Photo: Associated Press
Here in Minnesota in between snow storms, below zero days and the harvest of upside down SUVs that lie in ditches because their macho owners thought four-wheel drive meant drive 70 on glare ice, we have yet to have a second senator. The comedian and the chameleon are still going at it with a possible end in sight at the end of the month.
The comedian is, of course, Al Franken, who carpet-bagged into the state to run for office on the virtue of having hosted a funny left wing radio show and written a few funny books. For some reason the establishment in my state decreed he should have the nomination, in part because he brought with him, instant name recognition, media savvy and $$$. That he had never served his country in any capacity, paid his dues, been elected dog catcher or shown the slightest interest in Minnesota when we could have used the help did not matter. If we could elect a professional wrestler as governor we could elect a comedian to the United States Senate. The argument that certain senators could use a little levity was convincing.
One of those is the chameleon, one Norm Coleman, a flip-flopper who can change his core beliefs in an instant and the one candidate the comedian probably had a chance against. To this day no one in Minnesota knows what the chameleon stands for and if they do they know, he probably won’t stand for it tomorrow. He ascended to the Senate via a phone call from Dick Cheney who muscled out the more deserving candidate. Coleman then managed to eke out a victory against Walter Mondale who had been drafted to fill the spot on the Democratic ticket left open by the tragic death of Paul Wellstone, who was leading at the time.
Some in the GOP expected great things of the chameleon, but as he sought a second term even his own Party was lukewarm about his candidacy. The chameleon earned the dubious honor of probably being the GOP candidate who most tried to distance himself from George W. Bush.
A Troublesome Twosome
By now you can probably gather that the two have little liking for each other. In fact there is enough hatred between the two camps to pollute the water of all the state’s 10,000 lakes. The thought that one of them will walk in the footsteps of Gene McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Paul Wellstone and those of our current Senator Amy Klobuchar depresses me. The Minnesota recount symbolizes the two worst developments in contemporary American politics–the recruiting of celebrity candidates and the amoral candidate who would not know a moral compass from a roulette wheel.
The idea that appearing on television and/or radio somehow qualifies you to higher office unfortunately is becoming a disturbing trend. Celebrity candidates bring with them three things both parties covet: name recognition, money and an “outsider” label that counts for something in this era that sees politicians as worse than used car sales people and real estate foreclosure agents.
Celebrity candidates are nothing new to American politics. One of the earliest was a tall-tale spinner made popular by exaggerated printed stories of his exploits–Davy Crockett. My liberal friends tell me I should just get over it and seem positively gleeful they have found a Democratic Jesse Ventura, but even Jesse “served” as a mayor before he made his run for the Governor’s mansion. Yet as our government has come to consist of comedians and chameleons the two have contributed to an economic mess neither comedian nor chameleon has a clue about.
Of course there is the hard-to-refute argument that even a dog catcher would make a better Senator than the chameleon, a sad but true observation.
The Bigger Picture
For whatever it is worth we are stuck with either the comedian and the chameleon, who as I write this are separated by 40-some votes and about to enter the next phase of this recount that frankly has become a bit of a comedy show for people across the country. Florida’s hanging chads owe nothing to the discussions of our ballots. The only thing we have not seen is a repeat of the infamous Brooks Brother riot that shut down some Florida vote counting in 2000.
As in 2000, the big theme behind the interminable challenges to the vote count is the GOP’s belief in disenfranchising people whose ballots might be the least bit questionable. All you really need to know about this present mess is that the chameleon seems intent on counting as few ballots as possible while the comedian believes in the opposite. Despite what I said earlier about the comedian, that stance alone entitles Franken to be the winner.
It has been eight years since Bush v Gore demonstrated the Republican policy of rejecting questionable ballots. Now for those who are ready to pounce with a comment or two, let me make it clear that in this case I do not mean someone who clearly voted illegally or who obviously marked more than one candidate. In short, the contested votes are just screwed up ballots.
Our local paper has been increasing circulation–at least online–by running what they term the Minnesota Ballot Challenge, which shows actual ballots and lets readers decide which should count. Here is one sample:
And you thought hanging chads were fun. The topic of conversation around copy machines and coffee shops has become whether you think Ballot X should count.
There is in contemporary America a troubling and challenging subtext to this. A great many ballots are not filled out by the Lucy van Pelts of this world who color exactly between the lines but instead by the Charlie Browns among us who have trouble flying kites and kicking footballs and never color between the lines. Many of these people tend to be disabled (with my disease, for example it is VERY hard to write and even harder to mark a small circle), less-educated and poor and people who sometimes do not understand the instructions and may be too embarrassed or paranoid to ask for them.
Coleman’s strategy is less about questionable ballots and more about disenfranchising anyone who might have a less than steady hand. It is also about those who may have voted for the first time on a night of a huge turnout and frankly may have been overwhelmed by the situation.
The Real Culprit
The real culprit, as it was in Florida in 2000 and several places in 2004 is our half-baked system of voting, which experts have warned about for over a decade. To Minnesota’s credit, all those ballots have a paper trail, so much so that one provision of a recent court decision will be for counties to alert citizens as to which ballots were rejected so that those who do recognize their own ballot can challenge the decision.
I cannot imagine where we would be if this mess had been precipitated by touch screen voting machines with no paper trail–or by hanging chads. We would probably be headed for you-know-where and another sarcastic Scalia opinion.
The Minnesota recount is about both what is right and wrong with our system. In this state we at least do have a way of tracking individual ballots so those who filled them out can argue their intent, but when an election depends on how a panel of judges reads those ballots it still becomes subjective.
I have argued for years that fixing voting rights and the voting system should be one of this country’s major priorities. Currently we have a patchwork of state methods and no uniform system. If we can require uniform safety standards for state highways, we ought to be able to require uniform standards for elections.
FairVote describes the mess we have and the solution:
Contrary to popular belief, there is no single voting system in the United States. Instead, voting policies and procedures are set by each state and in many cases by each voting precinct. As a result, 13,000 independent voting districts administer elections. This has resulted in a patchwork collection of federal, state and local laws: all separate and all unequal. It is no wonder that so many Americans are improperly disenfranchised every election.
The answer is quite simple:
Congress should set uniform standards for ballot design, poll worker training, polling place locations and ballot access for presidential candidates. We need ongoing federal funding for elections and rigorous evaluation of what works and what can be improved.
Should we continue to allow the present mess to persist, we will continue to see events like those in Minnesota. Our one saving grace is that at least this year it did not happen in a Presidential contest.
Still, the outcome of the contest between the comedian and the chameleon will determine whether Barack Obama has a majority with which he can work. That is the major reason I voted for the comedian. I also voted against the chameleon because I do believe the comedian has some fundamental values such as a belief in the level playing field, while the chameleon has none.
The outcome also will be yet another battle in this country’s long-running clash of who should vote in elections. So I will coin an analogy you will hear a lot in the coming years: if we can elect an African American President, we can create a voting system worthy of this achievement. It is time to take elections out of the hands of incompetent local officials and judges and write a decent federal voting rights law such as the one advocated by FairVote. The fate of our democracy hangs on it no matter what political persuasion you advocate.
In United States V Mosley, Justice Holmes wrote:
We regard it as equally unquestionable that the right to have one’s vote counted is as open to protection by Congress as the right to put a ballot in a box.
Almost a century after Holmes penned that decision We need to make his words a reality.
Print Posted by: liberalamerican
