Constitutional Revision | County Home Rule | Election Process | Legislative Reform Presidential Nominee Selection Process | Voting Rights | References courtesy Wikipedia | U.S. Elections Project | George Mason University, Fairfax, VA | Reed College | Brennan Center for Justice | ERIC: Educational Resources Information Center | Fiscal Policy
Government
The League of Women Voters is where hands on work to safeguard democracy leads to civic improvement.
Constitutional Revision
Support of a permanent constitutional commission in addition to other methods for initiating constitutional change.
Support of specific constitutional revisions to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of state government.
Resources
County Home Rule
Support of measures to extend home rule to counties.
Election Process
Conflict of Interest
Support of financial disclosure to expose potential conflicts of interest among public officials and candidates.
Resources
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Legislative Reform
Support of measures to improve the organization and powers of the Missouri General Assembly.
Support of standards of appointment to make congressional and legislative districts as compact, contiguous and nearly equal in population as possible.
Resources
Presidential Nominee Selection Process
Support of measures to increase the informed participation of Missouri citizens in the selection of presidential nominees.
Resources
Voting Rights
Support of an accurate, efficient, accessible, accountable and uniform election process.
Support of measures to ensure a secret ballot.Supports no excuse by mail or in person absentee voting.
Supports maintaining the practice of a permanent absentee disabled voter list.
Supports clear and concise instructions to minimize spoiled and uncountable ballots.
Supports adequate state funding for elections; elections should be a funded mandate.
Supports early, in person voting, also referred to as advance voting.
Supports centralized voting via Voting Centers, i.e., combined precincts, satellite or super precincts where any registered Missouri voter can cast a ballot.
Supports election consolidation by moving special elections to primary and general election days.
Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_convention_
(political_meeting)
Wikipedia defines a constitutional convention.
These references courtesy Wikipedia:
1. "Professor Stanford Levinson Proposes a New Constitutional Convention".Colorado Law – Univ. of Colorado at Boulder. January 25, 2008.http://lawweb.colorado.edu/news/showArticle.jsp?id=434. Retrieved September 20, 2009.
2. Sanford Levinson (LA Times article available on website) (October 16, 2006). "Our Broken Constitution" University of Texas School of Law –
News & Events. http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/101606_latimes.html. . Retrieved October 10, 2009.
3. "http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12212007/profile.html". .
Public Broadcasting Service: Bill Moyers' Journal.
December 21, 2007. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12212007/profile.html
Retrieved October 10, 2009.
4. MICHAEL KINSLEY (November 5, 2006).
"Essay: Election Day".
New York Times: Sunday Book Review. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/books/review/
Kinsley.t.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
5. By Larry J. Sabato (September 26, 2007).
"An amendment is needed to fix the primary mess". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070926/opcom
wednesday.art.htm Retrieved September 20, 2009.
6. Richard Labunski interviewed by Policy Today's
Dan Schwartz (October 18, 2007).
"Time for a Second Constitutional Convention?".
Policy Today.
http://www.policytoday.com/index.php?option=com_
content&task=view&id=258&Itemid=148.
Retrieved September 20, 2009.
7. Robert A. Dahl (February 11, 2002). "How Democratic Is the American Constitution?". Yale University Press. . http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300092180.
Retrieved September 20, 2009.
U.S. Elections Project
http://elections.gmu.edu/early_vote2008.html
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George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Survey questions based in part on Dr. Michael McDonald, Department of Public and International Affairs, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA,and PhD student Matthew Thornburg. Please see his original survey of Virginia County Clerks and voting administrators at http://elections.gmu.edu/2008%20Election%20
Aeministration%20Administration%20Survey.pdf
Reed College
http://earlyvoting.net/states/abslaws.php
List of states and synopsis of their laws regarding early voting
Brennan Center for Justice
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/eliminating_barriers_
to_voting_election_day_registration/
Several publications and reports on barriers to voting and increasing voter registration and participation through the Brennan Center.
ERIC: Educational Resources Information Center.
Report by Pauline A. Schneider that covers factors contributing to lower voter turnout including a mobile society, discouraging effects of polls, poverty, lack of education and apathy. Directed to teachers, elementary secondary education.
http://texaspolitics.laits.utexas.edu/6_5_3.html
Texas Politics – Historical barriers to voting Former Confederate states have a history of systematic disenfranchisement of blacks, Latinos and poor whites. Texas initiated a poll tax in 1902, which was abolished for national elections by the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1964. Great history reading.
http://naacpldf.org/case-issue/barriers-voting
The NAACP Legal and Educational Fund (LDF) says: “The implementation of mandatory identification regulations has a disparate impact on underprivileged and minority voters who lack access to the forms of identification required. States who have adopted or are attempting to adopt mandatory voter identification requirements allege to be combating voter fraud despite a severe lack of evidence that voter fraud exists or poses a threat. Instead of protecting the integrity of political participation, strict identification requirements harm it by disenfranchising eligible voters.”
Excellent review of historical barriers based on poverty and race.
Fiscal Policy
Support of a balanced and progressive tax system to finance necessary governmental services.
Opposition to revenue and expenditure limits to control the growth of state government.
Fiscal policy should be in state statutes, rather than the Constitution.
Resources
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/
The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a joint effort of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, covers a wide variety of topics. Make your own state and local finance tables using a finance data query system. Has data for 1977-2006. Many resources available at this one site.
http://calculator.taxpolicycenter.org//
Tax Policy Center’s tax calculator based on sample taxpayers.
http://www.ctj.org/
Citizens for Tax Justice. A public interest research and advocacy organization whose mission is “to give ordinary people a greater voice in the development of tax laws.” Check out what’s going on in Missouri and other states as well as federal tax policy.
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