Yet another article about Ohio to make us worry about the upcoming elections. Here is a brief excerpt:
In other words, Ohio--like many other states--has now become a recount-hostile environment with greatly diminished accountability all around. Since paperless electronic system votes are almost impossible to verify without recourse to the paper trail, this is a truly chilling development. What the Republicans have created is, in effect, a system where they have multiple tools to deter their opponents from casting ballots in the first place--through the voter-ID requirement, the strict rules on provisional balloting and so on--and then making the vote count itself so opaque as to be beyond redress. The lack of transparency is a matter of bureaucratic convenience as well as political conniving...
Another reason to regard Ohio as a bellwether of the nation's electoral health is the fact that its political complexion is changing fast--perhaps faster than any other state's. For twelve years the Republicans have had the run of the place, a length of tenure more or less guaranteed to spawn corruption, regardless of the party in power. The ethical violations, insalubrious associations and compromised integrity of Governor Taft, Representative Bob Ney and others have received widespread attention in the national press. Perhaps less well understood is that, historically speaking, there is no climate more susceptible to electoral malfeasance than one where a single party is in power and in a position to manipulate the rules to its advantage. If a race is also close and the stakes are high, as they were in 2004, then dirty electioneering is more or less a given.
Uplifting stuff I know. But don't fret. This pesky democracy thing is an overrated inconvenience anyway. Wasting lunch breaks, standing in line, pushing buttons, idle chit chat with strangers wearing W pins, irritating media coverage--all to cast votes that don't get counted properly anyway (assuming you voted for the good guys of course).
I say we should simply embrace a Diebold-backed dictatorship this time around with open arms. As Bush himself once famously pronounced,"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." And easy is surely the American way.
Voting machines manufactured by companies that guarantee Republican victories + the rebirth of Jim Crow era attempts to beat back the minority vote = paving the way to a cozy little red dictatorship. W and Co. surely smirk when they dream of November. The rest of us (or at least those of us who are informed) cringe.
Recent Comments