Corporations aren’t people, and they shouldn’t be controlling our politics. The Supreme Court decision in Citizens United must be overturned and the public financing of campaigns becomes the law of the land.
The FEC is an independent agency that oversees our elections — but it has been plagued by internal dysfunction. We will reform the broken FEC by making necessary changes to its budget, commissioner composition, independence from other branches of government, and penalty enforcement.
There’s a widespread perception that the longer an elected official serves in Congress, the less connected they are to their constituents — and the more beholden they become to corporate interests and lobbyists. We propose a term limit of 12 total years that would allow our elected officials in both the House and Senate to focus less on getting re-elected and more on doing what’s right.
Voters should feel that their voices count, and should be more directly involved in deciding important issues that affect their lives. We plan to have bills introduced in both the House and Senate to establish a national referendum process, establish an office to implement and oversee this process, and develop criteria to place no more than two key issues annually before the national electorate to vote on. This process would increase voter participation, thwart congressional gridlock, and give the American people more power over their democracy.
A Vote At Home system would make voting more convenient by providing voters with postage-paid absentee ballots, and would allow voters more time to participate in our democracy, as well as increase overall election security.
The For the People Act (HR 1), the Voting Rights Advancement Act, and the Native American Voting Rights Act need to be signed into law immediately.
When partisan elected officials draw district lines, the electoral maps they draw rig the system in their favor and attempt to suppress and dilute the votes in communities of color. We need independent, non-partisan redistricting commissions to draw these boundaries, and eliminate racial gerrymandering.
Join me in calling for these necessary changes to the fabric of our government.