Photo by Amanda Walker

INDEPENDENT AND UNAFFILIATED VOTERS

ATTN: PARTISAN MARYLAND LAWMAKERS WON’T LET INDEPENDENT & UNAFFILIATED VOTERS, VOTE IN THIS PRIMARY ELECTION, APRIL 26, - - unless . . . . . . . .


CHECK YOUR CANDIDATE'S
2011 GERRYMANDERING VOTE, HERE

The partisan Members of the Maryland General Assembly, in the words of one distinguished Senator, were “ wearing two hats – [their] Reformer hat, and [their] loyal Party hat ” when it came time to redistrict Maryland in 2011.


“There was a lot of Party pressure…I had to go along…I gerrymandered”,

is how a one-time “reformer” and distinguished State Senator explained, abandoning a career-long history of publicly condemning gerrymandering, in order, instead, to loyally serve the Party, at the expense of the voters -- Maryland voters, whose electoral choices were thereby diminished.

In many cases, because the Maryland General Assembly’s gerrymandering was the most extreme gerrymandering of any state in America , many voters became almost effectively disenfranchised.

Gerrymandering by the Delegates and Senators of the Maryland General Assembly, diminished the chance for meaningful participation in selecting their Congressional Representatives, from perhaps half a million Marylanders, who may not even know they’ve been cheated.


“The other Party is just as bad”, was the explanation offered.

But, there is a way for you to fight back, right now, and have an effect in this Primary Election on April 26 th . It’s described at the end of this page.


See “A PROVOCATIVE… ACTION”, below for what you can do.

Imagine: MARYLAND IS THE MOST GERRYMANDERED STATE !

Here’s what one Harvard/Stanford/Duke-educated Constitutional Law Professor, Sanford Levinson , (a donor to the campaigns of Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Party) wrote on this topic, published on-line by the University of Maryland , Francis King Carey School of Law :

“…the current impasse is exactly how a system of representation based on partisan gerrymandering functions.”

Excerpted from: “To End Government Shutdowns, End Partisan Gerrymandering”

Source: digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu


Did all the Maryland Legislators take part in this ?


THERE WERE A HANDFUL OF DELEGATES WHO VOTED AGAINST THEIR PARTY’s GERRYMANDERING, INCLUDING ONE OF THE OTHER CANDIDATES WITH DAN IN THIS CONGRESSIONAL RACE. SHE IS THE ONLY LATINA IN THE RACE.

God Bless Her.

Although we are competing, I think you have to give credit, where credit is due. Ana did the brave and the only right thing for the citizens of Maryland by voting against the gerrymandering.


HOW DOES THE MARYLAND LEGISLATURE’S 2011 GERRYMANDERING - THE MOST EXTREME GERRYMANDERING IN AMERICA - AFFECT UNAFFILIATED AND INDEPENDENT VOTERS OF MARYLAND?

When a partisan, politically-motivated Maryland Senate and House of Delegates, has so grotesquely gerrymandered (as shown, for just one example, in the official map of Maryland’s current 3rd Congressional District, above), the gerrymandering causes the primary election on April 26th to become the main election event of the year for Congressional races, in the gerrymandered districts.

The General Election becomes essentially a formality.

Gerrymandering means that the winner of the Primary on April 26th , is almost guaranteed to win the final / General Election, in November. So the Primary, on April 26th matters. The General, in November, not much, at least with respect to Congressional races. (November matters immensely in the Presidential and Senate races).

Adding insult to injury – the Political Parties in Maryland won’t let Unaffiliated or Independent voters take part in the decisive Primary election on April 26th -- the only Congressional election that now matters, thanks to the 2011 gerrymandering.

Keep in mind, taxes paid out your pockets help fund the costs of administering the Primary Election on April 26th . When INDEPENDENT & UNAFFILIATED voters are prevented from voting in the April 26th primary elections they fund, that is literally “Taxation without a Vote” ! (We fought Britain over something like this).

See “A PROVOCATIVE… ACTION”, below for what you can do.


Your Maryland General Assembly did this to you.

To fix this “slaughter” of the one-person-one-vote principle, which is central to the “all men are created equal” conception at the heart of America, Dan supports the bill authored by Representative John Delaney (Democrat-Maryland 6th Congressional District). John’s " Open Our Democracy Act " would make all Congressional primary elections:

John Delaney’s bill also addresses the creation of independent redistricting panels in all 50 states, so that neither political party has the power to gerrymander, in the future.

But, in the meantime:

how can disenfranchised Maryland Unaffiliated, and Independent voters, fight back against their shoddy treatment by the Party bosses in Annapolis , who first gerrymandered them, and now won’t let them vote on April 26th , 2016?


Yes, there is a way . . . . .


A PROVOCATIVE INDEPENDENT & UNAFFILIATED VOTER ACTION :

The Executive Director of the Maryland Democratic Party in 2015, proposed that Independent and Unaffiliated Voters, could [temporarily] register as Democrats, in order to vote in this April 26th 2016 primary. (the “temporarily” is Dan’s addition )

As soon as the April 26th primary results are announced, INDEPENDENTS and UNAFFILIATED voters can go back on-line and change their registration back to UNAFFILIATED again.

Until Congress passes John Delaney’s Open Our Democracy Act , Unaffiliated and Independent Maryland voters, who wish to vote in the most meaningful election, the April 26th primary , which their tax dollars help to fund, can do so, but they must “bite the bullet” and decide that voting is so important that they are willing – for three weeks (April 5 – 27) – to temporarily register as either a Republican or a Democrat, in order to vote for the Candidate of their choice, in the respective Partisan Primary. (Dan is a Democrat. You can only vote for Dan on April 26th , if you are at least temporarily registered on-line as a Democrat, and your on-line registration is completed no later than April 5, 2016 )

It stinks.

It’s undemocratic.

Gerrymandering may violate the US Constitution .

It must be changed.

One way to change this sorry, gerrymandered, closed primary mess that’s intended by the Parties to effectively disenfranchise you, is to support a Candidate – of either party-- who is pledged, as Dan and John are, to ending the partisan gerrymandering and disenfranchisement of Independents and Unaffiliatteds – undemocratic practices that both Democrats and Republicans have used to rig the system against you.

Vote for a candidate, like Dan, willing to publicly take on the partisans in his or her own party, partisans whose gerrymandering puts the party’s interests ahead of the Senator’s or Delegate’s duties to you, the citizens whose taxes pay their salaries.

If you are intrigued by the notion of temporarily assuming a Party affiliation , just so that you can vote on April 26 – for Dan, or for another Candidate of your choice – remember :

The absolute final deadline is Tuesday, April 5, 2016, for an Independent / Unaffiliated Maryland voter to (temporarily) register on-line as a Democrat (or Republican) in order to vote in the primary, at Maryland State Board of Elections online , at this URL :

https://voterservices.elections.state.md.us/OnlineVoterRegistration/InstructionsStep1


Tuesday, April 5, 2016 is the deadline !

Dan would like your vote.

The day after voting, go on-line to switch your affiliation back .

BTW, We ran all of this by the officials at the Maryland Board of Elections, in Montgomery County, on February 22nd< . They confirmed that everything put forth here is entirely acceptable, legal, and proper, even if Party bosses don’t like it.


Dan

Dan Bolling

DanToCongress

DanToCongress.com

DanToCongress@gmail.com

301-204-7569