First of all, we get rid of mail-in only ballots.

Greg Kimsey quickly jumped onto Sam Reed’s mail-in only ballot scheme as a rather bizarre way to “restore citizen confidence in the integrity of the election process.”

That was then and is now, a crock. I sat through one of Gregoire/Reed’s bogus dog-and-pony shows here in Vancouver, knowing that they were not going to do anything about what they heard… knowing that they would deliberately attempt to confuse us with a “motion vs action approach.”

But in sitting there… not ONCE did I hear ANYONE say that an “all mail ballot” would accomplish that which Kimsey indicated it would; specifically, the “restoration of citizen confidence”in the system.

Even Mark Trahant, editor of a rag even more leftist then our own version of Pravda, the Columbian, has seen the light.

He was a staunch supporter of this system, designed primarily, it would seem, to ease the burden and costs on our county auditor’s office, while easing efforts for democrats to get out their fraud vote.

Trahant makes a variety of observations, many of which I agree with… and many I don’t. But it’s certainly a starting area for the discussion, a discussion we must have before it’s too late for the complete removal of the patina of honesty that our elections are SUPPOSED TO HAVE, but sadly, no longer do.

Getting rid of mail-only ballots, however is a place to start.

Other observations I have: We must end the mantra of “increase voter participation at all costs.”

That mantra must be changed to “increase LEGAL voter participation is our GOAL.”

The idea that “more is better” is not the case when “more” equates to “illegal.” The democrats want everyone to vote, of course, including convicted felons and illegal aliens. Motor voter exacerbated one of the biggest problems our system has, where people who couldn’t speak English (and how likely is it that NON-English speakers are American citizens?) were, and are, allowed to register to vote without providing proof of citizenship.

Stop and ask yourself for a moment: why do we need foreign language ballots?

If someone is motivated enough to become an American citizen and to legally vote, then they certainly should want to learn enough English to figure our how to vote.

All who vote should prove who they are.

Democrats hate this, of course, for obvious reasons. Mark tells us he “…fears this will be one more reason for people not to vote."

I’ll risk it.

I wore this country’s uniform for over a decade. People, I am not about to beg you to vote. Voting is a RIGHT and even a DUTY, but NOT a requirement. If you’re too damned lazy, if you’re illegal, if you’ve failed to take the time to educate yourself on the issues and the candidates, then I DON’T WANT YOU TO VOTE.

Voting is not ABOUT your convenience. It’s about you exercising the Right paid for by the deaths of thousands who’ve gone on before… Thousands who died for, among other things, YOUR right to put down your beer or your Cosmo and get off your asses and vote.

Society today is caught between two polar opposites: doing everything we can to get everyone alive to vote (a system that begs for fraud and abuse) to clamping down on illegal votes, duplicate votes, ineligible votes and the like, which MAY make it a little more difficult to vote.

Tough. I’ll pay that price. Mark also tells us:

“America needs to figure out how to increase participation by all citizens; we need a renewed ethic, a zeal for democracy.”

Every time our government ignores us, our “zeal” is reduced. Every time our government games us, like when the democrats in the legislature slapped an “emergency clause” on everything that could move… including their gas tax increase; or when they cut the opposition out of an election to get a tax increase to pass, our “zeal” is reduced.

Every time our courts overturn a voter initiative, our “zeal” is reduced.

Every time the idiots running both parties trash us by killing our primary, our “zeal” is reduced.

Every time our government SUES us to KEEP us from voting on an issue, our “zeal” is reduced.

Every time those in government treat us like we’re STUPID, our “zeal” is reduced.

Every time someone in government says anything to the people except: “We hear and obey,” our “zeal” is reduced.

Every time newspapers confuse the Legislature’s desire to ignore the will of the people for “courage,” as in, “voting for the gas tax took a lot of courage” instead of the monumental, we-know-better-then-the-people arrogance that it is, our “zeal” is reduced.

Every time fraud is disguised as incompetence and the gift of the fraud is allowed to “win” an election, our “zeal” is reduced.

Cure these symptoms, symptoms where we, the voter, feel belittled, ignored, and marginalized… and we’ll be on our way to the goal that Trahant describes.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Vote by mail? OK, so I was wrong ...

By MARK TRAHANT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

I make mistakes from time to time. I've misspelled names, gotten a key fact wrong or made a prediction (either in print or in conversations with friends) that turned out to be extraordinarily wrong. I hate every misstep, but at least journalism has a process for this sort of thing. We write a correction, a one-sentence mea culpa that (in theory) sets the record straight.

But we don't have the same sort of process when we get something big wrong, such as an idea we've promoted, a philosophy or a major public policy initiative.

So here goes: I am wrong about voting by mail.

I thought voting by mail was the ideal way to increase voter participation. I loved the idea of taking my time to sort through a ballot (especially complicated initiatives), ticking my choices and then mailing it off for an efficient count. I also liked the notion that making voting easier would increase participation. When it comes to democracy, the more, the better.

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