[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE Green civil action against Electoral College Mal-Apportionment goes to court on Jan. 14

[Green Party of California Updates]

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

For Immediate Release:
Monday, December 21, 2009



Oral arguments for Green leader's Electoral College Mal-Apportionment civil
action (Gordon v. Biden) to be heard in court on Jan. 14, 2010

• Greens call Asa Gordon's action a demand for fair elections, voters' rights,
and racial justice

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on electoral reform
and democracy: http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-democratic.php


WASHINGTON, DC -- A major voting rights civil action filed by Green Party
leader Asa Gordon is scheduled for oral argument in the US Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia (No. 09-5142) on Thursday, January 14, 2010.

The civil action seeks enforcement of the US Constitution's 'Mal-Apportionment
Penalty' (14th Amendment, Section 2), which mandates a reduction of a state's
presidential electors and congressional representatives ("the basis of
representation therein shall be reduced") 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."

"Asa Gordon's civil action is a demand for fair elections, for the right of
every voter to have his or her vote counted in a national election, and for
racial justice," said Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party's 2008 nominee for
President of the United States.

The civil action, Gordon v. Biden (formerly Gordon v. Cheney), addresses the
antidemocratic mal-apportionment of Electoral College votes, voter dilution by
race and/or party affiliation with the popular vote misrepresented by the
winner-take-all system of allocating electoral votes.  Documents, links, and
other materials related to the action are available online
(http://www.electors.us).

Asa Gordon (http://www.gp.org/speakers/detail.php?ID=29), chair of the DC
Statehood Green Party's Electoral College Task Force and executive director of
the Douglass Institute of Government, filed his civil action to protect the
voting rights of presidential electors and the voters they represent in the US
District Court (1:08-cv-01294) on July 28, 2008.   His reply brief
(http://mapxiv2usc6.free0host.com/APPELLANT%27S%20REPLY%20BRIEF_map.pdf) was
filed with the court on November 6 and final brief submitted on November 27
(http://mapxiv2usc6.free0host.com/APPELLANT%27S%20FINAL%20BRIEF.pdf).

Mr. Gordon said, "My final brief provides a legal and historical overview of
the Mal-Apportionment Penalty civil action, with a comprehensive context for
the court and for anyone reading it.  It asserts that the true measure of a
democracy is not in counting how many votes are cast, but in how many of those
votes that are cast truly count."

Gordon v. Biden pleas for a declaratory judgment by the US court for a
proportional allocation of presidential electors that reflects popular vote
percentages rather than the winner-take-all rule that has nullified the votes
of millions of voters.  It argues that winner-take-all apportionment of
electors violates Section 2 of the 14th Amendment.

"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.  We've witnessed in election after election
how some states have used the winner-take-all formula to dilute the votes of
Black Americans and other political and ethnic minorities from being counted,"
said Sanda Everette, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.

Greens said that Democratic Party leaders' refusal to challenge Electoral
College malapportionment in 2000 and 2004 blocked Democratic electors from
voting in those elections, thus abandoning tens of thousands of their own
voters, just as they failed to challenge the election irregularities in
Florida and Ohio in 2000 and 2004.  Mr. Gordon has noted that the Democratic
Party uses proportional assignment when it counts votes cast in presidential
primaries, but has failed to fight for it in the general election.

Mr. Gordon led workshops for Green presidential electors during the Green
Party's 2008 National Convention in Chicago.  The 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).


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and 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
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

Green Party press releases
• "Greens launch effort against Electoral College manipulation of presidential
elections" (August 5, 2008) http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=85
• "Greens: Enforce 14th Amendment's 'Right to Vote' Provision" (October 18,
2004) http://www.gp.org/press/pr_10_18_04.html

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the
United States
Fall 2009 issue now online
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog


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