Monday, February 28, 2005
Apropos
So the Count Every Vote Act is a great idea that everyone can get behind, right?
Ezra Klein talked today about the lack of Republican co-sponsors for the bill:
Call the editors of your local papers. Write your Congressmen. Call into talk radio. We have to make this a real fight that the Republicans can't take away.
(Cross-posted at SRWU)
Ezra Klein talked today about the lack of Republican co-sponsors for the bill:
Why the bill hasn't attracted any Republican cosponsors is, however, an interesting question. Nothing so self-evidently popular can be ignored by politicians lest they find themselves similarly shunned by voters. So Republicans have created a counter-bill which, under the guise of tamping down on fraud, makes it harder for people to vote. Brilliant. Now the press can satisfy itself by reprinting quotes promoting the legislation of each side and belittling the proposals of the other side, Americans can assume that it's just more partisan food-fighting, and meaningful electoral reform can be totally ignored. So the answer, Julie, is through a manipulation of representative democracy, a mastery of congressional maneuvering, and a compliant press corps. Makes you proud to be an American, no?Exactly right... This thing won't even get out of committee if we can't maintain the control of the debate. This is where the Republicans have been so much better than we have. Maybe they took a bit of a hit when this bill was first introduced, but if we go about our business as we normally do, they can very easily take it away from us.
Call the editors of your local papers. Write your Congressmen. Call into talk radio. We have to make this a real fight that the Republicans can't take away.
(Cross-posted at SRWU)
# posted by Dylan @ 3:54 PM 
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"count every vote" is an idea that everyone can get behind... but the specifics of this particular bill which has been cleverly titled "count every vote" aren't.
There are too many controversial provisions in the bill for it to be realistic to pass. She's trying to fight too many battles at once, and not all of them need fought. Want to make the voting system secure, give people paper receipts, and make it easier for the handicapped and non-English speakers to vote? Cool, write a bill for it. But when you start including extra provisions like restoring voting rights to felons, making election day a holiday, etc. it gets harder to pass the bill.
I'd be totally behind a bill that lived up to the name "count every vote" -- but not a bill that should be named "count every vote, and furthermore, do a bunch of controversial and unnecessary election-related stuff".
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There are too many controversial provisions in the bill for it to be realistic to pass. She's trying to fight too many battles at once, and not all of them need fought. Want to make the voting system secure, give people paper receipts, and make it easier for the handicapped and non-English speakers to vote? Cool, write a bill for it. But when you start including extra provisions like restoring voting rights to felons, making election day a holiday, etc. it gets harder to pass the bill.
I'd be totally behind a bill that lived up to the name "count every vote" -- but not a bill that should be named "count every vote, and furthermore, do a bunch of controversial and unnecessary election-related stuff".
# posted by 
: 4:58 AM
: 4:58 AM 
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