Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

In the aftermath of the presidential primaries, stories of unprecedented voter registration and turnout are drifting to the back burner. But with an exceedingly imbalanced electorate, the fight to create access to the voting rolls and enforce the voting rights of all Americans continues. With historic voter registration drives underway and a preview of the types of problems that could occur in November, the focus of the media is beginning to shift towards the less sexy, but crucial elements that work to maximize voter participation while ensuring eligible voters can cast their ballots and have them counted. In Project Vote’s view, this is a welcome development since many of the potential issues require more time to sort out than is available if problems are noted only weeks in advance of the election. This week, election officials, advocates and a presidential candidate worked to assist in or restore voting rights for hospitalized veterans in Connecticut, minority citizens in Georgia, and former felons in Tennessee.

Now that this thing is over...

Or anyway, as over as it will get until the corpse of the primary season is actually prepared and buried...or even better, cremated, since it would be so much more difficult for someone to reanimate it that way...

We could go on to the general election, and indeed we shall, but before we do I think we must spend a brief moment reflecting on the utter lunacy of the road we have just traveled.  Yes, folks: I’ve said it: the primary system is a mess, and the Democrats have just spent the last three months ripping open all of the bandages we have been placing on it for years.

Lots of words have been written on this, and I must give a huge shout-out to kossack Nathaniel Ament Stone, whose A Better Primary System in 2012 laid out a really thought-provoking concept that I lean heavily upon herein.

"Vote for the top tee shirt design" invites the Hillary Clinton website. And one of the five choices really seems to capture Ms. Clinton's world view. Hillary, it blazons across a field of dense type listing denizens of the fifty states ("Alabamians, Arizonians..."). We're all a part of her bigger picture.

In its quasi-benevolent -- or should I say omnibenevolent? -- way, this Planet Hillary vision seems as overdeterminedas her use of an assassination to illustrate a long campaign season. Hillary's got us all in her sights. She will take care of us all. It's all about her.

I just got an e-letter regarding the Democratic nominating campaign from Thom Hartmann of Air America Radio. If you're not familiar with Thom, he hosts The Thom Hartmann Program. Thom is a progressive radio host based in Portland, Oregon, and is a lay scholar of American history. Among his show's staples is "Brunch with Bernie" at noon on Fridays with Bernie Sanders, the one truly "Independent" U.S. Senator (VT). Thom often debates conservatives on issues in a respectful fashion, and is a passionate advocate for "the commons" approach to public policy. In Feb. 2007 Thom's show replaced Al Franken's when Al left to seek a U.S. Senate seat (MN).

Anyway, Thom's letter reads; Air American:

Ok. Here is my take on what has been happening around here.  

First of all, we are all dead tired of this primary campaign.  It has gone on too bloody long, and Democrats' feelings toward each other have started to sour.  As Matt Stoller has said, each primary since February has resulted in the most annoying and inconclusive possible outcome, and there is no reason to believe that this trend will not continue through to June.  Not to mention the fact that the superdelegates very well might not take decisive action after the voting ends, so it is possible that this thing could go all the way to the convention.  

Second of all, and more pertinently, people just went through a roller-coaster with Jeremiah Wright's recent appearances and Obama's interview on Fox News.  Watching the zeitgeist on this site over the past few days has been pretty entertaining, but also troubling....

(Keep reading for the motivational shpiel below)  

...now that her primary campaign tactics have attracted so much scrutiny. As re-enacted by Allen Iverson.

I have been following the Democratic Party nomination Process for a long time now. And have followed the nomination race between Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama. I think what happening between Super Tuesday and now it is clearly hurting the Democratic Party chances of winning the General Election in November.
So, I thought what could've been done to avoid the same situation in the 2012 election and beyond and came up with this solution. It is only my personal opinion only, and could be un-implementable, unpractical, or the cost might not justify the implementation of this solution.
In any case here it is.

One of the biggest fallacies in this heated primary race is that Hillary Clinton won on Super Tuesday.  Many pundits refer to Hillary Clinton staking her ground on the three separate occasions:  New Hampshire, Super Duper Tuesday (Feb 5) and Mini-Super Tuesday (Mar 4).

I am just another voter you will not listen to Senator, but who knows?

I am just another voter you will not listen to Senator, but who knows?

As Democrats in Texas and Ohio vote in what could be the decisive primaries today, polls suggest late movement towards Hillary Clinton.  But while the outcomes in those key contests may be in doubt, the media's coming interpretation of them is not.  In all likelihood, Wednesday's headlines will proclaim Hillary Clinton lost even in victory.

I should note here that my mother is a shade over 50 and has never voted in her life.  Not one single time.  

However, some things, in her mind, had to change.

During the Clinton years, she benefited greatly.  Though I live in a state that would sooner arrest then vote for him, she never voted on any level because it didn't matter.  She told me that, no matter what, her voice wouldn't count because of the lock step machination of the local and state populace.  One of the benefits I enjoy living in a larger city, I suppose.

In what is shaping up to be a battle to the death for delegates and superdelegates coming into the home stretch for the Democratic presidential nomination - every advantage counts.  So all the "unofficial" vote counts we have relied on for all of our vote and delegate tallies to this point are being scrutinized for irregularities in every district.

We have all sat here since Super Tuesday thnking Obama lost New York to Hillary by a 57%-40% popular vote margin overall, with local results tabulated to show she would receiver 139 delegates to his 93 (excepting superdelegates).

But now, those further investigations have uncovered some startling irregularities...

More after the jump.

With each passing day, the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is looking more and more like 1984.  Like Walter Mondale, the long-time party establishment choice Hillary Clinton faces make-or-break showdown to halt the momentum of a charismatic insurgent.  And judging from her recent rhetoric, Hillary Clinton is desperately hoping to repeat Mondale's "Where's the Beef?" moment that derailed Gary Hart's surging campaign.

I know, I know, I promised I would generate some of my own material but I've been busy doing taxes, cleaning out the garage, redesigning freeways, etc., etc., etc. and so on.  However, here's another good (edited) post from Kathy Dopp.  First of all, haven't you often wondered why polls don't seem to reliably reflect how people voted?  Polling is actually a scientific and accurate way (within carefully specified limits) of finding out what people are thinking and doing.  Maybe instead of trying to figure out what's 'wrong with polls', we might want to consider what's wrong with the voting process.  An author I love, Conan Doyle, had his favorite character, Sherlock Holmes, say the following:  

"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"

Maybe the 'wrong polls' are actually showing that current voting machinery is not accurate capturing people's votes.  

Crossposted at New Mexico FBIHOP

Ah, New Mexico. I recently wrote a post called, New Mexico: Unable to Count Since 1912 (that's when New Mexico became a state for you non-New Mexicans).  We joined about two dozen other states around the country in holding Democratic and/or Republican primaries or caucuses.  We had a caucus that behaved like a primary (walk in, cast ballot, leave).

But it didn't go so well.  Here in New Mexico, we're still counting.... so:

Super Tuesday isn't over! New Mexico thought the overwhelming turnout for the caucuses were so much fun that we'd go ahead and let it continue.  Here we are, six full days after the polls closed, and we still don't know who won the popular vote.

Sometimes the picture tells the story, as in this one accompanying an ABC News Story about the Clinton campaign using Chelsea to woo over college-aged  superdelegates

There she is, made up and made over to within an inch of her life,  newly straight-haired, newly blonde (didn't she used to be ringlet-haired redhead?  I  could have sworn); and undeniably-not to put to fine a point on it- Hot; working a room full of the hard core political geeks, trying to sway them to her mom's cause. The story also details the one-on one breakfasts and other meetings Chelsea is having with these young Superdelegates to try to sway their votes

Now, as we have learned this week, the term "pimipin", is far too offensive to describe this activity so the important question is what would YOU call it?

Actually I lie. That's a stupid question just to infuriate you, the real question is when the fark did we start allowing 22 year olds to be super delegates and who thought this was a good idea?

I got an email in my inbox this morning discussing the trouble that was had by independents in voting in the Democratic primary.  I typed it into the DKos search and found nothing covering this issue.  I'm cautious as to its accuracy but there have been several newspaper reports such as the Sacramento Bee which state that 94,000 independent voters in LA County might not have been counted in the Primary.  

Links below the fold...