Letter to National Archivist

On June 10. 2008 the following letter was sent to the Archivist of the United States.

To learn more about the circumstances around this please attend Asa Gordon's workshops at the annual national meeting in Chicago.

In service:

Brent McMillan, Political Director
Green Party of the United States
202-319-7191
brent@gp.org

June 10, 2008

Dr. Allen Weinstein
Archivist of the United States
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
c/o Office of the Federal Register(NF)
700 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20408-0001

Dear Dr. Weinstein,

As the Archivist of the United States you are advised of the following:

On April 10th, 2008, Asa Gordon, Chair of the DC Statehood Green Party Electoral College Task Force was invited to address The NARA Afro-American History Society on the subject "A More Perfect Union?: The Constitutional Franchise for Racial Quotas". Gordon's lecture provided an historical context and examined how the legacy of the compromise over the issue of slavery impacted the Constitutional design of 1787 or effecting the franchise and its contemporary impact on Presidential elections. In the course of the lecture Gordon offered the following observations that delineate our concern of misfeasance by your agency.

The Office of the Federal Register coordinates the functions of the Electoral College on behalf of the Archivist of the United States, the States, the Congress, and the American People.

In October of each Presidential election year, the Archivist sends a letter to the Governor of each State and the Mayor of the District of Columbia along with an instruction package prepared by the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) that sets out the States' responsibilities regarding the electoral college. The package also includes a quantity of booklets containing applicable Federal Constitutional and statutory provisions regarding presidential elections to be distributed to each elector.

The Green Party of the United States writes to inform you and register our strong objection to the OFR's grievous failure to include Section 2 of the 14th Amendment (Amend.14?2) and its enabling statutory code section 6 of title 2 of the United States Code (2U.S.C.?6) directly bearing on the citizens right to vote in the agency pamphlet entitled "Provisions of the Constitution and United States Code relating to Presidential Elections."

We also call for this correction to be made to the NARA_OFR Electoral College web site:
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/provisions.html #provisions
[For State Officials : Presidential Election Laws : Provisions of the Constitution : United States Code ]

We find these omissions to be an unconscionable and insensitive insult to the legacy of those amendments to the Constitution that represent the crowning achievement of the ultimate sacrifice made in the Civil War by that "band of brothers" of Americans of European and African descent to effect "a new birth of freedom" and forge "a more perfect union".

Please inform us of your intention to make the needed corrections. If we do not receive an affirmative response within 10 days, we will be compelled to file a mandamus to secure proper action by your agency in this matter.

Sincerely,
Holly Hart
Secretary, GPUS

cc:
Brent McMillan, Political Director, Green Party of the U.S.;
Asa Gordon, Chair,DC Statehood Greens Electoral Task Force

Attachments:
Full text of (Amend.14?2) & (2U.S.C.?6)

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ATTACHMENT:

United States Constitution
Amendment 14 :

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

United States Code
{2USC?6} Reduction of representation:

Should any State deny or abridge the right of any of the male inhabitants thereof, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, to vote at any election named in the amendment to the Constitution, article 14, section 2, except for participation in the rebellion or other crime, the number of Representatives apportioned to such State shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall have to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.