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pecuniumBarbara Boxer stood up.
This election had irregularities. The irony of them is to be found in Ukraine. In Ohio (and a couple of other places, as I recall) the exit polls said one thing, and the tallies another. We were told this was a fluke (never mind the mathematicians who said it was, in one locale, improbable, in two locales, implausible and three, well to shift to another style, once is happenstance, twice is co-incidence, thrice is enemy action).
Me, I was willing to sit it out. I don't think conspiracy theories are good for the republic (which is why I would have preferred an investigation rather than the, pitiful, excuse offered up by the Republicans; that the Dems ahad managed to find out where the exit pollsters were going to be and packed the polls).
Fast forward. Ukraine has an election. The guy in power wants to move more to the Russian orbit. The challenger wants to move west (to Europe, but that still means more toward us). The election seems flawed. Our gov't complains, says a fair and honest election, free of the taint of implied impropriety needs to be held.
What was the basis for this allegation of fruad... the exit polls and the tallies didn't match.
So some Reps. from Ohio wanted to challenge the returns. Four years ago the congressmembers who wanted to do that for Florida were left sanding in the cold.
This morning Barbara Boxer, who will be up for re-election in the next presidential cycle, stood up and said she would support the request from Ohio to look into the electoral votes in Ohio.
Will it change anything? No. The Parties are too rigid for that (unless enough Republicans, in both houses voted to reverse the count, Bush still wins, and any Republicans who voted, and lost, to reverse the count would be out in the cold, for the rest of their, short, political career).
So why am I happy? Because it means, if we can get the press off of, "Beat 'em 'til they talk" Gonzales, maybe we can get some meaningful debate about ho we vote. Just maybe we can get real accountability.
Washington State had a win for the system (though the Republicans tried to torpedo that, and the loser is still trying to use the courts to reverese the will of the people). We need to establish a system that ensures the people get heard. That votes are accountable, and that the local satraps (like the Secratary of State in Ohio) don't have as much power in affecting who can vote, and how the votes get tallied.
First, and it seems a simple fix. The secratary of state ought to be a non-partisan office. Certainly letting one be the chair of a candidate's campaign ought to be forbidden. But right now it isn't, and for the second, in as many elections we have seen a state, where just that happened, possessed of questionable returns, and deciding who sits in the Oval Office.
The system is flawed, it needs to be fixed, and this can be the first step.
This election had irregularities. The irony of them is to be found in Ukraine. In Ohio (and a couple of other places, as I recall) the exit polls said one thing, and the tallies another. We were told this was a fluke (never mind the mathematicians who said it was, in one locale, improbable, in two locales, implausible and three, well to shift to another style, once is happenstance, twice is co-incidence, thrice is enemy action).
Me, I was willing to sit it out. I don't think conspiracy theories are good for the republic (which is why I would have preferred an investigation rather than the, pitiful, excuse offered up by the Republicans; that the Dems ahad managed to find out where the exit pollsters were going to be and packed the polls).
Fast forward. Ukraine has an election. The guy in power wants to move more to the Russian orbit. The challenger wants to move west (to Europe, but that still means more toward us). The election seems flawed. Our gov't complains, says a fair and honest election, free of the taint of implied impropriety needs to be held.
What was the basis for this allegation of fruad... the exit polls and the tallies didn't match.
So some Reps. from Ohio wanted to challenge the returns. Four years ago the congressmembers who wanted to do that for Florida were left sanding in the cold.
This morning Barbara Boxer, who will be up for re-election in the next presidential cycle, stood up and said she would support the request from Ohio to look into the electoral votes in Ohio.
Will it change anything? No. The Parties are too rigid for that (unless enough Republicans, in both houses voted to reverse the count, Bush still wins, and any Republicans who voted, and lost, to reverse the count would be out in the cold, for the rest of their, short, political career).
So why am I happy? Because it means, if we can get the press off of, "Beat 'em 'til they talk" Gonzales, maybe we can get some meaningful debate about ho we vote. Just maybe we can get real accountability.
Washington State had a win for the system (though the Republicans tried to torpedo that, and the loser is still trying to use the courts to reverese the will of the people). We need to establish a system that ensures the people get heard. That votes are accountable, and that the local satraps (like the Secratary of State in Ohio) don't have as much power in affecting who can vote, and how the votes get tallied.
First, and it seems a simple fix. The secratary of state ought to be a non-partisan office. Certainly letting one be the chair of a candidate's campaign ought to be forbidden. But right now it isn't, and for the second, in as many elections we have seen a state, where just that happened, possessed of questionable returns, and deciding who sits in the Oval Office.
The system is flawed, it needs to be fixed, and this can be the first step.
