Election Reform Action Group

Event Description:

On Saturday, September 16, from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm, in the Waldorf Astoria Room of the Hilton at the University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun St., Houston, TX 77004, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, the Reform Party, and the Constitution Party will come together in search of common ground, and in the belief that the rules and procedures designed to limit politics in the U.S. to two parties is not only not fair to the third parties; it weakens our democracy.

Event Sponsor:
College Libertarians of UH

Event Contact Name:
Guy McLendon

Event Phone Contact Information:
832-372-8131

Event Email Address:
escramble('zenblews','hotmail.com');">

Event Website:
www.hcgp.org

Event Fee:
Free

Event Description:

Hear James Goodwille Pierre, David Cobb, Michael Badnarik and others talk and take questions about democratic electoral reform in Harris County, Texas and the U.S.

Park free across Cullen Blvd in lot 15D, near entrance 14.

Event Sponsor:
UH Campus Greens, Verifiable Vote Coalition, Harris County Green Party

Event Contact Name:
Don Cook

Event Phone Contact Information:
713-705-5594

Event Email Address:
escramble('zenblews','hotmail.com');">

Event Website:
www.hcgp.org

Event Fee:
Free

Event Description:

Don Cook pledged to shave his head and donate his lengthy locks to Locks of Love if the Green Party of Texas successfully achieved ballot access this spring. It did not, but he is so impressed with the volunteer collection and fundraising successes of the campaign (not to mention the tenacity and optimism of volunteers), and so certain of success next time that he is going to do it, anyway. Where: 7954 Glenheath, Houston, TX 77061 (his home) When: Saturday, June 17, 7 p.m. Call 713-705-5594 or e-mail escramble('zenblews','hotmail.com'); for directions or more information.

Event Sponsor:
Harris County Green Party

Event Contact Name:
Don cook

Event Phone Contact Information:
713-705-5594

Event Email Address:
escramble('zenblews','hotmail.com');">

Note: This is an old resolution that has been superceded by a new version.

Whereas, Candidates for public office now depend upon large contributions to run competitive campaigns; and

Whereas, Elected officials often operate on behalf of contributors who want their wealth to control government decision-making; and

We have two versions of this resolution.  The original is from the Ad Hoc Committee on Party Governance Resolutions of the Texas Progressive Populist Caucus http://texaspopulists.com/ and the revised version is from the Progressive Action Alliance.  Both ask that the Texas Democratic Party leadership do the same thing -- to promote VVPAT.  Pick the one you like the most -- both versions are available below, formatted for printing, under Attachments.

Progressive Populist Caucus Version:

DRAFT  RESOLUTION ON PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR VVPAT

WHEREAS the Democratic Party is one of just two Political Parties Nominating By
Primary Election (Title 10, Subtitle B, Texas Election Code) in Texas; …

WHEREAS it exercises inherent powers (Title 10, Section 161.001); …

WHEREAS the State Democratic Executive Committee is the general custodian of
records for this party (Title 5, Section 66.010); and …

WHEREAS the State Democratic Convention is the highest authority of the party in
Texas; …

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the State Democratic Convention duly
convened in Fort Worth to conduct such business as shall properly come before it, …

1. THAT the people of the TDP direct its leadership, including Chair as well
as all Democratic Party County Chairs, to actively and aggressively
advocate the inclusion of a voter verifiable paper audit trail with all DRE
electronic voting machines in use for all elections.

[Discussion]
13 Texas Counties have such non-transparent voting machines in use and
many more in ’06 will be adding them to comply with HAVA requirements.
Aggressive advocacy for this verified voting technology includes
proactively communicating this urgent need to all Democratic party
officeholders and candidates, especially those in charge of elections,
media interviews, public meetings and news releases stating the Party’s
continuing demand for a VVPAT.

Draft prepared by the TDP governance resolutions committee of the Progressive Populist Caucus, Feb. 22, 2006

To get a copy of this resolution formatted for printing, so you can take it with you to your precinct convention, click on the link in the Attachment box below.

WHEREAS The Texas Democratic Party’s State Democratic Executive Committee is the general custodian of records of the Party; … WHEREAS voter registration and voting history are among the data maintained by the SECRETARY OF STATE of TEXAS and made available to the Party; … WHEREAS national and Texas Republicans are advocating the creation of a national ID for citizens and voters and highly detailed databases of personal, private information on the lives of citizens and voters; … WHEREAS there is substantial evidence provided by the Electronic Frontier Foundation of abuse and privacy “snooping” by the current Republican administration and the National Security Agency (NSA); … WHEREAS Texas Republicans have a proven history of “purging” voter rolls for purposes of eliminating “undesirable” voters from exercising their constitutional right to vote; … WHEREAS the Republican Texas Secretary of State has undertaken a project called Texas Election Administration Management (TEAM) system involving the creation of a highly detailed database of personal information on all Texas voters Due to be put into use in 2006; and … AND WHEREAS the Texas Democratic Party currently has a ‘seat’ on the Secretary of State’s TEAM committee but has not been actively involved; … NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the highest authority of the Texas Democratic Party, delegates assembled in Convention, direct the State Party Chair and the SDEC to obtain read and write access the Texas Secretary of State’s (TEAM)Texas Election Administration Management system and appoint an SDEC member to actively participate in its activities: … AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the TDP’s access to the TEAM database include the Chair appointing an SDEC DATA SECURITY BOARD of at least two SDEC members to review or draft security politics related to these and other Party voter history data to prevent data mining, unauthorized use of this personal data or its theft.

To get a copy of this resolution formatted for printing, so you can take it with you to your precinct convention, click on the link in the Attachment box below.

Whereas an election is a competition for the privilege of representing the people; and

Note: This is an old (2006) version, which has been superceded by a new resolution (2/2008) entitled "Texas Public Campaign Financing". WHEREAS Candidates for public office now depend upon

To get a copy of this resolution formatted for printing, so you can take it with you to your precinct convention, click on the link in the Attachment box below.

WHEREAS, computerized voting equipment is inherently subject to programming error, equipment malfunction, and malicious tampering; and

To get a copy of this resolution formatted for printing, so you can take it with you to your precinct convention, click on the link in the Attachment box below.

WHEREAS, the “winner-take-all” awarding of Presidential Electoral Votes from the State of Texas results in disfranchisement of those who voted for the minority candidate; and

by Freddie Oakley & John Oakley
Published in the Sacramento Bee
[May 2004, forwarded by Pokey Anderson]
http://www.yoloelections.org/news/snews/PO1131035703

The recall election allowed California voters to express fundamental dissatisfaction with the status quo. That's democracy in action. But we should not take it for granted.

I know... preaching to the choir... , but if you haven't seen Baxter the CHIMPANZEE filmed in front of a live press audience hacking a Diebold machine, it's worth a look! Quicktime Player required. Baxter was successfully able to delete the audit log, just by pressing buttons / moving the mouse on the keyboard.

If we don't fix this problem, we have truly lost our Democracy. The right to vote AND for our votes to be accurately counted is the cornerstone of any Democracy.

Event Description:

First Annual Legislative And Public Policy Conference

TSU's Mickey Leeland Center on World Hunger and Peace and Earl Carl Institute for Legal and Social Policy are holding a forum this Saturday on Voting Rights and Committee Hearings on Voter Disenfrachisement. Beverly Kaufman is one of the panelists!

Event Sponsor:
TSU's Mickey Leeland Center on World Hunger and Peace and Earl Carl Institute for Legal and Social Policy

Event Phone Contact Information:
713-313-1139

Event Website:
www.earlcarl.org

The Verifiable Voting Committee of the Harris County Democratic Party has developed a concise list of reasons why we need a voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT). Download the talking points regarding the 21 reasons we need VVPAT.

Note:  This is an old resolution that has been superceded by a new version on voting reform.

WHEREAS voting is the cornerstone of any democratic republic and without every vote having equal weight and every voter having equal rights to free expression there is no democracy but only hypocrisy and dictatorship; and

WHEREAS the elections of the years 2000 and 2004 clearly illustrated the flaws in the current voting methods, but no fair alternative has been proposed; and

WHEREAS every electronic voting machine system thus far submitted and demonstrated has been manufactured by, their computer software provided by and installed by corporations whose owners or managers have been clearly shown to be loyal members of only one political party and at least one of them promised to "deliver" the election to his party’s candidate; and

WHEREAS every demonstration of those electronic voting machines has uncovered irregularities and improprieties which only serve to demonstrate their infeasibility; be it therefore

RESOLVED, that We, in keeping with the principles of democracy, support the following measures: