"The only hope of Democracy, that fragile thing never granted but always promised, is gone by virtue of election fraud... and with it the social contract  that holds our society together." Anaxarchos

Free and fair elections are just that -- open to the public eligible to vote without barriers like special voter IDs.  Our elections are not free and fair and present many challenges to voter participation through restrictions on registration, voting, and observation.

We have allowed our elections to be outsourced to major corporations that take and count the vote in private with official sanction to withhold their critical methods and software.

As a result, we can no longer be assured that those elected are actually chosen by a majority or plurality of the participating voters.  The problems in Ohio, Florida, Texas, etc., in  2004 and Florida and the Supreme Court in 2000, kill the hope for democracy.

Parallel to this outsourcing, has been the de facto contraction the franchise for minority voters, a long standing phenomenon in our elections history since the Compromise of 1876.

Voters have an inalienable right to see their vote taken, counted, tabulated, and reported in order to ensure that those who win elections are actually elected; citizens abrogate this right by allowing the current system to stay in place.

Politicians have no reason to fear a quiescent public which routinely allows a mockery of democracy to take place.  As awareness builds, politicians who are elected without free, fair, and transparent elections can expect that increasing numbers of the public claim that those politicians lack the legitimacy to rule

Politicians and others in government benefiting from elections must be held accountable for their means of election; they must be forced to assure that those means convey legitimacy. 

Any citizen of the United States of America has the right to vote, regardless of his status as applied through special labels – mentally ill, incarcerated, etc.  If a citizen has consciousness and the ability to indicate a choice on a ballot, that is the only requirement to vote.

Denying these rights, particularly when specific groups, class or race based, fall into disenfranchised groups, is both a de jure and de facto act of voter suppression resulting in political advantage.  This effectively rarefies the population of voters leaving an ever smaller portion based on economic class and special privilege.

Elections must be the responsibility of citizens from start to finish.  Citizens must never surrender this right to elected or appointed officials.

The surrender of elections and the attendant problems are the logical result of unrestricted financial support by large donors, individual, organizational, and corporate.  There is no reason to have anything other than public funding for campaigns unless elections are simply a charade to mask the inordinate influence of financial and institutional power.  Public funding is a foundation upon which the rest of these propositions are based.

Voter Disenfranchisement, the Influence of Private Funding, and Secret Vote Counting Pave the Road to Tyranny.