The People's Email Network Last 25 Messages Transmitted Log Go Back Pass Election Protection Legislation Now ********** [085224:100511] S.L., Columbus, OH We have known for a while that e-machines can be hacked. Now it's being increasingly publicized and will inevitably become a populist topic. Voting by email will simply compound the problem. Instead of escalating this partisan "war" by developing more "security" that inevitably becomes obsolete, it's time to return to paper ballots. The people will tell you that they CAN wait a few days to hear results. Resist the media hunger for instant news and BRING BACK PAPER BALLOTS! ********** [113036:061211] P.F., Oakland, CA If you want us to pull out of recession, you need to encourage citizens that this is a fair playing field. Wrkrs have increased productivity, lost ground in wages and benefits, and carried more and more of the tax burden in recent decades. On top of all this, we are less and less fairly represented as the corporations have gained more and more govt access, and legislators and govt officials like Thomas either play the corrupting money game to keep or gain power, or lose it. Bring in reforms to counter this insidious process. Reign in corporate power and rebalance the existing powers to restore the voice of the people. Why has the U.S. been straying? Because ignorant,powerful people wouldn't be able to get their way. ********** [084400:060911] D.R., York, SC SC is instituting one of the nation's most restrictive voter ID laws. I know my congressional delegates are pleased because it is a political ploy to keep a bloc of Democratic voters away from the polls. Hopefully the Justice Dept will step up for the poor, elderly, minority citizens attacked by the act. ********** [173403:060511] G.D., Madison, WI American democracy is not for sale to the highest bidder. Please help protect our precious freedom. ********** [055109:031411] S.E., Purcellville, VA There is something very wrong with corporations, whose primary motivation is to increase profits, deciding who will enact laws, govern the country, and make judicial decisions. Please do all that you can to protect the citizens of the United States from the influence of corporate entities on our lives and communities. I believe that the Supreme Court decision to treat corporations as citizens has severely damaged our democracy. ********** [155906:022411] P.M., Dunkirk, NY Numerous false meanings of the S. S. Trust Fund are being circulated by opponents of SS. That it does not really represent money owed to SS. Rather, it is accounting fiction or a savings report. Pure Baloney!!: It is neither. Pres. Roosevelt is turning over in his grave. It is a valid debt that these Govt. people have no intention of paying, owed to the common working man's SS, paid for by HIS SOCIAL SECURITY Taxes and stolen for other GOVT. STUFF. Try telling that to China about their EE Bonds. ********** [054837:022411] R.G., Leander, TX Seriously, are Americans supposed to accept the notion that we're stuck with the Congress, Supreme Court and even President that the corporations choose to purchase for us? ********** [072958:021511] R.L., Concord, CA I want my vote to be counted. As a combat veteran I deserve to know that me vote is counted,and not purged for any reason. ********** [072915:021511] R.L., Concord, CA I want my vote to be counted. As a combat veteran I deserve to know that me vote is counted,and purged for any reason. ********** [155745:021111] E.W., Santa Fe, NM At first examination, there appears to have been several, perhaps many cases in which Justice Thomas was a party to decisions rendered by the Supreme Court that directly, financially benefitted his wife. These ethical lapses on the part of Justice Thomas include his memory lapse(s) over 20 years in failure to provide information about his wife's employment and her income date from the mid 1990s whilst Ms Thomas' was employed by Dick Armey. The Citizens' United ruling apparently directly and immediately benefitted Mrs. Justice Thomas. Please investigate and prosecute as indicated. Thank you. ********** [062119:021111] J.P., Brooklyn, NY Our elections are not for sale, please help pass DISCLOSE Act (H.R. 5175), so our democracy can flourish. ********** [053828:021111] J.H., Warwick, NY This reminds me of Leona Helmsley who famously stated that taxes were for the little people. Judge Thomas perhaps believes in his elevated status. It's very depressing to say the least. ********** [154412:021011] L.K., Columbus, OH Five recent developments have harmed our elections in significant ways: 1) the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United allowing for unlimited, undisclosed corporate funds to be spent to support pro-corporate candidates, 2) the Supreme Court ruling in Crawford v. in Marion County, upholding Indiana's draconian photo ID law for elections, paves the way for similar laws that threaten to disenfranchise millions of voters, 3) the MOVE Act included a provision allowing States to implement Internet voting pilot projects, which threatens to undo the substantial gains made in the states since 2003 to deploy paper ballot voting systems and ensure a verifiable vote count, 4) the targeting of voter registration groups and initiatives has helped to reduce the number of legal citizens who are able to exercise their right to vote. 5) the ever increasing privatization of our public elections by corporations using propriety "trade secret" computer hardware and software to cast and count the results in our public elections, outside of the view of the citizenry. To counter and offset these attacks on fair elections, we must quickly pass robust election protection measures. Specifically, we support the passage of legislation to combat voter suppression (such as voter caging, voter roll purging, the disenfranchisement of former felons and draconian polling place photo ID restrictions), increase transparency in vote casting and counting, and reform of campaign finance rules in federal elections. In addition, a strong, national paper ballot requirement, to be fully implemented by 2012, will protect the national electorate in time for the next presidential election and mitigate the growing threat from Internet voting. The recent attempted monopoly of our elections by the merger of ES and S and Diebold/Premier (which fortunately was overturned by the Justice Department) makes clear the need for the federal government to offer strong incentives for states to oversee their own public elections using hand-marked paper ballots without reliance on private corporations and vendors using secret software. On April 29, 2010, a bi-partisan group of Congress members from both houses introduced the DISCLOSE Act to mitigate the corrosive effects of unlimited corporate funding on public elections. The following day, President Obama issued a statement supporting the bill. We also strongly support this bill as a first step toward protecting the fairness and integrity of our elections on behalf of the citizenry -- We the People. Building on the DISCLOSE Act, our campaign will support the passage of existing legislation to stop purging, caging, disenfranchisement of felons and much more that is needed to ensure the self-governance envisioned by our Founders in the U.S. Constitution. ********** [082512:021011] R.J., Sag Harbor, NY Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Thomas CANNOT be above the law. ********** [194425:020911] G.M., Santa Margarita, CA Honest elections are the cornerstone of a functioning democracy. Without honest elections, democracy is a sham. ********** [154155:020911] J.B., San Jose, CA The news regarding Justice Thomas and his failure to report accurately his famiy income to the IRS is a national disgrace. I hope you will follow the developments as they occur. ********** [202515:020811] R.G., Venice, CA An investigation is reasonable and in my opinion necessary based on preliminary assessments. ********** [201128:020811] s.c., Marina Del Rey, CA the collective vote, the American voice ? truth and justice? I fear hope is fading. that we will all look back with regret that each one of us failed to stand tall and strong when called upon to do so - the call coming forth from our conscience. we are close to nothing more than a faint echo of our values, our substance, our selves. ********** [200956:020811] s.c., Marina Del Rey, CA the collective vote, the American voice ? truth and justice? I fear hope is fading. that we will all look back with regret that each one of us failed to stand tall and strong when called upon to do so - the call coming forth from our conscience. we are close to nothing more than a faint echo of our values, our substance, our selves. ********** [165043:020811] W.B., Mishawaka, IN Has our Democracy degrated to the point where there is special ( lenient ) justice for the rich? Equal justice must be adhered to. The Corporatization of our Government must end. ********** [165008:020811] W.B., Mishawaka, IN Has our Democracy degrated to the point where there is special ( lenient ) justice for the rich? Equal justice must be adhered to. The Corporatization of our Government must end. ********** [181437:020711] D.K., Oak Park, IL "Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to report his wife's income from a conservative think tank on financial disclosure forms for at least five years, the watchdog group Common Cause said Friday. Between 2003 and 2007, Virginia Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, earned $686,589 from the Heritage Foundation, according to a Common Cause review of the foundation's IRS records. Thomas failed to note the income in his Supreme Court financial disclosure forms for those years, instead checking a box labeled "none" where "spousal noninvestment income" would be disclosed." -HP Are all citizens entitle to the privilege Justice Thomas enjoys when filing taxes 20 years late and making false statements on a federal form? ********** [080244:020711] M.B., Saint Paul, MN If we can't trust our elections, what do we have really? ********** [164501:020511] M.C., Oakwood, GA As a long-time voter and citizen of this country I am sick, tired, and disgusted that my votes are minimized by political and corporate entities being made the power brokers in elections. It appears that the Republican party has been very busy manipulating their wealthy supporters, and along with political and judicial activism by certain Supreme Court justices, are driving America into an oligarch state. All one has to do is to reference is the Citizens United (or is it Koch Brothers?) case to find the most blatant, intolerable Constitutional manipulation to further their cause - which is not an honorable one. This greedy and self-serving behavior by the above mentioned must be arrested and stopped before we "commoners" are fully subverted to the abyss of total control by these don't-give-a-damn powerfully rich. Wake-up time, America! ********** [140557:020511] R.E., Anacortes, WA After the debacles of '00 and '04, we urgently need Federal guarantees of basic fairness is national elections. When states don't have provisional ballots, that leaves the door wide open to abuse, as was so prominent in Florida '04. ********** Go Back