BREAKING: Delegates Announce Petition Drive! (Updated)

Alegre’s Corner has put up a petition drive from delegates to Denver.

Read Alegre’s notes on her telephone conversations with several delegates behind this effort.

HERE is the press release:

08/01/08
Press Release
2008 DNC Floor Nominating Petition Messages for Bloggers and Blog Radio Hosts

The Following Email can be posted in the blogs.

EMAIL FOR DELEGATES TO INQUIRE ABOUT PETITION: hrc300delegates@yahoo.com

Here’s ALEGRE’S ADVICE for each of us: Get that email contact info out to as many folks as possible and link to this wherever you blog. Write LTE’s to let people know this effort is underway. Send it out to everyone in your contact list in an email. Tell friends at work. Talk this up to your family and friends. Neighbors.

I. UNITY AFTER THE CONVENTION DEPENDS ON HAVING A TWO-NAME BALLOT

A. Whether the Democratic Convention ends with the party united depends on whether the name “Hillary Clinton” appears on the nominating election ballot.

B. As many as a thousand additional Clinton-pledged delegates are expected to swing behind Obama, if he is elected the party’s nominee after a genuine election with both his and Clinton’s name appearing on the ballot.

C. This same thousand are expected to remain aloof from the Obama general election campaign, effectively dividing and weakening the party, if Obama is simply given the nomination without a real election, without a two-name ballot.

D. The thousand Clinton delegates who remain in play feel that an Obama election “victory” resulting from a one-name ballot would be hollow, illegitimate, undemocratic, disenfranchising of eighteen million primary and caucus voters, and, therefore, insupportable.

E. The key to a unified Democratic Party after the Convention is a genuine nominating election, with two names on the ballot, such that the losing side will be able to accept their defeat, knowing that they and their electors have at least had their voices heard.

II. HOW DO WE GET A TWO-NAME BALLOT? WHAT ROLE DOES A PETITION PLAY?

A. Clinton’s name will appear on the ballot only if a petition of 300 to 600 delegates is lodged in support of the Senator’s name being placed on the ballot.

B. In addition to lodging the petition, the Senator must also request in writing that her name appear on the ballot.

C. The decision whether her name will appear on the ballot is entirely Senator Clinton’s, but only if she has the supporting petition. Without it, she is powerless to decide; with it, her request, if she makes it, cannot be denied.

III. IS THE PETITION DRIVE UNDERWAY? IF SO, WHO IS DRIVING THE EFFORT?

A. The petition drive is well underway, and it is driven entirely by delegates and volunteers who feel it important that whether Hillary Clinton’s name appears on the ballot should be determined by the Senator herself, not by technicalities in Democratic Party rules. Hillary Clinton and her staff have had no role whatsoever in the petition drive; it has been a grass roots effort from start to finish.

IV. DO CLINTON’S PRIMARY AND CAUCUS VOTERS CARE ABOUT TWO-NAME VERSUS ONE-NAME BALLOT?
Certainly they do. Clinton primary and caucus voters are telling their delegates that if they don’t represent them by voting in an election where Clinton’s name appears on the ballot, they will have failed in their solemn obligation to carry the voters’ voices forward to Denver.

V. WHAT BECOMES OF THE PETITION IF SENATOR CLINTON DECIDES NOT TO HAVE HER NAME PUT ON THE BALLOT?

It will live on as proof to future historians that Hillary Clinton declined to put her name on the ballot as a matter of choice, not because she was kept off the ballot by a technicality. The petition will also serve to memorialize those whose commitment to democratic principles led them to become signers of this historic document.

VI. HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PETITION AND THE TWO-NAME BALLOT?

Concerned citizens can learn more about the petition and the rules governing nominating election ballots by contacting one of the many delegates and volunteers who are closely involved in the petition drive. Some suggested contacts are as follows:

hrc300delegates@yahoo.com

Also, the most important rules governing the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nominating election process appear in the Call To The 2008 Democratic National Convention, Articles VI and VIII. Those Articles appear below.

These are the Official Rules of the 2008 Call for the Democratic National Convention Regarding the Nomination of the Democratic Candidate for President:

Nomination of the Democratic Candidate for President: The Permanent Chair shall receive nominations from the floor for the Democratic candidate for the Office of President of the United States in the following manner:

a. Requests to nominate a presidential candidate shall be in writing and shall have affixed thereto the written approval of the proposed nominee and the name of the individuals who shall be recognized to make the nominating and seconding speeches on behalf of a presidential candidate and shall be delivered to the
Convention Secretary at a location as specified by the Secretary no later than 6:00 p.m. of the day preceding the day designated for the commencement of presidential nominations.

b. Each such request must be accompanied by a petition indicating support for the proposed nominee signed by delegates representing not less than 300 or more than 600 delegate votes, not more than 50 of which may come from one (1) delegation. A delegate may not sign more than one (1) nominating petition for president and for vice president.

c. The order for nominating presidential candidates shall be determined by the National Chairperson of the Democratic National Committee, the Permanent Chair of the Convention and each presidential candidate, or his or her authorized representative, who qualifies to be nominated pursuant to this section.

d. Each presidential candidate shall be allowed a total of twenty (20) minutes for the presentation of his or her name in nomination by nominating and seconding speeches, the time to run without interruption from the recognition of the nominator.

e. Delegates and alternates shall maintain order during and following nominations for the Office of President and demonstrations shall not be permitted.

* * * * * * * * * *

FULL TEXT

I. UNITY AFTER THE CONVENTION DEPENDS ON HAVING A TWO-NAME BALLOT

Whether the Democratic Party emerges from its Convention unified, or broken beyond repair, depends, more than anything else, on whether the name “Hillary Clinton” appears on the presidential nominating election ballot. This technical issue has emerged as one of the most important keys to bringing as many as a thousand Clinton delegates behind Barack Obama, should he, as most expect, win the nominating election that is to be held in Denver on August 27th. There are a small number of delegates, maybe a hundred, who seem certain not to get in line behind the party’s presidential nominee, regardless of how the election is run, unless that nominee turns out to be Hillary Clinton. Hopes of bringing these hundred home to the Party are fading fast. A further few hundred Clinton delegates have already thrown their lot in with Obama, and seem determined to support him no matter what. They are not considered by the party establishment to be a problem. But in the vast middle ground lie the rest, the thousand or so men and women pledged to Clinton, who could, if convinced that they have been treated fairly, given their say and given their vote, be persuaded to back Barack Obama, should he emerge victorious from the August 27th election.

So these 1,000 are the key to unity. If only Obama’s name appears on the ballot, and that’s how he contrives his win (one person, one vote, one candidate), these middle-ground Clinton delegates will almost certainly not come on board. They say they will feel the election was rigged, their right to vote was denied, their own electorate was disenfranchised, and that they will not be able, in good conscience, to support a sham.

If, on the other hand, the August 26th election offers two genuine choices, and even if the favorite wins, though these delegates will not be pleased, they will, they say, be satisfied. They will have lost. They will accept it. They will fall in line and can be expected to cheer, maybe not so loudly as others, but cheer nonetheless, when Obama strides into history in Invesco Field the following day.

So for those who want our party to confront McCain in unity and in strength, the lesson is this: hold an open election, give half the party their votes, put two names on the ballot, and we will have unity. We will be strong. We will prevail.

II. HOW DO WE GET A TWO-NAME BALLOT? WHAT ROLE DOES A PETITION PLAY?

For Hillary Clinton’s name to appear on the ballot, Democratic Party rules require that two things must happen. First, there must be presented to the Secretary of the Convention a petition supporting the placement of Senator Clinton’s name in nomination, and this petition must be signed by not less than 300 nor more than 600 accredited delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The petitioners can be Clinton-pledged, Obama-pledged or Uncommitted. It does not matter for whom they intend to vote. But they must support the notion that the ballot should present to the voters a genuine choice, and if more than 300 say through their signatures that they favor a two-name ballot, the first of only two requirements for a legitimate election will have been fulfilled.

The second legal prerequisite to Senator Clinton’s name appearing on the ballot is that she must make a written request, also before 6pm on the 26th, that her name should so appear. Without a petition, her request will be ignored; with it, her request cannot be denied. So both are necessary, but the final choice is Senator Clinton’s to make. Her choice is available and her decision is binding, only if there is a supporting petition.

III. IS THE PETITION DRIVE UNDERWAY? IF SO, WHO IS DRIVING THE EFFORT?

The drive to gather 300+ signatures on the petition is well underway. It is entirely a grass roots effort by delegates and volunteers. Neither the Senator herself, nor any of her staff, have played even the smallest role in the gathering of the signatures. On the contrary, the effort is driven entirely by people in the trenches, most of whom are Clinton supporters, some of whom are Obama supporters, but all of whom believe that it is essential to democracy, unity and legitimacy of the election, that Clinton’s name appear on the ballot, should she so desire. Those behind the petition insist that Senator Clinton should have the choice, that she should not be kept off the August 27th ballot by a technicality.

IV. DO CLINTON’S PRIMARY AND CAUCUS VOTERS CARE ABOUT TWO-NAME VERSUS ONE-NAME BALLOT?

Indeed they do. Clinton voters across the country are telling their delegates they are under a solemn obligation to carry the electorate’s eighteen million voices to Denver. They are saying that if the delegates fail to register their votes for Clinton because her name does not appear on the ballot, the voters will feel that the system has failed them, the delegates have failed them, and that the party’s nominating process has completely ignored them and treated them as if they didn’t exist. They are very concerned that their preferences be fairly reflected in an open, two-names-on-the-ballot election.

V. WHAT BECOMES OF THE PETITION IF SENATOR CLINTON DECIDES NOT TO HAVE HER NAME PUT ON THE BALLOT?

It will live on as one of the most important documents in this most historic of elections. It will serve as proof to future generations that Hillary Clinton declined to put her name forward in August 2008 as a matter of choice, not because she was forced off the ballot. It will show that Senator Hillary Clinton had broad and passionate support, even up to the eve of Convention, and that her decision not to contest the election was hers, and hers alone. The petition will be copied, bound, and studied by future historians, so signers can be assured that their commitment to the democratic process will be documented and remembered for as long as woman and man have the ability to read.

VI. HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PETITION AND THE TWO-NAME BALLOT?

Concerned citizens can learn more about the petition and the rules governing nominating election ballots by contacting one of the many delegates and volunteers who are closely involved in the petition drive. Some suggested contacts are as follows:

hrc300delegates@yahoo.com

Also, the most important rules governing the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nominating election process appear in the Call To The 2008 Democratic National Convention, Articles VI and VIII. Those Articles appear below.

These are the Official Rules of the 2008 Call for the Democratic National Convention Regarding the Nomination of the Democratic Candidate for President:

Nomination of the Democratic Candidate for President: The Permanent Chair shall receive nominations from the floor for the Democratic candidate for the Office of President of the United States in the following manner:

a. Requests to nominate a presidential candidate shall be in writing and shall have affixed thereto the written approval of the proposed nominee and the name of the individuals who shall be recognized to make the nominating and seconding speeches on behalf of a presidential candidate and shall be delivered to the
Convention Secretary at a location as specified by the Secretary no later than 6:00 p.m. of the day preceding the day designated for the commencement of presidential nominations.

b. Each such request must be accompanied by a petition indicating support for the proposed nominee signed by delegates representing not less than 300 or more than 600 delegate votes, not more than 50 of which may come from one (1) delegation. A delegate may not sign more than one (1) nominating petition for president and for vice president.

c. The order for nominating presidential candidates shall be determined by the National Chairperson of the Democratic National Committee, the Permanent Chair of the Convention and each presidential candidate, or his or her authorized representative, who qualifies to be nominated pursuant to this section.

d. Each presidential candidate shall be allowed a total of twenty (20) minutes for the presentation of his or her name in nomination by nominating and seconding speeches, the time to run without interruption from the recognition of the nominator.

e. Delegates and alternates shall maintain order during and following nominations for the Office of President and demonstrations shall not be permitted.