Strengthening our Democracy

Considering our extraordinary heritage, Virginia should have a world-class democracy. Yet we don't. As someone who has fought for electoral reform and for justice and fairness, whether serving as Election Protection Director for the Virginia Democratic Party or as founder of the New Electoral Reform Alliance for Virginia, I believe we must act to strengthen our democracy. We have Jim Crow-era laws that disenfranchise tens of thousands of our fellow citizens. We have Dillon's Rule, a law from the 1800's that allows legislative bosses in Richmond to make local decisions rather than the localities themselves, which are accountable to their citizens.

We also have one of the least regulated campaign finance systems in the country, too little sunlight in committees and subcommittees, and a regressive electoral system that won't allow early voting, even though it is being adopted all across the country. Redistricting will begin in 2010 and will bring huge changes in our voting system, yet we still lack a mechanism to create fair and representative districts. Our civic education programs are nowhere near as good as they need to be. We lack sunlight in Richmond, with bills killed without any recording of who voted against them. I see all of these as facets of a system that's not living up to our democratic ideals. We should work to reform our system.