VOTING REFORM
by Marie Villarreal

There should be a universal, consistent standard for voting - both the casting and counting of ballots - that cannot be manipulated. But the folks in Washington are counting on Americans not noticing what really happened in Florida last year.

Let's begin with the way we select and nominate our candidates. We have already in place a process that rewards the candidate who raises the most money the fastest way while promoting an agenda designed to offend the fewest amount of people. That's why campaign finance reform and public funding of election campaigns ought to be a priority. When big money dominates politics, you get candidates that pander to their political patrons.

Combine that with a winner-take-all system that doesn't give third parties any electoral standing and what you end up with is a pathetically low voter turnout. But sadly, politicians seem to be happy with a system that is archaic, restrictive and easily manipulated. Drowning in an attitude of apathy, the status quo politicians stay in office. This kind of round robin politics prevents election reform.

They want you to forget about the riot organized last Nov. 22 by Republican operatives to shut down the Miami-Dade vote count. They want you to forget that blacks -- who voted 9-1 in favor of Gore -- were three times more likely to have their ballots discarded. Most of all, they want you to forget about how five conservative members of the U.S. Supreme Court who decided to negate the votes of more than 50 million Americans that were cast for Al Gore.

What happened in Florida last year was a travesty of democracy -- an event that we must never forget, and never allow to happen again.