Some good news in the debate over youth voting came out of the primaries yesterday. This from The Fix at the WaPo:

Good news for the country too. 18-29 years olds are set to vote in greater numbers than over 65 year olds, maybe even this year, which means a new generation of engaged citizens is emerging. A strong democracy needs all its citizens to engage. It would even better if more young people took their parents to vote and vice versa. The strongest indicator of a young person voting is whether a peer, friend or family member has asked them to. I'm sure it also influences other generations.

Evidence of what Common Cause predicted in our report on the Indiana Primary for young voters is turning up in the news this evening.  Another victory for the architects of voter suprression in the state.

The reports of student voting problems are here, here and here.  New Voters Project has reported from the ground that students at St. Mary's College, a private institution were unable to vote because their college ID does not count under the law, even though public college IDs would - if they have a valid expiration date.

You don't have to turn people away for having the wrong ID, you just have to get people not to turn up because they know they don't have the ID and can't get it.  Some of the coverage above plays down the impact of the ID law on this primary.  Yes, 12 nuns might not seem like a huge number (it's not even a whole cloister), but it's important to remember that there was a whole convent full of retired nuns that didn't and couldn't turn up because they too didn't have the ID.

In the end, suppressing one vote, disenfranchising one citizen is too high a cost to bear for an unfounded fear which produces a bad law.  It's undemocratic, it's un-American.

In Indiana today young students and nuns, as old as 98, were denied their right to vote because of the strict and vote-suppressing photo ID laws in the state.  The Supreme Court upheld the law in a split decision last week. 

A dozen nuns in their eighties and nineties, barely able to make across the street to vote, were told they could not vote because they didn't have accepted ID.  Four floors of nuns back at the convent for retired nuns couldn't produce ID either, so they didn't try.  According to the AP:

We've seen a lot of coverage of the public financing/campaign finance debate recently.  The main drive has been from the Obama-McCain will they/won't they grist mill and the small donor "revolution" theory.  Our colleague at the Brennan Center, Laura MacCleery posted a great blog on Huffington Post today about these issues:

I very much agree.  Small donors are good for democracy, it's a sign of ordinary people participating in the system, and these people are likely to get more involved in the grassroots.  Just as politicians who raise money in the current system are not bad people (the vast majority are excellent people and in politics for the common good), people are generally good and are giving small donations with noble motivations.  The problem is, the system is still broken.  Money still buys power.  Most people don't have money.  Most people don't and can't give money.

I know you've all been missing your somewhat regular dose of information on what Common Cause has been working on across the country at the local, state and national level.  Here's the latest edition of the Yellow Memo (as it's known in the CC office - it has been printed on yellow paper for as long as anyone remembers).  Thanks to volunteer Mary Jo Cittadino we've got the memo back up and running.  In future it'll mostly be posted under her name, but I wanted to introduce it this time.  Enjoy! 

House Administration Committee Approve Bills

On April 2 the Committee on House Administration approved two vital measures: The Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008 (HR 5036) will help states safeguard voting machines in November's general election. The Universal Right to Vote By Mail (HR 281) will ease administrative hurdles for voters who wish to vote by absentee ballot. The bill clarifies that voters may request the right to vote by absentee ballot without needing to give an "excuse."

Common Cause has championed both measures since their introduction. In a press release, President Bob Edgar commended "those on the House Administration Committee who voted in support of these measures" and urged "the full House and Senate to follow suit to help ensure voting security and accessibility in November."

More below the fold.

The New York Times has a story today on pork barrel spending which highlights the large sums appropriated for soft earmarks.  Clearly we have a problem with pet projects getting the green light through committee reports, winks and nods.  True, many projects may be worthy of funding.  However, until we remove special interest campaign contributions from the equation and enact public financing it will be a way to reward donors not voters.  Publicly funded elections, as set forth in the Durbin-Specter Fair Elections Now Act (S. 1285), are the best way to achieve sensible spending priorities in the Congress.

Friday's Washington Post featured a letter to the editor from Sean Parnell, President of the Center for Competitive Politics.  It misses the point, although I agree that "better scientific, enonomic, and policy arguments" should be the focus of debate.

Watching the Colbert Report last night I was pleasantly surprised to see Clay Shirky make a guest appearance to talk about his new book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.  I happened to have finished the book yesterday and heard him speak at The New America Founation a month ago.  Shirky's thesis is that revolutionary social change happens when technology becomes widely used and accepted, which is what we've seen in the last 5 years with the internet and new media.  The challenge to traditional institutions, as you can see from the subtitle of the book, is to see the power of the people in creating change for themselves, not having it made on their behalf.

The banter on The Report last night led Shirky to challenge Colbert's fans to do something interesting with his Dorito Peabody Award stickers, not just go around sticking them on bags of tortilla chips in the gorcery store.  Reading his book, I learned that the first flash mobs were designed to make fun of hipster culture, similar to Colbert's original challenge.  Later flash mobs have been used to stand up to the police state in Belarus.

What does all this mean for Common Cause?

The House passed a resolution 223 to 31 (yes, 31) to enforce a Contempt of Congress Citation on Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolton this afternoon.  Advocates for checks on excesses of power should celebrate.

As the debate drew to a close the Republican minority walked off the floor, having unsuccessfully tried to delay the vote by calling a vote to adjourn.  These tactics are unbecoming of our government when we are faced with such vital constitutional challenges.  They put partisan interests before the public interest.

Common Cause has sent letters to every Representative stating that the Contempt of Congress Citation is not a partisan issue it is a Constitutional issue.  It is about the House and Senate asserting their Constitutional responsibility to check executive power as a co-equal branch of government.

The House has done the right thing today and sent a message that the Constitution must and will be protected against abuse and assault.  National security depends on the three branches of government operating as intended by the Founders.