Grayson Democrats pass several resolutions
Herald Democrat
By Kathy Williams
(Wednesday, September 3, 2008) - Grayson County Democrats resolved on Saturday that they want to see a verifiable paper trail for electronic voting machines here and they oppose a private jail for the county. Texas Supreme Court chief justice candidate Judge Jim Jordan called for Democrats to rally “for the most important election of our lifetimes.”
In all, the 393 delegates voted to approve 15 resolutions and either failed or declined to consider 11 others. The convention attracted a record turnout of 442, which included alternate delegates and guests.
As delegates waited for the Credentials Committee to certify the roll of delegates, they got a surprise visit from Jordan, part of the wave of Democratic judges that swept every elected Republican in Dallas out of office in 2006. Jordan said it’s important to do the same statewide this November. Jordan currently sits on the bench of the 160th state District Court in Dallas.
Jordan has ties with this area as an Austin College graduate. He earned his law degree from Texas Tech. He has served as both a judge and a trial attorney, and his 39 fellow district judges in Dallas County have elected him as their administrator. So, he said, he has experience on both sides of the bench and in the administration of courts. That’s important in the Texas Supreme Court, which often hears appeals of cases from lower courts and decides on court administration issues.
He called for judges, particularly justices, to abide by the highest standards.
“A judge must be not only fair and impartial, but must be guardians of the law, particularly the Constitution,” Jordan said. “One of the most valuable rights is trial by jury and the right to trial by jury is slipping away here in Texas. And one of our greatest rights and responsibilities is to serve on a jury. The court room is our great equalizer. Even if you are just a high school graduate and live paycheck to paycheck, no citizen is more important than any other citizen … we are equal under the law.
“But there are powerful interest groups that want to do away with the trial by jury because they don’t want to be accountable for what they do.”
Grayson County Democrats resolved “voting machines and software should not be purchased and used unless they provide a voter-verifiable audit trail. Providing a voter-verifiable audit trail should be one of the essential requirements of certification of new voting systems.”
Grayson County Democratic Chairman Tony Beaverson, a member of the Grayson County Election Board, said the electronic voting machines the county currently uses do have the ability to add on such verification equipment. Verification would allow a voter to have a paper record of what votes the machine recorded before he or she leaves the booth. The county would have to buy such equipment, but, the resolutions states, “As a result of research of elections in recent years, funding is being made available at all levels of government to upgrade equipment and software.”
In another locally oriented resolutions, the convention decided, “Grayson County Democratic Party shall go on record as being opposed to privatization of city, county, state or federal jails.”
Democrats passed two resolutions dealing with the awarding of sales tax-funded economic development incentives. The first resolves that communities require corporations that receive such incentives to pay salaries equal to the living wages of that community. Living wages shall include what individuals and families require to afford food, shelter, medical care, transportation and child care.
The second asks the State Legislature to pass laws that communities attach to any public incentives requirements that industries meet increasingly stronger environmental laws or repay the publicly funded incentives.
Toll roads attracted a lot of attention from Democrats who resolved in separate votes that: Private toll road on state of Texas property are taxed like all other taxable property; Texas should repeal “market based tolling” in favor of tolls that reflect the actual cost of construction, maintenance and debt retirement; the Legislature should close all loopholes in the state’s eminent domain laws that allow any government agency to take private land for toll roads to be operated leased or managed by private companies, including foreign private companies, for private or commercial gain; and Texas should not allow any toll taxing of any portion of an existing publicly owned roadway.
Health care also topped Democrats’ resolutions, with one requiring the state to authorize subsidized and full-cost buy-in options for the Children’s Health Insurance Program for families with no access to private insurance. Another resolution asks the Legislature to require insurance companies to provide coverage to those who are engaged in non-work related activity considered to be legal but dangerous. Another would ask the state to provide the same health insurance and retirement plans for all public employees in Texas.
Democrats also forwarded to the state conventions, with the intent they ultimately be incorporated into the state or national platforms, resolutions aimed at promoting alternative energy. One would establish a statewide solar rebate program, similar to the encouragement it has offered the wind energy industry, as long as an environmentally friendly disposal technology is available. Another asks for a National Renewable Energy Standard to be adopted that requires at least 20 percent of the nation’s energy to come from safe, clean and renewable sources.
The convention ended by electing 38 delegates and 38 alternates to the Democratic State Convention scheduled for June 5-7 in Austin. Twenty one delegates are pledged to Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and 17 pledged to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill). Although they are called pledged delegates, they may switch their presidential preference up to the National Convention in Denver.
