Citizens for True Democracy Is a Non-Partisan Organization

CTD was founded in 1998 to increase political participation via electoral reform. One of the organization's top priorities since its inception two and one-half years ago has been replacing the Electoral College, which we consider to be grossly unfair and anti-democratic, with direct presidential elections and instant-runoff voting. (Click here to read more about why we support a constitutional amendment abolishing the Electoral College.)

CTD's campaign to persuade electors to vote with America is, like CTD itself, a strictly non-partisan operation. It is based on a simple premise: that the candidate that wins the most votes nationally should win the election. This has nothing to do with our feelings toward Al Gore and the Democrats or George W. Bush and the Republicans. (It is worth noting, however, that neither David Enrich nor Matt Grossmann, CTD's two chief operators, are registered with the Democratic or Republican parties, and neither Enrich nor Grossmann voted for Gore or Bush.)

Prior to November 7, CTD had entertained the notion that Gore could win the electoral vote despite Bush winning the popular vote. In anticipation of this potential overturning of the popular vote, we compiled a list of Democratic electors so that we could contact them and urge them to vote for the popular vote winner -- in this hypothetical case, George W. Bush.

Of course, the election ended with Bush poised to win the electoral vote and Gore having won the national popular vote. Based on our principled opposition to the Electoral College, our strategy of contacting electors remained the same, but with different targets (the Republican electors).