Election Laws Need Overhaul

February 16, 2012 at 12:51 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Tags: civic literacy, election laws, massachusetts, voting, voting rights

Guest Editorial by Kevin C. Peterson

EXCERPT:  The Massachusetts Legislature recently accomplished what few believed was possible.  With a singular commitment to broadening democracy in the state, it adopted a fair and comprehensive redistricting plan.  For this achievement, members of the Legislature should be lauded.  After all, the body’s history regarding redistricting has been a troubled one — pockmarked with acts of duplicity, prevarication, and federal lawsuits.

To our good fortune, more positive developments for electoral reform now loom.  As the Legislature moves into the second half of the lawmaking session, it should consider complementing its redistricting victory with an omnibus election law providing citizens increased electoral autonomy and flexibility.

To achieve this, pieces of proposed legislation now under review with the following provisions should be merged into a comprehensive election law reform bill.

Read the entire post at Commonwealth Magazine.

Kevin C. Peterson is founder and director of the New Democracy Coalition, an organization focused on civic literacy and electoral justice, based at the College for Public and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts Boston.  The views expressed are those of the author.