Electoral Reform Endorsement Requirement

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WHEREAS a properly functioning election system should produce unanimous agreement about the results indicated by a fixed set of unchanging records; and

WHEREAS recent elections have been conducted under conditions that have not produced unanimous agreement about the outcome; and

WHEREAS future elections cannot possibly produce unanimous agreement as long as any condition permits an inconclusive count or recount of votes; and

WHEREAS an election is a competition for the privilege of representing the people; and

WHEREAS the Declaration of Independence refers to the Consent of the Governed as the self-evident truth from which Government derives “just power”; and

WHEREAS candidates seeking endorsement by Democrats are asking to represent the people by virtue of filing to run for office;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Whatcom County Democratic Party (WCDCC), the 40th Legislative District, and the 42nd Legislative District amend their rules and if necessary their bylaws to require that no candidate or incumbent elected official for county, state, or federal office (except judicial office) may be considered for Party endorsement without signing a statement agreeing to actively seek and support, to the degree their office allows, the following reforms as a top priority if they are elected:

  1. Voting processes should be owned and operated entirely in the public domain.
  2. Clean money laws to keep all corporate funds out of campaign financings should be proposed and passed.
  3. There must be a voter verified paper ballot for every vote cast which will be the legal ballot of record.
  4. Additional uniform nationwide standards should be determined by a non-partisan nationally recognized commission.
  5. November Election Day should be made a national holiday.
  6. All votes must be counted publicly and locally in the presence of citizen witnesses and credentialed members of the media.
  7. Equal time provisions should be restored by the media, and the promotion of local, public control of the airwaves made a priority.
  8. Presidential debates shall be open to all candidates meeting a defined threshold of support and run by a non-partisan commission comprised of representatives of publicly owned media outlets.
  9. Preference voting and proportional representation should replace the winner-take-all system for elections.

(Date Passed 04/08/2006 by Whatcom County Democrats)

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