Honest Voting

If you take a close look at the Constitution, you may be shocked to discover that there’s no constitutionally protected right to vote. Surprised me too! But it does explain the hot mess that we’re left with every couple of years.

A group called FairVote.org has devoted itself to analyzing American and international elections and election practices, and studying the effects on voter participation, fairness in representation and competitive choice.  So they keep pretty busy.  They’ve decided that American elections are such a hodgepodge that we need to get some form of uniform election standards.

Parenthetically, their board officers are an entertaining mixture: “chair emeritus John B. Anderson, today a law professor and formerly a Member of Congress (IL) and 1980 presidential candidate; chair Krist Novoselic, musician and author (I’m highlighting that for myself, but maybe you wondered what happened to the third member of Nirvana too); vice-chair Eddie Hailes, senior attorney with the Advancement Project; secretary Cynthia Terrell, a board member of the American Friends Service Committee; and treasurer William Redpath, a licensed CPA.”

You can get a PDF of FairVote’s report on the Municipal Right to Vote Initiative from the link at the top, or directly here.  I’ll be writing about this group again.

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