An e-mail from Sen. Durbin

[Us vs Them]

It took nearly four months for a form letter reply, but it still hasn't put a damper on my opinion that Sen. Durbin is an outstanding legislator.

Dear Mr. xxxxx:

Thank you for contacting me to share your thoughts on the outcome of the
November 2, 2004, Presidential election. I appreciate hearing from you.

Like you, I was disappointed with the outcome of the election. I am glad
that when Congress met in a joint session on January 6, 2005, to certify
the votes of the Electoral College, Senator Barbara Boxer of California
and Representative Stephanie Tubbs-Jones of Ohio forced a debate in the
House and Senate regarding voting irregularities in Ohio. However, since
President Bush's certified margin of victory in that state exceeded
100,000 votes, it is clear that Senator Kerry was correct in announcing
his concession on November 3, 2004.

While there were voting irregularities in Ohio, there was insufficient
evidence of massive voter fraud or other election law violations of
sufficient magnitude to have altered the outcome of the election in that
state. Furthermore, with supporters of President Bush holding a majority
in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the objection to the
Ohio electors was certain to fail. However, Senator Boxer raised an
important issue. We need to engage in a debate that questions not simply
the results of this single election but, rather, the integrity of our
entire electoral system. We can, and we should, do better job of
ensuring a fair and accurate vote.

Due to widely differing electoral procedures presently enacted by states
across America, voters who wish to cast a vote for President or Vice
President can't approach the polls with complete certainty that they can
vote in a fair and convenient manner, or that their vote will be counted
accurately.

Any voter who arrives at a polling place and does not appear on the rolls
of registered voters must be offered and permitted to cast a provisional
ballot. However, those ballots are not handled uniformly across the
nation. In Illinois, 61% of provisional ballots voted in Cook County were
counted for federal offices, even if voters cast them outside of the
precinct in which they were registered to vote. In DuPage County, only
26% of provisional ballots cast were counted, because the county
disqualified ballots which were cast by voters who voted at polling places
outside their home precinct on Election Day. How is the fundamental right
of an American citizen to have his or her vote counted ensured when voting
procedures can vary so dramatically not just from state to state, but from
county to county?

I am also concerned about the potential for tampering with electronic
voting machines. One proposed solution is to require an auditable paper
voting record for each ballot cast. I support this approach. During the
108th Congress, I cosponsored the Voting Integrity and Verification Act
(S. 2437), a measure introduced by Senator John Ensign of Nevada, which
would have required such a paper trail by 2006. This bill was referred to
the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration but did not receive a
vote in the full Senate before the close of the 108th Congress. I am
hopeful that similar legislation will be introduced soon in the 109th
Congress.

The Constitution presently contains no express provision guaranteeing
citizens the right to vote. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. of Illinois
has proposed a Constitutional amendment that would state clearly and
unequivocally that citizens have a right to vote in America. While I do
not believe that the Constitution should be amended lightly, I believe
that Representative Jackson's proposal deserves a debate and close
scrutiny.

The historic debate over the objection to the certification of the 2004
election that was raised by Senator Boxer and Representative Tubbs-Jones
was certainly only the first step toward meaningful reform of our
electoral system. I will keep your views in mind as Congress continues to
consider legislation protecting the voting rights of all Americans.

Thanks again for contacting me. Feel free to keep in touch.
Sincerely,




Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator

RJD/am

[GetTheRightVote]

1. Glad to hear he is staying in there and willing to listen, if sincere

:kick:

[Tweed]

2. Hey man

It's been awhile. Are you guys done with finals now?

That's a great letter from Senator Durbin. Thank you for typing it all out for us. Hope to see you next week, unless you have some latest developments you want to PM me. I'm quite interested in these things you know.

[Us vs Them]

3. I've RSVPed!

I look forward to the 17th, too. I noticed you mentioning the topic of local politics. Do you have any informative site recommendations you could pass along?

[Tweed]

4. Yeah, here is the main site I use

http://www.russstewart.com/chicago_politics.htm

Russ Stewart knows more about Chicago politics than any columnist I've run into. Now others may know more, but they don't write about them at the length and detail that Stewart does. Recently he has been writing about suburban politics, but if you go back a couple of weeks, you'll find some good Chicago articles. You can read two or three years worth of articles in the archives and I highly recommend it. Some of it is a little dated, but the majority of what he talks about hasn't changed much. Plus it's interesting to look back and see how correct he was about some statewide things.

Glad to hear that you RSVPed. If we can get JohnnyCougar from IIT to come, I'm pretty sure someone from Dominican University is going to come, so we'll need just one more school to hit my target of six schools represented. Hopefully we can get chapters at IIT and Dominican going as well.

Does your school have facebook up yet? It's a great tool to use for recruitment.

[fit4life]

5. Four months?

I emailed him about tort reform after Bush's speech in Illinois, and he got back to me within a week.

I guess he just likes me better. lol

[EST]

6. The place to begin (as I wrote to Durbin)

is with a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote.

There is now no such guarantee. I would also like to propose a change to declare election day a national holiday, or moving it to Saturday and Sunday, as well as declaring it a national holiday.

Also there has to be a policy that is consistent from state to state for withholding the franchise, such as for convicted felons currently serving time as well as the procedure for restoring said franchise. These issues are just too important to be left up to the states-witness the shenanigans surrounding 2000&2004.

I have yet to hear back from him on these questions. I've found that his replies are pretto spotty, at least for the last year or so.

Anyone like to help out with these campaigns?

[followthemoney]

7. Jesse Jackson has a couple of good bills going.

Check out Jesse Jackson Jr. proposed amendment to the constitution. The amendment would require a majority, not a plurality to win an election.

It was submitted October 2004.

<http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.J.RES.109:>

<http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.5293>