The Political Reform Working Group will highlight ways in which ordinary U.S. citizens have lost their political power.  Instead of government by the people and for the people, we have government by big corporations (who fund political campaigns) and for big corporations (who reap huge returns on their investments from corporate welfare and corporate-friendly policies).  The Green Party is fighting for changes that will re-empower ordinary citizens and strengthen democracy.
    The most crucial part of any political reform effort will be real Campaign Finance Reform.  We advocate public financing of elections and support reforms that bring us closer to that goal, such as free television time for candidates and bans on soft money donations.
    The Election 2000 debacle has made now an opportune historical moment to push for other sweeping reforms of our electoral system.  For example: abolishing the electoral college and letting the popular vote decide elections or apportioning electoral college votes through a system of proportional representation; replacing ballot machines in all states with new equipment that is uniform across all districts so that everyone's vote has an equal chance of being accurately counted; instituting a system of instant-runoff voting that eliminates the possibility that Third Party candidates will "tip" elections; adding a binding none-of-the-above option to the ballot that can be chosen if voters find none of the candidates acceptable; increasing voter turnout by allowing same-day voter registration; and re-enfranchising former felons and the prison population in states where they are currently denied the right to vote.
    This working group will monitor political reform efforts at the national level, as well as actively pursuing campaign finance and other political reforms at the state and local levels in New Jersey.

Current Projects
Defazio-Leach Political Reform Bill	Urge your Representative to support the Defazio-Leach Bill, HR 57, which would establish a nonpartisan, 12-member commission to consider a broad array of electoral reforms.
	Sign Rock the vote online petition demanding:  Electoral College and campaign finance reform, investigate voter intimidation and fraud, improve voter registration, right to vote for non-violent and released felons Online petition

Things you can do

• Sign an on-line Petition demanding 'electoral reform' at Rock the vote
• Read about the DEFAZIO-LEACH POLITICAL REFORM BILL and urge your Representatives and Senators to support it
• Join the mailing list
• Create a new project

• State Campaign Finance Reform analysis (Maine,...)

Resources

• Most important resources
• link to resource pages

Events/News/Updates

• 1/7/2001 KSH added Jill's action (DeFazio-Leach Bill) and resources
• 12/18/2000 Sign an on-line Petition demanding 'electoral reform' at Rock the vote
• 12/17/2000 Updated this page