NewsTrust - Election Reform - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

In Campaign Financing, More Money Can Beat Big Money

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Lawrence Lessig - Nov. 17 (Opinion) - A public funding system would stop the influence of big money in politics.

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Make Way for the Radical Center

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Thomas L. Friedman - Jul. 23 (Editorial) -

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How states are rigging the 2012 election

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By E.J. Dionne Jr. - Jun. 20 (Opinion) - An attack on the right to vote is underway across the country through laws designed to make it more difficult to cast a ballot. If this were happening in an emerging democracy, we’d condemn it as election-rigging. But it’s happening here, so there’s barely a whimper.

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The murky business of electioneering

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Beth Wellington - Nov. 10 (Opinion) - Beth Wellington: The tragic irony of Russ Feingold losing in Wisconsin was that the very corporate funding he'd helped outlaw brought him down

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In God-fearing USA, where is the decency?

Sun, 24 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

USA Today - By Tom Krattenmaker - Oct. 24 (Opinion) - Shouldn't a public square teeming with so many religious people and religiously derived principles display a little more decency?

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Capitalism will make you sick

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - Sep. 01 (Opinion) - Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning While the recent recall of more than a half billion eggs, in the wake of some 1,470 Salmonella infections, has triggered a renewed focus on the dangers posed by factory farms to human health and to the environment (see videos below), the discussion stops short ...

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Senate Poised to End Secret Holds

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Ashley Southall - Jun. 19 (Opinion) - A vote this year will be critical to overturning a practice used to delay or derail nominations and legislation. Republican Senators Kit Bond of Missouri and Sam Brownback of Kansas provided the 65th and 66th signatures on a letter sent to Majority Leader Harry Reid requesting a vote to end the so-called secret holds. Mr. Reid also supports the ban.

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An old, sad story at a West Virginia mine

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By E.J. Dionne Jr. - Apr. 08 (Opinion) - Blankenship is also a poster child for why we need campaign finance laws and why recent moves by the U.S. Supreme Court to weaken them are so dangerous. Blankenship spent $3 million to help elect a justice to the West Virginia Supreme Court who then twice provided the key vote that set aside a $50 million jury verdict against Massey Energy.

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Two Democrats' remedy for the high court's campaign finance ruling

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Post - Feb. 16 (Editorial) - THERE IS no simple legislative fix to the Supreme Court's unfortunate recent decision allowing corporations to spend money directly advocating the election or defeat of federal candidates. The court's 5-4 decision was grounded in the First Amendment; consequently, the congressional response is inevitably limited. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) unveiled an important proposal last week designed to address the most fixable aspects of the ruling in time for the 2010 election.

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What Is the First Amendment For?

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Stanley Fish - Feb. 02 (Opinion) - Two ways of looking at the First Amendment, as illuminated by the recent Supreme Court ruling.

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Campaign finance ruling's likely impact overblown

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Stephen R. Weissman - Jan. 28 (Opinion) - Media coverage and commentary have vastly overstated the likely impact on federal election campaigns of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which ruled that corporations have the same right to free speech as individuals. It has also obscured the extent to which members of Congress from both parties had previously opened the door for corporate and union financing in federal campaigns.

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The real reason Obama is not making much progress

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Johann Hari - Nov. 20 (Opinion) - So far, Obama has tried to co-opt the corporations into his agenda by ensuring they will profit from any changes, but this inevitably waters down the proposals, often to the point of uselessness. The Cap and Trade legislation before Congress, for example, will barely limit carbon emissions at all because it has been gutted to please the polluters.

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Tom Coburn picks on political science

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Daniel W. Drezner - Oct. 08 (Comment) - OK, dear readers, I want you to close your eyes and imagine a world in which your entire knowledge of political behavior emanated only from CNN, pollsters, pundits, historians, candidates, and political parties.

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The Trial of John Roberts

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Jeffrey Rosen - Sep. 13 (Opinion) - A campaign finance case in the Supreme Court could tell us if Chief Justice Roberts will be remembered as the next John Marshall or Earl Warren.

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A Threat to Fair Elections

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Sep. 08 (Editorial) - The Supreme Court has upheld the limitations on corporate campaign expenditures in the past. If they open the floodgates now, corporations will have a huge say in who wins federal elections.

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Why do we allow the US to act like a failed state on climate change

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By George Monbiot - Jun. 26 (Opinion) - There are mind-boggling concessions to the biofuels industry, including a promise not to investigate its wider environmental impacts. There's a provision to allow industry to use 2bn tonnes of carbon offsets a year, which include highly unstable carbon sinks like crop residues left in the soil (another concession won by the powerful farm lobby). These offsets are so generous that if all of them are used, US industry will have to make no carbon cuts at all until 2026.

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No Country for Close Calls

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Nate Silver, Andrew Gelman - Apr. 18 (Opinion) - Contests as close as these — not to mention Florida’s electoral adventures in 2000 — have led to an impression that the margin between Democrats and Republicans is pretty narrow. That is why when Barack Obama defeated John McCain by 7.3 points last November, historically a fairly average margin, the victory was widely hailed as a landslide.

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Voting technology facts fight conspiracy theories

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Examiner - By Jan Tyler - Mar. 13 (Opinion) - Election technology should be studied by unbiased scientists, whose voter registrations shoud be disclosed. Instead of reverting to paper ballot systems, legislators and officials should focus on finding modern technology to administer elections. Otherwise, our elections will be vulnerable, not to imaginary techological glitches, but to human nature.

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Voter ID: $1.5 million spent on 30 indictments?

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Austin American-Statesman - By CHuck Lindell - Mar. 10 (Opinion) - Opponents: Attorney General Greg Abbott has spent $1.5 million investigating election fraud, finding very little. The cost is closer to $690,000 to prosecute 30 election code cases since 2006 — a number that will grow because seven cases are still pending, according to figures from Abbott’s office.

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Restore voting rights to ex-felons

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Gil Kerlikowske, John Lovick - Feb. 13 (Opinion) - Good law enforcement involves not only preventing and solving crimes but also helping those who have been released from prison return to society as law-abiding citizens.

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For senate, Caroline or Carolyn?

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Nicholas D. Kristof - Dec. 17 (Opinion) - Caroline Kennedy strikes me as a very impressive woman with all the right priorities, such as education. But I also find it unseemly and undemocratic that she seems to have vaulted to the top of the Senate list by virtue of who her dad was. Seeing which way the wind is blowing, Rupert Murdoch’s NY Post has already endorsed her. Isn’t that sexist? Isn’t that the kind of system we rebelled against in 1776?

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Voter Registration Should Be Automatic

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Hartford Courant - By Robyn Blumner - Nov. 23 (Opinion) - The problems arose because our old system of state-by-state registration rules — some of which appear designed for a mail system via pony express — is outmoded and frankly retains vestiges of our racist past. We need to follow the lead of at least 24 other countries and adopt a system of automatic and permanent voter registration.

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Go slow on early voting

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - Nov. 03 (Editorial) - Despite its many advantages, early voting has caused a few caution flags to be raised. For one, the opportunity for such votes to be lost, ignored, or altered is increased. While such slip-ups or fraud may not change an election, even the appearance of it is a danger. On Election Day, there are far more poll watchers to keep things honest.

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The Success of Early Voting - NYTimes.com

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Oct. 29 (Editorial) - But the truth is that early voting actually makes it harder for the forces of disenfranchisement to stop eligible voters from casting ballots. If election officials try to require voters to present ID when it is not required by law, early voting gives voters a chance to simply return the next day. Dirty tricks are also harder to pull off. If political operatives want to jam get-out-the-vote telephone lines, as they did on Election Day in New Hampshire in 2002, it would be harder to do if people voted over two weeks. Early voting also reduces the burden on election systems that are often stretched near to the breaking point.

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The Vote Grab: Voter purge could swing result to McCain

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Peter Tatchell - Oct. 28 (Opinion) - In the first few days of early voting in Florida, 5,000 voters have already been rejected, mostly because of typos and bureaucratic blunders in the spelling of their names. Non-match discrepancies could result in hundreds of thousands of US citizens - perhaps millions - losing their right to vote. Even those who are allowed to remain on the register may be required to vote using a provisional ballot, which may or may not be counted.

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