After blacking out the news for several days, Wednesday
morning I turned on Morning Joe. We won
the house. Lost seats in the Senate. Women in record numbers won seats in congress,
thank you Emily’s List and the Women’s March.
Many State Legislator bodies turned blue.
Early that morning Trump fired Sessions, people took to the streets to
protect Special Counselor Robert Mueller. The tide has changed and the current towards
democracy seems strong.
It all seemed settled and I turned to reading enjoyable memoirs, and
novels. Then today, Saturday, I turned
on Joy AM, Florida and Georgia elections still in limbo. Not just Governor races but Senate and
Congress races too. By the end of the
day the governor and senator races in Florida went into recount mode. The Georgia governor’s race still in limbo
with many law suits filed to get all ballots counted. Here we go again the fight
for the vote. Maybe I jumped to soon about the tide changing.
The blows came from both sides, Republicans accused Democrats
of voter fraud. Democrats accused Republicans
of voter suppression. Most news networks
except maybe Fox News, report voter fraud is a rarity. When you look at how to
vote even here in Washington State where everyone votes by mail, marginalized
populations come up against barriers. Most
people who rent move frequently, making mail ballots hard to keep up with, and
voter ID laws in other states where the address has to match where you vote can
be cumbersome.
How many ways can you count a vote, let me tell you the
ways, absentee ballot, provisional ballot, at the ballot booth and more. Ballots
found here and there, counting by machine, counting by hand. Law suites filed on both sides. It’s exhausting. Are we living in a banana republic, in some
country in Africa like the Ivory Coast, where votes are suppressed and incumbents
never concede hanging on to the country for months after they have lost an
election while people demonstrate in the streets?
Is this how elections are going to go in the future? Every since Gore ran for President elections
have been fought over, ending up in the legal system. Our election system for the
average voter is exhausting, and discouraging.
How do we turn this around and make elections respectful without a big
cash price at the end? Lately it’s been reported that elected officials spend two
thirds of their time campaigning for their next election while spending one
third doing their job. No wonder elections
get ugly and congress is dysfunctional.
All I can give you are questions; the ultimate answers seem
a complicated road to a true democracy.
I must apologize for complaining but I feel helpless in these elections and
have for a while. If you have positive
comments please leave them to bring some hope into the discussion, I would
really like to hear from you.
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