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.


 
Judge tells LREMC to revamp elections

By By Roxana Schaefer
Published February 26th 2004 in The Robesonian

LUMBERTON, NC - A Superior Court judge ordered Lumbee River Electric Membership Corp. to change its election process in order to offer a fairer chance for a racially representative board of directors. But the judge stopped short of giving plaintiffs a sweeping victory, denying a request to void the October election.

Superior Court Judge G.K. Butterfield ruled Monday in a Robeson County court that the corporation's election procedures "have the effect of disenfranchising the minority members of the corporation." All of the board members are American Indian and there hasn't been a non-Indian on the board since 1993.

"On or before June 30, 2004, the board shall make revisions to its by-laws that will likely result in greater electoral opportunities for African-American and Caucasian members of the corporation ... and seek approval of the Superior Court to schedule an election," Butterfield ordered in his ruling.

The ruling comes after nine LREMC customers and former board members - Ronald Hammonds, Rev. H.E. Edwards, Clifton Sampson Jr., John Kershaw, Mernelle Baxter, Delia Quaison, John Gingras, Peter Cooper and Jeanette Locklear- asked the court to overturn the Oct. 7 board of directors election and hold a new election.

In denying the request to void the election, Butterfield said it was "likely that a new election will have the same results and members of the minority communities will continue to be unrepresented." Hammonds ran and lost in the Oct. 7 election, during which all of the incumbent board members were re-elected.

Butterfield told the board that it "may consider:" eliminating at-large seats; increasing the number of districts from nine to 12; allowing members of each district to elect their representatives; creating multi-seat districts with cumulative voting; proxy voting;, Saturday elections; polling hours longer than two hours; voting by mail; "or any other procedures that will be inclusive for the minority members of the corporation."

The plaintiffs have objected to holding the elections at Givens Performing Arts Center in Pembroke, a largely Indian community, which they say stack the deck in favor of the election of Indians.

The co-op was first sued by the nine plaintiffs on Sept. 25, 2002, claiming the election system was designed to keep incumbents in power and keep people of other races from gaining seats.

Hammonds declared a victory even though the Oct. 7 election was not voided.

"I am tickled pink with the judge's wise decision," Hammonds said. "The way he addressed it, that has been our objective all along from day one - to bring about fairness so people could vote for their district and no more. In my opinion, this is one of the best things we've seen in a long time for the membership of Lumber River Electric."

Hammonds said that candidates will now "have to run on their own merits and qualifications" without the support of slates, or groupings of four candidates running together.

"The people in each district will be able to vote for their own representative, not people in other counties they don't even know," Hammonds said.

Walter White, LREMC's vice president of customer service and community relations, said a court order from Jan. 28 stopped the company from publicly discussing the suit, and the company wasn't sure if the ruling still applied.

After the Oct. 7 election, Hammonds made additional complaints to the company's Credentials and Elections Committee, which resulted in the committee recommending that the board address parking issues at Givens, number ballot boxes, improve accommodations for disabled voters, consider extending voting time, consider allowing customers to vote in less than all of the elections and consider alternatives to resolution voting - a process which allows one person to vote for a business or organization.

One LREMC employee was fired for forging resolution votes in the October election, according to the complaint.