GOP Umpires: You vote, they decide
Why does the NCAA have stricter standards for officiating college football than we have for officiating Presidential elections? In bowl games the NCAA won’t even allow the referees to be from the conference of either team. Shouldn’t we care at least as much when it comes to the refereeing of our national elections?
What stirs all this concern of course was the outrageous home cooking served up by zebras doing the officiating in Florida and Ohio in the last two Presidential elections. Secretaries of State Katharine Harris in Florida in 2000 and Ron Blackwell in Ohio in 2004 enthusiastically threw flags penalizing Democratic voters while serving as chairs of the Bush presidential campaign.
For a nation trying to bring democracy to the Middle East, doesn’t this sound like politics in a banana republic?
When the referee interpreting and enforcing election laws wears the opposing team’s uniform, you get uneasy. One thing Harris and Blackwell have done is create new interest in the formerly drab role of Secretary of State. I can remember when the witness protection program afforded more personal publicity and recognition. Until the nail-biting 2000 Presidential election where it came down to Jeb Bush’s Florida, hardly anyone knew or cared that in addition to licensing private eyes and protecting the state seal the Secretary of State also is charged with overseeing elections. And there was Katharine Harris, with layers of makeup and Wonderbra, ruling for the home team.
In swing states all across America, ambitious politicians saw where career advancement really lies and began filling out forms to run for Secretary of State. It is still the best non-job in state government. No stress, no heavy lifting. Just bide your time for stardom while using the opportunity of statewide office to travel about the state scarfing down barbeques and cutting ceremonial ribbons.
In Florida and Ohio, Harris and Blackwell became cult heroes within their party.
Harris was rewarded with a safe congressional seat and is now running for the U.S. Senate. Blackwell, whose interpretation of election laws disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of Ohio citizens (predominantly minority and Democratic voters) is now his party’s candidate to succeed Bob Taft as Governor.
Blackwell is a master at suppressing voter registration and has given a whole new meaning to “machine politics”. Before the 2004 election he worked very hard to install Diebold voting machines throughout Ohio, arousing suspicions among Democrats as to how secure and how accurate those electronic devices might be when the company’s chief executive promised in a fund-raising letter to help Ohio deliver the election to Bush. As we all know, Ohio turned out to be the cliffhanger that throughout a long night could go either way. When all the votes were counted (or not counted) Bush had won Ohio and the election. Newspapers launched a series of investigations to try to explain all sorts of weird and mysterious electronic malfunctioning that occurred election day, but machines don’t leave a paper trail.
One thing we know is that all across the Buckeye state election day voting machines were behaving in peculiar but apparently pre-ordained fashion. Machines in predominantly Democratic precincts failed to record votes, others simply failed to function, and one in Franklin County recorded 4,258 votes for Bush from 638 voters. Can you top that? Well, maybe. In Alaska this year, the state Division of Elections refused to turn over its electronic voting files to Democrats trying to verify 2004 election results riddled with discrepancies. The state argued that the data format belongs to a private company (Diebold again) and can’t be made public. So there you have it; a public election paid for by taxpayers who aren’t allowed to see what went on behind the curtain.
As bullish as I am about Democrats regaining control of the Congress this fall, I’m having some concerns about partisan voting machines and referees.
What stirs all this concern of course was the outrageous home cooking served up by zebras doing the officiating in Florida and Ohio in the last two Presidential elections. Secretaries of State Katharine Harris in Florida in 2000 and Ron Blackwell in Ohio in 2004 enthusiastically threw flags penalizing Democratic voters while serving as chairs of the Bush presidential campaign.
For a nation trying to bring democracy to the Middle East, doesn’t this sound like politics in a banana republic?
When the referee interpreting and enforcing election laws wears the opposing team’s uniform, you get uneasy. One thing Harris and Blackwell have done is create new interest in the formerly drab role of Secretary of State. I can remember when the witness protection program afforded more personal publicity and recognition. Until the nail-biting 2000 Presidential election where it came down to Jeb Bush’s Florida, hardly anyone knew or cared that in addition to licensing private eyes and protecting the state seal the Secretary of State also is charged with overseeing elections. And there was Katharine Harris, with layers of makeup and Wonderbra, ruling for the home team.
In swing states all across America, ambitious politicians saw where career advancement really lies and began filling out forms to run for Secretary of State. It is still the best non-job in state government. No stress, no heavy lifting. Just bide your time for stardom while using the opportunity of statewide office to travel about the state scarfing down barbeques and cutting ceremonial ribbons.
In Florida and Ohio, Harris and Blackwell became cult heroes within their party.
Harris was rewarded with a safe congressional seat and is now running for the U.S. Senate. Blackwell, whose interpretation of election laws disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of Ohio citizens (predominantly minority and Democratic voters) is now his party’s candidate to succeed Bob Taft as Governor.
Blackwell is a master at suppressing voter registration and has given a whole new meaning to “machine politics”. Before the 2004 election he worked very hard to install Diebold voting machines throughout Ohio, arousing suspicions among Democrats as to how secure and how accurate those electronic devices might be when the company’s chief executive promised in a fund-raising letter to help Ohio deliver the election to Bush. As we all know, Ohio turned out to be the cliffhanger that throughout a long night could go either way. When all the votes were counted (or not counted) Bush had won Ohio and the election. Newspapers launched a series of investigations to try to explain all sorts of weird and mysterious electronic malfunctioning that occurred election day, but machines don’t leave a paper trail.
One thing we know is that all across the Buckeye state election day voting machines were behaving in peculiar but apparently pre-ordained fashion. Machines in predominantly Democratic precincts failed to record votes, others simply failed to function, and one in Franklin County recorded 4,258 votes for Bush from 638 voters. Can you top that? Well, maybe. In Alaska this year, the state Division of Elections refused to turn over its electronic voting files to Democrats trying to verify 2004 election results riddled with discrepancies. The state argued that the data format belongs to a private company (Diebold again) and can’t be made public. So there you have it; a public election paid for by taxpayers who aren’t allowed to see what went on behind the curtain.
As bullish as I am about Democrats regaining control of the Congress this fall, I’m having some concerns about partisan voting machines and referees.
posted by Victor Kamber | 4:54 PM
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