Be sure to THANK LAUTENBERG!!

[dalloway]

Below is part of an email I recently sent out to friends of mine in NJ. Please read and contact Lautenberg to thank him for his efforts and support his Election Integrity Act.

"In case you didn't catch it in the meager coverage of this historic event, our very own Senator Lautenberg made a very important speech during the Senate debate which followed the objections raised by Senator Boxer (D--CA) and Rep. Stubb-Jones objection (D--OH). First of all, I should say that the Democrats rightly used this opportunity to bring to the foreground many concerns about how this past election was conducted. While they chose NOT to contest the results of the election in Congress, they DID begin what they promise to be a VERY IMPORTANT dialogue with the American people on the subject of Election Reform which, at least theoretically, should be a bipartisan issue."

"There were several important pieces of legislation that various Senators and Representative promised to put forward shortly, including requiring a paper-verified voter trail for all electronic machines and a constitutional amendment to ensure that every citizen has the right to vote (many of you may be surprised to learn that we are one of only a very small number of democracies that lacks this basic constitutional right--even the Afghanistan constitution guarantees its citizen the right to vote.) Indeed, it has been the lack of such an explicit statement in the Constitution that has made it more difficult to prosecute and correct systemic disenfranchisement such as we saw in Ohio this year and in Florida in 2000."

"Senator Lautenberg, during the Senate debate, brought to light the unethical, highly partisan and, in some cases, illegal action of Ohio's Secretary of State Blackwell (who was also, ala Katherine Harris, the chair of Bush's Ohio re-election campaign). He brought along his own blow-up poster of a fundraising letter Blackwell sent out AFTER the election (illegally on his official letterhead) in which Blackwell literally bragged about all he did to help "deliver" Ohio for the Bush campaign.(Blackwell now intends to run for governor, hoping for political payback for his highly partisan handling of the election)."

"In his speech, Lautenberg promised to introduce shortly the Federal Election Integrity Act of 2005 which would prohibit anyone overseeing an election from holding a role in a partisan political campaign. (now THERE'S a good idea).For more info, see the press release from Lautenberg's office just put up on his website: http://lautenberg.senate.gov/~lautenberg/press/2003/01/2005106933.html "

To express support:

Contact Info:

Lautenberg, Frank - (D - NJ)
Class II

324 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

[phone]

Web Form: lautenberg.senate.gov/webform.html


THANK SEN. LAUTENBERG for his work on this!

[leftyandproud]

1. *ahem* and his VOTE last week was???

[dalloway]

2. He voted no like all the other Senators except for Boxer BUT

at least he spoke up about Blackwell and election reform which is more than I can say for Corzine or Schumer or another 15 Senators or so I had high hopes for. Let me not hide my disappointment about the vote, but at LEAST he is moving the issue forward by trying to eliminate the blatant conflicts of interest.

[keith the dem]

3. Just thanked him!

Everybody from NJ, please do the same. You can do it through the website in the original message. (it's very easy)