Aaron Flint has the whole sad, sorry saga, but to give you a Reader's Digest version, there was a Native American state representative who said something stupid. Now, I could tell you who it is, or you could look it up yourself, but I don't think that she needs anymore scorn than she has already earned.
But it seems that there was a debate about whether to use mail in ballots for future voting. My experience would be that would result in a significant number of Indians that I normally send correspondence to to be disenfranchised. I don;t know if it's a function of poverty or culture, but I do know that Indians on my reservation would not vote in the same numbers they do now. In any event, the Republicans struck that portion that said that Indians should receive "special treatment" in doing mail in balloting. There is no explanation for what the "special treatment" is, but that portion was rejected in any event. This caused the representative in question to say that she "could feel the hatred coming from your (Republican) caucus for us." "That you just want all Indians to die." Apparently, she has been taking classes from the Alan Grayson school of politics. She did go on further than that, but again, I won't bother to add more scorn than she has already earned.
I first read about this on Saturday in the paper, and I was thinking I wasn't going to even dignify it with a mention, but then I started to think about it, and I had to wonder why mail in ballots would engender such animosity? And the more I thought about it, the more I came to realize that this was a cold, calculated response that was looking for a trigger to be used against. Except it was one of such little value, it actually backfired.
Yes, I am saying that the entire outburst was contrived and not valid. That the representative in question was bent on scoring points by playing the race card, and that it was only through her own incompetence that it was played so poorly.
Remember this the next time someone alleges racism. They could just be looking to score points. And the worst of it is, even when there is actual racism (and there is)she just diminished it.
4 comments:
Does that explain the overnight change of vote from yes to no by the 15 republicans who changed their votes and defeated the mail ballot bill? I would hope our representatives could rise above such gamesmanship.
I personally don't see what the fuss is about mail ballots. We've used them for years for our military members. I used them for 22 years and never had a problem anywhere I was stationed. And the permanent absentee ballot system is basically a mail ballot system. So why not pass this and save the 56 counties the $2 million each election cycle. I'd think the republicans would be all over that cash savings.
So is there something else behind the massive overnight vote switch?
At the level we are talking about, it is rife for fraud. Think of all the nursing homes that need help with voting. My solution is to use ATM machines with your own PIN that you could track your vote through the system. It would also take a photo of who voted, kind of a reverse of the requirement for photo ID, since the vote would shou who voted.
I understand your argument concerning voter fraud re nursing homes, or people unable to mark the ballots without assistance. How many voters are there like that? Enough to throw and election? Just questions on my part Steve.
I like the idea of the atm approach. But since we want to make this "cheap" and easy and since home computers are now very prevalent, maybe we should vote electronically where each voter has a pin number to access his/her ballot, then an eyecam attached to the computer can capture the person's photo at the instant the ballot is cast. Of course, since computer systems seem quite vulnerable to hackers, that might throw a wrench into that idea.
On a side note, I do enjoy your post, just usually read them and not respond though
Thanks Mike, and I appreciate your thoughtful comments as well.
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