"I remember Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004, and I am willing to take action in 2008 if the election is stolen again. I support efforts to protect the right to vote leading up to and on Election Day, November 4th. I pledge to join nationwide pro-democracy protests starting on November 5th, either in my community, in key states where fraud occurred, or in Washington D.C.. I pledge: No More Stolen Elections!"

We can debate about how to define the change in which we believe. But no change is possible if our democracy is broken.

That’s what happened in 2000 and again in 2004. Just mention the names of two states – “Florida” and “Ohio” – and you have summed up one of the most dangerous barriers to change, and democracy, in America.

When the promise of a fair vote and fair count is denied, elections become meaningless exercises. And when that happens, the status quo cannot be peacefully altered.

If we are serious about not just change but democracy, we must be serious about assuring that the 2008 presidential election is neither gamed nor stolen.

We must act against:

• Voter intimidation and vote suppression
• Ballot tampering and shortages
• Broken voting machinery
• Hackable voting machines
• Suspect vote counting methods
• Unreasonable barriers to ballot access and closed debates
• Media announcements of “results” before the votes are cast and counted
• Corrupt and partisan election officials
• Suppressed and aborted recounts

The assault on American democracy in recent years has been so extreme and so consistent that, months before Election Day 2008, we already know what to expect.

Millions of Americans will be denied the right to vote.

Millions more will be prevented from voting for the candidate of their choice.

And with Black Americans leading two presidential tickets, the intentional suppression of voter turnout in communities of color will continue to be not just a threat but a virtual certainty as those who cannot win the Black vote seek to suppress it.

Recent experience and mounting evidence tell us beyond any reasonable doubt that powerful interests are prepared, at the very least, to attempt to steal another presidential election.

There is nothing unreasonable, nothing radical about that statement.

After all, these same interests have already rigged the system in their favor:

* They have stacked the deck with winner-take-all elections, partisan gerrymandering, and the Electoral College.
* They have enacted laws designed to prevent people of color, youth, and the poor from voting.
* They have undermined public financing of campaigns.
* They have declared corporations entitled to free speech rights to invest in candidates and buy elections.
* They have made it very difficult and expensive for new parties to form and run candidates.

Much of this explains why so many Americans believe that their vote doesn’t matter and why the U.S. has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the world. We are plagued by undemocratic elections that result in the severe under-representation in government of women, people of color, youth, and working people. No wonder so many of America’s social, ecological, and economic problems persist.

Between the rigging and theft of elections, Americans are rightly concerned that history will repeat in 2008. We may hope for change, but we fear that once again we will find ourselves ruled by a non-elected, dangerously powerful President.

In 2000, we were caught unprepared, we mobilized too late, and the Supreme Court chose the President. In 2004, we prepared the “No Stolen Elections!” campaign, mobilizing tens of thousands of people across the country for what was to become the Ohio Recount.

In 2008, we’re ready to mobilize and demand much more.

On Election Day, November 4, we will be ready to protect the sacred right to vote. On the next day, November 5, regardless of the declared presidential victor, we will act.

A. If there is reason to believe that the election is likely to be stolen, as was the case in Florida 2000, we will act to prevent this from happening – pressing to prevent the theft and, if that is impossible, demanding a new honest election.

B. If it is unclear whether voting rights violation rise to the level of election theft, as was the case in Ohio 2004, we will mobilize everywhere to demand a full and complete count of the vote.

C. If it appears that the election result was defined by the rigging of the process, we will rally nationwide to press for progress in enacting democratic reforms.

We call on all concerned Americans to commit yourselves to these efforts by signing the “No More Stolen Elections!” Pledge of Action:

"I remember Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004, and I am willing to take action in 2008 if the election is stolen again. I support efforts to protect the right to vote leading up to and on Election Day, November 4th. I pledge to join nationwide pro-democracy protests starting on November 5th, either in my community, in key states where fraud occurred, or in Washington D.C.. I pledge: No More Stolen Elections!"

We understand that the “No More Stolen Elections!” campaign is one part of a far greater struggle for democracy, one that began long before the 2008 election, and that will continue well beyond it. Millions of our forbears personally risked everything to make real the promise of American democracy. In honor and respect for them, and for our own human dignity, we pledge no less.

Please join us in pledging yourself to action to protect our elections, and to heed the call to mobilize on November 5th. Please sign the pledge now and join the growing U.S. democracy movement:

INITIAL SIGNATORIES (*all organizations listed for identification purposes only)

• Michael Albert, Z Magazine
• Aimee Allison, KPFA Radio
• Andy Gussert, trade activist
• Austin King, director, Financial Justice Center
• Barbara Ehrenreich, author, Nickled and Dimed
• Ben Manski, executive director, Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution
• Bill Fletcher, American Federation of Government Employees
• Blanche Wiesen Cook, professor, author, Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. I, II, III
• Bob Fertik, Democrats.com
• Camilo Mejia, chair, Iraq Veterans Against the War
• Charlie Derber, professor and writer
• Daniel Ellsberg, Truth-Telling Project
• David Cobb, initiator of 2004 Ohio Recount
• David Rovics, musician
• David Swanson, AfterDowningStreet.org
• Dorothy Fadiman, director, Stealing America: Vote by Vote
• Doyle Canning, SmartMeme
• Emma's Revolution, Sonny O and Pat Humphries, musicians
• George Friday, national coordinator, Independent Progressive Politics Network
• George Martin, national co-chair - United for Peace & Justice
• Glen Ford, executive editor, BlackAgendaReport.com
• Greg Coleridge, American Friends Service Committee, Ohio
• Frances Moore Lappé, author, Democracy's Edge
• Frances Piven, professor, author, Why Poor People Don't Vote
• Head Roc, www.head-roc.com, Capitol Resistance
• Holly Near, musician, activist
• Jamala Rogers, national organizer, Black Radical Congress
• Jane Anne Morris, author, Gaveling Down The Rabble
• Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes
• Jerome Scott, co-director, Project South
• Jim Hightower, radio personality
• John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies
• John Nichols, author, The Genius of Impeachment
• John E. Peck, executive director, Family Farm Defenders
• John Stauber, executive director, Center for Media and Democracy
• Jonathan Simon, executive director, Election Defense Alliance
• Jonathan Tasini, executive director, Labor Research Association
• Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, director, Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County
• Karen Dolan, director, Cities for Progress
• Kevin Martin, executive director, Peace Action
• Kevin Zeese, executive director, TrueVote.US
• Leslie Cagan, national coordinator, United for Peace and Justice
• Lori Price, managing editor, Citizens for Legitimate Government
• Makani Themba-Nixon, executive director, The Praxis Project
• Manning Marable, director, Center for Contemporary Black History, Colombia University
• Marcus Raskin, co-founder, Institute for Policy Studies
• Matt Nelson, Freedom Now! Collaborative
• Matt Rothschild, editor, The Progressive
• Maude Hurd, president, ACORN
• Medea Benjamin, co-founder, Global Exchange
• Michael Dolan, activist
• Mimi Kennedy, actress, activist
• Mike Ferner, author, Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq.
• Mike McCabe, executive director, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
• Norman Solomon, activist, author
• Pabitra Benjamin, Rights Working Group
• Patrick Reinsborough, SmartMeme
• Rabbi Michael Lerner, chair, Network of Spiritual Progressives
• Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader
• Rev. Lennox Yearwood, president, Hip Hop Caucus
• Robert McChesney, professor, author, The Problem of the Media
• Rahul Mahajan, author, The New Crusade: America's War on Terrorism
• Randy Shaw, editor, BeyondChron.org
• Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, Middle Collegiate Church
• Ronnie Cummins, founder, Grassroots Netroots Alliance
• Sarah Manski, DemocracySquare.org
• Sharon Lungo, Ruckus Society
• Sissy Farenthold, attorney at law
• Starhawk, Earth Activist Trainings
• Steve Cobble, activist
• Sue Udry, Defending Dissent Foundation
• Ted Glick, climate change activist
• Tim Carpenter, executive director, Progressive Democrats of America
• Tom Hayden, activist
• Van Jones, founder, Green for All
• Victor Wallis, editor, Socialism and Democracy