[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE Greens challenge Electoral College manipulation of pres. election outcome

[Green Party of California Updates]

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, August 5, 2008


Greens launch effort against Electoral College manipulation of presidential
elections

• Malapportionment of Electoral College votes may lead to a Republican
victory despite the popular vote, disenfranchising tens of thousands of
voters, especially black voters in southern states

• Green civil action seeks to democratize the Electoral College by enforcing
14th Amendment voter protections, names Vice President Cheney as defendent


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders said today that the outcome of the
2008 presidential election may be affected by the antidemocratic
apportionment of Electoral College votes, with the popular vote
misrepresented by the winner-take-all system of assigning votes to electors.

"We're in danger of seeing the 2008 election stolen again, as in 2000 and
2004," said Clyde Shabazz, Green candidate for the US House in Michigan
(13th District) (http://www.migreens.org).  "In Florida in 2000 and Ohio in
2004, we witnessed the obstruction and manipulation of votes by election
officials and possible tampering with computer voting machines.  But equally
insidious is the malapportionment of Electoral College votes, which
disenfranchises whole sections of the voting public."

A civil action to protect the voting rights of presidential electors and the
voters they represent was filed in the US District Court for the District of
Columbia (1:08-cv-01294) on January 28, 2008, by Asa Gordon, chair of the DC
Statehood Green Party's Electoral College Task Force and executive director
of the Douglass Institute of Government (http://members.aol.com/digasa/dig.htm).

The action seeks relief against the defendant, Vice President Cheney, who
will preside over the tabulation of "unbound electoral states" on January 6,
2009, challenging the recognition of Electoral College votes that are
apportioned by states on a winner-take-all basis.

The civil action seeks enforcement of the 'Mal-Apportionment Penalty'
provided in Section 2 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which
mandates a reduction of a state's presidential electors and congressional
representatives if "the right to vote at any  election for the choice of
electors for President and Vice  President of the United States... is
denied... or in any way abridged."

The civil action alternatively seeks the issuance of a court order providing
proportional apportionment of presidential electors.

"If two thirds of the voters in a state vote for a candidate from Party A
and one third vote for a candidate from Party B, and the state's
winner-take-all rule gives all of the state's electors to Party A, then one
third of the voters have been disenfranchised in violation of Amendment 14,
Section 2 of the US Constitution," said Jody Grage, treasurer of the Green
Party.  "We've witnessed in election after election how some states have
used the winner-take-all formula to prevent the votes of political, ethnic,
and other minorities from being counted."

Mr. Gordon noted that the civil action had the potential to "alter the fate
of the 2008 presidential election in a manner different from any
presidential election in the nation's history." (http://www.electors.us)

"By refusing to challenge Electoral College malapportionment in 2000 and
2004, which blocked Democratic electors from voting in those elections, the
Democratic Party's leaders abandoned tens of thousands of their own voters,
just as they failed to challenge the election irregularities in Florida and
Ohio in 2000 and 2004," said Mr. Gordon.  "Will they fail to challenge
malapportionment again in 2008, and hand the Republicans another victory?
Barack Obama would not be the Democratic nominee if not for the Democratic
Party's proportional assignment of primary delegates.  The winner-take-all
provisions in the general election present the distinct possibility that Mr.
Obama in 2008 will win the popular vote by a considerably larger margin than
did Gore in 2000, but will repeat the Democratic loss in the Electoral College."

Mr. Gordon said that African American voters in several southern states*
that were represented by proportional assignment of delegates in the
Democratic primary, and who were critical to Barack Obama's success, will be
lost to Mr. Obama under the winner-take-all rules of the general election.

"If proportional assignment is considered by Democrats to be vital to
democracy in their primary elections, why won't they fight for it in the
general election?" asked Mr. Gordon, who led workshops for Green
presidential electors during the 2008 Green National Convention
(http://www.gp.org/speakers/detail.php?ID=29)
(http://www.greenparty2008.org/wiki/index.php/Workshops).

As a result of the workshops, several Green electors pledged to presidential
candidate (and eventual Green nominee) Cynthia McKinney agreed to institute
a program for enforcement of the Reconstruction-Era provision enshrined in
the 14th Amendment.

"The 'Democratize the Electoral College' program exposes the hypocrisy and
fraud behind charges that the McKinney campaign might 'spoil' the Democratic
presidential ticket's chances of winning.  Democratic leaders should have to
explain why they choose to ignore 13 additional electors from southern
states that they'd gain through the Green Party's presidential electors
project.  Why is the Green Party fighting to give voice to Democratic voters
that the Democratic Party will not fight for?  Let me be clear -- we're not
doing this to assist Barack Obama, but to foster real democracy and voter
participation, and to offer Cynthia McKinney as the truly democratic choice
for all the people," said Mr. Gordon.

Green Party leaders noted that after John Kerry quickly conceded the 2004
election, Democratic leaders failed to respond to thousands of complaints
about voting irregularities in Ohio and other states.  Green presidential
nominee David Cobb and Libertarian nominee Michael Badnarik launched the
Ohio and New Mexico recount efforts and collected the initial evidence that
Republican officials had blocked the votes of many African American and
young voters (http://www.iwantmyvote.com).  Greens raised most of the money
for the recounts.  Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) later held hearings and
published evidence of the election theft
(http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1101).

Cynthia McKinney and running mate Rosa Clemente were nominated during the
2008 Green National Convention in Chicago, July 10-13.

The Green Party's national platform endorses a constitutional amendment
abolishing the Electoral College and providing for the direct election of
the president by instant runoff voting
(http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/democracy.html#309649).

"Americans don't vote for President.  Instead, we vote for an electoral
college which was created in the late 1700s to expressly increase the power
of the slave states -- and which it is still doing," said Mark Dunlea, an
election law attorney with the Green Party of New York State.

* Asa Gordon's civil action observes that the Office of the Federal Register
of the National Archives and Records Administration explicitly declares that
"the electors in these (Southern) States (ARKANSAS -- 6 Electoral Votes,
GEORGIA -- 15 Electoral Votes, LOUISIANA -- 9 Electoral Votes, TENNESSEE --
11 Electoral Votes, TEXAS -- 34 Electoral Votes) are not bound by State Law
to cast their vote for a specific candidate"
(http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/laws.html).

The civil action was filed on July 28, 2008, to commemorate the 140th
anniversary of the adoption of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.
Since the debacle of the 2000 presidential election, the Green Party in
partnership with the Douglass Institute of Government has led the way in
educating Americans about their constitutional "right to vote" under the
provisions of 14th Amendment, Section 2.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
• Green candidate database for 2008 and other campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections

Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente 'Power to the People' Campaign for the White
House http://www.runcynthiarun.org

Mal-Apportionment Penalty Civil Actions http://www.electors.us

"Greens: Enforce 14th Amendment's 'Right to Vote' Provision"
Green Party press release, October 18, 2004
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_10_18_04.html

"Greens Push for Real Electoral Reforms at Carter-Baker Hearings, June 30"
Green Party press release, June 27, 2005
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_06_27.shtml

2008 Green National Convention, July 10-13 in Chicago, Illinois
http://www.greenparty2008.org


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