Demonstration in Sacramento Calls for Overhaul of U.S. Electoral System
December 18, 2000
By Joe Rigney
As California’s 54 electors met upstairs to cast
their
ballots for Al Gore, the voices of democracy activists filled the
chambers of
the Capitol Building. Over 200 demonstrators chanting “Our democracy is
under
attack, what do we do, Rise up, fight back!” marched through the
building
where California’s legislature meets.
Demonstrators, representing groups like the Green Party and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), raised more than just the issue of an election stolen by or from a particular candidate. The unifying issue for these demonstrators was a corrupt U.S. electoral system that they say keeps their voices from being heard. Signs such as “Abolish the Electoral College” and “Demand Real Democracy Now,” were a common sight during the rally.
Demonstrators seemed particularly concerned about
racial
issues raised in Election 2000. The NAACP has documented accounts of
the
disenfranchisement of black and Hispanic voters across the country.
Chanting,
“Stop racists at the polls, the system is full of holes” and “Jim Crow
has
got to go,” activists stayed in the rotunda for about ten minutes.
The situation became momentarily tense when
officers from
the California Highway Patrol blocked off the stairs leading to the
second story
of the building. Demonstrators had spent the first few minutes marching
around
the rotunda and through a designated area of the building. When the
peaceful
marchers returned to the rotunda, they attempted to climb the stairs to
the
second story.
Officers immediately blocked the demonstrator’s
passage,
first on one set of stairs, then on the other. Citing a fear that the
peaceful
demonstrators were too rowdy, officers blocked the stairway, thereby
disallowing
the people the right to peaceably assemble and to petition their
government for
redress of their grievances.
Medea Benjamin led the rally and demonstration.
Medea is no
stranger to controversy surrounding elections. As co-founder of Global
Exchange,
she has acted as an independent election observer in several Central
American
elections. She had just recently returned from Florida, where she had
assisted
in recounts in the contested presidential election. Her recent bid for
the U.S.
Senate as a Green Party candidate in California saw her closed from
debates,
ignored by the corporate media, and arrested.
The crowd cheered when Media told them that, “I
think
that even though we didn’t get all the way upstairs, the electors heard
us.”
If the electors were listening, the final chant
let them
know that this was only the beginning of the new democracy movement in
the
United States. “We’ll be back” filled the rotunda as the demonstrators
marched back to the stairs on the West Side of the Capitol building.
The demonstration was winding down when an
activist who
identified herself as Marla emerged from the building. She stated that
she had
seen the Governor upstairs and had asked him to come out and talk to
the people.
He refused and brushed past her. A few minutes later she was accosted
by
security, which asked for her ID. She told them that, since she does
not have
the millions of dollars needed to make an appointment with the
governor, this
was her only chance to speak to him. She was released, and so no
arrests were
made.
The rally was followed by an electoral reform strategy session held in the Capitol Building.