DNC announces National Lawyers Council for election reform

[Carolab]

Today at the DNC Excecutive Committee meeting, which was aired on C-Span, there was a critical accouncement concerning the DNC's plans for election reform. The DNC is launching a National Lawyers Council dedicated to both voting reform and voting rights. The Council will be national but will be decentralized so that there are lawyers who work with caucus chairs and local groups at the state and local levels in each state.

The Council is comprised of the 17,000 some lawyers who were involved with the Kerry campaign, plus lawyers who will be added as they volunteer. Chairman Dean recognized that "we do know these voting machines do have significant problems and we need accountability for those machines" as well as noting that we need to stop voter suppression/protect voting rights.

There are five lawyers who are key partners in the council (and I hope I have spelled their names right). They are Eric Holder, former deputy U.S. attorney general, Arlene Myerson, Disability and Rights advocate, Yolanda Rios, voting rights advocate, and Paul Igasaki, former EEOC vice chair. Their director is Anna Martinez, who was formerly with the Voting Rights section of the Justice Department and has been with the Voting Rights Institute of the DNC.

Mark Brewer, the DNC vice chairman, mentioned that this Council is already helping in Michigan to write the election reform legislation there, as well as ballot initiative legislation in case the Republicans block the reform legislation.

So, these lawyers are there to work with local voting reform/voting rights groups in EACH and EVERY state. You need to be aware of it to get the local groups in your state in touch with them.

Key here is writing election reform legislation that provides a voter-verified paper BALLOT, plus SECURITY both in ballot casting as well as counting and recording. Several states are working on this already; please check to see what is happening in your state. A list of election reform/rights groups in your state can be found at www.votersunite.org.

I encourage you to contact them and to talk about providing not just legal council but also (VERY IMPORTANT) technical counsel. I understand that some of the voting rights groups/experts do "teach-ins" about technical issues/security for legislators, including Rebecca Mercuri http://www.notablesoftware.com/evote.html
and Ellen Theissen at www.votersunite.org.

[MissWaverly]

1. Thanks Carolab, for the post

You mean all those letters I sent to Dr. Dean saying that I'm the
lady that voted on the machine that defaulted to Bush 5 times had some impact. The last letter I sent, I said that I could think of 215 million reasons why the Ohio election was rigged in 2004. And if that wasn't enough, I could think of 10-13 million reasons more.

thanks again for the post:

In Dr. Dean's last letter to me, he wrote:

"It's time to show the Republicans and their right-wing pundits that the Democratic Party is alive and well, and ready to fight back."

:D

[MelissaB]

6. Thanks for writing all those letters, MissWaverly.

Evidently he listened. :yourock:

[MissWaverly]

12. Now for all those other letters I've written

on John Bolton's nomination, the Plame investigation and the Patriot
Act. Thanks for the support, it's nice to know that we're moving ahead at last. :D

[IndyOp]

2. Finally. I am about to cry with relief. With every donation to the DNC

I have included a message asking when Dr. Dean was going to keep his DNC Chair campaign promise of prioritizing election reform.

WE are the ones who have to make use of this network of lawyers -- it helps so much to know that we will have advocates.

I am forwarding this to my election reform friends IMMEDIATELY.

:kick:

[Bill Bored]

3. I went to one of their meetings in NY.

Not bad, but they do need to get up to speed on the machines and on election privatization in general.

They also favor early voting, which I'm not too crazy about because it's an invitation to fraud.

They say they will be involving non-layers, so there may be some potential to help with the technical issues.

I would urge people to try to get involved with them.

[Melissa G]

5. We need tech people to form a council and coordinate with them immediately

Remember when we had 10,000 Lawyers the last time on election day?
They got in the way of noticing our election was heisted! We need Computer folks to keep an eye on them and make sure they know where to look for Fraud and how to write the legislation we need. HAVA has been a big enabler of fraud. We need to close up loopholes fast!

[suziedemocrat]

4. FANTASTIC!!!! Maybe they HAVE been listening! (or lurking?)

:toast:

[Amaryllis]

7. Carol, is there a link for this info?

[Carolab]

9. Not yet.

I transcribed it from this morning's meeting. But C-Span might have video up by now...check it out.

www.c-span.org

[mandyky]

8. I am so glad Dean is on top of this

voting reform and dealing with the media are the 2 most important hurdles we have to cross.

[garybeck]

10. KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK

this could be more significant than it seems at the moment

[Carolab]

11. I KNOW. I was totally taken aback by it.

I think a few of us need to contact these folks at the DNC for more information on how to proceed, yes?

[Eloriel]

18. It's VERY significant. Very

They've been stealing elections for 3 election cycles now (2000, 2002, 2004 -- and actually much longer than that), and it's time we actually DID something about it.

That's my boy Dean. Wow. I'm impressed. Pleased. Grateful. Elated. Excited. etc.

[Stevepol]

13. Wow, maybe things are really changing. I was surprised too. Kick n/t

[Turn CO Blue]

14. I saw this on C-SPAN, and was thrilled, but I wonder when

DNC going to put this critical announcement up on their site?

I went to , but information about the formation of a National Lawyers Council and its involvement with election reform wasn't there yet.

[Carolab]

15. Dean said it would be official by the end of the month.

As I recall.

[tommcintyre]

16. kick n/t

[Peace Patriot]

17. Thanks for this info! I was beginning to wonder about Dean and his...

...recent remarks about Dems needing to seek votes in Mississippi and Kansas. How about seeking VERIFIED votes in New York, Miami, Toledo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle, Howard? (--for starters!)

We are the majority!

-------

Sour thought: Where were these lawyers on 11/3?

Brighter thought: Okay. They had a Bushite "pod people" Congress. No challenge could have succeeded there, no matter what the evidence was. No fairness and justice there. So, let's roll up our sleeves and get to work, America! NEVER AGAIN!

[mod mom]

19. Was this the big news Dean was eluding to at the Rainbow Push meeting? nt

[emlev]

20. Is skepticism dead?

I'm struck by how excited and trusting you all are. What's your secret? I want some of that!

[kster]

21. Its just that we

know the facts about what needs to be done to secure the voting machines. If they don't get it right, WE WILL KNOW that they are b*llsh*ting us. Pretty simple eh !

[Land Shark]

22. It will be telling if they don't consider

the Snohomish lawsuit www.votersunite.org/info/lehtolawsuit.asp

especially since the lawyer in the case, Randy Gordon, is going to be a top Demo candidate for Congress in 2006