Better Ballot Access in NY

Harry Kresky has been diligently working for a bill to replace mandatory petitions for candidate ballot access with filing fees.

Kresky is chair of the election law committee of the New York County Lawyers Association. That association, as well as the New York City Bar Association, has already approved the idea.

Now the work will begin to persuade the State Bar Association, and then to find a sponsor in the legislature.

Harry is also the council for the NYC Independence Party Organizations and also represented me in court as part of cases against our party chair trying to remove certain members of the NYC delegation from the State Committee. I was at the meeting of the election law committee about the Citizen United case and the filing fee replacement issue was addressed.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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The 99Percent Declaration

The Occupy Wall Street protesters have different working groups and a General Assembly which uses a two third vote for approvals. One group called the Demand Working Group has created a declaration that has not been approved yet by the full assembly. Others in the assembly say "demands are made by terrorist."

Here is the working document:

WHEREAS THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION PROVIDES:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

WE, THE NINETY-NINE PERCENT OF THE PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in order to form a more perfect Union, by, for and of the PEOPLE, shall elect and convene a NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY beginning on July 4, 2012 in the City Of Philadelphia.

I. Election of Delegates:

The People, consisting of all United States citizens who have reached the age of 18, regardless of party affiliation and voter registration status, shall elect Two Delegates, one male and one female, by direct vote, from each of the existing 435 Congressional Districts to represent the People at the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY in Philadelphia. Said Assembly shall convene on July 4, 2012 in the city of Philadelphia.

The office of Delegate shall be open to all United States citizens who have reached the age of 18. Election Committees, elected by local General Assemblies from all over the United States, shall coordinate with the 99 Percent Declaration Working Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the99declaration/) to organize, coordinate and fund this national election by direct democratic voting. The Election Committees shall operate like the original Committees of Correspondence did before the first American Revolution.

II. Meeting of the National General Assembly and Deliberation:

At the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY, the 870 Delegates shall set forth, consider and vote upon a PETITION OF GRIEVANCES to be submitted to all members of Congress, The Supreme Court and President and each of the political candidates running in the nationwide Congressional and Presidential election in November 2012. The Delegates of the National General Assembly shall vote upon and implement their own agenda, propagate their own rules and elect or appoint committee members as the Delegates see fit to accomplish their goal of presenting a PETITION OF GRIEVANCES from the 99% of Americans before the 2012 elections.

III. Proposed Petition for the Redress of Grievances:

The PETITION OF GRIEVANCES shall be non-partisan and address the critical issues now confronting the People of the United States. The Delegates shall deliberate and vote upon proposals for the PETITION OF GRIEVANCES in consultation with the People as the delegates to the first two Continental Congresses did. Below is a suggested list of grievances respectfully submitted by the OWS Working Group on the 99% Declaration. The final version of the PETITION OF GRIEVANCES voted upon by the Delegates of the National General Assembly MAY or MAY NOT include the following suggested issues:

1. Implementing an immediate ban on all private contributions of money and gifts, to all politicians in federal office, from Individuals, Corporations, Political Action Committees, Super Political Action Committees, Lobbyists, Unions and all other private sources of money to be replaced by the fair and equal public financing of all federal political campaigns. We categorically REJECT the concept that money is equal to free speech because if that were so, then only the wealthiest would have a voice. These actions must be taken because it has become clear that politicians in the United States cannot regulate themselves and have become the exclusive representatives of corporations, unions and the very wealthy who spend vast sums of money on political campaigns to influence the candidates’ decisions and ensure their reelection year after year.

2. The immediate reversal, even if it requires a Constitutional Amendment, of the outrageous and anti-democratic holding in the "Citizens United" case by the Supreme Court, which equates the payment of money by corporations, wealthy individuals and unions to politicians with free speech. We, the People, demand that institutional bribery and corruption not be deemed protected speech.

3. Prohibiting all federal public officials and their immediate family members, whether elected or appointed, from EVER being employed by any corporation they regulate while in office and/or holding any stock or shares in any corporation they regulate while in office until a full 5 years after their term is completed.

4. A complete lifetime ban on accepting all gifts, services, money, directly or indirectly, to any elected or appointed federal officials or their immediate family members, from any person, corporation, union or other entity that the public official was charged to regulate while in office.

5. A complete reformation of the United States Tax Code to require ALL citizens to pay a fair share of a progressive, graduated income tax by eliminating loopholes, unfair tax breaks, exemptions and deductions, subsidies (e.g. oil, gas and farm) and ending all other methods of evading taxes. The current system of taxation favors the wealthiest Americans, many of whom, pay fewer taxes to the United States Treasury than citizens who earn much less and pay a much higher percentage of income in taxes to the United States Treasury. We, like Warren Buffet, find this income tax disparity to be fundamentally unjust.

6. Medicare for all American citizens or another single-payer health care system, adjusted by a means test (i.e. citizens who can afford it may opt-out and pay their own health insurance or opt-in and pay a means tested premium). The Medicaid program, fraught with corruption and fraud, will be eliminated except for the purpose of providing emergency room care to indigent non-citizens who will not be covered by the single-payer program.

7. New comprehensive regulations to give the Environmental Protection Agency expanded powers to shut down corporations, businesses or any entities that intentionally or recklessly damage the environment and/or criminally prosecute individuals who intentionally damage the environment. We also demand the immediate adoption of the most recent international protocols, including the "Washington Declaration" to cap carbon emissions and implement new and existing programs to transition away from fossil fuels to reusable or carbon neutral sources of power.

8. Adoption of an immediate plan to reduce the national debt to a sustainable percentage of GDP by 2020. Reduction of the national debt to be achieved by BOTH a cut in spending to corporations engaged in perpetual war for profit, the "health care" industry, the pharmaceutical industry and all other sectors that use the federal budget as their income stream AND a truly progressive income tax code that does not allow the wealthy and corporations to evade taxes through excessive deductions, subsidies and loopholes. We agree that spending cuts are necessary but those cuts must be made to facilitate what is best for the People of the United States of America, not multinational and domestic corporations.


9. Passage of a comprehensive job and job-training act like the American Jobs Act to employ our citizens in jobs that are available with specialized training and by putting People to work now by repairing America's crumbling infrastructure. We also recommend the establishment of an online international job exchange to match employers with skilled workers or employers willing to train workers in 21st century skills.

10. Student loan debt relief. Our young People and students are more than $830 billion in debt from education loans alone. Payment and interest on these debts should be deferred for periods of unemployment and the principal on these loans reduced using a corporate tax surcharge.

11. Immediate passage of the Dream Act and comprehensive immigration and border security reform including offering visas, lawful permanent resident status and citizenship to the world’s brightest People to stay and work in our industries and schools after they obtain their education and training in the United States.

12. Recalling all military personnel at all non-essential bases and refocusing national defense goals to address threats posed by the geopolitics of the 21st century, including terrorism and limiting the large scale deployment of military forces to instances where Congressional approval has been granted to counter the Military Industrial Complexs' goal of perpetual war for profit.

13. Mandating new educational goals to train the American public to perform jobs in a 21st Century economy, particularly in the areas of technology and green energy, taking into consideration the redundancy caused by technology and the inexpensive cost of labor in China, India and other countries and paying our teachers a competitive salary commensurate with the salaries of employees in the private sector with similar skills.

14. Subject to the elimination of corporate tax loopholes and exploited exemptions and deductions stated above, offering tax incentives to businesses to remain in the United States and hire its citizens rather than outsource jobs and reconstruct the manufacturing capacity of the United States. In conjunction with a new jobs act, reinstitution of the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps or a similar emergency governmental agency tasked with creating new public works projects to provide jobs to the 46 million People living in poverty, the 9.1% unemployed and 10% underemployed.

15. Implementing of immediate legislation to encourage China and our other trading partners to end currency manipulation and reduce the trade deficit.

16. Immediate reenactment of the Glass-Steagall Act and increased regulation of Wall Street and the financial industry by the SEC, FINRA and the other financial regulators, and the commencement of a Justice Department criminal investigations into the Securities and Banking industries practices that led to the collapse of markets, $700 billion bail-out, and financial firm failures in 2007-2008.

17. Adoption of a plan similar to President Clinton’s proposal to end the mortgage crisis and instead of the Federal Reserve continuing to lower interest rates for loans to banks who are refusing to loan to small businesses and consumers, the Federal Reserve shall buy all underwater or foreclosed mortgages and refinance these debts at 1% or less to be managed by the newly established Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (and foreclosure task force described below) because 1% or less is the interest rate the Federal Reserve loans to the banks directly who hoard the cash rather than loan it to the People and small businesses.

18. An immediate one year freeze on all foreclosures to be reviewed by an independent foreclosure task force appointed by Congress and the Executive Branch to (in conjunction with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ) determine, on a case by case basis, whether foreclosure proceedings should continue based on the circumstances of each homeowner and propriety of the financial institution's conduct.

19. Subject to the above ban on all private money and gifts in politics, to enact additional campaign finance reform requiring free air time and public campaign finances to all candidates who obtain sufficient petition signatures and/or votes to participate in the primaries and/or electoral process, to shorten the campaign season and to allow voting on weekends and holidays.

20. An immediate withdrawal of all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and a substantial increase in the amount of funding needed for veteran job placement and the treatment of the physical and emotional injuries sustained by veterans in these wars. Our veterans are committing suicide at an unprecedented rate and we must help now.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that IF the PETITION OF GRIEVANCES approved by the 870 Delegates of the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY in consultation with the PEOPLE, is not acted upon by Congress, the President, and Supreme Court, to the satisfaction of the Delegates of the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY, said Delegates shall organize a THIRD, COMPLETELY NON-PARTISAN, INDEPENDENT POLITICAL PARTY to run candidates for every available Congressional seat in the mid-term election of 2014 and again in 2016 until all vestiges of the existing corrupt corporatocracy have been removed by the ballot box.

★THE NINETY-NINE PERCENT★

Use the above link for more information about this working group of Occupy Wall Street.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Courts could make chaos in NY State Senate

NY Senate Republicans say moving September primaries to June could lead to chaos in the State Senate. They makes that case in legal briefs that are part of an ongoing lawsuit between the Department of Justice and New York over mailing overseas ballots in time for Election Day.

The Department of Justice says it will force New York to hold primaries in August if they don't take action. But elections officials in New York have asked for a waiver until after the 2012 elections.

If a U.S. District Court rules against New York state’s request for a waiver of the law that requires absentee overseas ballots to be mailed at least 45 days before any federal primary or federal election, then the U.S. government will seek a court order moving the September primary (for office other than president) from September to August or June.

A federal court judge is expected to hear arguments next week.

If the state doesn't receive the waiver, attorneys for Senate Republicans argue that an August primary would be better than in June, which is a date that some lawmakers have suggested.

In legal briefs, attorneys argue that a June primary would force lawmakers to miss legislative session days and they say because the Senate is so closely divided, with 32 Republicans and 30 Democrats, one or two missing senators could shut down work of the body.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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AZ Open Primary Initiative

The Arizona Open Elections Open Government Coalition launched a petition drive to gather 256,00 signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would abolish party primaries (similar to what Top Two has done in California).



Listen to Coalition leader and former state representative, Ted Downing, talk about the campaign and why we need to change the election system on The Buckmeister radio show.



If you have been a reader of my blog, you know I have been a strong supporter of "Open Primaries". But I still have some reservations about "Top Two". There are many issues to be tweaked that require more understanding of each state's current election laws. One issue is how write-in votes are handled both at the primary and general election. In Ca's Top Two, write-ins are not allowed in the General. In NY, how will it affect the concept of Fusion voting? How will candidates affiliation with a party or an independent be indicated? More work needs to be done on these issues so this concept of Open or Non-Partisan Primaries can become the voting selection process in all states.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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One's Famine Campaign

As a member of ONE, I signed the petition.

Please use the above link to sign the petition.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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New York’s ‘Housekeeping’ Money

In New York State there are no limits to the amount of money a person or group or corporation can give to a political party for “housekeeping.”

The State Board of Elections says that that money is supposed to go toward maintaining a party’s headquarters and staff or carrying on “ordinary activities that are not for the express purpose of promoting the candidacy of specific candidates.” But the reporting requirements for such contributions are so vague that it is almost impossible for the voters to figure out how the money is actually being spent. That, of course, is what makes these accounts so wildly popular with both contributors and recipients.

According to Bill Mahoney of the New York Public Interest Research Group, over the last two years, the Democratic and Republican Party committees in New York State have received more than $11 million in “housekeeping” money. Among the big contributors: Greater New York Hospital Association gave more than $600,000 to the Democrats, plus about $140,000 to Republicans. Wal-Mart boosted the state Republican committees by almost $230,000, with about $40,000 to Democrats. Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund operator, gave $1 million to the Conservative Party in 2010. In the last decade, Mayor Bloomberg has donated more than $8.2 million to Republican and Independence Party housekeeping accounts.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said one of his top priorities is campaign finance reform. Doing away with unlimited housekeeping donations is a good place to start.

That is a good start to "Get Money Out of Politics".









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Bloomberg's Technology Pit

Mayor Bloomberg is known for his technology business knowledge but his three terms do not show it. But there have been so many scandals of over payments, outright stealing, and no bid contracts that I wonder what is going on.

Disturbing revelation about the city’s handling of its technology contracts.

This time it’s the latest chapter in the scandal involving computers at the Department of Education. The company the department paid $75 million to do technical work on its purchasing, payroll and finance systems, Future Technology Associates, bilked the city out of at least $6.5 million, according to a report by Richard Condon, the city’s special commissioner of investigation.

Among other things, Future Tech set up shell companies and then vastly inflated its claims of how much those companies charged. So the Department of Education was being charged between $55 and $110 an hour for work that actually cost Future Tech $10 to $14 an hour. Concerns about Future Technology have been circulating for some time.

According to a report from the city comptroller’s Bureau of Audit, in 2005 the department submitted a request that Future Tech get a no-bid contract. (No-bid contracts at the Department of Education have raised concerns in the past.) “This request appears to have contained inaccurate and misleading statements from FTA, which, if DOE had known, should have precluded FTA from being awarded this contract,” says the report from the comptroller’s office, which went to Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott office.

The executive director of the department’s Division of Finance “provided an unsupportable vote of confidence for FTA, indicating that it had the ability and integrity to provide the specific services,’ the letter report by Deputy Comptroller Tina Kim says. But, it continues, the department did not do proper research, which would have shown FTA was a new company with “no prior business record by which it could be judged.”

In addition, the reports says, the city did not follow standard business practice in letting Future Tech use Tier Technology employees who were then working as consultants at the Department of Education. And it found Future Tech did not submit time sheets as required by the agreement between the company and the city. Because of this, Kim writes, “we could not verify that time records were accurate and concluded that time records totaling $1.7 million (pertaining only to billing invoices provided) were paid in contravention of the board’s stated policy.”

All of this becomes less surprising than it might otherwise be when one learns, as Juan Gonzalez of the Daily News reminded readers today, that the chief of financial operations during this time was one Judith Hederman, who, investigators say, was romantically involved with Jonathan Krohe, one of the two owners of Future Tech. Investigators believe that Hederman tipped off Krohe whenever the department seemed to be having doubts about the cost of the project. Hederman resigned in May.

But Hederman, Gonzalez notes, was not the only department of education official involved with Future Tech. Vincent Giordano, now retired, reportedly engineered the no-bid contract. And when Gonzalez first questioned what Future Tech was up to – noting the company had no track record or even, apparently, an office, Photeine Anagnostopoulos, who was the Department of Education’s chief of operations, defended the company’s arrangement with the city. “Their rates are better than competitive,” she told the reporter. “You don’t have to bid every plumbing job in your house because you know what [the] rates are. Anagnostopoulos resigned last year, the day after Cathie Black was appointed School Chancellor.

Prosecutors have already turned their attention to another city technology project, the CityTime computerized timekeeping system for city employees. Last December, federal prosecutor charged four consultants to the city with operating a fraudulent scheme that ended up bilking the city of $80 million as CityTime’s cost soared by more than tenfold. And this summer, they added to the list, charging an executive with Science Applications International Corp., which oversaw CityTime, with taking more than $5 million in kickbacks.

And there may be further problems on the horizon. Last week, the Times reported that a $66 million project to computerize city personnel information had already mushroomed to cost $363 million and, according to the Times, “the work is far from done.” And in this case, too, there were warning signs about the New York City Automated Personnel System or Nycaps. In March 2003, the administration’s own contract monitors warned, “No sense of economy, efficiency or value is evident in any area of the project,”

On Monday, the City Council announced it would investigate cost overruns on the project, and a number of officials expressed dismay that a major technology project had once again been over budget and under performing. In additional to probing Nycaps, the council will reportedly consider a bill that would require the administration to tell City Council when a project is over budget – and explain why.

I have over 40 years in IT, starting three consulting companies and a software development company and this would never have happened under my watch.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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You say you want a revolution, Run for Office

I was planning on writing a post about the "Occupy Wall Street" protest but this article says what I would have written.

Paul Sracic is chairman of the department of political science at Youngstown State University in Ohio.

In case this is not obvious to those camping out near Wall Street and in various other cities around the country, consider the following: In about 13 months, all 435 members of the House of Representatives must stand for election. In addition, 33 Senate seats and residency at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will be up for grabs. And this is just at the federal level. So if the "Occupy Wall Street" crowd wants to peacefully overthrow the government, there is no need to gather in a public square. The demonstrators can work for a candidate or run themselves.

Unfortunately, those who are part of this movement seem to have dismissed this option. The New York group has produced a manifesto of sorts, entitled a "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City." Among the grievances listed (which they helpfully note are not "all-inclusive") is "that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power."

So my suggestion to Occupy Wall Street and their affiliates throughout the country is to pay as much attention to their 15th Amendment right to vote as they do to their 1st Amendment right to peaceably assemble. In other words, get out of your sleeping bags and onto the ballot!

Use the above link to read the entire article.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Researchers Hack Voting Machine for $26

Researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois have developed a hack that, for about $26 and an 8th-grade science education, can remotely manipulate the electronic voting machines used by millions of voters all across the U.S.

The researchers performed their proof-of-concept hack on a Diebold Accuvote TS electronic voting machine, a type of touchscreen Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting system that is widely used. Diebold's voting-machine business is now owned by the Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, whose e-voting machines are used in about 22 states.

Roger Johnston and Jon Warner from Argonne National Laboratory's Vulnerability Assessment Team demonstrate three different ways an attacker could tamper with, and remotely take full control, of the e-voting machine simply by attaching what they call a piece of "alien electronics" into the machine's circuit board.

The electronic hacking tool consists of a $1.29 microprocessor and a circuit board that costs about $8. Together with the $15 remote control, which enabled the researchers to modify votes from up to a half-mile away, the whole hack runs about $26.

Two of the takeovers showed researchers controlling the buttons on the keypad despite what the "real" voter enters. But in what Warner called "probably the most relevant attack for vote tampering," the researchers were able to blank the e-voting machine's screen for a split-second after the "vote now" button was pressed. While the screen went dark, they remotely entered their own numbers into the DRE's keypad.

Johnston explained: "When the voter hits the 'vote now' button to register his votes, we can blank the screen and then go back and vote differently and the voter will be unaware that this has happened."

Johnston and Warner say that the ease with which this type of remote hack could be deployed highlights the need for e-voting machines to be designed better, with not just cybersecurity, but physical security in mind.

"Spend an extra four bucks and get a better lock," Johnston said. "You don't have to have state-of-the-art security, but you can do some things were it takes at least a little bit of skill to get in."

This type of hacking would have to be done before the machines were delivered. I think local county security would not allow this type of hacking.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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