democrat choices. But if Mr. Kelly ever says yes, it will be quickly apparent that the emperor has no clothes. And then what will the instigators of this idea do?
• Scott Stringer Goes After Stop-and-Frisk, Does Not Criticize Ray Kelly In The Process (By Sam Levin, Village Voice/Runnin Scared) At the same time, though, it seems that Stringer tries to avoid using confrontational language when referring to Kelly, and today, he repeatedly found opportunities to praise the police commissioner and the NYPD's efforts at reducing crime.

LAST WORD(S)
NOTE: I usually reserve "Last Word" for the punditocracy of the left, however, I couldn't resist this Michael Goodwin piece in Fox News…

• Don't be fooled by third party scenarios as 2012 presidential race heats up (By Michael Goodwin, New York Post, in Fox News) They’re political locusts, noisy and bothersome as they emerge like clockwork from their hidey holes. We’re talking “third partiers,” and they find presidential elections irresistible, so brace yourself, America. You are about to be swarmed by those much holier than thou.
• Independent Voter or Independent Poser? Take the Test (Howard Steven Friedman, Statistician/Economist for International Organization, Columbia University, Huffington Post) Americans take pride in being individualistic. We often look down on the herd mentality of others, yet rarely identify it in ourselves. As with many things in life, when it comes to being an independent voter, actions speak much louder than words. If your actions show that you are a party loyalist, then embrace it. If your actions show that you are an independent voter, then embrace it.

Declaration of Independents (North Carolina to Arizona and All Points In Between)

INDEPENDENTVOTING.ORG NETWORKS

• DECLARATION OF THE INDEPENDENTS (By Omar H. Ali and Donna Moser, News Observer) The widely-discussed yet continually misunderstood "independent voter" is neither ideologically driven nor a closet partisan (be it Democrat nor Republican). We are not "swing voters,"' nor are we "moderates." Rather, we come from across the political spectrum and the one thing we agree upon is the need to minimize partisan control over the political process.
• The Impact of Independent Voters (WUNC) Host Frank Stasio talks with three of the event’s participants: Omar Ali, associate professor of African-American Studies and History at UNC-Greensboro; Donna Moser, co-founder of North Carolina Independents; and Brittany Rodman, a young, registered independent voter.
• Will Open Primaries Shake Up Politics in Arizona? (Pamela Powers Hannley, Huffington Post) Open primaries -- where all candidates regardless of party affiliation are listed on one ballot -- would give voters, rather than political parties, a greater voice in government, says Ted Downing, Ph.D., research professor of social development in the Arizona Research Laboratories at the University of Arizona and one of the initiative's architects.
• Will Arizona's GOP Self-Destruct? (By Terry Greene Sterling, Daily Beast) The Arizona GOP already has a set of challenges that it hasn’t faced before. Herstam notes that an energetic petition drive for open primaries is underway. If it gathers enough signatures in the next five months, it will show up on the November ballot. If passed, the open primary system will likely unseat extremists now in the Arizona legislature. Expect both parties to oppose it.
• Arizona Top-Two Initiative Has Collected 100,000 Signatures So Far (Ballot Access News) It is believed that California multi-millionaire Charles Munger, Jr., is providing much of the financial backing for the initiative, so there seems little doubt that it will qualify.

A Third Party in a Two-Party System? Better to Change the System

Polls are showing that the majority of Americans support a "third party" or a "third party candidate" and yet our current partisan political system will not tolerate a challenge from a so-called "third" party or candidate. At the same time, Americans are no dummies -- the fastest growing electoral constituency is nonpartisan independent voters. Hmmmm.......


THIRD PARTY?

• Group circulating petitions to get reform party on the Utah ballot (By Nkoyo Iyamba, Deseret News) Despite Utahns voting primarily Republican, Dives said most Utah registered voters aren't registered with a political party. "If you go to the lieutenant governor's office and ask for the roll, you'll see that there are more unaffiliated registered voters than there are Republicans and Democrats combined," Dives said. She believes this group is ready for an alternative to the perceived two-party system in America.
• Obama fares well against third-party challenge (By BYRON TAU, Politico) Via POLITICO's Alex Burns, a Democratic polling firm finds that President Barack Obama's support holds up well if an independent candidate like Michael Bloomberg or Ron Paul were to enter the race.
• Dude, where's my candidate? (By: Kenneth P. Vogel and Abby Phillip, Politico) “We don’t want to let the process be taken over by the Gary Colemans and the Mary Careys or the Naked Cowboys,” said Bailey. “There are people out there who could get some support, but don’t have the qualifications, and that includes some people out there in the political process already.”
• Young Voters Propel Ron Paul's Campaign - Young voters gravitating to oldest guy in the field (By Beth Fouhy, NBC Dallas Ft Worth Channel 5)

Election Reform 2012: Virginia Loyalty Oaths, Partisan Redistricting Damage to Democracy, No Confidence in Congress, Rise of Independents

ELECTION REFORM DIGEST
Wednesday, January 4, 2012

VIRGINIA LOYALTY OATH IN PRIMARY

• Va. GOP will require loyalty oath in presidential primary (Andrew Cain, 12/29/11, Richmond Times Dispatch) Anyone who wants to vote must sign a form at the polling place pledging to support the eventual Republican nominee for president. Anyone who refuses to sign will be barred from voting in the primary. During a brief meeting Wednesday at the state Capitol, the State Board of Elections voted 3-0 to approve three forms developed by the election board's staff to implement the loyalty pledge requested by the state GOP.
• Virginia Republicans to require loyalty oath for primary voters (By Ben Pershing, Washington Post/ Virginia Politics) The pledge has no legal weight — voters are free to sign the form and then disregard it if they choose — but it is meant to discourage mischief-making by non-Republicans. Virginians do not register to vote by party, making it possible for Democrats and independents to show up and vote in the Republican contest.

REDISTRICTING

• Partisan redistricting damaging to democracy (LETTER Asbury Park Press) There should be a national election law that makes each congressional district in that state reflect the partisan makeup of that state. If a state has 35 percent Republicans, 25 percent Democrats and 40 percent independents, then that’s how the congressional seats should be determined.
• Lerner: Providing a fair alternative (By SUSAN LERNER, executive director of Common Cause/NY, Newsday) We are excited to work with Newsday to give New Yorkers the chance to participate in the redistricting process, by giving them a starting point to design their own fair, nonpartisan district maps for the Assembly, State Senate and House through the new, interactive UMAPNY website.
• Redistricting battles to continue in new year (By Josh Lederman, The Hill/ Ballot Box) New Jersey came in just under the wire, with a bipartisan panel picking a Republican-drawn map two days before Christmas that will likely pit Reps. Steve Rothman (D) and Scott Garrett (R) against each other. * Democrats in Ohio gave up their challenge in December to a GOP-friendly map that had prompted complaints against both parties. Democrats accused House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) of putting his thumb on the lever, but also faulted national Democrats for failing to intervene and help out in their fight. * And a bloody redistricting tug-of-war in Arizona between Republicans and the state's independent commission seems to have fizzled out after the GOP, led by Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.), ran out of feasible options for contesting a map that Republicans charge unfairly benefits Democrats.
• Federal judges block West Virginia redistricting (By Steven Allen Adams, Reuters) The panel said in a two-to-one decision that the plan drawn up by the state's Democratic-led legislature, which left West Virginia's three congressional districts virtually unchanged, did not provide equal representation in each district… In West Virginia, the court said the legislature had focused too much on maintaining the status quo rather than making each district as equal in population as possible. It gave the legislature until January 17 to submit an interim plan or said the panel would choose its own plan.

FRUSTRATION WITH CONGRESS

• Frustration with Congress Could Hurt Republican Incumbents - GOP Base Critical of Party's Washington Leadership (Pew Research Center report December 15) Independents, who have expressed great frustration with Washington gridlock over the course of the past year, are particularly critical of the Republican Party. By a 54% to 30% margin they say the Republican Party, not the Democratic Party, is more extreme in its positions, and they are twice as likely to label the Republicans than the Democrats as the less honest and ethical party (42% vs. 21%). Yet independents have few positive things to say about the Democratic Party either. Both parties’ leaders get poor approval ratings from independents (14% approve of GOP leaders in Congress, 23% of Democratic leaders). And when independents are asked which party can best handle the most important problem facing the nation, as many volunteer “neither” as say the Democrats or the Republicans.

RISE OF INDEPENDENTS

• Voters leaving Republican, Democratic parties in droves (By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY) A USA TODAY analysis of state voter registration statistics shows registered Democrats declined in 25 of the 28 states that register voters by party. Republicans dipped in 21 states, while independents increased in 18 states. The trend is acute in states that are key to next year's presidential race. In the eight swing states that register voters by party, Democrats' registration is down by 800,000 and Republicans' by 350,000. Independents have gained 325,000.
• California State Judge Expedites Hearing in Minor Party Lawsuit Against Top-Two System (Ballot Access News) The California Superior Court Judge who is hearing Rubin v Bowen has set a hearing date of February 7, 2012, for Rubin v Bowen, RG11-605-301, Alameda County.

Cyber Bullying in Connecticut: A Lesson in Empathy

Fellow Independents!

Internet voting can be used as the ideal substitute for our current two-party dominated system of conducting elections. But the progress toward that goal is being stymied by a crafty and powerful opposition. For example, recently, in Connecticut, some anti-Internet voting meanies set a trap for West Virginia Secretary of State, Natalie Tennant. They led her to believe that they wanted her advice on how to set up an Internet voting system for that state’s overseas military voters, like the system West Virginia has. As you will see, that’s not what happened …
http://internetvotingforall.blogspot.com/2011/11/cyber-bullying-in-connecticut.html

William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
Blog: http://tinyurl.com/IV4All
Twitter: wjkno1
Email: Internetvoting@gmail.com
Author of Internet Voting Now!
Kindle edition: http://tinyurl.com/IntV-Now
In paper: http://tinyurl.com/IVNow2011

San Francisco Mayoral Race Rasies Questions About Ranked-Choice Voting

CALIFORNIA
Critics Aim to End Ranked-Choice Voting After SF Mayoral Race (Posted by Lance Williams, KQED) “Regardless of its merits, ranked-choice voting will probably be repealed,” he said in an interview. Ordinary voters struggle with the system because “it’s complicated,” he said. And politicians and political professionals quickly grew to dislike it because its results were so unpredictable.

Can People Determine the American Election Process?

ELECTION REFORM

• Should Voting Be Mandatory? Or are there already too many people casting ballots? Choice and Competition (Richard H. Pildes, NY Times) Citizen-led redistricting, open primaries and public financing of elections would bring out more voters. NOTE: Please see William Kelleher's post on The Hankster from earlier today Should Americans Be Forced To Vote?
• People’s Veto is move in right direction (By Doug Rooks, Sun Journal - Lewiston Maine) Hearings on LD 1376 yielded no evidence that the 38-year practice of Election Day registration, or EDR, caused any problems. Yet the bill’s pedigree, sponsored by House Speaker Robert Nutting, with Senate President Kevin Raye co-sponsoring, suggested Republicans were serious about eliminating an option used by 45,000 voters in 2008 alone.

Americans Elect: In states where party affiliation is required for primary participation, independent voters can't vote at all

AMERICANS ELECT
Overcoming Old Obstacles to Democracy in 2012 (Elliot Ackerman, Chief Operating Officer, AmericansElect.org, Huffington Post) Unfortunately, the Electoral College is not the only part of our system for picking a president where some peoples' votes count more than others. In our primary process, voters in states with early primary dates have disproportionate say. By the time voters in states with late primaries head to the polls, the race is often decided. And those voters are the lucky ones. In states where party affiliation is required for primary participation, independent voters can't vote at all.

Baltimore Sun: Top Two Might Fix Baltimore's Broken Primary System

OPEN PRIMARIES
Fixing Baltimore's broken primary (EDITORIAL Baltimore Sun) There are plenty of other models for how to run an election so that it more accurately reflects the will of the people than the strict party system we have here. An intriguing idea is the one recently enacted in California; there, the top two vote getters in the primary (regardless of party affiliation) square off in the general election. It's worth considering. Other ideas, such as proportional representation and run-off elections, could better engage voters and provide elected officials with a clearer mandate.

John Anderson: Reform Electoral Rules For Real Voter Choice

POLITICAL REFORM

• Tired of partisan gridlock? Reforming electoral rules gives voters real choice. (John B. Anderson, Christian Science Monitor) To combat the injustice of plurality voting rules that we use in our presidential election, many cities, states, and nations require a separate runoff election between the top two finishers if no candidate earns a first-round majority.

Why Independents Should Demand Internet Voting

What is an "Independent"? Lots of people are asking that question these days. Are Independents conservative or liberal? Are they closet Dems or closet Repubs? Are they more focused on public finance issues than on social issues? Are they moderates, or centrists? Is there such a thing as a political center in the US?

One empirical element shared by Independent identifiers is that they don't identify with either of the two major political parties, which currently dominate US elections and government. In this sense, Independents are not only alienated from the political system, they are excluded from it. They are not just passively unrepresented in our "representative government," they are deliberately ignored by our elected representatives. That is, of course, until those elected officials need their votes in the next two-party system election.

Thanks to modern electronic technology, this need not be.

Imagine this: You are watching candidates debate online or on TV. After each debate you log on to your state's secure voting website, using your own PC, cell phone, or other electronic device. Your voter registration is checked, and then the voting window comes up. You enter your rating of each debater's performance, from 0-9.

Suppose further that entry to the debates is open to everyone who wants to be considered by the voters, and that all candidates are eliminated through a series of such debates. Qualification for candidacy can be as it is now in states like California; i.e., fulfill the signature requirements, pay a filing fee, and you are on the ballot and in the debates.

In this scenario, it is the political parties that are excluded from the candidate selection and election process. Suppose there are a dozen candidates for an office. Two one hour debates can be held per evening. In three evenings all twelve can be heard, considered, and voted on by the electorate. The next week a final debate can be held between the top two, so that the candidate is supported by a majority of the voters.

Here is an election process that can be used for all local, state, and federal offices, with only minor changes in state laws. No constitutional amendment is required. Ballot access is 100% nonpartisan – an Independent's Heaven, right here on Earth. Because no self-serving political party will control the process, the locus of power will move to where it should be in a democracy – to the center of voter preferences.

This picture can become reality by demanding that your state government, state Secretary of State, and local election officials implement an Internet voting system organized along the lines I have suggested. In consideration for their sacrifices and service, you can also demand Internet voting for your state's overseas military personnel. (For more on that, and the opposition to it, see my post on Natalie Tennant here on The Hankster, at http://bit.ly/o65o1t, and cited on Rick Hasen's Election Law Blog, at http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=49 Also see the new "tough love" review of my book, Internet Voting Now! at http://is.gd/Sc5vch )


William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
Internetvoting@gmail.com
Blog: http://tinyurl.com/IV4All
Face Book: http://tinyurl.com/BillonFB
Twitter: wjkno1
Internet Voting Explained on
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/WJKPhD

Natalie Tennant: Internet Voting Profile in Courage

Hello Independents!

Here is a lady politician w/ more guts than any man in the same office in other states; that is, Secretary of State.

I recently posted on my blog a short summary of her achievements w/ Internet voting for West Virginia overseas military. She takes seriously the long standing policy of the League of Women Voters in West Virginia. That policy includes this, "Election laws should serve the voter with maximum convenience, simplicity, clarity, and impartiality." It's my most popular post, so I want to share it w/ you readers of The Hankster.

With rare exception, the growth of Internet voting in the United States is being stunted by special interests. These interests first emerged in 2004.

In 2004 the Department of Defense (DoD), and its sub-agency the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), had an Internet voting system all set up for overseas voters to use in the up coming state and federal elections. The system was ready to handle 100,000 voters, from the half dozen states that volunteered for the trial. Using their own PC, overseas voters could log on to a secure website, and after their registration is checked, vote online. DoD and FVAP officials were so confident that their system was able to mitigate all security threats that they invited 10 outside experts to come and inspect the system, known as the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment, or SERVE. At least four of the 10 were known anti-Internet voting computer scientists.

FVAP personnel took the whole team on the first of several planned visits. After only the second visit, the four got together in private and wrote a scathing criticism full of speculative "coulds" and "possibles," but short on facts and science. The entire election, they alleged, among other things, could be controlled by some undetectable hacker. (They forgot to mention that the system had an intrusion detection capability.) Then they went to the New York Times with their "report," without any peer review or opportunity for FVAP to attach a response.

The Times, and other major newspapers, played up the story with so much sensation (a hacker could elect the president!) that Undersecretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, felt compelled to order a halt to the program. Thereafter, this report, its authors, and a small cadre of well-funded activists have led the way in discouraging FVAP, or any state government, from further attempts at Internet voting trials. They now have a full time staff that follows the legislative process in Congress and each of the 50 states. Whenever they see an Internet voting bill introduced into a committee, they go into action to stop it. They buttonhole committee members, pull out their well-worn report, spout off all the "coulds" and "possibles," without any science to back up their claims, and then remind the elected officials of how they killed SERVE in 2004, using their access to the New York Times and other newspapers.

Most elected officials buckle under this pressure. They cannot afford the costs of publicity that would be required to fight the activists in the media. As they know well, the best way to get reelected is to avoid controversy, and push off the Internet voting proposals "for further study." As a result, in 2010 over 30 states electronically sent blank ballots to their voters who were in the military and overseas, but they avoided using systems based on the SERVE model. These states required that voted ballots be returned by fax, email, or snail mail – anything but real Internet voting on an official website. Indeed, even now, in 2011, FVAP is offering states up to $16M for electronic ballot delivery systems; but not for systems based on the SERVE model. To get financial aid, the systems must use ballots returned by fax, email, or snail mail.

Despite the threats of anti-Internet voting activists, in 2010 West Virgina enacted a trial of true Internet voting for its overseas members of the military, who were eligible to vote in one of the several volunteer counties. As with SERVE, overseas West Virginians in the military could use their own PC to log on to the state’s secure website, and after their registration is confirmed, cast their vote online. The program was supported in the legislative process, developed, and implemented by WV Secretary of State, Natalie E. Tennant.

Just as in the military, a Secretary of State, or any public official, deserves praise whenever they show courage under fire. Tennant showed this courage when she went ahead with her Internet voting trial for overseas military voters. As she stated on the WV SOS website,

"The members of our military are putting their lives on the line every day … I thought it was extremely important to make sure they had secure access to an online ballot. We had to make sure their voice was heard."

The system was first used in the state's primaries. Voter response was quite positive. Tennant reported that of all the satisfaction survey respondents, "we received no negative feedback of the pilot program."

While other methods of absentee voting saw return rates of about 40 percent, the Internet voting ballot return rate was over twice that. Tennant was so impressed that, in her report to the state legislature, she asked them to allow additional counties to participate in the 2010 General Election, which they did.

Tennant made her final report to the WV legislature on 1/19/2011. This report included the statistics on the use of Internet voting in the general election. For example, in the counties where Internet voting was offered, of all the voters who requested that their absentee ballots be delivered electronically, 76% voted on the secure website. In the counties using standard mail as the absentee ballot transmission method, 58% of the requested ballots were returned. Clearly, there was a higher rate of participation with Internet voting.

Most of the voters who used Internet voting in the primary also used it in the general election, indicating a high degree of satisfaction. Indeed, of those who took the satisfaction survey, 100% rated the system’s ease of use as "simple" or "somewhat simple."

Tennant reported that to date, "no significant deficiencies or concerns have been identified with the West Virginia online voting pilot." Unfortunately, because of all the media attention to the fiasco in Washington DC's Internet voting trial (which was set up by Oliver and Hardy, and then hacked by yet another comedian), Tennant did not recommend on her own authority that Internet voting should be used in all of West Virginia's counties. She suggested instead that a study group be convened to decide the matter.

Tennant is in the lead on other election reforms. For example, she is overseeing WV's experiment with the public financing of campaigns for election to some state court judgeships.

Tennant made a try for the West Virginia governorship in the first half of 2011, but lost in the Democratic primary; perhaps her courage under fire was not given sufficient profile.

Suggested Readings
On the DC fiasco:
http://tinyurl.com/DCin2010

On the Security of WV's Internet Voting System:
FAQ, at http://www.sos.wv.gov/elections/voter-information-center/Documents/FAQ%20WVUSOV.pdf

Tennant addresses the technical aspects of how the state handled security issues in two papers.
1. Tennant's NIST Position paper of June 9, 2010
http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/ST/UOCAVA/2010/PositionPapers/ZICKAFOOSE_WestVirginiaUOCAVA.pdf (Written after the primary vote, and before the general election; with her request for an extension of the program to other counties)

2. West Virginia's SOS report on the Online Voting Pilot Project 1/19/2011
http://www.sos.wv.gov/news/topics/elections-candidates/Pages/SecretaryofStateReleasesLegislativeReportOnOnlineVotingPilotProject.aspx

Also see:
Pew Center Reports

Internet voting for military, overseas voters debuts in West Virginia
Clerks and secretary of state pleased with first use
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/report_detail.aspx?id=59033

Pew Report on Military Voting Reform
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/report_detail.aspx?id=62365


William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
Internetvoting@gmail.com
Twitter: wjkno1
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/WJKPhD

Who Supports Election Reform? The People Do

One test of the popularity (emphasis on popu - of the people) of electoral reforms like National Popular Vote is the gathering storm from the right wing... See Roger Stone's view below...


ELECTORAL REFORM
A Plan to Reform the Electoral College (by Roger Stone, Andrew Breitbart's Big Government) The proponents of a constitutional amendment that would mandate a direct popular election would hand our elections over to union-funded operatives who engage in voter fraud and vote stealing. Andrew Breitbart has accurately highlighted the incredible electoral frauds perpetrated by ACORN and I have written extensively about the shady and illegal voter fraud activities of New York’s left-wing Working Families Party (WFP).

2012
The Note: 2012 Focus Remains On ‘Nation Building’ At Home (By MICHAEL FALCONE and AMY WALTER, ABC News/The Note - Washington's Original and Most Influential Tipsheet) But the Bloomberg numbers also showed that an embrace of the Rep. Paul Ryan budget plan is a huge turn off for independent voters. Americans by a 57 percent to 34 percent margin believe they would be worse off with the Ryan Medicare plan, including 58 percent of independents.

EDUCATION REFORM
A response from Joel Klein on status quo apologists (By Valerie Strauss, Washington Post/The Answer Sheet) No, Professor Pallas, I don’t think knowledge resides in kids and, like iron ore, all we need to do is carefully extract it.  What I do think is that our schools, and especially our teachers, need to do a much better job of educating our kids – that is, teaching them the skills and knowledge they will need to be successful in the 21st century.  As I put it in my piece, “teachers matter, big time.”

INTERNATIONAL
Right to be nominated (By Mo Jihong (China Daily) Every citizen with political rights can be legally elected as a deputy to the people's congress at county and township level. The new round of local people's congress elections at the county and township level is approaching and has attracted widespread public interest. There's a heated discussion in the media and among netizens about the so-called independent candidates.

The Body Politic: Libya and Life and More by Ingrid Tarjan

GUEST POST 
by Ingrid Tarjan


LIBYA and LIFE:
As we learned last week about the deaths of two award-winning photojournalists (one, American photographer Chris Hondros, the other  British-American photojournalist Tim Hetherington), and of Britain's decision to send "advisors" to Libya, I am saddened two times over. I heard Tim talk at Barnes & Noble's this past November with Sebastian Junger, with whom he had co-directed the 2010 documentary film Restrepo) and spoke with him briefly as he signed his book which I had bought for my dad.

He was inspiring. And while many others have died and are severely injured, it's somehow different when you've been inspired and shaken the hand of someone who died there. The fact is we're all connected, and it's tragic that dictators hunker down in their delusion, I ask myself how will it end? Apparently it was his last week there. Very sad.

I'm also reminded of a piece last month by an American journalist David Brooks

Brooks' piece about Muammar Gaddafi being a "wacko" March 24, 2011 is right, but history doesn't let dictators survive for too long with new media being the way it is.  The days of Idi Amin are over. Twitter and FB weren't around during Rwanda or even during Iraq for that matter.  The cries of Tripolitan and other handles on Twitter for the NFZ (no-fly-zone) weren't an imposition from outside but from within, in the face of imminent and real violence.

Even Ivory Coast is being acknowledged as a hotspot that is crying for better democracy.  This is a tide similar to the humanistic-political tsunami we see going on in the Middle East, or the more geophysical-humanistic events in Japan.

And call me naive, but I don't think even with Scott Walker's autocratic mandates and actions in WI, such violence would ever fly here in the US.

THE BODY POLITIC v THE US ELECTION SYSTEM:
By this time last election the GOP frontrunner had already emerged.  They seem to be scrambling now and in my view really have nothing substantial to offer. In their attempts to be 'balanced' the media gives so much attention to some of them, but never with long-view scrutiny under which their ideas wouldn't hold.  The foundations upon which the GOP builds are just soundbites (lower taxes) without the structural depth that can be sustainable in today's given environment. Short-sightedness has been the modus operandi for too long here now and under more long-view scrutiny, careful consideration of the implications of their platforms fall short.  (To illustrate with a body politic metaphor, if you take a teenager and tell them they might want to consider feeding themselves less junk food, they'll cry and declare their freedom and right to eat whatever they want and do whatever they want to their bodies.  But if they want to live a healthy long and disease free life, they might be better served heeding advice from people who made better more healthful choices.  The body is very forgiving, but why set yourself back for short-term empty calorie gratification?)

Unfortunately, it seems the independents don't really have much to offer either since their battle for the moment is leveling the playing field and getting open primaries, certainly a worthy cause, but their platform needs to be put forth as if they'll get the open primaries to bring even more into their fold. (Pls note: Independents are NOT to be confused with Tea Party.)

So the next couple of years will be rather interesting.  For the moment, post 2010 election, we seem to be fighting a cultural war rather than continuing to solve the very real problems we face going fwd.

Aspiring politicians are very adept at pointing out what's wrong, but they're not very good at offering viable solutions to very real problems.

Anyone running for election at the local, state or national level needs to ignore the banal stupidity out there and put forth a real workable platform that can create real jobs for this economy. (NOT just tax handouts b/c evidence shows that said job creation from that is a myth, and no more pork-belly stimulus, -with the exception of infrastructure.)

HERE'S WHAT I THINK:
Thankfully our president put for a budget plan that responded to the fantasy so called “serious” budget put forth by Paul Ryan.  The seriousness of dealing with this budget is important no matter what party you’re from.

The role of Independents is to educate ourselves and not buy soundbites which given Wisconsin and Michigan have turned into “bait and switch” policies.

My personal view is that public private sector projects tied with educational institutions is the way to go.  This country needs to incentivize unleashing practical creative energy of people who are spending their time solving hypothetical problems, and get them involved in real ones.  My experience in corporate culture's "real world" as opposed to ivory tower academia is that it's just as much experimental, but the stakes are higher.  So called "professionals" have made a lot of mistakes, (Enron, banking crisis, bailouts for the auto industry that for too long insisted on Hummers and big gas guzzlers to name just a few.)

In principle, it could even be an experiment; the right can do it their way, and 'create jobs', and other thinkers can do it their way, and let's see who really create the best jobs out there.  It doesn't have to be a zero-sum game.) Inspired by TedTalks I've watched, there are countless good people with amazing ideas out there.  Galvanizing such energy, inspiring it in our educational institutions to create tangible working projects may just yield the results we need.

John Avlon: The president has to lead on deficit reduction

John Avlon says President Obama has to lead on deficit reduction, but unless the President is willing to lead on election reform and support the growing ranks of independent voters in the country, there won't be any real change.


2012
Be in the know: Today's political bullet points (CNN/John King USA) From John Avlon: This speech is critical for repairing the president's credibility with independent voters – and he should not think that merely returning to his 'raise taxes on everyone making over 250k' riff will cut it – either politically or practically. The president has to lead on this issue and the time is now.

WHO OWNS AMERICA'S PRIMARY ELECTIONS?

• Arizona presidential primary in peril - County officials want parties to handle process (by Michelle Ye Hee Lee, The Arizona Republic) Representatives from the Democratic and Libertarian parties said they would support legislation that would drop the 2012 election. "The idea of people paying for primary elections for parties that they do not agree with substantially is absurd," said Barry Hess, Libertarian Party spokesman.
• Guest opinion: First, look in the mirror (by Greg Cusack, Asheville Citizen Times) Abolish the caucus system, moving either to open primaries or to a ranking primary election in which the two or three candidates garnering the most votes proceed to the general election. Only in this way will we eliminate the steady march to the ideological extremes that characterize our times.
• SCOTUS would be wise to scuttle Arizona Clean Elections law (by Mark B. Evans, Tucson Citizen) The state courts gutted open primaries, which were intended to empower the growing class of centrist voters who are registered independents by allowing them to vote for whomever they wanted in primaries. The political parties sued and now the primaries are only half open, meaning independents can vote but they have to pick a side first. As a result, few independents vote in primaries leaving primary elections in the hands of the most liberal or the most conservative of voters, who are the ones most likely to vote in a primary.

What Independent Voters Want: Equal Citizenship Status With Partisans

BIG WIN FOR INDEPENDENTS

• Decision backs independence of S.C. voters (The Times and Democrat.com) "It's a great day for independents. It's a great day for all voters in South Carolina," said lawyer Harry Kresky, who argued the case for IndependentVoting.org. "The primary confirms a great deal of legitimacy on a candidate."
• Judge rebuffs GOP; rules SC primaries remain open (By JEFFREY COLLINS - Associated Press, Lake Wylie Pilot) A group of independent voters, tea party members and black lawmakers joined the state in fighting the lawsuit.

NOTE: Jeffrey Collins' AP article ran widely in local press.

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Obama, Steering for the Center, Draws Dissent From Both Sides (By EVAN LEHMANN of ClimateWire, NY Times) "Putting forward a positive, forward-looking agenda that is aimed at reaching bipartisan compromise -- that is what most voters want," Ornstein said. "That's certainly what independent voters want."

Diverse North Carolina Reform Coalition Pushes for Independent Redistricting

NORTH CAROLINA REDISTRICTING

• Disputes mark redistricting process - Senators disagree over who should draw new congressional lines. (By Jim Morrill, Charlotte Observer) A coalition of conservative and liberal groups has formed to push for a constitutional amendment that would create an independent redistricting commission in North Carolina.
• Coalition pushes for independent redistricting commission (Posted by Margaret Williams, FROM THE N.C. CENTER FOR VOTER EDUCATION, Mountain Xpress - Asheville & Western North Carolina) A broad coalition of North Carolina nonprofit organizations announced today the formation of North Carolinians for Redistricting Reform, dedicated to ensuring the redistricting process is open, fair and includes significant public input.