New Punishment for Karl Rove
August 19, 2008
Thousands of concerned citizens have signed our petition to Send Karl Rove to Jail. They agree with us that Rove should pay for his dirty voter suppression tricks. Meanwhile, our allies at Brave New Films created a short video that exposes Rove's recent crimes. Send it around, and sign the petition if you haven't already.
We're also working to eliminate one of the darkest corners of Rove's legacy -- stolen elections. Remember, the U.S. Attorneys scandal happened because Rove asked Republican appointees to shut down minority voter registration drives and disenfranchise voters. There is a way to stop his voter suppression tactics -- by electing reform-minded Secretaries of State to run fair, clean elections.
In 2006, our community of donors gave over $500,000 to seven Secretary of State races. We won 5 of those 7 campaigns. The 2008 elections will be dramatically different because of our success.
If you want to help dismantle Karl Rove's legacy of voter suppression, consider supporting our candidates with a contribution. For Rove, clean elections may be an even worse punishment than jail!
Send Karl Rove to Jail
August 05, 2008
The Secretary of State Project was founded to protect our elections from dirty Republican tricks. So today, we've launched a public petition against Karl Rove. The GOP's master trickster has his fingerprints all over a dirty scheme to suppress progressive votes. And now we have a unique chance to hold him accountable.
Click here to sign our petition calling for Congress to hold Rove in contempt and send him to jail.
Some background:
In 2004, Justice Department lawyers started getting strange instructions from Washington -- crack down on voter registration drives in urban areas. The idea was to harass progressive organizations and keep poor and minority citizens from getting to the polls.
Many Justice Department lawyers, Republicans and Democrats alike, balked at these unscrupulous orders. They refused to carry out a partisan witch hunt. In return for their disobedience, Washington started cracking down on THEM -- firing a host of them and passing up others for promotion, in what came to be known as the U.S. Attorneys Scandal.
And who gave the vote-suppression orders in the first place? A long trail of evidence indicates that Karl Rove cooked up and executed the whole scheme. To uncover the truth, the House of Representatives launched an investigation, and asked Rove to testify. He has repeatedly disobeyed Congress's subpoenas, in violation of the law.
The House is now considering a measure to hold Rove in contempt of Congress. If found guilty, he could go to jail. By holding Rove in contempt, we'll send a loud and clear signal to all Bush's cronies -- America's elections must be free and fair. Voter suppression will not be tolerated.
Join the hundreds of thousands who are calling on the House to take a stand against Rove and his dirty tricks.
robin carnahan: investing in elections workers
July 25, 2008
The SoS Project's candidate in Missouri, Robin Carnahan, has started a smart new program that proves why Secretaries of State matter.
One chronic problem that all Secretaries of State face is how to staff their elections. Typically, pollworkers are underpaid, undertrained and overworked. Not exactly a formula that attracts new talent. And though pollworkers are at the front lines of protecting votes and facilitating honest elections, there have been few coordinated efforts to recruit competent folks to their ranks (one of the few is Pollworkers for Democracy -- check it out here).
To combat this problem, SoS Carnahan is freeing up $500,000 of federal money to train a new generation of student pollworkers. (See the full story in the Columbia Tribune). This doesn't cost Missouri a dime; the money was already alloted from federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds. Using HAVA money to train students -- a young, energetic, technologically-oriented demographic -- will go a long way to helping Missouri make sure that everyone's vote is counted in 2008. Carnahan should be loudly applauded, and financially supported, for her prescient decision.
Perhaps the most telling quote in the Columbia Tribune article is this: "Carnahan anticipates that in the general election, 80 percent of the state's registered voters may cast ballots." Getting to 80% turnout would be, well, spectacularly record-breaking. Pollsters and political scientists would probably disagree that Missouri can reach those heights. And yet, instead of planning modestly and risking election day disasters -- not enough pollworkers, not enough ballots, not enough machines -- Carnahan has wisely embraced the Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared. More Secretaries of State should follow her lead.
Looming Risks in '08 Elections
July 21, 2008
A front-page story in today's New York Times underscores why the Secretary of State Project exists.
"With millions of new voters heading to the polls this November," the article starts, "election officials and voting monitors [fear] long lines, stressed-out poll workers and late tallies on Election Day." Among the potential problems: New voting technologies, changing election rules, and, sadly, not enough ballots.
The truth is, most voting problems can be solved by good Secretaries of State. Printing enough ballots, training enough poll workers and ordering reliable, hacker-proof elections machines isn't rocket science. Unfortunately, if a Secretary of State wants to suppress the votes of young people, African Americans, or low income folks -- like Ohio's Ken Blackwell did in 2004 -- he or she can simply not try very hard to fix those voting problems. Or, even worse, fix them in selective polling places (read: affluent suburbs).
Here at the SoS Project, we're proud to see one of our star 2006 candidates, Jennifer Brunner, taking a strong stand against these kinds of problems. Another passage from the Times article:
Although most of the 30 states with touch-screen machines still do not plan to provide backup paper ballots, others, including Ohio, will do so for the first time in a presidential election. In 2004, hundreds of voters in Knox County, Ohio, many of them Kenyon College students, had to wait more than nine hours after one of the two voting machines at their polling place just off campus broke down. There were reports of lines where the wait was several hours long in at least three other counties.
"We refuse to let that happen," said Jennifer L. Brunner, the Ohio secretary of state, who plans to instruct all counties that use touch-screen machines to order backup paper ballots equal to at least a quarter of the votes cast there in the last presidential election.
That's the kind of problem-solving attitude we need from more Secretaries of State. We think our slate of candidates this year all fall squarely into that category.
If you have a minute, leave a comment on the New York Times site to thank reporter Ian Urbina for shining the spotlight on this pressing issue.
Help shape our 2008 strategy
July 09, 2008
Control the election process, and you can control the election results.
It's a simple strategy, one that Republicans have understood for decades. By getting GOP cronies elected as Secretaries of State in key battlegrounds, Republicans have seized unfair influence over American elections. Remember Katherine Harris?
The Secretary of State Project was formed in 2006 to undo this damage. It is working. Last cycle, we won 5 of our 7 elections. With your help, we can continue our winning streak in 2008.
At this point, we're looking for feedback from supporters across the country. We are currently tracking four important Secretary of State races, plus numerous county clerk races. But we don't have eyes and ears everywhere. If you know of an county clerk or SoS race we should target, we would like to hear from you. Email secstateproject - at - gmail - dot - com with your suggestions. We read every email, even if we don't have time to respond to all.
Tennant wins West Virginia primary
May 14, 2008
Natalie Tennant won a decisive victory in the West Virgina Democratic Secretary of State primary.
She campaigned on a platform that included making it easier for students to vote, increasing citizen participation in the pollworker program and encouraging peer-to-peer get out the vote programs.
A former television news anchor, Tennant beat out Senate Majority Leader Joe DeLong, even though he outspent her $263,528 to $41,684 (according to the latest campaign finance reports).
She faces Charles Minimah, the republican nominee, in the general election. Minimah was unopposed in the primary.
If Tennant is elected, she will replace Republican Secretary of State Betty Ireland who decided not to run for another term. Ireland is currently working hard to oppose Election Day Registration in West Virginia.
Cuyahoga County can count
May 06, 2008
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner -- elected with help from the Secretary of State Project -- can claim a new victory today.
CLEVELAND (AP) - The elections board in Cuyahoga County says a hand-count audit of votes from the presidential primary matches the results from scanned paper ballots.
A sample of 30,000 paper ballots from 99 precincts were hand-counted by teams composed of Republicans and Democrats last week.
Board of Elections Deputy Director Pat McDonald said Monday that the voluntary audit was part of a pilot program of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to help determine consistency and performance of high-speed optical scanning.
Cuyahoga County switched to high-speed optical scan from touch-screen electronic voting for the March 4 primary.
It was SoS Brunner who required Cuyahoga County to switch from DREs to optical scan ballots. Finally Cuyahoga County can count.
Voter ID in Indiana: Another Reason Why Secretaries of State Matter
April 30, 2008
On Monday, the Supreme Court showed once again why Secretaries of State matter. In Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the conservative Court gave Indiana the green light to impose draconian photo ID requirements for voting. Despite no evidence that any fraudulent votes had ever been cast in-person in Indiana, it is now constitutional for Indiana to force voters to show an ID at the polls. This will surely prevent many eligible citizens from casting a vote that counts.
Who will be affected? Poor and older voters who do not have drivers licenses. Young people. Minorities. What's worse, now that the Supreme Court has approved Indiana's ID law, Republicans will try to pass similar laws in other states. This will help them game elections by suppressing the vote of some of our most vulnerable citizens.
What does this have to do with Secretaries of State? One of the most vocal champions of requiring voters to show photo ID; is Indiana's Republican Secretary of State Todd Rokita. In 2005, he helped pass the voter ID bill that made its way to the Supreme Court. He's also the president of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
As an influential Republican operative, Rokita's Supreme Court victory may lead to a wave of similar laws in other states. If passed before the 2008 election, new photo ID laws could even deliver a decisive margin in the 2008 presidential race.
Once again, the GOP has shown its command of an immutable political truth - he who controls the machinery of elections can control the outcome of elections. It's time for progressives to fight back.
Our Plans for 2008
April 23, 2008
In 2006, the SoS Project raised $500,000 for seven low-visibility but high-impact Secretary of State races. Every battleground state with a chief elections officer position at stake was contested. Dollar for dollar, we proved to be one of 2006's smartest political investments, winning five of our seven campaigns in battleground states.
Our efforts ensured that Democrats dedicated to clean elections became the chief elections officers in the following states: Iowa, Ohio, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico. Our candidates lost in Colorado and Michigan.
>Did our work make a difference? Take Jennifer Brunner, for instance, our winning candidate for Ohio Secretary of State. We raised over $200,000 for Brunner, helping her replace Ken Blackwell. This equaled nearly 10 percent of her budget and close to the $220,000 fundraising advantage she achieved over her Republican opponent. Since taking office, Brunner has:
• Fired the corrupt Cuyhoga County election board that botched the 2004 and recount
• Replaced Cuyahoga County's DREs with paper ballot machines
• Made it possible for any Ohio voter to request a paper ballot in the 2008 election
• Ordered Ohio's public universities to provide utility bills for all students – an easy form of ID to make sure students are not turned away from the polls as they were in 2004
Having proven in 2006 that the SoS Project model works, we are looking to build on our success by supporting candidates committed to reform in 2008. Our targeting is still in process, but we are monitoring races in Oregon, Missouri, Washington, Montana and West Virginia. We are also researching a few county election official races in 2008 battleground states.
We invite suggestions for additional races of interest. Send us an email with your ideas to secstateproject-at-gmail-dot-com.
Republicans win SoS races in Kentucky and Mississippi
November 07, 2007
Republican Secretary of State candidates handily beat their Democratic opponents in yesterday's election.
In Kentucky, despite a big win for new governor Steve Bashear, Democratic Secretary of State candidate Bruce Hendrickson went down 42 to 57. Incumbent and now two-term Secretary of State Trey Grayson is a rising Republican star. Had Kentucky Democrats fielded a progressive, reform-minded candidate for the office, Trey Grayson might have lost his office on the coattails of a sweeping victory for Steve Bashear.
In Mississippi, Republican Delbert Hosemann easily cruised to victory over Democrat Rob Smith. Hosemann has listed voter ID as one of the "reforms" he wants to bring to Mississippi elections.
SOS Project declined to make endorsements in either race, absent candidates with strong agendas for progressive election reform. This points to the importance of primaries -- we can't win these offices if we don't have candidates who can restore the public's faith in free and fair elections and attract the support of progressive donors and activists.
ActBlue and nationalizing downballot races
August 07, 2007
There's a front page story (below the fold, but still the front page) in today's Boston Globe about ActBlue.com. ActBlue has revolutionized democratic political giving and helped the Secretary of State Project raise over $500,000 for 7 candidates and our strategic fund in the 2006 election cycle.
While the article focuses mostly on fundraising for federal candidates, quotes from founders Matt Debergalis and Ben Rahn try to shift the attention to where their greatest chance for impact lies: nationalizing downballot races.
But Rahn and DeBergalis believe ActBlue's great potential lies in its ability to "nationalize" local races in the 23 states in which the PAC operates. They note that Congressional districts will be redrawn again in 2010. With state legislatures drawing those lines, they say, strategic donations to Democratic state legislative candidates could have a major impact on the fate of the national party.
"At that level, the relative impact is massive," DeBergalis said. "An entire class of novel ways to tackle political and social problems is sitting there waiting for that catalyst that we can bring."
While the quote is about legislative candidates and redistricting in 2010, ActBlue's first case study in nationalizing a downballot election came courtesy of the Secretary of State Project. This is from one of ActBlue's first blog postings (note that we raised over $85,000 in checks, making our total fundraising over $500,000):
One of the initiatives we're most proud to have been part of in 2006 was the Secretary of State Project, which used ActBlue to raise $415,000 for seven Democratic candidates for Secretary of State in 2008 presidential battlegrounds.
The result: Democratic victories in Ohio, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, and Iowa, and with them hope for fair 2008 presidential elections in these states. (One of the project's common refrains was "No more Ken Blackwells!")
The Secretary of State Project is a great example of how you can use ActBlue to bring national attention to local candidates. Normally, raising money for a down-ballot candidate in another state is a hard sell. But by simultaneously fundraising for candidates across the country around a related theme, you create a national cause whose importance will be readily apparent to your prospective donors.
If anyone out there is interested in running a downballot campaign by using ActBlue to promote a national slate of local candidates feel free to hit us up to share our experience at secstateproject-at-gmail-dot-com. And congratulations to ActBlue on much deserved recognition for the role it plays in funding our movement.
A challenger announces in Montana
August 05, 2007
The Great Falls Review reports Linda McCulloch, superintendent of schools in Montana, has announced a bid for Secretary of State.
Brad Johnson, the incumbent republican Secretary of State in Montana was first elected in 2004. He has been an ardent opponent of the state's Election Day Registration system. While EDR in Montana is not as liberal as we would like - you have to go to a county office to register and vote on Election Day, you can't do it at the polls like you can in Minnesota for example - it's a positive step forward.
According to the Montana blog Left in the West, here's what Secretary of State Johnson has to say about Election Day Registration:
It encourages procrastination, discourages informed voting, and creates chaos for election workers - chaos that endangers the integrity of our elections.
Not only that, but Johnson is currently serving as the state chair of Romney for President, taking a high profile partisan role in an election that he is charged with running impartially. For more about the increasing attention paid to Secretaries of State who play partisan politics see our earlier post "you can't be a player and a referee."
McCulloch has pledged to defend Election Day Registration and make youth registration a priority. The Great Falls Review article reports:
McCulloch said her priorities will be young voter participation, finding more election judges, heightening civics awareness, and forming citizen councils to "develop more effective ways to do the business of the office.''
She announced plans for a youth vote project, and pledged to request legislation in 2009 allowing state high school students to serve as election judges to combat a dearth of such officials.
"It's a win for the student, as well as for the elections process in Montana,'' McCulloch said.
It's worth noting that John Tester won his 2006 Senate race by only 3500 votes, and his winning vote count included many student ballots cast as a direct consequence of Election Day Registration rules. We'll be closely watching the Montana race as we make decisions about our 2008 targeting. If you are working on the McCulloch campaign or with any other potential democratic challengers in the Montana Secretary of State race, contact us at secstateproject-at-gmail-dot-com.
"you can't be both a player and a referee"
August 01, 2007
The role Katherine Harris played as both chief elections officer in Florida and co-chair of the Bush/Cheney campaign, was one of the reasons we founded the SoS Project. When the 2000 election hung in the balance, she had dual loyalties - to the voters and to the Bush campaign. She chose the Bush campaign, and thus began one of the most disastrous presidencies in history.
In yesterday's New York Times, Ian Urbina writes:
Across the country, state voting officials routinely participate as candidates in races they are responsible for overseeing or act as leaders in their political parties. In the last presidential election, the secretaries of state in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio, were chairmen of their states' re-election campaigns for President Bush.
Reform-minded Secretaries of State - like SoS Project success stories Mark Ritchie in Minnesota and Jennifer Brunner in Ohio - are running on platforms that specifically reject this kind of double dealing. But unfortunately SoS Project values are in the minority among today's Secretaries of State. The new president of the National Association of Secretaries of State is Indiana's Todd Rokita. He's currently the co-chairman of his state's finance committee for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. With leadership like that, who needs ethics reform?
There are efforts to legislate a solution to this ethics crisis, but opposition is deep and widespread within the community of elections officials as well as the Republican party, an opponent to voting rights in recent history.
Representative Susan A. Davis, Democrat of California, has introduced a bill prohibiting chief state election officials from serving on the political campaigns of federal candidates. When Ms. Davis submitted the bill to the National Association of Secretaries of State for its support, she said she was initially told that they would present it for discussion at the annual convention. Later, however, she was told that it would not be because opposition was too strong...
A similar bill in the Senate is sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California. Mrs. Feinstein's bill has 11 co-sponsors, all Democrats, and is expected to face significant Republican opposition, as is the House bill. Neither bill would prohibit election officials from overseeing elections in which they are candidates. Aides to both Ms. Davis and Mrs. Feinstein said such provisions might raise First Amendment or states' rights challenges.
And neither bill is likely to pass anytime soon. The SoS Project is currently working on its targeting for 2008. Electing reform-minded Secretaries of State is the single most effective way to take back our elections and restore transparency, fairness and uniform protection of civil rights to our democratic process.
Rep. Davis describes the crisis among Secretaries of State simply:
"No one likes anyone to meddle in their jobs," she said. "But you can't be both a player and a referee at the same time."
Ohio SoS Jennifer Brunner cleans house
June 12, 2007
Since taking office, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has cleaned house at the Cuyohoga County Board of Elections.
[Brunner fired] all four members of the Cuyahoga elections board - two Democrats and two Republicans - because of a series of problems, including the criminal convictions of two board workers for their handling of a recount.
Among the casualties was Ohio Republican Chairman Bob Bennett. Cuyohoga County - with over one million voters - is the biggest voting jurisdiction in the state that delivered the 2004 presidential election to George W. Bush.
Brunner is clearly taking on Ken Blackwell-era corruption. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that she is seeking return of over $80,000 in farewell bonuses issued by Blackwell before he left office. Attorney General Marc Dann has declared the bonuses illegal. Progress Ohio has the complete story.
SoS Mark Ritchie gets vetoed in Minnesota
Mark Ritchie - arguably the most progressive Secretary of State in America - faced a set back two weeks ago. At the close of Minnesota's legislative session, the Governor Tim Pawlenty (a Republican vice presidential hopeful) vetoed all of Ritchie's election reform bills which had passed both the House and the Senate.
The bills vetoed included a plan to help soldiers vote from overseas and measures that would have reduced the costs of running elections. The most frustrating veto of the package was for a bill that would have introduced "automatic registration" a significant advance in election administration reform. Automatic registration would mean that anyone with a drivers licese or other state ID card would be automatically registered to vote unless they specifically opted out.
On a recent visit to San Francisco, Ritchie attended a gathering of Secretary of State donors and discussed his efforts to lead election reform at the state and national level. Additional donor events with Ritchie will be scheduled for New York, DC and possibly Los Angeles, scheduling allowed.