June 22, 2013 United We Stand Festival reforming the electoral process

United We Stand Festival - Free & Equal:

• We’re not waiting until 2014, or 2016 to expose the two-party duopoly again.
• The time for more voices and more choices is now, not later and we’re kicking things off on June 22nd in Little Rock Arkansas with the United We Stand Festival that will turn up the Twitter, Facebook, Blogosphere volume again!
• “United We Stand” Festival will be the kick-off event for igniting the grassroots movement to break the stranglehold of the two-party duopoly and reform the electoral process throughout the U.S. once and for all.
• Free & Equal is here to UNITE and build honest media, organizations, leaders, musicians, authors, comedians and more across the spectrum to reform the electoral system.
• The two-party system has been intentionally dividing us for centuries, and Free & Equal will help foster collaboration, leadership and true problem-solving.
• We’re going to continue to turn up the volume.  This fall we will launch a 10 city University Bus Tour. Each stop will showcase a panel of experts (authors,musicians, leaders, etc) on various important topics such as the Patriot Act, SOPA, NDAA, the war on drugs, foreign policies, genetically modified organisms and more. This movement will inspire individuals across the spectrum to run for local office in 2014. These candidates will be listed in our National Database which will help these grassroots candidates win their local races. Free & Equal’s ultimate goal here is to build leaders.

Free and Equal

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The Federal Election Commission is short on staff

The FEC: A Declawed and Toothless Watchdog of Campaign Finance | United Republic:

What we are left with is an underpowered enforcement agency that hasn’t expanded proportionately to the growth of the field which it is monitoring.

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Corporate democracy and shareholder activism

Citizens United, Shareholder Protection, and “the Silence of the Funds”  - The Demos Blog - PolicyShop:

When the Supreme Court in Citizens United allowed corporations to spend money in elections they thought that shareholders would be able to monitor the use of corporate funds “through procedures of corporate democracy.” But John Bogle, the former CEO of Vanguard, reminds us in a recent Financial Times column that “US financial institutions – mutual funds, pension funds, endowment funds, and bank trustees – hold more than two-thirds of the shares of virtually every publicly held US corporation, giving them total voting control.” This is a far cry from the state of affairs envisioned by the Court.

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Unbridled power: Redistricting and inter-party politics

From:  Google’s Cool Congressional Redistricting Map -- Which Shows How Thoroughly Texas Liberals Get Screwed  |  e.politics

• This year’s post-Census line-drawing is just about done in all of the states; Google’s put together a handy map of new Congressional districts across the country.

• What happened to Austin, Texas shows how Texas Democrats [and their U.S. Representatives] get screwed out of any shred of power -- the state voted 43.72% for Obama in 2008, and even in 2010 was only 60% Republican, but its current Congressional delegation has a 23-9 Republican advantage.

• The power to redistrict is political power at its most pure and its most raw. Never forget it.

Check out the maps.

The National Popular Vote is needed to solve political party hyper-partisanship problem

From FairVote.org: Bipartisan Over-Attention to Battleground States

• Both parties, and all candidates, place overwhelming emphasis and resources on the few swing states in order to win precious electoral votes. This is due to one simple reason: the current system of electoral vote allocation based on state popular votes.
• If enough states adopt the National Popular Vote (NPV) system, the inequities of presidential candidate attention would be eliminated. Each candidate would need to campaign in all states, as individual votes would matter no matter where they are cast . The entire country would be a battleground.

NPV has been legislated in some states already, with mixed results-- some states passed it, others haven't, others are considering it and more will.   Enough states need to pass the plan-- but not all-- in order for it to become into effect.  Go to FairVote's National Popular Vote and see where your state stands thus far, and take action.

Cure for the common redistricting partisanship

From FairVote.org: Curing Our Democracy: The Toxic Combination of Partisan Redistricting and Presidential Electoral Vote Allocation Part II: The Redistricting Connection and the Pitfalls of the District-Based Electoral Vote System

Electoral vote splitting by congressional district and partisan redistricting has the potential to be a toxic concoction to a properly functioning democracy. Without independent redistricting, the current system allows state legislators the opportunity to poison the political chances of their opponents, and even infect the race for the presidency. In addition, some proposed drugs, such as winner-take-all rules, are worse than the illness, leading presidential candidates to completely ignore large segments of voters and entire states. 

There are remedies though. The National Popular Vote plan would make every vote worth campaigning for in a presidential race, and multimember districts with proportional voting would help foster fair elections and fair representation. It's time for the country to get serious about taking its medicine.

This is the conclusion of a well-written article, a critical examination and cure for a very sick-- a very partisan-- electoral system.

Redistricting resources galore at FairVote.org!

FairVote's Redistricting Resources

With the completion of the 2010 Census, state legislatures are now in the process of the decennial redrawing of congressional, state, and local electoral districts. The process of creating new boundary lines is highly partisan and often comes at the expense of voters. By gerrymandering districts, legislators and their political allies use redistricting to choose their voters instead of giving voters the opportunity to choose them.  

FairVote's number one priority in relation to redistricting is to modify winner-take-all voting rules to make the act of drawing district lines less determinative of outcomes. Ideally in tandem with such new voting methods, FairVote also backs a more independent, more transparent and more criteria-driven process.  

FairVote has developed a number of new resources regarding redistricting, including: 

Glossary - An A to Z guide to terms and definitions 

Litigation - A summary of ongoing lawsuits to redistricting plans and procedures throughout the country  

Reform Legislation - A report on proposed laws in all fifty states to improve redistricting processes  

Resource List - A guide and review of the best redistricting resources from around the web  

News - A compilation of tweets to news stories and opinion by state  

Alternative Appoaches - Drawings of proposed "super districts" for all states used for proportional voting systems  

Additional Links - FairVote also contributes to Endgerrymandering.com and tweets current redistricting news

FairVote.org is the preeminent nonprofit organization promoting advances and improvements in our election system.  All seekers of knowledge of such projects go there first; please show them your support today.