John Bonifaz for Secretary of State (MA)

By William Rivers Pitt

John Bonifaz

Monday, January 30, 2006--PDA is tracking a number of important races all across the country as the 2006 election season draws ever closer. One race in particular, in Massachusetts, holds our attention for a variety of reasons. PDA National Board Member John Bonifaz is running for Secretary of State in Massachusetts against long-time incumbent William Galvin. While this race will not in any way effect the chase to take control of congress away from the GOP, it speaks to a broader and more fundamental issue.

John Bonifaz is running on the right to vote. See his Voters' Bill of Rights on his web site.

Bonifaz, a lawyer and constitutional scholar from Boston, is the founder of the National Voting Rights Institute (NVRI). Since 1994, NVRI and Bonifaz have been on the cutting edge of the defense of voting rights for all Americans. Bonifaz and NVRI were at the forefront of the fight to defend the Massachusetts Clean Elections law, which was overwhelmingly approved by the people but defunded by the threatened politicos in the state legislature. Bonifaz and NVRI won a landmark ruling from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on this issue, forcing the state to provide the necessary funds to all qualified candidates running in the 2002 state elections.

Bonifaz and NVRI have also been fighting against the 1976 Supreme Court ruling that equated unlimited campaign money and spending as free speech. Their work on this has been aimed at defending mandatory campaign spending limits, public financing of elections, and other important campaign reforms.

More recently, Bonifaz threw himself completely into the fight for a recount of all votes cast in the overwhelmingly shady presidential vote in Ohio in 2004. An amazing number of complaints from voters, as well as reports of outright fraud by eyewitnesses, continues to stain the official outcome of that all-important vote. Bonifaz represented Libertarian and Green Party candidates Michael Badnarik and David Cobb in their ongoing legal challenge to this vote, and was able to bring John Kerry and John Edwards into the suit. We know today about what really happened in Ohio last November because of Badnarik, Cobb and John Bonifaz.

"I am very excited about this race," said Bonifaz during a weekend interview. "This campaign is only two months old, but there is a huge amount of grassroots energy being poured into it."

"The really interesting part," continued Bonifaz, "is that my opponent, Mr. Galvin, has suddenly started showing up all over the state, wherever we go. He recognizes the need to do so, that he can't just remain silent. Galvin's actions over the last twelve years have been actions of silence regarding voting rights violations in this state. He has resisted basic electoral reform. It is time for a change."

"I am a different kind of Democrat," said Bonifaz. "I will fight for the strengthening of Democracy. This is a vibrant campaign. Mr. Galvin, on the other hand, thought long and hard about running for Governor. This is the second time he has done so. If he wants to be Governor, he should run for the seat. The office of the Secretary of State should never be someone's fall-back position."

"Galvin is actually angry that he is being challenged," said Bonifaz. "He has been there for twelve years. I believe that no elected office should be seen as someone's entitlement. That is completely antithetical to the basic idea of democracy. Elections are about competition, about giving voters a choice. Massachusetts is second-to-last after Arkansas in competitive races for elected positions. We should be leading the country in giving people a real choice, and that is what I am doing."

"The incumbent has tried to attack me," said Bonifaz, "by saying I am not a real Democrat. The reality is I entered Massachusetts politics 18 years ago as scheduler for Senator Ted Kennedy. I am very proud of that. The question here is for all Democrats: what kind of party do we want? Galvin is making a mistake opening that up. I am fighting for the values of this party, and for the right to vote. The incumbent represents a different kind of Democrat, one who is silent on important issues and resistant to basic election reform. This is not about labels. This is about who will fight for the values of this party and the voters of Massachusetts."

"I stand for same-day electoral registration, standards for electronic voting machines, access to source codes for these machines, and publicly owned voting machines. Galvin will tell you we don't have these machines, and we don't, yet. But the Help America Vote Act requires them to be installed in each state, so we will have them sooner or later, and whoever will be sitting in the Secretary of State's office will have to make a choice."

The basis of the John Bonifaz campaign is the Voters' Bill of Rights he has compiled.

This is an issue of great import not just to Massachusetts, not just to PDA, but to the entire country. A man with the integrity, knowledge and strength of Mr. Bonifaz in the office of Secretary of State will empower the fight for voting rights all across this nation. Please help him if you can.

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John Bonifaz for Secretary of State (MA)

By William Rivers Pitt