ARCATA, Calif. — Voter confidence has plummeted during the past two presidential elections with corporate-owned voting machine tabulations in question from coast to coast. Several organizations have advocated changes in the voting system, but one city is taking it a step further. The City of Arcata, Calif., after months of debate and consideration, has adopted what is called the Voter Confidence Resolution.
According to Dave Berman, one of the resolution’s authors, this type of initiative, if adopted by cities throughout the country, could have a decisive impact on the confidence voters achieve by providing unquestionable election returns.
“But we must first change the national dialogue,” he said.
Berman is aggressively taking his case to the people, conducting workshops, keynoting speaking engagements, and asking cities throughout the country to seriously push this agenda. The heart of Arcata’s resolution is an eight-point comprehensive election reform platform, including:
(1) voting processes owned and operated entirely in the public domain, and
(2) clean money laws to keep all corporate funds out of campaign financing, and
(3) a voter verified paper ballot for every vote cast and additional uniform standards determined by a nonpartisan nationally recognized commission, and
(4) declaring election day a national holiday, and
(5) counting all votes publicly and locally in the presence of citizen witnesses and credentialed members of the media, and
(6) equal time provisions to be restored by the media along with a measurable increase in local, public control of the airwaves, and
(7) presidential debates containing a minimum of three candidates, run by a nonpartisan commission comprised of representatives of publicly owned media outlets, and
(8) preferential voting and proportional representation to replace the winner-take-all system for federal elections."-from the story in The Lone Star Iconoclast. Read it.
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