Claim Democracy
Claim Democracy encourages networking and collaboration among national, state and local democracy groups in order to build support for and strengthen a national infrastructure for a pro-democracy movement within the United States.  Its most significant accomplishment thus far has been our November 2003 and 2007 Claim Democracy conferences, which brought together representatives of more than 100 organizations and more than 500 people for intensive private meetings and public dialogue inWashington, D.C. In light of recent election administration problems and high-profile obstacles to fair elections in the public interest, its major goal for 2008 is the Democracy SoS (Secretary of State) project, designed to develop a comprehensive agenda for action by Secretaries of State and other elected officials who influence election policy.

The vision for Claim Democracy is to help create and support a network of state-based organizations that work to secure, enhance and exercise the right vote through a range of reforms and activities. Rather than exclusively focus on one particular reform or another, these organizations would be able to coordinate and pool resources to advocate one of a number of reforms that meet clear pro-democracy goals. Examples include: expanding the electorate, increasing citizen participation, providing fair representation, promoting better political debate, freeing voters to support their candidate of choice and supporting equality in the political process. Potential activities include plans to:
  • Establish a new website with a range of information about pro-democracy issues, blogs from several leading pro-democracy advocates and easy means to find pro-democracy advocates in one’s state or locality. An internal invitation-only set of pages would facilitate communication among leaders of pro-democracy groups.

  • Promote creation of and support for a network of state and local groups working to promote participation and reform in their state – ideally seeking to integrate efforts to boost citizen participation with reform efforts and seeking to establish lasting relationships with elected officials able to enact change.

  • Coordinate regular meetings of a pro-democracy roundtable of national and local groups, designed to promote strategic thinking, greater communication and coordination in the pro-democracy movement and support for state/local efforts.

  • Develop a “war-room” communications ability able to spotlight deficits in our democracy and work being done to address those efforts.

  • Develop and work with caucuses of pro-democracy elected officials, at local, state and federal levels – coordinating strategic initiatives that can be carried out at different levels.

  • Develop curriculum about the history of expansion of democracy in the United States as a whole and individual states to be used in K-12 schools.


 

Uri Party won 152; GNP won 121


By Min-Hyuk Park
Published April 16th 2004 in The Dong-A Ilbo (Korea)

The National Election Commission (NEC) officially announced on April 16 that Uri Party garnered 152 victories, including 23 from the proportional representation system, and that the Grand National Party (GNP), Democratic Labor Party (DLP), Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), the United Liberal Democrat (ULD), and National Alliance 21 won 121, 10, nine, four, and one seats respectively, and two independent members were elected.

According to the NEC, the Uri Party won 23 seats from proportional representation system by obtaining 38.3 percent of votes and the GNP won 21 seats by obtaining 35.8 percent. The DLP and MDP respectively won eight and four seats by obtaining 13.0 percent and 7.1 percent of votes.

However, the ULD, which obtained 2.8 percent of votes, could not win a seat from the proportional representation system because it failed to obtain three percent of the votes or win five assemblymen elections from the electoral district.

Meanwhile, it was reported that 60.6 percent of all eligible voters participated in the 17th general election. The percentage increased by 3.4 percent compared to the 16th general election, which was 57.2 percent.

The NEC conveyed that 21,581,550 people out of 35,596,497 of the electorate voted in the April 15 elections.

The general election recorded a success rate of 4.8:1 with 1,167 candidates running for 243 electoral districts and a 3.3:1 success rate with 189 candidates running for the proportional representation assemblymen, which accounts for 56.