LIBERADIO(!)

Yeah, yeah. Friday is supposed to all about the “feel good.” And believe me, I’ll be posting some gems from the Cute Overload as the day progresses. They’ll be sort of like a palate cleanser between courses.

But first, let’s look at a press release by the Tennessee Republican Party celebrating the Republican takeover of the state election commission as well as a recent discussion going on in the comments section of a recent Liberadio.com blog post (“Oh, Well, if Rep. Mumpower Says it’s Fair“).

The TNGOP insists that the Republican takeover of the state election election commission was them just following the law. But the law is conflicting, so yeah, no, they’re not. Conveniently, they leave out the part about the law dictating the terms of the commission:

2-11-104. Election of members. —
(a) All members shall be elected for a term of four (4) years, beginning on the first Monday in May 1979.

So not so clear and not so straightforward. And in the comments of yesterday’s post pointing out as such, were these questions and statements from “Storm”:

“Please explain to me why this is a GOP assault on the election process?”

and

“I think the verified paper ballot trail is a great idea , but now it is known that the counties cannot afford this process and the state doesn’t have the money. Please be practical. Many Republicans sponsored this legislation originally and then Rep. Gary Moore stole it from them and passed it. Except I don’t think he realized his version was going to have this unintended price tag for the local governments.”

and

“The GOP wants honest, fair elections. That is why they are for voter photo ID and proof of citizendship to register. I don’t know if you are from Tennessee, but you should check out the book “The Hopewell Box” it is out of print but you can check it out at the library. This will give you a history on the rampant, blatant voter fraud in Davidson County by Democrats in the Hopewell box in Old Hickory. Everybody–both sides in politics in Middle Tennessee knows about the Hopewell Box. It is legend.”

Dear Storm (and Bill Hobbs), Thank you for the history lesson and for telling me what I would do if the situation were reversed. And I read The Secrets of the Hopewell Box (I believe Book Man Book Woman in Hillsboro Village still has copies). It’s one of my favorite books and a whale of a cautionary tale.

I know that those who count the ballots control the outcome of elections and so I also know that you are missing my point.

House Republicans could have waited until the natural terms of state election commissioners were over. They already controlled the county election commissions, so why not, right? But no, they resorted to threats and blackmail so they could – prior to the 2010 Gubernatorial election – control everything related to elections in Tennessee.

They have control of the Secretary of State’s office, the State Election Coordinator, the State Election Commission, and the county election commissions.

So you have to ask yourself, why the urgency to control it all? Again, why not allow the State Commissioners to finish out their terms?

And when they first started out this session the bill to “delay” the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (the paper ballot bill) was a bill to repeal it. And when that didn’t fly they came up with the delay bill (which, in effect, kills it). The Secretary of State and State Election Coordinator only became concerned about the cost after trying 3 or 4 other excuses to gain traction for what they wanted to do with the bill and found that this was the only issue that would stick in the mind of the legislators who were fighting to keep the paper ballot bill intact.

Now, I’ve seen the numbers and it is cheaper to run a paper ballot election than one with the machines we are using now. One obvious way to view this is that each precinct only needs one machine to count paper ballots instead of 4, 6, 8, 10, 20 of the machines we are using know to vote on. That means fewer maintenance contracts and lower storage costs.

Ah…fewer maintenance contracts. Now we may be getting somewhere. Because you can’t seriously believe that printing and storing paper ballots and building privacy screens would be more expensive than the maintenance contracts of, oh let’s say, all the Microvote paperless electronic voting machines that are used in voting precints of at least 45 counties in the state, can you?

Ok, so let’s tally this up again.

1) Republicans control every office connected to our elections – the Secretary of State’s office, the State Election Coordinator, the State Election Commission, and the county election commissions.

2) They want to repeal the paper ballot bill – a less expensive and more fraud proof way to conduct an election. WIth the machines we use now there is no way to conduct a meaningful recount and even more damaging is that using these machines manufacture long lines which go a long way to suppressing the vote (It takes less time to vote on paper than on the machines we use now which would eliminate long lines and the hours-long waits that discourage participation in the process. Manufactured long lines are a tried and true voter suppression tactic.)

3) They attempted to also suppress the vote by introducing photo ID laws and proof of citizenship requirements which, contrary to what you believe, do nothing to combat “voter fraud” because “voter fraud” doesn’t exist. What these laws do, instead, is suppress the vote of the elderly, the indigent, and the disabled.

Doesn’t this all seem a bit suspect to you? Especially after reading The Secrets of the Hopewell Box? Apparently your friends on the Hill read it as well – and are using it as a textbook.

No matter your party or your ideology, we need to all be vigilant about elections. I mean, really, do you want to win by cheating?