Click on the link and educate yourself.
One can get info on many offices at this site.
Current candidates:
Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. (DE) http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=53279&type=category&category=37&go.x=18&go.y=13
Senator John Sidney McCain III (AZ) http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=53270
Senator Barack Hussein Obama Jr. (IL) http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=9490
You may want to make some comparisons to these other politicians
A few of the most liberal senators:
Senator Edward M. 'Ted' Kennedy Sr. (MA) http://votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=53305
The presidential candidate who had a better plan for America. Why has he not used this plan as a Senator?
Senator John Forbes Kerry (MA) http://votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=53306
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) http://votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=55463
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Conservative politicians:
One of my friends and my Congressional Rep.
Representative John J. Duncan Jr. (TN) http://votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=27069
Senator Lamar Alexander (TN) http://votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=15691
Senator Thad Cochran (MS) http://votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=53312
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Those who vote must educate themselves on the issues and the candidates. There should be no confusion in regard to a "right to vote" for the president. The constitution does not allow a right to vote in the Presidential election. Culture has made this a popularity vote.
There is an incorrect assumption among many that there is a constitutional right to vote for President, when that just doesn't exist.
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The article below was written by Jesse Jackson Jr.
There is a hint of the left in this article. The founding fathers knew what they were doing when the great articles were written. It works and it should not be changed to accomadate political parties.
"The vote" is a human right. It is seen as an American right. In a democracy there is nothing more fundamental than having the right to vote.
And yet the right to vote is not a fundamental right in our Constitution. Some liberals argue that the fundamental right to vote for every American citizen is implied in the Constitution, based on Supreme Court precedent. Yet when I ask them about the denial of voting representation in Congress to District of Columbia citizens, or about the denial of ex-felons' voting rights in most states, many liberals concede that the current structure of our Constitution limits the ability of the courts and Congress to adequately address important voting-rights issues.
It is amazing to me that many Democrats failed to grasp the most fundamental finding in Bush v. Gore: "The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States."
Our voting system's foundation is built on the sand of states' rights and local control. We have fifty states, 3,141 counties and 7,800 different local election jurisdictions. All separate and unequal.
In four states, if you're an ex-felon you're barred from voting for life. There are 5 million Americans (including 1.8 million African-Americans, mostly in Southern states--where 55 percent of African- Americans live) who have paid their debt to society but are prohibited from voting. At the same time, in Maine and Vermont you can vote even if you're in jail.
We need to build our voting system on a rock--the rock of adding a Voting Rights Amendment to the US Constitution. The amendment I have proposed in each of the last several Congresses (HJR 28) would provide the American people with a citizenship right to vote. It would also give Congress the authority to craft a unitary voting system for federal, state and local elections--one that guarantees all votes will be counted in a complete, fair, free and efficient manner.
Democrats have been made so defensive by right-wing Republicans' constant stream of absurd amendments--anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-flag "desecration"--that we've developed a negative rationale and posture about the Constitution: It's fine just the way it is. But fights over "rights" and constitutional amendments are where elections are being won and lost. And when Democrats don't fight for common laws, defending human rights, we're just reaffirming states' rights and local control, both of which are inherently separate and unequal.
Building a more perfect union by turning human rights into American rights--that's what Democrats should be fighting for. Let's wage this fight one issue at a time, rolling out a sort of second Bill of Rights. After the Voting Rights Amendment, we might add public education and equal-quality healthcare to every American's citizenship rights. An equal rights for women amendment. An affordable-housing amendment. A clean, safe and sustainable environment amendment. A fair taxes amendment. A full-employment amendment. An amendment for direct election of the American President and Vice President.
Fighting for human and constitutional rights is a theme, and a strategy, that could keep Democrats together for the next fifty years, election after election. It's time to begin a lofty fight to add the right to vote to the Constitution--and paint a truer picture of most Republicans as undemocratic. It's time to stand up and insure every American's right to vote to have that vote fully protected and to have it fairly counted.
It is amazing to me that many Democrats failed to grasp the most fundamental finding in Bush v. Gore: "The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States."
Our voting system's foundation is built on the sand of states' rights and local control. We have fifty states, 3,141 counties and 7,800 different local election jurisdictions. All separate and unequal.
In four states, if you're an ex-felon you're barred from voting for life. There are 5 million Americans (including 1.8 million African-Americans, mostly in Southern states--where 55 percent of African- Americans live) who have paid their debt to society but are prohibited from voting. At the same time, in Maine and Vermont you can vote even if you're in jail.
We need to build our voting system on a rock--the rock of adding a Voting Rights Amendment to the US Constitution. The amendment I have proposed in each of the last several Congresses (HJR 28) would provide the American people with a citizenship right to vote. It would also give Congress the authority to craft a unitary voting system for federal, state and local elections--one that guarantees all votes will be counted in a complete, fair, free and efficient manner.
Democrats have been made so defensive by right-wing Republicans' constant stream of absurd amendments--anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-flag "desecration"--that we've developed a negative rationale and posture about the Constitution: It's fine just the way it is. But fights over "rights" and constitutional amendments are where elections are being won and lost. And when Democrats don't fight for common laws, defending human rights, we're just reaffirming states' rights and local control, both of which are inherently separate and unequal.
Building a more perfect union by turning human rights into American rights--that's what Democrats should be fighting for. Let's wage this fight one issue at a time, rolling out a sort of second Bill of Rights. After the Voting Rights Amendment, we might add public education and equal-quality healthcare to every American's citizenship rights. An equal rights for women amendment. An affordable-housing amendment. A clean, safe and sustainable environment amendment. A fair taxes amendment. A full-employment amendment. An amendment for direct election of the American President and Vice President.
Fighting for human and constitutional rights is a theme, and a strategy, that could keep Democrats together for the next fifty years, election after election. It's time to begin a lofty fight to add the right to vote to the Constitution--and paint a truer picture of most Republicans as undemocratic. It's time to stand up and insure every American's right to vote to have that vote fully protected and to have it fairly counted.
Each citizen has the "right" to vote, but it should only be done by individuals who have taken time to educate themselves on issues and candidates.
The Bill of Rights
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.— Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1870)
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.— Nineteenth Amendment (1920)
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election . . . shall not be denied or abridged . . . by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.— Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964)
The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age.— Twenty-sixth Amendment (1971)
Article II of the US Constitution:
Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector....The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States."We currently have the Electoral College, described in detail in Article II, Section I, and further elaborated in Amendment XII. Each state gets to decide how to chose its electors. It just so happens that so far, every state has held a popular election to determine its electors. When you vote for president, you are not actually voting for that candidate, rather you are voting for your electors, who will then cast their votes on your behalf. The XV, XIX, and XXVI amendments don't guarantee anyone the right to actually vote for president. They merely state that states cannot deny anyone over the age of 18 the right to vote based on race or gender.
Note also that the Poll Tax amendment (XXIV) states: The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. Note that even here, it specifies voting for electors for President and VP, not actually direct votes.
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