ROBERT A.

“BOB” GAMMAGE
Attorney at Law

Post Office Box 400 Cellular: 512-657-3575 Post Office Box 13226
Llano, Texas 78643 E-Mail: bgllano@yahoo.com Austin, Texas 78711
Tel & Fax: 325-247-3317 Tel : 512-477-3575
November 11, 2008

State Democratic Executive Committee of Texas:

Through most of the last 40 years as a lawyer, lawmaker and judge, I have fought
along side many other loyal Democrats in Texas and nationally to see that every qualified
voter in our state and country is given the opportunity to vote, and to have their vote
count equally with those of every other voting citizen.

In 1971 we expanded the franchise to permit young people between 18 and 21

years of age, many of them serving in the military and others exercising all other adult
responsibilities, to join their fellow citizens in voting on significant public issues and
choosing their elected public officials. The poll tax had already been abolished and the
unit rule for selecting delegates had been done away with. Since then, our state has
appropriately and proudly expanded the election period and increased the locations in
which citizens can cast their ballots, to assure that as many voters as possible have the
opportunity to fully participate in our electoral system, and to circumvent the hazards of
weather, job-related responsibilities, family obligations, physical infirmities, unavoidable
election day absences, and other impediments or inconveniences which historically so
often prevented citizens from voting on a single election day,

In recent years, however, Texas Democrats have taken a giant step back from the
fight for ballot equality by adopting the so-called "Texas Two-Step" system, which
enables undemocratic caucuses to determine a third of the delegates who attend our
presidential nominating conventions, regardless of the democratically expressed will of
the voters who participated in the election itself. This system ignores the very purpose of
all the preceding ballot expansion and democratization efforts, by giving an unfair
weighted numerical advantage to a small percentage of voters who find it convenient to
show up on a single night, after the polls have closed, for a limited number of hours to
determine fully one-third of the delegates who will move to the next step of the
presidential delegate selection process.

I strongly urge you to abolish the Texas Two-Step process and restore the
democratic integrity of our ballot and our delegate selection process.

Sincerely,

Bob Gammage
Justice, Supreme Court of Texas (Retired)
Captain, JAGC, USNR (Retired)