Bullypulpit
Senior Member
<center><h1><a href=http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/print/party_hacks/>Party Hacks:</h1> <h2>Election chiefs trim voter rolls to benefit GOP</h2></a></center>
<blockquote>By Hans Johnson
Kiffmeyers defense of greater church involvement in the democratic process appears curious in light of rules she proposed that would have had precisely the opposite effect on most Minnesotans. Kiffmeyer recently decided that in order to vote in November every would-be voter in the state must show an ID reflecting an exact match to the file of names, drivers license numbers and dates of birth circulated by her office. Such rules would have the effect of robbing the vote from thousands of state residents, including those who encounter errors in the information about them on Kiffmeyers official list.
Minnesotans are not alone in facing gaps in electoral integrity from schemes like those concocted in 2000 by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. A nationwide review reveals a disturbing pattern in closely contested states of Republican office-holders with close ties to the Bush-Cheney campaign: Remove eligible voters from official rolls and erect barriers to new or young voters and minorities who vote overwhelmingly Democratic.
An administrative law judge nixed Kiffmeyers required ID matching in a ruling on July 22 but did not dismantle a second barrier she erected. Many county officials say her cumbersome voter-registration form deters would-be applicants. In St. Pauls Ramsey County alone, more than a third of 6,500 completed forms submitted earlier this year contained errors and were rejected.
Instead of allowing a clearer, easier form after learning of such problems, Kiffmeyer, cribbing a line from the Bush reelection playbook, demanded continuity amid a crisis she helped create. We are in midstream in an election cycle, she told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. We have an application out there and well continue to use that.
In placing hurdles before voters, conservatives are nothing if not consistent.</blockquote>
Indeed, they are consistent. But I would hesitate to call them conservatives as they haven't the faintest idea of what they are trying to conserve. If anything, they are working to preserve a system which is in the throes of change, and arrest that change. For a healthy society to grow, however, it must be able to change or it will stagnate and die.
<blockquote>By Hans Johnson
Kiffmeyers defense of greater church involvement in the democratic process appears curious in light of rules she proposed that would have had precisely the opposite effect on most Minnesotans. Kiffmeyer recently decided that in order to vote in November every would-be voter in the state must show an ID reflecting an exact match to the file of names, drivers license numbers and dates of birth circulated by her office. Such rules would have the effect of robbing the vote from thousands of state residents, including those who encounter errors in the information about them on Kiffmeyers official list.
Minnesotans are not alone in facing gaps in electoral integrity from schemes like those concocted in 2000 by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. A nationwide review reveals a disturbing pattern in closely contested states of Republican office-holders with close ties to the Bush-Cheney campaign: Remove eligible voters from official rolls and erect barriers to new or young voters and minorities who vote overwhelmingly Democratic.
An administrative law judge nixed Kiffmeyers required ID matching in a ruling on July 22 but did not dismantle a second barrier she erected. Many county officials say her cumbersome voter-registration form deters would-be applicants. In St. Pauls Ramsey County alone, more than a third of 6,500 completed forms submitted earlier this year contained errors and were rejected.
Instead of allowing a clearer, easier form after learning of such problems, Kiffmeyer, cribbing a line from the Bush reelection playbook, demanded continuity amid a crisis she helped create. We are in midstream in an election cycle, she told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. We have an application out there and well continue to use that.
In placing hurdles before voters, conservatives are nothing if not consistent.</blockquote>
Indeed, they are consistent. But I would hesitate to call them conservatives as they haven't the faintest idea of what they are trying to conserve. If anything, they are working to preserve a system which is in the throes of change, and arrest that change. For a healthy society to grow, however, it must be able to change or it will stagnate and die.
