[Peace-discuss] Nation article on one year anniversary of GORE V BUSH

[Robert Dunn]

  One year after Florida debacle: Jesse Jackson
  Jr. presses for fundamental election reforms
                                                         November 7 @ 
11:52am
  One year after the election that threw the United States into a bitter 
36-day
  struggle to determine whether Al Gore or George W. Bush had won Florida
  and the presidency, a good many Washington Democrats seen content to
  forgive and forget. Or at least to keep quiet about the dubious nature of 
a
  now popular commander-in-chief's court-ordered presidency.

  But not U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill.

  The outspoken congressman marked the anniversary by setting up a podium in 
front of the
  Supreme Court and announcing that he would ask Congress to endorse a 
series of
  dramatic voting reforms.

  "The disputes in Florida and other states showed us that we need one 
national standard for
  voting and one national standard for counting votes," said Jackson. "But 
they also
  reminded us that there are more basic reforms that are needed."

  Among the reforms Jackson seeks is a constitutional amendment to guarantee 
all
  Americans an explicit right to vote.

  "Most Americans will be shocked, appalled and outraged to learn that their 
Constitution
  does not grant them the right to vote. The 15th, 19th and 26th Amendments 
prohibit
  'discrimination' in voting on the basis of race, sex and age -- but does 
not extend to
  (Americans) the right to vote," Jackson said, recalling Supreme Court 
Justice Antonin
  Scalia's admonition to Al Gore's lawyers during last year's Florida 
dispute that no such
  protection exists. "Even though the right to vote is the supreme right in 
a democracy, the
  Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore told Americans there is no explicit 
fundamental right to
  suffrage in the Constitution."

  Surrounded by Constitutional scholars and veteran voting rights activists, 
Jackson outlined
  a reform agenda that also included proposals to open presidential debates 
to viable
  third-party candidates and allow for Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) in 
presidential elections.
  In an IRV system, voters rank candidates on their ballots, with votes for 
losing first choices
  being transferred to second choice contenders. (Had such a system been in 
place last year,
  a voter could have cast a ballot for Green Ralph Nader and then, if Nader 
were eliminated,
  still have had a second-choice vote registered for Democrat Al Gore.)

  Jackson's initiatives were hailed by the Center for Voting and Democracy's 
Rob Richie, and
  representatives of the NAACP and USPIRG. American University 
constitutional law
  professor Jamin Raskin praised Jackson's "comprehensive package of 
democracy
  reforms."

  Yet, Jackson was the first to admit that he will have to fight to gain 
Congressional
  consideration of his proposals.

  Many Washington Democrats who pledged that they would "never forget" the 
November
  7, 2000, presidential election and its bitter aftermath seem now, one year 
after the contested
  vote, to have muted their criticism. With George W. Bush's approval rating 
hovering
  around 90 percent, the anniversary that Bush aides dreaded is passing with 
only a
  restrained response from partisans who just months ago complained bitterly 
about how the
  election had been stolen.

  The House Democratic Caucus did, on Wednesday, issue a call for national 
standards to
  improve voting machinery, improve access at polling places, restore the 
voting rights of
  ex-felons and create statewide voter registration databases for use by 
poll workers on
  Election Day. Citing systemic flaws that continue to prevent full 
participation in the election
  process, the caucus report said, "We cannot sit back and continue to let 
this happen while
  millions of voters are being disenfranchised at the polls." Additionally, 
there were reports
  Wednesday that Senate Rules and Administration Committee Chairman Chris 
Dodd,
  D-Conn., and Sen. Chris Bond, R-Mo., were close to agreement on a 
compromise bill to
  support overhaul of some elections practices. Such a compromise would 
likely include
  provisions backed by Dodd and most Democrats to help states upgrade voting 
machinery
  and procedures, along with new voter-fraud rules pushed by Bond and the 
Republicans.

  Despite evidence of some official activity in Washington, however,the 
anniversary of last
  year's vote has clearly been obscured by the war on terrorism and anthrax 
scares that
  continue to shake the nation's capital. And the Bush administration has 
done its part by
  scheduling a series of high-profile meetings with foreign leaders that 
serve to buff the chief
  executive's presidential image.

  Yet, Jackson is undaunted.

  "September 11, if anything, was an attack upon the democracy we thought we 
had," the
  congressman said. "As a result, we came together as one nation, united to 
defend (what) the
  terrorists did not destroy -- our freedom and our democracy. I offer the 
voting rights
  constitutional amendment to better ground our democracy in the 
Constitution, and these
  legislative proposals as a way of affirming and strengthening it."

  John Nichols' book on the Florida vote and its aftermath, "Jews for 
Buchanan: Did You
  Hear the One About the Theft of the American Presidency? (New Press), will 
be published
  November 14.


  Jim Hightower: "The American people do

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp