Rep. Jackson Jr. -- The Fundamental Right You Don't Have

AtLiberty

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Fri Mar-11-05 02:48 PM
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Rep. Jackson Jr. -- The Fundamental Right You Don't Have

The Fundamental Right You Don't Have

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
March 10, 2005

Last week, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Il., introduced House Joint Resolution 28 with 54 original co-sponsors. The Jackson amendment would reverse the Supreme Court's ruling in Bush v. Gore that the citizen has no constitutional right to vote. Currently, voting is a state right, and all 3,067 counties in the 50 states have different rules about who votes and how. The congressman says it's time to make voting a citizenship right.

Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., has served Illinois' 2nd congressional district since 1995. He is a board member of FairVote--The Center for Voting and Democracy.

The right to vote is the fundamental citizenship right that protects all other rights. Maybe that explains the shape we're in.

The Bible says that if you build a house on sand, when it rains, the winds blow and the storms come it will not stand. The last two presidential elections have demonstrated that our voting system is built on sand.

Republicans and Democrats alike concede that votes have been lost or miscounted; machines have malfunctioned; and voters who should be able to vote are turned away while those that shouldn't be allowed to vote have voted anyway. The question that's been on all our minds is: What is wrong with our democracy? Why in state after state, year after year, do we keep on having these problems? What do we need to do to reinforce our electoral house so it does not sink into oblivion?

The fundamental reason is this: The U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to vote, and therefore Congress fails to establish enforceable uniform standards or a unitary voting system. While it is true that the Constitution does protect against voter discrimination based on race, sex or age and prohibits the use poll taxes or literacy tests, it does not explicitly guarantee that U.S. citizens have a right to vote.

You might say, "But Congressman, I have been able to register to vote and cast ballots my entire life, what do you mean I don't have a right to vote?" The fact is that as an American, you don't have a citizenship right to vote. Voting in the United States is a "state right," not a "citizenship right."

The First Amendment contains individual citizenship rights that go with you from state to state (that is, they are the same wherever you are in the United States) and they are protected and enforced by the federal government. As a result of the First Amendment, every American citizen has an individual right to free speech, freedom of assembly and religious freedom (or to choose no religion at all)�regardless of which state you're in.

Comparatively, a "state right" is not an American citizenship right, but a right defined and protected by each state�and limited to that state. Therefore, when it comes to voting, each state, each county and elected jurisdiction is different.

In other words, our voting system�our house�is built on the foundation of "state" rights: 50 states, 3,067 counties and more than 12,000 different election jurisdictions, all separate and all unequal. These election jurisdictions can each individually set voting policies and procedures such as ballot design, voter eligibility, what voting equipment is used, polling hours, how to count provisional ballots and what ID requirements are needed.

As a result, more than a million votes in the 2004 election were discarded. In one instance, 4,500 votes were lost forever when a touch screen voting machine malfunctioned in North Carolina and there was no back-up. In Florida and Pennsylvania�two of the most important battleground states in the presidential contest�more than half of the provisional ballots cast were not counted.

Election officials claim most of those were from unregistered voters. The question remains why weren't they registered? Did the local officials make mistakes when preparing voter rolls, a partisan organization simply not mail in their registration forms, or were these voters simply not registered?

Moreover, more than nine million U.S. citizens are permanently or temporarily denied the right to vote they would otherwise enjoy if they lived in a different state. Several states deny voting rights for life to anyone once convicted of a felony. Children of American families living abroad often cannot vote when they come of voting age. American citizens living in Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands can be drafted into the military but are unable to vote for their commander in chief. Congress governs the District of Columbia more directly than any other state, yet more than half a million citizens living in the District have no voting representation in Congress.

The United States stands virtually alone on denying constitutional protection of the right to vote. 108 of the 119 democratic nations in the world have a right to vote in their Constitution�including the Afghan Constitution and the interim Iraqi Constitution. The United States is one of only 11 that do not. As we assist other nations in implementing democracy, we must also turn the mirror on ourselves and examine what we are doing, what rights we are protecting.

States should have control of many decisions, and should be able to set certain laws and standards that are applicable to the responsibility each state has for its citizens. But voting�like freedom of speech, like freedom of religion, like due process of law�operates outside of state authority.

Instead of a house on sand, we need to build our democracy and our voting system on a rock: the rock of a Voting Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that applies to all states and all citizens. That's why I and 56 colleagues in the House of Representatives have joined to support House Joint Resolution 28�which, in the cause of electoral justice, should be the 28th amendment to the Constitution.

http://www.tompaine.com/print/the_fundamental_right_you_dont_have.php

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PROGRESSIVE1

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Fri Mar-11-05 02:49 PM
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1. kick

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oscar111

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Fri Mar-11-05 02:59 PM
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2. "vote, on paper ballot": and, right to food, shelter

we should have a right to vote, on a paper ballot. A good addition, IMO.

Also basic, in a contest for the most basic--- i would say food and shelter is more basic than voting.

We have seen fake democracies based on bought elections, RW owned media, vote theft of a thousand kinds..... that also have hungry and homeless millions.

Not a good society. You are too weak to organize for a real democracy.

But if food and shelter are actually delivered, you have the strength to organize for true voting elections.

This is a knoty question: i am open to your input.

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oscar111

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Fri Mar-11-05 03:03 PM
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3. 12 million hungry: 3 mill homeless during a year

some move up from hmlessness, some fall in... on one night, one million on the street.. but over a year, this churning means 3 mill involved.

food and shelter should be the basic human rights.

Jimmy Carter, are you listening? You need to learn this.

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Sapphire Blue

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Fri Mar-11-05 03:19 PM
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4. HJR 28 - The Right to Vote Amendment

H.J.RES.28
Title: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States regarding the right to vote.
Sponsor: Rep Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. (introduced 3/2/2005) Cosponsors (54)
Latest Major Action: 3/2/2005 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Judiciary.

SUMMARY AS OF:
3/2/2005--Introduced.

Constitutional Amendment - Provides that all U.S. citizens who are eighteen years of age or older shall have the right to vote in any public election held in the jurisdiction in which the citizen resides.

Requires each State to: (1) administer public elections in the State in accordance with election performance standards established by the Congress; and (2) provide any eligible voter the opportunity to register and vote on the day of any public election.

ALL ACTIONS:
3/2/2005:
Referred to the House Committee on Judiciary.

------------------------------------------------

Endorse HJR 28

https://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/secure/voting.html

Full text, summary, status, & co-sponsorship of HJR 28 is available @

http://thomas.loc.gov /

If your Rep. is not a co-sponsor, please encourage their support

http://www.house.gov /

(If your Rep. is a sponsor, send him or her a Thank You)
:toast:

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