I've said over and over again that our national elections were fair, and that stories of intimidation and other shenanigans are overblown and just part of some far out conspiracy theory.
Well, I was wrong. Apparently in Michigan, a political action group actually was allowed to setup shop inside campaign free zones at voting precincts. They were wearing t-shirts and arm bands supporting a candidate for president, and they apparently caught election officials off guard. They had to be asked to take off their campaign garb, but it is unknown how many voters were influenced by their efforts.
State officials said the biggest problem on Nov. 2 was caused by the liberal interest group MoveOn.org . Poll watchers for the independent 527 committee wanted to set up tables inside the 100-foot campaign-free zone at numerous precincts statewide, Elections Director Chris Thomas said.
"That caught the clerks off guard," he said.
In most cases, the MoveOn.org poll watchers were allowed to stay once they took off T-shirts and arm bands that displayed campaign materials. MoveOn.org has said its volunteers did not interfere with the election.
Why is it that the Republicans are always the ones of accused of dirty tricks, but it's always the Democrats perpetrating the dirty tricks?
Indeed, moveon.org has "always" struck me as an extreme leftist group, so their antics don't surprise me. Perhaps they sleazed their way in there, but you have to wonder how and why it was allowed to happen in the first place. When it comes to anything official or government run, things that are questionable or confusing should be eliminated immediately.
On a related note, I helped organize a charity concert here in the bay area that gathered proceeds for the Red Cross in the wake of 9/11. We were selling T-Shirts and holding an auction on autographed sporting goods and other donated materials from local retailers as well as the door cost for entry. All the funds went straight to Red Cross. During the event as I was doing the schmooze circuit I saw a new table set up with new T-Shirts for sale that had a different image on the front of them. That's funny, I thought. I found the head coordinator for the show and consulted with him and sure enough: this sleaze bag had snuck in the back door with a fold-out table pretending to be associated with the organization and was collecting top dollar for shirts and pocketing the money. They were out in a jiffy. That kind of awareness at a small charity event should, IMHO, be GREATLY amplified in a government run operation.
That would mean a Monarchy.
We once thought of having George Washington be King. If we can find any of his relatives, we could put them in charge. Done deal.
"Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those who say this are witless." ~Ayatollah Khomeini
good catch Sean. I shouldn't have said "always". Maybe "typically", or "primarily" would have been better adjectives.
I would suspect that MoveOn is pretty well versed in election regulations - surprised to see they'd try to cross the line. Fortunately election officials were able to take action in this case.
But I guess in any group there are individuals who will do whatever it takes to try to get their way.
11-23-2004 09:24 PM
