WatchDog Groups Launch New Campaign Urging Congress to Pass Pending Election Legislation That Will Protect Millions of Voters and Bring Fairness and Transparency to the Upcoming Elections

WASHINGTON, June 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Protect Our Elections, www.protectourelections.org, is a new campaign to help push Congress for passage of pending national legislation meant to protect public elections and the votes of millions of Americans. The campaign, launched by a broad based coalition of organizations dedicated to fair elections and government transparency, has identified common sense federal legislation that will help ensure the fairness, security, accessibility and accuracy of elections starting with the 2010 mid-term election.

Specifically, Protect Our Elections urges passage of legislation to stop unlimited corporate purchasing of elections, unfair voter challenges and suppression, the purging of voter rolls, felon disenfranchisement, misleading election information, and draconian  polling place photo ID restrictions. In addition, the campaign demands a strong, paper ballot requirement, to be fully implemented by 2012, to protect elections in time for the next presidential election and mitigate the threat from Internet voting and unverifiable electronic elections.

Initially, Protect Our Elections is demanding the passage of the DISCLOSE Act under an expedited calendar in order to mitigate the corrosive effects of the Supreme Court's Citizen United decision allowing unlimited secret funding of elections by corporations.  Next, the campaign is demanding that the other legislation be passed in order to stop the dirty tricks and disenfranchisement that have become common place over the past decade and kept millions of citizens from voting.  

Protect Our Elections is using an inside/outside approach for its campaign, working directly with Congress members and urging millions of grassroots activists to contact Congress to pass this important legislation.  The campaign is calling on Congressional leaders to pass the DISCLOSE Act and the remaining legislation before the summer break.

Citizens can get involved by going to the website, www.protectourelections.org, and signing the online petition.  Organizations can become partners or endorsers.

SOURCE ProtectOurElections.org