Media, election, and judicial reform advocate Mark Adams, JD, MBA of Tampa, Florida discovered something very important in the South Carolina Constitution. It provides for secret voting but bans secret vote counting.
All elections by the people shall be by secret ballot, but the ballots shall not be counted in secret. The right of suffrage, as regulated in this Constitution, shall be protected by laws regulating elections and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, all undue influence from power, bribery, tumult, or improper conduct. South Carolina Constitution, Article II, Section 1
Exciting news for a variety of historically marginalized groups: Denise Simmons, the country's first black, lesbian mayor, was elected this week to serve Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Simmons, a member of the council since 2001, is the second consecutive mayor who is black and openly gay. She is the first woman to serve as the city’s mayor since Sheila Russell held the office from 1996-1997.
...
“It feels really great,” Simmons said. “When I first came to the School Committee, one of the things I always said was that I wanted to be mayor.”
“Today is a day to celebrate another broken glass ceiling,” said Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the Victory Fund, a national organization that supports openly GLBT candidates seeking national and local office. The Victory Fund’s blog, incidentally, has one of the best URLs I’ve come across recently: www.gaypolitics.com.
Please remember that Campus Progress' terms of use do not allow promoting or endorsing any particular political party or candidate for office. Posts or comments that do this will be deleted.
Posts
!
