Posted on March 13, 2013 by the Registration, Organizing and Fundraising Committee.
Cindy Sheehan, internationally-known activist for peace and justice, is the lead signer of a letter that kicks off the Peace and Freedom Party voter registration drive in California. The Peace and Freedom Party had over 62,000 voter members last October. Under current state law, after the adoption of Top Two elections, the party needs to raise its membership to around 105,000 by the end of 2014 to retain its ballot status.
"We have already registered about 3,000 more voters since October," says State Chair Kevin Akin, "but we need to step up the pace considerably. With the help of Cindy Sheehan and the other signers of our mobilization letter, we expect to double our registration rate and reach or exceed our goal." The working-class alternative party was founded in 1967, and has run hundreds of candidates for large and small offices, pushing for peace, human rights, and social justice.
Signers of the letter with Cindy Sheehan include Akin, union leaders Mike Roskey and Gloria La Riva, physician Alice Stek, history professor and writer Gerald Horne, attorney Kathleen Williams, satirist Paul Krasner, Veterans for Peace chapter presidents John Reiger of Sacramento and Scott Camil of Gainesville, and television host John Fugelsang. In addition to mailings, the letter will be distributed widely through electronic media. As well as asking for voters to register in the party (a link for doing so is provided in the electronic copies), the letter asks for donations to the registration drive, whose cost is estimated at $85,000.
Click here to read this important message from Cindy Sheehan and friends.