Thursday, August 23, 2012

Husted, Blackwell: Doubling down on 'voter fraud'

Secretary of State Jon Husted will find an audience that will believe him when he appears  at the True the Vote and Ohio Voter Protection summit conference on Saturday in Worthington, Oh.  The mission will be to "discuss election integrity  within the  state," the sponsors say.  And to reassure eveyone that the event will stay on message Husted will join former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell as one of the conferees.

Well, now.   We all know that nobody screwed up the election process more than Blackwell in 2004, from lack of voting machines to challenging the weight of the paper ballots.  I doubt that Husted will want to write home about his noble role at the meeting, particularly now that he is being challenged to show that his new restricted hours policy for early voters is bearing heavily on black voters.  .

Among other speakers will be Anita MonCrief, identified as"ACORN Whistleblower and publisher of something called ''Emerging Corruption'" and a few other self-important defenders of the ballot - as they know it - even though they will have an enduring reputation as elephants in the chicken coop.

Catherine Engelbrecht, the founder and president of True the Vote,  reassuringly tells us that that one must "make sure that every vote is counted," She says she's excited that  the panel of speakers  "will provide us with thoughts about the challenges related  to voter fraud in Ohio". Isn't that  how Dubya used to warn us about all those non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

 By the way, reporters  can't crash this love-in unless they  have, it says here, media credentials and  "photo ID".   It's a start.

PS:  My column on the anemia of the Republican Party  with candidates like Josh Mandel and Todd Akin has been posted with a (few words about the Summit County GOP) on Plunderbund.Com.

2 comments:

Grumpy Abe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David Hess said...

More and more, it seems to me, it may be advisable to call for an international corps of observers, from established democracies, to monitor voting in such states as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Texas, Georgia and Florida to ensure the integrity of the democratic process. The Carter Center in Atlanta is well-practiced in putting such monitoring measures into effect, with plenty of experience at elections in tinpot authoritarian countries around the globe. What amazes me is the apparent indifference of the federal courts to putting a halt to the authoritarian shenanigans of partisan governors and legislatures in many states to deny certain American citizens their constitutional access to voting booths. All in the name of combating "voter fraud," which is virtually non-existent. It further astonishes me that MItt Romney, whom I believe to be an honorable person, hasn't spoken out against such flagrant suppression of voting rights. What is an election to the presidency worth when it is accomplished by such subterfuges? How could a president-elect legitimately claim a mandate in such cases?