Campaign Finance/Vote Counting Reform

[SHRED]

Could public financing of elections and a return to publicly controlled vote counting, be winning issues?
The problem would be trying counter-act the corporate media spin against such an idea.
After all, they are part of the big money lobbyist problem.

In the media world of soundbites we need candidates who could spell out the benefits, to the citizens, in short, clear, and concise statements.
We need people who have the ability to simply describe, in no uncertain terms, the direct and positive affect such a system would have on the average disinterested citizen.
We need to energize participation and pull out of this morass of negativity regarding election cycles.

I am surprised at the relative positive reception I get, from people across the political spectrum, to reforming our campaign financing and vote counting.
There is an across the board appeal, I sense, that folks are yearning for these most basic elements of Democracy to be returned to the public domain and out of the hands of the special/corporate interests.

[karynnj]

1. Maybe Senator Kerry should resubmit Wellstone/Kerry Clean elections bill

in honor of Wellstone. They submitted this in at least both 1997 and 1999 - but didn't get much traction. Senator Feingold spoke in favor of it on the Senate floor as a good idea. (McCain /Feingold was far more limited to get enough support to pass.

This thread has the outline of the bill from the 1990s, a Nation article on it, Kerry's floor speech and Wellstone's speech.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2445744&mesg_id=2445744

[SHRED]

2. Probably not

"Could public financing of elections and a return to publicly controlled vote counting, be winning issues?"

With the lack of reponses...
I guess not.