(no subject)

[holzman_tweed]

You know, I've known for a long time that to call the people presenting the conservative view of things a pack of scurrilous liars was to present them in a friendly and sympathetic light.

I even thought that folks like Al Franken did a good job of documenting it.

Too bad he had to go to press before the California elections came up, because they've managed to top themselves.

As I'm sure you know, the 9th Circuit court issued an order delaying the recall election because

1. Butterfly ballots have been found by pretty much everyone in California to be an unacceptable voting mechanism due to their error rate. That is the position of the Secretary of State, they are in the process of being replaced, there is a March deadline to have them replaced, and there is even a consent decree to that effect.
   
2. Six counties still have butterfly ballots, and everyone else has been upgraded to more reliable balloting devices.
   
3. In Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitional to have one method of counting votes in one part of the state and a second method in another, as this violated Equal Protection.
   
4. Therefore the butterfly ballots must be upgraded in the last six counties before the election can go forward.
   

Pretty straightforward.

I've seen one conservative call this a specious argument and claim that the court simply wants to hold onto power. While I think this is incorrect, I can respect that position.

Here, though, is a little bit of what I cannot respect: The spin all over the right is summarizable as "The court ruled that minorities are too stupid to use butterfly ballots, so it would be discrimination."

Read the case for yourself, it's on findlaw. Race is not a factor in the decision. The decision is not based on people's intelligence or stupidity, it's based on the flaws of the mechanism itself. There is no way a person of reason or good will could possibly interpret the ruling in this manner.

I know there are conservatives of good will and reason out there. Some of you I consider my friends. But it's time to put you on notice: You need to be denouncing the people who are putting these sorts of lies out there. You need to be doing it loudly. It is no longer good enough to quietly disclaim them as not representing your views. It is no longer good enough to brush them under the carpet as simply joking. It is no longer good enough to be silent.

I don't know why this one's affecting me more than every other distortion they've put out there. Perhaps because there's something shameless beyond shame of the people who systematicly removed tens of thousands of Black voters from Florida's rolls without cause to be accusing someone else of racism.

Perhaps I've simply reached the point that was reached in the McCarthy hearings: Have you shame? At long last, have you no shame?

Comments

[dmlaenker.livejournal.com]

Quite frankly, I see this as just one excuse among any for the crankier elements of the right to be passive-aggressive, oversensitive, and just plain rude about race.

...back to battening the hatches...

[fifthconundrum.livejournal.com]

The thing that's annoying me is the fact there is a recall election at all, and the only reason it may be stopped is because of outdated voting machines.

And no, they have no shame. They only seem to know how to heap it on others.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

And we keep hearing that it's punch card ballots, "which caused the problems in Florida," as if that were the only thing.

[silme.livejournal.com]

Hey, I already said we're going to be busy on 27 Sept. Noon. Hyde Park. London. Stop the War's latest demo. No more war! No more lies!

There were over a million people there in February. 400,000 last September. I wonder how many will gather this month?

http://stopwar.org.uk

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

What I don't understand is why they didn't do the simplest possible thing to level the playing field: print up one standardized paper ballot to use statewide.

Fill in the circle with a No. 2 pencil. Machine-read.

One consistent error-causing factor statewide. Equal protection of rights.

It's the only item in the election, how hard could it have been?

[holzman.livejournal.com]

There's several reasons, though I'm speculating to some degree.

First, the paper version of the recall ballot (which is what absentees get) is something like 12 pages long.

Second is that what's an acceptable method of voting is a matter of legislature and registration, and a general paper ballot may not be available.

Third is that the replacement vote isn't the only thing in the election -- the recall itself is a separate vote, and there may be other items in as well (I don't know).

Fourth is that they would have to scramble to get the machine-readers to read the votes, and they might not have the time and money for that.