Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) proposes Federal Election Integrity Act

[chomskysright]

from soft money/ hard law:
http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/articles/20050111.c...

Lautenberg's contact info: http://lautenberg.senate.gov /

Senator Lautenberg announced yesterday his proposal for a Federal Election Integrity Act of 2005 ("FEIA"), that would prohibit state election officials "with supervisory authority over the administration of federal elections" from participating in the political campaign of a federal candidate in that state.
This is a useful proposal for change in an area--the political control of the elections machinery--where it is badly needed. It addresses the obvious problem of conflict-of-interest. The Senator's office released a press statement stressing that point: "There is an inherent conflict of interest when an election official charged with supervising the administration of an election, and ensuring the fairness and accuracy of the results, has a direct role in the campaign of one of the candidates running for Federal office."

The Lautenberg proposal would address the open conflict, and this is undoubtedly good. The elimination of obvious conflict--visible conflict--does not, of course, address the problem of conflict-in-fact: the supervision of elections by partisan officials with a clear political interest in the outcome. Ken Blackwell's official machinations in Ohio would have been just as odiously partisan if he had not held a position with the campaign. And there is no reason to believe that, without the position, he would not have engaged in them.

The corruption here is corruption in fact, not merely in appearance.

[Reverend_Smitty]

1. Kudos to Sen Lautenberg!!

This is a great way to open up debate on an undoubtedly corrupt election process. I'm proud to call him *my* senator!

[CO Liberal]

6. I Was Always Proud of Him....

...when i lived in NJ. Frank's one of the good ones. Always has been - always will be.

Bill Bradley was also a good Senator. And of the many COngresspeople I had represent me, one of the best was a Republican - the late, great Millicent Fenwick.

[merwin]

2. Well, that bill would just make it harder for us to find out who

is on the take.

[Robbien]

3. What good is finding out if a person is on the take

Nothing happens to him, except if he is a republican he gets rewarded.

[sjgman9]

4. bout damn time!

from the land of obama and durbin, im glad that new jersey has a great senator ready to stick it the harrises and the blackwells

[wicket]

5. excellent!!

[bunny planet]

7. that's my man Frank!

[Supersedeas]

15. just wrote an email of support

[bunny planet]

19. Thanks, I will too.

[loudsue]

8. If this is his idea of fixing something that's broken, it's not

it's not good enough. As someone else noted, it would only take the impropriety "underground", and be harder to prove fraud or malfeasance.

The IMPORTANT issue here, is paper ballots, that will be TALLIED by strictly non-partisan, or bi-partisan, hand-counters. That's the ONLY way we're going to have a fair election in this country, ever again. There's just too much division and polarization, too much anger and dirty fighting going on. It is being allowed to drown out the will of the voters.

It would be nice if election officials could be counted on to be honest, just because they don't blatantly or openly affiliate with one party or the other. But it doesn't match reality.

[patcox2]

9. Oh, but he's evil because he was rude to a DUer!

Someone posted a thread and told the story that he had buttonholed Lautenberg in an elevator, started to "educate" him on black box voting, and Lautenberg rudely ran away. So much jumping to conclusions, so many wrong, unsupported snap judgments about Lautenberg that day.

[Just Me]

10. Weird. I thought that was already the law.

Maybe, such activities merely fell under conflict-of-interest ethicalstandards.

I wonder what the punishment/penalties are proposed. Are criminal penalties attached? I hope so.

[RayOfHope]

13. The Missouri SOS

Matt Blunt, was head of the MO bc04 campaign. He was also a gubernatorial candidate. And guess who won his race....he is a 34 year old with little govt experience who was up against a fairly popular female Dem candidate who managed to unseat the current Dem gov in the primaries. Even my completely rethug father figured blunt would lose. (Blunts father, Roy Blunt, is buddies with Delay)

[Woodstock Liberal]

11. That's my Senator!

If anyone dislikes * more than me, its my guy Lautenberg.

[captainslack]

12. Since the Repugs have won two elections

By "winning" in states where the chief election official has also been a prominent official in the GW for Pres campaign in the decisive state, I doubt this bill will make it thru Committee in the Repub controlled Senate.

Shame.

[brentspeak]

14. If only Frankie Baby could be several decades younger

I don't want him to retire, but I know he's got no choice. NJ and this country will be losing both Lautenberg and Jon Corzine from the Senate in 2006 -- and we need them both badly.

[knight_of_the_star]

16. It's move in the right direction

It will make it harder to steal elections when you can't do that kind of thing.

[UCLA Dem]

17. sweet. no more roll over and play dead democrats.

its a new era my friends. no more pushover donkeys its back to being the subborn kick-asses that have been dormant for so long.

keep it up dems!!!

[buddysmellgood]

18. We need non-partisan election commissions. www.nov3.us

Replace Partisan Oversight with Non-Partisan Election Commissions
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.