"The disenfranchisement and injustice in Florida during last November's election occurred in many American communities," exclaims Steve Carbó. Carbó is Director of the Democracy Program at Demos; a national group based in New York dedicated to building a broad democratic vision for American society.

"Votes not counted, antiquated voting machines, voters turned away, discriminatory purging of voter files, former prisoners barred for life from voting, and disabled people and non-English speakers not receiving assistance - Florida is everywhere but it does create opportunities to move forward with a full reform agenda," says Carbó.

Speaking in Oregon for the first time, Steve Carbó was joined by Stephanie Wilson, Executive Director of the Fannie Lou Hamer Project and Dexter Wimbrush, Regional Organizing Director for Democracy South. These national leaders spoke at the Western States Center's annual training event attended by 400 activists from around the region. The Money in Politics Research Action Project was a co-sponsor of their talk on The New Democracy Movement and the Struggle for Voting Rights.

"For me democracy is personal - I am three generations removed from a sharecropper who never had the right to vote. My grandmother first voted at 50 after voting barriers were removed by the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 60s," said Dexter Wimbrush. "I fear for my son's future because the United States is more of a plutocracy than a democracy."

"The Fannie Lou Hamer Project believes that fundamental reform in our campaign finance system is vital to address fundamental issues of economic and social justice and to make democracy work for people like our organization's namesake," says Stephanie Wilson, head of the Fannie Lou Hamer Project. "We apply the Fannie Lou Hamer Standard to any election or campaign finance reform proposal."

Fannie Lou Hamer is the legendary African-American voting rights champion who led the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegation to the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Hamer was poor, a woman, and a person of color - the kind of person the current election system shuts out. The Fannie Lou Hamer Standard asks how far a reform proposal goes in making the system fair to someone like Fannie Lou Hamer.

The Fannie Lou Hamer Standard is based on political equality, which means:

• Equal opportunity for everyone to participate in the political system, regardless of race, gender, or economic status and access to wealth - as provided for in the Voting Rights Act
• One person, one vote - not one dollar, one vote
• In the words of Abraham Lincoln, government of, by, and for the people represents political equality, not just government for those who can give or have ready access to big campaign contributions.