Nicholas Barth
I don't like the idea of late registrants. If people are really interested in participating in Unity08 they should register by the date specified period. Voting is a personal responsibility which should be taken seriously. Some people may simply want to get in on the action after the fact. Those are people we can do without.
AS long as there is enough time to properly vet them to ensure they are real people and are really registered to votr, they should be able to become delegates.
http://journals.aol.com/kweinschen/Veritas/
I'm not a huge fan of exceptions for the sake of capturing a possible great candidate, in the event that publicity occurs after the first ballot. That feels like having one foot in the door. If we're going to do this, then let's do it with a firm stake in the ground around deadlines, and let's throw our belief into the notion that we'll attract the perfect registrants.
I recently received an advertisement mailer for a company called Intelligentias that specializes in data retention, identity verification and real-time reporting - at a very competitive price (or so the ad claims) It's in a fast-growth mode, having established itself in Europe selling its software and services through system integrators like IBM, Siemans, Italtel, Accenture, etc. Their system is scalable. They might be able to provide the necessary authentification tools needed to verify late registrants. I don't have contact info for the company, but it is a publically traded company under the symbol ITLI
If delegates aren't registered to VOTE, they are useless.
Voter registration records are available to the the public.
http://journals.aol.com/kweinschen/Veritas/
There definitely needs to be a cutoff before balloting begins to curtail any hanky panky that could arise.
I think a month or two before the convention would be adequate.
http://journals.aol.com/kweinschen/Veritas/
Why not require a fax copy of their voter registeration sent to a clearing house??
I guess I don't like the idea of joining a team after the game has started. I think there has to be a reasonable cut-off for registration to prevent an organized "stuffing" of the ballot box, but it shouldn't be too far in advance. A two week cut-off seems reasonable. In this day and age, we should be able to check out voter registration in that time.
The burden of verification should fall to the late registrant. We have the technology to have the late bloomers scan in their voter registration cards or affidavits from their local registrar of voters so that they can provie their own registration.
While in theory I agree with Nicholas Barth, I think that with a new movement such as this one the possibility exists that many, many people will not have heard about it until the voting begins and the process gets even more media coverage. Furthermore to get the broadest penetration as possible the media coverage will need to beyond the "policy" media and hard news media.
"Late" sign-ups will pivotal to the success of Unity08. We welcome (and need) as many delegates as possible who want to sign up and participate now -- and one of the most important things they can do it help bring more delegates here now.
But the mission of U08 is to liberate millions of Americans from the monopoly the two major parties have on our presidential elections. Every four years, it seems, these folks (who lead busy lives) wake up to politics and collectively yawn at the two uninspiring presidential nominees being forced down their throats by the two parties. I'm sure you've seen this before: Invariably, polls end up show a huge percentage of voters wishing their was a third choice.
If past is prologue, this will happen again next year. And that's where we come in. Those same voters, unsatisifed with the D and R choices and shut out of the D and R primary processes, will have the opportunity to join a movement that, in June 2024, will nominate a third ticket -- a bipartisan, unity ticket -- at the first-ever on-line convention. To shut off or curtail or complicate enrollment at an early date would defeat the purpose of Unity08. We'd be doing to these voters exactly what the two parties do to them now.
I know folks here are itching to get involved now, and feel te clock ticking. It is. We will need significant help in the coming months with ballot access drives. I hope you'll be a part of that. And more important, we need you to help sign up more delegates now -- to tell your friends, neighbors, co-workers and family members about the opportunity they will have next year to create a New American Agenda and to nominate a presidential ticket actually committed to addressinging, campaigning on, and solving problems that the two major parties have ignored and allowed to fester.
I concur with JPCorrigan's comment on this issue: "LATE ENROLLING OF DELEGATES PRESENTS MAJOR CHALLENGES AND DANGERS. PERHAPS ONE WAY WOULD BE TO ONLY ALLOW LATE ENROLLMENT WHEN THE DELEGATE IS SPONSORED BY A REGISTERED DELEGATE WHO WILL BE RESPONSIBLE TO ASSURE THE NEW DELEGATE MEETS REQUIREMENTS."
Anything approximating this would suffice.
I would submit that you need a deadline past which you cannot vote in this particular election. If it is within a certain time period (a few days?) before the cutoff then one can vote provisionally and the votes will be counted when the verification process is done. After all, late registrants should have the same burden of proof, at least, that early registrants do. These provisional ballots would not be unlike absentee/mail in ballots are in present elections.
Thx,
Tom McHale