Thursday, January 06, 2005
Voting System Debate
Our
Voting System Needs A New Constitutional Foundation
Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr
Floor Statement during Challenge to
January, 6, 2005
Don't
be confused or misled. Today's objection is not about an election
result, it's about an election system that's broken and needs fixing.
[...]
What's
wrong with our democracy? What's wrong with our voting system? State-after-state,
year-after-year, why do we keep on having these problems?
The
fundamental reason is this: most Americans and many in this body
will find it shocking and hard to believe, but we have these problems
because Americans don't have the right to vote in their Constitution!
In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore said in very plain
language, "the INDIVIDUAL CITIZEN has no federal constitutional
right to vote for electors for the President of the
[...]
One-hundred-and-eight
of the 119 nations in the world that elect their public officials
in some democratic manner have the right to vote in their Constitution
- including the Afghan Constitution and the interim document in
Iraq. The
[...]
The
American people are gradually losing confidence in the credibility,
fairness, effectiveness and efficiency of our voting system. We
cannot export our current voting system or our form of democracy
to other nations because our "separate and unequal" voting
system, and our concept of an Electoral College,
do not reflect the best of a representative democracy. We
need to build our democracy and our voting system on a rock, the
rock of adding a Voting Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
that applies to all states and all citizens.
full statement
- "Congress Ratifies Bush Victory After a Rare Challenge," by Sheryl Gay Stolbert and James Dao (7 Jan 2005, New York Times)