Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

Washington’s Disputed Election: A Gift That Keeps On Giving

The 2004 Washington State Gubernatorial Election: one of the closest elections in American political history.  Rife with intrigue, twists and turns, and probably a large dose of fraud, it stands as one of the darker moments in a decade chock full of bad election mojo.

And, apparently, it’s a moment that lives on in Minnesota’s Senatorial election this year.  Like Washington’s Dino Rossi (R) against Christine Gregoire (D), Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman (R) had a small lead over Al Franken (D) on election night.  After the initial count, Rossi’s lead was 261 votes, and Coleman’s lead was even narrower: 215 votes.  Both races triggered their states automatic recount provisions.  Rossi’s lead dropped to 42 votes after the initial recount; Coleman’s lead has widened to 238, but only about 80% of the ballots have been recounted.

The mischief in the Rossi election really got started when the Democrats insisted on a hand recount of ballots.  During this process, several hundred ballots were “discovered” in heavily Democratic King County.  Along with additional ballots discovered in five other counties, these were enough to turn Rossi’s 42-vote lead into a 129-vote deficit, giving Christine Gregoire the election.

John Fund’s column in the Wall Street Journal notes the tactical similarities between Gregoire and Franken, including demanding a list of names of absentee voters whose votes were not counted.  Fund notes how Democrats used this information.

…a partisan hunt for votes. Ryan Bianchi, communications assistant for Ms. Gregoire, told the Seattle Times that Democratic volunteers asked voters if they had cast ballots for Ms. Gregoire. “If they say no, we just tell them to have a nice day,” he said. Only if they said yes did Democrats ask if they wanted to make their ballots valid.

Margot Swanson, a voter in Redmond who forgot to sign her ballot, told me she was contacted by phone and asked whom she voted for. When she said Republican Dino Rossi, the caller quickly hung up. “I puzzled out there might be a problem with my ballot, and I found out there was,” she said. “But I would never have known from the tricky call I got.”

Republicans played catch-up by belatedly using their own phone banks to call voters. But Democrats turned in some 600 written oaths from people declaring how they had intended to vote, and Republicans about 200. Those ballots were all counted, and made the difference in the race.

Al Franken has apparently even imported then-chairman of the Washington Democratic Party, Paul Berendt, for advice.  ”What I bring to this effort,” Berendt said, “is that I understand every single step of this recount process and the things that you need to look for in order to make sure that every vote is counted.”

Every vote is counted?  Or every vote is produced.  Either way, Washington’s disputed election is a gift that just keeps on giving.

 

If I Were President (or King…)

Policies I’d introduce immediately if I were in charge.

  • End bailouts.  The economy won’t get better until it reaches a bottom.  Sometimes, our approaches to problems are like our approaches to Band-Aids.  You can rip it off, which will hurt for a minute and then stop, or you can pull it slowly, which doesn’t hurt as much, but hurts for much longer.  I vote for the rip-it-off approach.
  • Encourage giving through tax breaks. As the first step toward eliminating entitlement programs, I’d give dollar-for-dollar tax deductions for charitable deductions, up to a fairly large portion of the total tax burden.  Currently, you can use charitable deductions to reduce your adjusted gross income, which in turn reduces the amount of tax you are supposed to pay.  However, depending on the tax bracket you’re in, a dollar given to charity may only be worth ten cents or so in tax savings.

    However, I propose that each dollar given to a charitable organization that represents a function that government would otherwise handle through an entitlement program (Temporary Aid to Needy Families, Social Security, Medicare) should reduce the tax liability by a full dollar, up to a maximum of, say, 70% of a taxpayer’s total amount to be paid. The idea is that you give to a charitable organization, and they take care of people directly, rather than having the federal government take care of those people The reason that the amount is capped at 70% is because that’s roughly the percentage of the tax dollar that goes to those programs, and we want to maintain government’s other responsibilities, such as national defense.

  • Increase the size of the armed forces. We live in a dangerous world, and too large a percentage of the nation’s armed forces are already deployed.  The widespread deployment of the National Guard is a plain indicator that we need more soldiers in the regular army.
  • Require automatic enrollment into 401(k) and other retirement programs. Not enough people are taking advantage of the retirement plans their employers offer, especially in younger age brackets.  Automatic enrollment into 401(k) plans would not be irreversable: the worker could opt out if they wished, but they would saving by default.  Studies show many workers (about 30% according to AARP) simply fail to enroll because of procrastination, preoccupation with other financial demands, or simple lack of financial literacy.  
 

Celebrate VI Day

VI Day: November 22, 2008

Victory on the Iraqi Front!  Some have declared the war over for a while now, but ZombieTime has declared today to be the victory celebration.  Hurrah!

Some other claims (or near-claims) of victory:

 

And, of course, the Instapundit post that has inspired VI Day. 

So, celebrate in any way you see fit, including thanking any Iraq veterans you run into — they’ve earned it!

 
  
Close
E-mail It