>IT IS NOT A TANTRUM to demand that these illegal voting rights violations be
>corrected. The right to go to court to fight such inequities is what the
>March at Selma and the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was all
>about. People died for the right to use courts to override the illegal acts
>of local election officials.
>
>It is a completely Marxist battle to uphold the right to vote and the right
>to legal redress when those rights are violated.
i don't know about marxist, but... i am pleased as punch to watch this legitimation crisis play itself out and build on the others that have been fermenting over the past couple of years. like joe noonan, i think it's "hilarity on ice". in that sense, i'm tickled pink to watch the dog fight.
and yet, at the same time, i can see how it's not unimportant to expose the elections in FL and, indeed, all over the country for the frauds that they often are. ac, who may still be subscribed, you might recall from the geek threads. at another list ac, who works for the republican party (IT work), keeps reminding everyone who complains that this happens all over.
for ac, this means that everyone should sit down and shut up. it's just the way it is.
yet, to make an analogy, it's not unlike uppermiddle class white kids all of a sudden finding out that the sizzlean aren't Officer Friendlies. chuck0 takes a sneering attitude toward their recognition, griping that they don't know. well, we all--those of us who don't live in communities where the police are the enemy--have to find out somehow--so i don't cop that attitude b/c it's another instance of forgetting how you managed to get to the State of Enlightenment.
at any rate, i guess nathan is that i support your attempts and they certainly are in-line with the organizational resources you have at your disposal.
a court case is a way of pressing forward and enlarging voting rights. it won't just be about florida, but part of a larger, longer term process.
i frankly think voting is simply a very limited and formalistic (not to mention cheap and easy) way to say we're a "democracy". and yet, like the freedom of speech debate, it's hard to say whether the right obscures the fact that our freedom of speech is limited in more insidious ways or helps those of us who would like to point out that freedom of speech is limited in this more insidious ways.
i've already sent the fwd below to catherine, but i was very disturbed by her assumption that people here are stupid. she's bought hook, line and sinker the press spin. i finally saw those ballots and saw they machine. they *are* confusing. i'm tacking on a mail to Phil Agre of RedRockEater Newservice. phil notes his reservations b/c it was a hotmail account and he didn't verify the sender. but, in any case, ted byfield thinks a lot of phil and phil is very good about tryiing to present both sides, including in his latest batch of links an article that was unflattering to dems.
anyway, here it is:
From: Phil Agre <pagre at alpha.oac.ucla.edu> To: "Red Rock Eater News Service" <rre at lists.gseis.ucla.edu> Subject: [RRE]Florida recount
[I've enclosed three messages about the Florida recount. Although I am obviously comfortable enough about them to send them out, I am not totally comfortable about any of them.
The first is by a guy who says his mom was precinct clerk for Palm Beach County. I have not authenticated this message; I am going on my sense that it's for real.
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 10:33:15 -0800 (PST) From: Ben Austin <sonofapalmbeachprecinctclerk at yahoo.com> To: sonofapalmbeachprecinctclerk at yahoo.com Subject: My mother, Palm Beach County precinct clerk
Dear friends,
I don't normally send emails like this to a large block of people, certainly when it comes to my family, and certainly when the import of the issue makes it seem like the letter might travel far and wide. But so many people have asked about this story that it seems important to send it out. This is the true story of my mother, precinct clerk in Palm Beach county, Florida.
My mother was a precinct clerk in Palm Beach county, Florida, election day of 2000. Mom's very good friend Leah was a precinct clerk as well. Both of them were incredibly upset during and after election day, before anyone knew the import of these specific voters. And my mother was convinced there were serious irregularities long before they gained national prominence, and she called me to say so.
I note this because some Republicans are now asking "if there were these irregularities, how come they were not raised until after the election?" In fact, my mother and the other precinct clerks raised these issues from the moment that the polls opened in the morning -- the problem is that the person they intially called on was Theresa LePore, elections supervisor of Palm Beach county. She was the source of the ballot confusion, and was uninterested in the issue.
First, the paper ballot was extremely confusing to these voters. Although both major parties got a chance to review the card layout, it is not clear if any had a chance to put the actual ballot in an actual machine and punch the holes. The card is laid horizontally as you vote, and it is hard to see the holes as you punch them. And my mother, who supervised the precinct she was in (this is a paid position, and she reported directly to Ms. LePore) said the card did not even fit correctly in the ballot machine, so the holes in the card did not line up with the ballot.
Anyone who thinks this was minor voter confusion has never dealt with retirees in a West Palm Beach retirement village in Florida, I promise you.
My mother, following the rules, said the poll workers had been told not to help people with the cards, as it might bias the voters. My mother witnessed many, many people who voted incorrectly. Some stayed on a second line and had their cards re-done, some punched the second hole (and thus were probably thrown out), and some found out they voted for Buchanan after they had deposited their cards in the ballot box, and there was thus nothing they could do.
Mom called me up to complain about this after the elction, and she called me up again on Thursday, very upset after reading a story in the New York Times (Nov. 9 2000, p. B6). The Times story states:
"After numerous complaints were received on Tuesday morning, Ms. LePore issued this directive to the county's 106 precincts: "Attention all poll workers. Please remind all voters coming in that they are to vote only for one (1) presidential candidate and that they are to punch the hole next to the arrow next to the number next to the candidate they wish to vote for."
Mom never received this directive, and she believes that if anyone knew they could have helped people vote their preference, the outcome would have been very different. Instead, my mother and the others were trying to do the right thing, and they felt that helping explain the ballot to these people would have been helping them to vote for Gore, something she didn't feel was proper. These women are honest to a fault.
Leah did receive the directive, but not until 4pm on election day, and only by accident -- someone was coming to visit from the main office and told her about it. In the mean time, my mother and Leah (and most of the precinct clerks) had been desperately trying to call the county office. They had been given a phone number by Ms. LePore and told that the phone line would be staffed throughout the day. They were told to call if there were any problems.
Mom tried to call starting at 7:30am, calling straight through when polls closed, but she got a busy signal the entire time. But mom was at a polling station with only a pay phone, so she had to deposit coins each time, and with long lines waiting for her, she was becoming increasingly frustrated.
Leah was precinct chief at the retirement village where they live, and ran a polling station at the clubhouse. Having a more modern facility, Leah tried on the phone as well, and when she couldn't get through, she called the operator to ask her why the phone was busy. Leah had the presence of mind to get the operator's number (history is made by people like Leah) when the operator told her the phone was off the hook, meaning nobody was on the line the entire day. Evidently, the supervisor's office just didn't want to hear the complaints.
Leah then faxed the supervisor's office with her concerns at noon and again at 2pm. Nobody called Leah back until 5pm, when she heard from Ms. LePore, with the following words "don't bother me".
So as this news starts to be spun and re-spun, let me tell you a few things I am certain to be true:
-I can't argue intent either way, but the supervisor's office in Palm Beach county is at the very least unable to carry out an election in which these people have their say
-These people started trying to fix the problem from the moment polls opened, and were fought along the way. This is not about crying about the election once it is over.
It pains me to see the issue being politicized by both sides. Gore has no place having his advisor Daley make statements that after a recount, Gore will emerge victorious; and Bush has no place saying that he is the victor, or setting up a transition team. In fact, the idea that Bush and his brother were together on election night, with Jeb Bush promising to "deliver Florida", draws a picture at least to me with the semblance of impropriety, especially now that we have seen the results so askew. I hope everyone will pay attention to the facts here, and let the people of South Florida have the same opportunity to vote that the rest of us had.
You are free to send this to anyone you wish.
Ben Austin