Congressional Watchdog Forum

1. VOTING: Rights/Civic Duty/Purge Protection
All citizens of the United States, attaining the age of majority in an election year, shall have the right to vote in any public election in the jurisdiction where they reside.

(The age of majority shall be based on the YEAR and not the MONTH. Therefore if Your birth occurs after the election (Nov & Dec) you shall be permitted to participate that year.)

That right shall not be denied, abridged, suspended, or revoked, by the United States, or any State, City, Judge, agreement, person, or Organization.

Furthermore, in order for the People to Form a more perfect union; the citizen's input must be in all government decisions.

Therefore all citizens at or exceeding the age of majority have the obligation to vote and shall consider elections as to have been summoned for that purpose.

An election will not be valid or verified until it is confirmed that all citizens have voted.

Reasoning:
Equal Access Amendment says:

The creation of a democratic society can not be accomplished without the input of the demos. To abdicate completely one's participation is to place too much of a burden and temptation on other members of society. It can not be stressed enough that human beings have the capacity for helping and the capacity for harm. Mutual surveillance is the only surety of just and humane laws.

In addition, Felons should not be disenfranchised. And Why should a felon be allowed to vote? Because it is possible that the law imprisoning the felon is a bad law and they should have the right to participate in changing it.


Greg Palast says:
"Purge-by-Crosscheck" 1.1 million voters were removed because they were accused of voting or registering in two states. In the Keystone State, Interstate Crosscheck listed 344,000 voters as suspect; in North Carolina: 589,000; Arizona: 258,000, Colorado: 769,436, Nevada 90,000, Illinois 500,000. Altogether, 28 states used Crosscheck and over 7,000,000 voters were deemed suspect on extremely flimsy pretenses.

In Georgia, 288 voters named James Brown wrongly registered in a second state. But look closely at the two-state voters. Kobach lists James DONALD Brown as the same voter as James EDWARD Brown. And James Brown Sr. is supposed to be the same voter as James Brown Jr. Both Senior and Junior would get purged from the rolls. I got my hands on the secret instructions for Crosscheck's implementation sent by Kobach to every voting state official telling them they could "ignore" mis-matches.

"Purge-by-Inaccuracy" At least 75,355 ballots were not counted in Michigan in 2016. What's more, most of these were from Detroit and Flint, both majority Black cities (82+% and 55+% respectively) These ballots were not counted because they were unreadable by machines. When the oval next to a candidate's name on the paper ballot was not filled in correctly — i.e., it was checked or was marked with red ink — the machine did not register it and the ballot was set aside. In other cases, no voter error occurred and the machines simply didn't work.


Officials simply don't count all the ballots. They call this "spoilage" or "undervotes" or "overvotes." It's an extra mark on your ballot. They disqualified and rejected 1,913,369 ballots. Most likely to be rejected: mail-in ballots.

"Purge-by-Defective Voting Machine" How come more ballots were uncounted in Detroit and Flint than in the white 'burbs and rural counties? Are the machines themselves racist? No, but they are old, and in some cases, busted. An astonishing 87 machines broke down in Detroit, responsible for counting tens of thousands of ballots. Many more were simply faulty and uncalibrated…


"Purge-by-Postcard" In this method, states mail postcards to voters to "verify" their addresses and if the postcards are not returned, the voter's registration is canceled.


"Purge-by-Voter ID" Republican lawmakers present these laws as a means of discouraging voter fraud, but their true intent — and actual results — are to disenfranchise voters who are less likely to have a state-issued photo ID. Such people include students, the elderly, the poor, and people of color,

National Conference of State Legislatures says:
“Purge-by-Voter Felony” It has been common practice in the United States to make felons ineligible to vote, in some cases permanently. Over the last few decades, the general trend has been toward reinstating the right to vote at some point, although this is a state-by-state policy choice.

In Maine and Vermont, felons never lose their right to vote, even while they are incarcerated.
In 16 states and the District of Columbia, felons lose their voting rights only while incarcerated, and receive automatic restoration upon release.
In 21 states, felons lose their voting rights during incarceration, and for a period of time after, typically while on parole and/or probation. Voting rights are automatically restored after this time period. Former felons may also have to pay any outstanding fines, fees or restitution before their rights are restored as well.
In 11 states felons lose their voting rights indefinitely for some crimes, or require a governor's pardon in order for voting rights to be restored, face an additional waiting period after completion of sentence (including parole and probation) or require an additional action before voting rights can be restored.

2. Equal Access/ Publicly Financed
All citizens shall have equal early voting hours in which to cast their vote. and sufficient voting places, materials, and personnel shall be provided to reduce the voting time to within an hour

All citizens of the United States, residing in all states, shall have equal access, (the same requirements), to creating a political party and achieving a ballot line.

All candidates and parties of these United States shall have equal time constraints to qualify for ballot access.

All candidates must present proof of belonging to a party in order to use the party's ballot line for office. This proof shall be signed by the authorized person in the party registered with the Federal Election Commission

Verification of requirements met shall be submitted to a multi-partisan regulatory board, such as the Board of Elections.

All citizens that desire to be candidates, within these United States, shall register at their local Board of Elections.

The Board of Elections shall divide equally, the campaign tools for election purposes. All tools must be properly labeled as having been provided by the revenue stream and not a direct private donation.

Corporations are NOT people and MONEY is not speech. Elections shall be publicly funded. No private money may be used for a public office, or seat in the government. No ads may be purchased for the purpose of an election. No candidates may appear in an ad for an election for themselves or others.

Candidate campaigns may not accrue profits or in-kind donations.

Reasoning:
The citizen must have full confidence that no bribery or appearance of bribery is taking place. The citizen must weigh only the consequences of the words spoken or read were they to become a law.

Equal Access Amendment says:

The 14th amendment provides for equal treatment under the law, but since currently, every state has its own rules for gaining ballot access, that effect is made moot. Also, a party that has current standing does not have to repeat the qualifications but instead rides through on past performance.

For this reason, we submit that every citizen should have equal access (rules) to forming a party and achieving a ballot line. And we advocate that this requirement be met by all, at each election.

The United States must have integrity in its elections. It can not be tempted with money or power, to deviate from true evaluation from the poorest of its citizens to the richest.

It is time to overhaul our federal, state, and local election agencies to guarantee fair elections. We must replace the current system of partisan election administration, in which partisan secretaries of state, county clerks, election commissioners, and other partisan officials are able to issue rulings that favor their own political parties and themselves, with a non-partisan, independent system of running elections. We must end the practice of contracting out fundamental election functions, such as the maintenance of voter lists, to private corporations. We must also insure that independent international and domestic election observers are given full access to monitor our elections. Any donation to a campaign is, in essence, a bribe to ask a candidate to do what the donator wants. Elections must be decided based on the veracity of the candidates' words and ideas.No More Stolen Elections says:

Many citizens are discouraged from voting by unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles and restrictions. We must simplify and rationalize voter registration so that no one is again disenfranchised for failing to check a superfluous box, as occurred in the year 2000 in Florida, or for not using heavy enough paper, as nearly occurred in Ohio.

We must require voter registrars to sign affidavits promising to submit any registrations in their possession in a timely manner. We must eliminate police intimidation, language, physical disability, extra-legal requirements of personal identification, and other barriers to voting.

To ensure that all qualified voters are able to vote, we must follow the lead of states like Minnesota and Wisconsin by replacing restrictive voter residency requirements with same-day voter registration, allowing qualified voters to register at the polls on Election Day itself. Our current system forces millions of voters to wait up to ten hours to vote.

This is unacceptable, and it disenfranchises those who cannot afford to wait. To increase access to the polls, all states must provide sufficient funding for enough early voting and election-day polling places to guarantee smooth and speedy voting.

To ensure equal access and minimize the wait at the polls, election authorities must allocate resources based on the number of potential voters per precinct. We must put an end to the government-backed practice of allowing partisan activists to challenge the voting rights of individual voters at the polls. Instead, the government must invest in campaigns designed to educate voters about how they can exercise and protect their right to vote.

But first we need to realize / recognize that:
Voting for legislators (Representative Democracy) =/= Voting on legislation (Direct Democracy)


Representative Democracy = "elected oligarchy"
From: https://democracy.foundation/demos-kratos/
Archived: https://archive.md/ncj66

At its very core, representative democracy is leadership selection, an entirely different concept. Voting on legislation is not the same as choosing legislators. One’s focus shifts from selecting the law or policy which is considered to be the most beneficial for the future, to whoever is believed will represent them better (or in reality, less worse).

Representatives are usually a few hundred, and therefore the legislative power lies in a small number of people; the very definition of oligarchy. In our reality, it is best described by the term “elected oligarchy”, an entirely pointless procedure for the people, but valuable for the ruling oligarchy, as misconducts or failures shift the blame to the population group who supported them. Demos & Kratos is when the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them, whereas, in the present system, the legislative power resides by that small group that has no obligation to act righteously.

Here's another writer from another jurisdiction making the same argument
Original: https://medium.com/@khawajasachal/new-f ... 474fb54366
Archived: https://archive.md/Rj50Y

Parliaments, therefore, have become a means of plundering and usurping the authority of the people.
It has thus become the right of the people to struggle, through popular revolution, to destroy such instruments - the so-called parliamentary assemblies which usurp democracy and sovereignty, and which stifle the will of the people.

Here's an interesting idea to transition from Representative Democracy to Direct Democracy
https://yourvoiceparty.org.uk/

I am administration.