Saving Democracy: the Sec. of State. Campaign
by Glenn Smith, Mon Aug 28, 2006 at 08:17:48 AM EDT
Finally, there's a focused and innovative national campaign against Republican voter suppression, voter intimidation, and voter fraud: Secretary of State (SOS) Project.
Tapping the energy of hundreds of thousands of Americans outraged by the scandalalous conduct of election officials in 2000 and 2004, the campaign will focus on electing progressive candidates -- candidates committed to open and fair elections -- in targeted secretary of state races throughout the country: In Ohio,Minnesota, Colorado,Iowa, Nevada (page coming soon), and Michigan (just this weekend nominated Democrat Carmella Sabaugh in the SoS race).
The SoS web site will allow donors to contribute directly to the candidates via ActBlue.com's technology infrastructure.
Across the country, the Right Wing has made voter suppression and intimidation a key part of their campaigns. This is not new. They've been doing it for decades. Until now, most progressive efforts to insure clean elections have focused on court actions and public relations. But now we're putting the effort into electing clean candidates to administer elections.
We've had enough of the Katherine Harrises and Ken Blackwells of the world, wingers who would destroy democracy to guarantee themselves power. Years ago, the federal courts ordered the Republican party to cease its voter suppression efforts. So the Right Wing turned to elected officials, acting in their official capacity to suppress the vote of citizens they feared would vote against them.
The SoS campaign will allow us to contribute to candidates who will fight these undemocratic forces. How often do we talk to discouraged progressive voters who back away from participation because they believe the elections are rigged by suppression, or by voting machines that provide no auditable paper trail? Well, now we can tell them there's a national effort aimed precisely at that problem.
Electing clean candidates in the targeted states will not only make sure those elections are fair and open, it will encourage millions of voters who worry that the subversion of democracy by the Right has already rendered elections somewhat pointless.
The campaign was organized by James Rucker of ColorOfChange.org, and California activists Becky Bond and Michael and Michael Kieschnick. A stable of daily bloggers will update the site with news from around the country.
This is a critical campaign that deserves our support. It's an SoS for democracy. We need your help. And the campaign team deserves our congratulations and our thanks.
Tags: clean elections, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, paper trail, secretaries of state, suppression, voting (all tags)
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