PHILADELPHIA (Finalcall.com)�After months of intensive organizing,
hundreds gathered here June 29 to July 1 in a response to the massive
voter disenfranchisement, which occurred in Florida and other places
during the 2000 presidential election.
A unique, multi-racial mix of election reform advocates, civil rights
and human rights leaders, community activists and ordinary citizens from
across the country participated in the conference.
The centerpiece of the Pro-Democracy Convention: From
Disenfranchisement to a Voter Bill of Rights and A More Participatory
Democracy was a �Voters Bill of Rights.� It seeks to protect voting
rights and curb election abuses in several ways, given complaints of
voter irregularities, faulty ballots, early poll closings and other
complaints, in particular from Florida.
Convention organizer Ron Daniels, of the Center for Constitutional
Rights, hopes the meeting will bring people together and be a catalyst
for changing America�s winner-take-all system.
Americans need to consider different voting models, convention
participants argued. Things like proportional representation, where
parties gain political power based on percentage of votes earned and
voting that empowers group populations, instead of simple majority rule,
were offered as examples.
Mr. Daniels also wants to construct a broad coalition for 2002
elections and some fall contests.
The meeting was held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and began
with a National Town Hall Meeting, featuring prominent activists.
Mr. Daniels, Cheri Honkala of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union;
former congressman Walter Fauntroy, of the National Black Leadership
Roundtable; Henry Nicholas, of the National Union of Hospital and Health
Care Employees and Melanie Campbell of the National Coalition for Black
Civic Participation joined the exchange.
America�s democracy must change to accommodate a population that is
growing in racial and language diversity and growing in political
skepticism, speakers warned.
�One size does not fit all,� said June Zeitlin, executive director of
the Women�s Environment and Development Organization, saying
proportional representation and other ideas offered were valid.
Mr. Fauntroy, a longtime civil rights leader, urged legal action,
voter mobilization and legislation to break down barriers to voting and
registration, and make systemic change in America�s democracy.
The conference cornerstone was the Voters Bill of Rights. As outlined
by Ted Glick, of the Independent Progressive Politics Network, the bill
has 10 points: (1) strict enforcement and extension of the Voting Rights
Act; (2) abolition of the electoral college; (3) clean money elections;
(4) instant voting run-offs; (5) proportional representation; (6) voting
rights for ex-offenders; (7) easier and more reliable voting systems,
(8) easier access for all electoral candidates,(9) independent,
non-partisan election administration bodies, and (10) statehood for the
District of Columbia.
The second day of the conference was devoted to aspects of the
proposed Voters Bill of Rights.
Thad Mathis, a noted Temple University professor who participated in
the conference, felt it was very relevant to the current U.S. political
reality.
�For years many of us in the trenches have been complaining about the
extent to which the country more and more is revealing itself to be
anti-democratic under the disguise of being one of the biggest
democracies in the world,� he said.
Prof. Mathis added, �The spotlight was shown in Florida, which
validated many of those complaints. It got ordinary people angry, people
who thought the system really worked. What we see here � is all of those
people who knew all along that it was an unfair system have now come
together with Americans who prior to this had supported the system�but
now realize it needs a fundamental overhaul.�
