Sunday, February 17, 2013

To Vote or Not to Vote

Political propriety has it as gospel that high voter turnout is a good thing. Of course there are heretics. But most of them know enough to keep their thoughts to themselves and execute them through their actions. I’m referring specifically to today’s Republicans. It’s no secret that they’ve been trying to prevent or discourage voting by folks who aren’t up in the chips and vote heavily Democratic, in six major swing states carried by Obama in the last two elections. The techniques involved make it difficult to establish identity or to make them wait hours in line to vote, an obstacle not common to affluent voting flirted districts. While their motive is clear they owe the public something a bit more subtle. Let me help them. They could say that many of these people lack sufficient knowledge or, as I’m sure they feel, that they don’t pay a large enough portion of our taxes for the privilege of voting. Instead they’ve settled on a real doozy, voter fraud.

The irrelevance of this logic is that fraudulent voting has not been a problem unless one considers .00000018% of total votes cast as such. Figure out the zeros if you like. Most errors are unintentional such as voting in the wrong precinct. But even if this were a problem a longer voting period would have no effect other than giving the authorities more time to inspect the legitimacy of individual votes.

The stage for this chicanery was set by the heavy turnout of Tea Party types in the otherwise sparsely attended 2010 midterm elections and could be greatly exacerbated next year. I’m encouraged by signs that Democrats are aware of the situation in Congress this time.

But even success at the federal level won’t protect them from what may well be their Achilles heel, state government. This is where after the 2014 elections, the voting processes of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida and Virginia, and probably the president-elect in 2016 will be determined. It could involve less Washington D.C. and more Harrisburg Columbus, Lansing, Madison, Richmond and Tallahassee.

Republicans let the cat out of the bag when the newly elected governors and legislatures openly flirted with the idea of awarding their states’ electoral votes on the basis of Congressional representation, a process that would have made Romney president. All but one have claimed to have lost interest. The idea is widely unpopular and these governors and state legislatures are up for reelection next year so it makes sense to play rope a dope until after the election and then do what they please. None of the governors elected in 2010 who are now engaged in a crusade against labor said a word on the subject when they were running for office.

Savvy Republicans know from the demographics that the game of majority rule is one they’ll lose, sooner rather than later as I see it. The solution is simple. Just change the rules of the game.





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