Only Hand-Counted Paper Ballots Will Guarantee Fair ElectionsIn April 2010, The Travis County Election Study Group released their Alternate Findings & Recommendations report & concluded that only a return to hand-counted paper ballots will guarantee fair elections. They also concluded that the current County Clerk and her Election Divisions staff have deeply entrenched biases toward electronic voting systems. Read the full report at www.voterescue.org. GREEN PARTY CANDIDATES ON THE BALLOTSTATEWIDE
DEB SHAFTO ************************************
HERB GONZALES, JR ************************************
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ART BROWNING ************************************ |
Austinites for Geographic Representation begins petition to challenge at-large city districts
Petitioning begins Oct. 19th for a public vote in May for 10 single-member districts (throughout the entire city.) 20,000 signatures needed by January 15th, 2012. Next organizational meeting is Tuesday, Oct. 11th at 6:30 pm at Mexitas Restaurant, located between 11th & 12th Street on the east side of IH-35. Travis County Green Party supports these efforts and encourages all interested to attend.
http://www.austinpost.org/content/visualize-fair-geographic-representation
David Cobb Event "Move to Amend"
2002 Texas Attorney General and 2004 Presidential Candidate is in Austin again supporting the campaign to abolish corporate personhood. Taking place Sunday, October 9th at 5604 Manor Rd.
http://movetoamend.org/events/austin-tx-move-amend-texas-tour
Travis County Green Party endorses Kathie Tovo for City Council
The Travis County Green Party is proud to endorse Kathie Tovo for Austin City Council. If Travis County had a ranked-choice voting system or instant-runoff voting (IRV), Austinites would not need to vote on two occasions to have their voice heard. Our wish list also includes greater transparency and greater oversight of city and federal funds, respect for and enforcement of the open meetings act, a no vote on Formula 1, and a no vote on Water Treatment Plant #4. Early voting lasts until Tuesday, June 14th and Election Day is Saturday, June 18th. Get out there and vote again for Kathie!!
STOP THE BUDGET CUTS ! : March & Rally to SAVE OUR STATESTOP THE BUDGET CUTS ! Wednesday, April 6 Join Texans from around the state for a massive march, rally, and lobby day! Building on the spirit and energy of rallies around the country calling on state governments to prioritize education, health care, public safety, the environment, and jobs, we will demand that Texas take a balanced approach to balancing the state budget by spending our state's savings in the Rainy Day Fund and finding new revenue. Be part of a the movement to move Texas forward! UT students and staff feeder march: Sponsored by Texas Forward, the Texas State Employees Union, the Texas AFL-CIO, Texas AFT, and a number of other organizations. More info: http://www.april62011.org
END THE WARS ! FUND THE PEOPLE ! March & Rally
While the US is engaging in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, and giving billions of dollars in aid to Israel, which continues to threaten the Palestinians, we are left with Governors like Wisconsin's Scott Walker and Texas' Rick Perry, who want to strip us of our labor rights, lay off teachers, close our schools, and deny us health care. Meanwhile, big corporations pollute our environment, make record profits, and pay low or no taxes. These priorities are upside down! Come to a rally to demand an end to the wars abroad and a re-direction of funding to basic services for the people: education, healthcare, infrastructure, jobs, clean air and water. Sponsored by: Iraq Veterans Against the War-Austin, Veterans for Peace-Austin, Sustainable Options for Youth, Under the Hood Cafe, Palestine Solidarity Committee, CodePink-Austin, International Socialist Organization, Nuke Free Texas, and more. For more information or to co-sponsor: AustinSocialist @hotmail.com
NOV. 2 ELECTION LANDS GREENS ON BALLOT FOR 2012In his race for Comptroller of Public Accounts, Ed Lindsay received more than 6% of the votes. While our intent was to have Lindsay win the race and take over as State Comptroller, we are delighted with a result that allows the Green Party to stay on the ballot for the upcoming elections in 2012. Since we know that we will be on the ballot, we have the opportunity to recruit qualified candidates for a variety of races. The Green Party hopes to offer a true alternative to the standard corporate parties across the board on Election Day, 2012. In fact, YOU may be one of those qualified candidates. Please contact us txgreens@txgreens.org and let us know of your plans. It's not too soon to start planning for an effective grassroots campaign. In other races, Green candidates results ranged from 18% to less than 1%. Many of these candidates were running for the first time, and while they may not have won their races, they gained practical experience in organizing a campaign, dealing with the media, and honing their messages. Texas needs experienced candidates with an unapologetically progressive message, and the GP is proud to offer a spot on the ballot for those progressive candidates. Unfortunately, many voters this year voted a straight party Republican or Democrat ticket. This voting behavior did not leave much room for alternative candidates. We have two years to work on educating Texas voters and trying to make a change in the election laws. Either way, the result will be a truer democracy and will give voters the opportunity to look beyond the politicians and political parties who brought this country to the brink of a Second Great Depression, and those who have been in control while the economic divide has grown by leaps and bounds. The Green Party works for true opportunity for a secure life for all. True security includes a living wage, exceptional and accessible public education (K-12 and college), medical care for all from private providers paid by a single payer (no for-profit insurance companies involved), a fair and non-violent relationship with other nations around the world, the end to a "war" on drugs that has incarcerated a significant percentage of our people for non-violent offenses, the end to the death penalty, and a long-term view of how to keep our world inhabitable with clean air and clean water across the globe.
Travis County Green Party again asks Department of Justice to investigate local government corruption -- exposes link between blackbox voting and no government accountabilityOctober 8, 2010 John E. Murphy Dear Mr. Murphy: This letter shall represent an Amendment to our earlier referrals to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio by the Travis County Green Party, Gray Panthers of Austin and Austinites Lobbying for Municipal Accountability (ALMA) in several letters, the most recent dated November 11, 2009, for action and investigation into City of Austin staff and elected officials’ criminal or fraudulent use of Federal Low-Income Housing Funds & Municipal Bond money: See “Phantom Funds II: Where’s the Money? – That’s (Still) the Question” http://issuu.com/todo_austin/docs/vol_2_issue4 I am writing to you today to request the Department of Justice (DoJ) also intervene on behalf of the citizens of Travis County, represented by the Travis County Green Party, Gray Panthers of Austin, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) District 12 and others, with regard to our application for redress of grievances to the Travis County Commissioners Court relating to secret vote counting by the Travis County Clerk’s Election Division. Concealing the counting of votes is in direct violation of the provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). We are requesting immediate intervention by the DoJ based on the Travis County Commissioners Court's continued non-action to our requests that the secret vote counting be stopped immediately. We have provided in this letter links to the videotaped testimony presented to the Travis County Commissioners Court in recent weeks by many groups and individuals with regard to the persistent denial of their Voting Rights, as well as testimony documenting possible criminal/civil violations within the jurisdiction of the Travis County Commissioners Court. Online testimony can be found on the Commissioners’ Court website: Citizens Communication, September 7, 2010, Citizens Communication, September 14, 2010, Citizens Communication, September 21, 2010, Citizen's Communication, September 28, 2010 We respectfully request your review and investigation of our serious concerns about the direct link between the inability of citizens to have transparent, verifiable elections in which citizens votes are counted in the open (not in secrecy and invisibly inside electronic boxes) and the present inability to hold government officials accountable either while in office or through the “ballot box”. We duly note that the DoJ has been seriously remiss in its duty to address through proper investigation our initial requests that we are amending today. Silence and inaction on the part of so many elected officials and those entrusted to investigate their silence only proves that our concerns are justified. Again, we appreciate your prompt response and anticipate your thorough investigation and resolution of these issues, especially now when we are on the eve of the November 2010 elections. Sincerely, Bill Stout PDF of the letter the Travis County Green Party sent to the U.S. Attorney in October 2010
We are in this Struggle for Freedom and DemocracyFor a functioning democracy, we must have an informed public, leading to full political participation. It is challenging for the public to be informed about important issues when the media is focused on sensationalism rather than journalism. There is a culture of fear in this country perpetuated by those who hold all the power and money to enable them to maintain their strangle-hold on our lives and our democracy. Greens maintain that we can have a non-violent revolution that gives power to the people so that Government fears its people not the other way around. To do this we have to understand the situation we live in and have to operate under and systematically reform the laws that prevent participatory democracy and favor profits for the few over the long-term sustainability & welfare of the land and the people. The deeper volunteers of the Green Party (which is almost all of us) get into the inner workings of the existing system, the more we understand just how deeply difficult the task we outlined for ourselves really is. Yet, we continue the struggle because without struggle against those who repress our rights and pollute our environment, there will be no community to represent in government. We invite everyone to work with us on this path regardless of whether you identify as a Green, Democrat, Independent, Republican or other. Together, working on common ground issues, we can build the coalitions necessary for substantive change!
On the Democratic Party attempt to knock Green Party candidates off the ballot in NovemberThis issue of the Greenwire Newsletter is composed of two perspectives on the recent attempts by the leadership of the Democratic Party to knock the Green Party candidates off the ballot for this November. Next, state party Coordinator kat swift writes about corporate influence on elections. And don't forget while you are reading this: even though the Texas Supreme Court has allowed the Green Party to place its candidates on the ballot, the Democratic Party of Texas still has a civil suit pending against our four candidates for state-wide office, demanding around $1 million unless they drop out of the race. Dear Texas Voter and Green Party Supporter: The Green Party needs your help. For the first time in 8 years, we will have candidates on the ballot! Over 92,000 Texas voters legally signed the Green Party petition asking the Texas Secretary of State to put the Green Party candidates on the ballot in the November 2010 election. Then, what happened... - The Texas Democratic Party filed a lawsuit and sought an injunction in order to keep Green candidates off the ballot. The Supreme Court of Texas over-ruled a lower court and allowed our candidates to stay on the ballot and fight for you this November. - Some Democrats said we took money from Governor Perry "operatives" to get on the ballot. This is not true. We did accept a donation of signatures from a 501(c)(4) non-profit ballot access organization. - Some Democrats said we paid people to sign the petition. This is not true. People worked for long hours in the hot Texas sun to get signatures from Texas voters. They were paid for their work collecting signatures. The Green Party of Texas has been forced to defend itself against the attacks of the Democratic Party. With the aid of a first-rate legal team, we were able to hold off the Democrats and keep our candidates on the ballot. Please donate to our fund to pay our attorneys and to spread the word that the Green Party candidates are on the ballot again in Texas! How to donate To use a credit card, you can go to http://txgreens.org/donate (If you would like someone to walk you through the process, call 210-471-1791.) Or, send a check to Green Party of Texas, P.O. Box 271080, Houston, TX 77277-1080. You must include your name, address and occupation with the donation. Our successful legal fight saved our successful ballot access drive allowing democracy to GROW in Texas ... if you want to vote GREEN in November, you can! A sincere thanks from Christine Morshedi and other Volunteer Organizers of the Green Party of Texas! Greetings Greens, During the chaos of the last two months, I have been unable to get messages out to this list. Some of you have read the biased reporting about Green Party ballot access, some haven't. The situation fits into the adage that even the simplest thing is next to impossible to explain fully, especially in email or the short-attention-span media coverage. Please see the next message from GPTX Co-Chair for a brief summary. It is legal for a corporation to give unlimited dollars a year to a political party for "normal operating costs," which, according to the author of the legislation, includes voter outreach. Greens have worked with national and statewide organizations through coalitions, such as movetoamend.org, PoCLAD, and Clean Elections (TX) to close this loophole. Thankfully, in Texas, it is illegal for corporations to donate to candidate's campaigns. We live in a system so flawed that corporate-party operatives can: - Use scare tactics to keep you from voting your conscience or even voting at all. - Control ballot access so the wealthy get to decide who gets to run and who wins - Get unlimited money from corporations to run political parties - Control the court system allowing for abuse of process to prevent participation and to run up legal bills merely for political theatre and intimidation. Join us as we move forward to continue the struggle for a truly participatory democracy where freedom, happiness, and liberty have meaning to all. Please volunteer and/or donate today! Contact kat@txgreens.org or call 210-471-1791. In solidarity, kat swift
DECLARE INDEPENDENCE FROM CORPORATE RULE - a community dialogueGreen Party Gubernatorial Candidate Deb Shafto , and David Cobb , national spokesperson for Move to Amend, will travel around Texas, Aug 7-13, to lead community dialogues about this growing movement for democracy in the United States. Unelected and unaccountable corporations have hijacked our government, and there is a national coalition of diverse public-interest, community, and business organizations that has issued a bold call to amend the U.S. Constitution to restore the power of people over corporations.
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GREENS HELP LOCAL WOMAN IN HER FIGHT FOR JUSTICEWhere's the City of Austin & the DA hiding? ------------------------------------ The story was just picked up by Austin's TODO magazine. By Katie Walsh By Katie Walsh ------------------------------------ Allissa Chambers, founder of Austinites Lobbying for Municipal Accountability (ALMA), and her family, were severely abused for many years by both City of Austin contractors and beaurocrats. But her story is hardly unique. Austin City Managers, City Council members, Travis County Commissioners, two Austin Mayors, two District Attorneys, and the U.S. Attorney have received several letters and all the documentation they need, but have so far refused to pursue accountability, or make reparations, for possibly criminally misspent Federal Funds that resulted in the abuse of Allissa Chambers and her family. Representative Doggett's office has been alerted that these matters are now of federal concern. "They won’t answer our questions, which in and of itself is a violation of Title 18 of United States Code. It’s mandatory that public officials provide some response, especially on misuse of federal funds, as well as violations of criminal statutes," says Clint Smith of the Gray Panthers. Together with The Gray Panthers, the Travis County Green Party is committed to helping Allissa Chambers, ALMA, and citizens generally, by giving them a voice, in their struggle for Justice and Accountability! |
