Gee, ya think?
Nov. 27th, 2012 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayne"The Republican Party, the strategists, the consultants, they firmly believe that early voting is bad for Republican Party candidates. [The new Florida law shortening the early voting period was] done for one reason and one reason only...'We've got to cut down on early voting because early voting is not good for us.'"
-- Jim Greer, former head of the Florida Republican Party
"The only thing that makes any sense as to why this is happening and being done is voter suppression...It's frankly unconscionable."
-- former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist
Rachel Maddow had a great idea, and that is to form a Federal Election Board whose job it would be to regulate and enforce rules for Federal elections: early voting dates, registration, technology. The Fed can't do anything for state and local elections, but it certainly can for Federal elections.
It's been well known for a long time that early voting disproportionately increases Democratic turnout, so it's easy to see that Republicans would try to limit it, especially in Democratic-rich areas, such as they tried to do in Ohio where the Secretary of State tried to restrict early voting hours in Democratic-heavy areas while simultaneously extending early voting hours in Republican-heavy areas. Apparently he had never heard of the phrase 'what's sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.' It took the Supreme Court whacking him upside the head to realize he couldn't skew the vote in that fashion.
By no means am I saying that the Democratic Party is the solution to all our ills, but Republican corporatism/plutocracy certainly is not. I'm totally disenchanted with the two-party system, but as they have a stranglehold on the Presidential debate process, the likelihood of any new party being more than a fringe is unlikely. I think the best solution is to vote out Republican Governors and Secretary of states in the mid-term elections and you'll see more fair early voting and elections in 2016.
-- Jim Greer, former head of the Florida Republican Party
"The only thing that makes any sense as to why this is happening and being done is voter suppression...It's frankly unconscionable."
-- former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist
Rachel Maddow had a great idea, and that is to form a Federal Election Board whose job it would be to regulate and enforce rules for Federal elections: early voting dates, registration, technology. The Fed can't do anything for state and local elections, but it certainly can for Federal elections.
It's been well known for a long time that early voting disproportionately increases Democratic turnout, so it's easy to see that Republicans would try to limit it, especially in Democratic-rich areas, such as they tried to do in Ohio where the Secretary of State tried to restrict early voting hours in Democratic-heavy areas while simultaneously extending early voting hours in Republican-heavy areas. Apparently he had never heard of the phrase 'what's sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.' It took the Supreme Court whacking him upside the head to realize he couldn't skew the vote in that fashion.
By no means am I saying that the Democratic Party is the solution to all our ills, but Republican corporatism/plutocracy certainly is not. I'm totally disenchanted with the two-party system, but as they have a stranglehold on the Presidential debate process, the likelihood of any new party being more than a fringe is unlikely. I think the best solution is to vote out Republican Governors and Secretary of states in the mid-term elections and you'll see more fair early voting and elections in 2016.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-27 09:28 pm (UTC)I would live to see a non-partisan technocratic organization run all aspects of elections, including drawing of districts, so as to remove the temptation to try and rig the rules in your favor.
Or we could require elections to be run and controlled by non-major parties...run a good election, perhaps get elected in the next one...