Our country has a Constitution which provides certain rights.
One of these rights is the right to vote which is explicitly protected by Amendments 15, 19, 24, and 26 of the Constitution.
Due to the organized conduct of various people a number of whom were elected Republican officeholders, a substantial number of our fellow citizens were, because of the color of their skin, unconstitutionally denied the right to vote in the Nov. 8, 2016 election. Under Article VI of the Constitution, the Republican officeholders were all bound by Oath or Affirmation to support the Constitution. Thus, these Republican officeholders may have violated two provisions of the Constitution: Article VI and Amendment 15.
The act of voting (just walking to a local polling place and casting a ballot) is the only means by which the power to govern is legitimately conferred in our nation. This act is the essence of our national security. An attack on any part of the voting process (from registration all the way through certification of the state and local results at the state level and all the way through certification of the electoral vote at the national level) is in effect an attack on our nation. These attacks do not involve or require guns, or troops, or planes, or aircraft carriers. Without security for the entire voting process, our essential national security is severely degraded.
Security for the voting process can most efficiently and effectively be provided by a full-time election protection effort of the state Democratic party using available legal rights to maintain highly informed awareness on a real-time basis of all the details of the operation of the voting process throughout their state. The full-time election protection operation of the DNC will be available to advise and assist the election protection personnel of the various state Democratic parties to the extent additional technical knowledge or legal effort is needed.
The courts, our party, and many individuals tried with varying degrees of success to stop these unconstitutional violations of the constitutional right conferred by the Fifteenth Amendment. As a first order of business, the Democratic Party should continue and enhance its efforts to maintain the security and integrity of the entire voting process.
With respect to any officeholders unconstitutionally depriving citizens of voting rights we should, using various constitutionally protected means, regularly remind the Republican officeholders and their constituents that such conduct is both a violation of the Constitution and a blatant breach of the officeholder’s oath or affirmation of office.
Our party has a Charter which provides certain rights.
One of these rights is the right of candidates for the nomination of our Party for the office of President of the United States to be treated by the Party with impartiality and evenhandedness.
Specifically, Article Five, Section 4 of the Charter of the Democratic Party of the United States of America provides in pertinent part that:
“In the conduct and management of the affairs and procedures of the Democratic National Committee, particularly as they apply to the preparation and conduct of the Presidential nomination process, the Chairperson shall exercise impartiality and evenhandedness as between the Presidential candidates and campaigns. The Chairperson shall be responsible for ensuring that the national officers and staff of the Democratic National Committee maintain impartiality and evenhandedness during the Democratic Party Presidential nominating process.”
The Chairperson is the chief executive officer of the Democratic National Committee according to the Bylaws, Article 2, Section12(a).
There were published reports that there may have been a lack of impartiality and evenhandedness on the part of one or more officers and staff as between the Presidential candidates and campaigns during the 2016 Presidential nominating process. Whether any lack of impartiality and evenhandedness had any effect on the decision of our Party during the 2016 Presidential nominating process is a backward looking issue which I do not plan to address at this time in this forum.
In my experience, the current staff of the DNC is professional, competent, courteous, hard-working, and conducts themselves and the DNC in accord with the Charter. Thus, I expect that the issue of any lack of impartiality and evenhandedness will not arise during the 2020 Presidential nominating process.