Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Today in History
On this date, 236 years ago, the King's tea was thrown into the harbor in Boston by brave men willing to do more than forego some TV to preserve their Liberty.
Voter Fraud
The policy of the Washington government is voter fraud. Why else would so many push to let convicted felons and non-citizens vote; people who have no stake in and perhaps a deep resentment of civil society. Combine this with "early voting"; the most delightful invitation to vote the Chicago way - early indeed, but also often, and everyday, for weeks! Lets all have as our goal to vote 30 times; overwhelm the system; let them try to sort it out, and see how many of our 30 votes gets counted.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
County Commission Accountibility
Our county, like so many, is governed by a Commission. We have 5 members elected from geographic districts. We do not elect the Chairman; he is chosen by the commissioners - 3 votes win. They can revote any time 3 of them wish too. Three of them can, in fact, vote to do anything they wish. There is no check or balance to review their votes. Our current 5 routinely vote against express county ordinances (laws) that if honored would allow us be governed by law instead of the whim of 3 commissioners.
The term "whim" is not used lightly.
These 5 Commissioners regularly grant any variance to our County ordinances supposedly controlling development.
These 5 Commissioners regularly ignore their own development planning, itself developed over years with (as it turns out) the window dressing of citizen involvement.
These 5 Commissioners regularly ignore even their own private agreements and understandings with respect to maintaining at least some bit of the rural and agricultural heritage of Henderson County.
These 5 Commissioners bind themselves by no law or from any action except the desires of any three of them. North Carolina law says that to win a seat on our County Commission, a candidate must win 50% + 1 of the votes cast in a valid election.
That sounds kind of familiar no matter how little we may have been taught in civics class at a government school. Except, of course, if there are more than 2 candidates; then the state law says it only takes 40% + 1 to be elected. That doesn't sound quite the same. A sitting Commissioner has a big advantage in having that "name recognition" thing. Already just being a Commissioner might get you pretty close to 2 out of 5 votes, with your name being in the paper regularly.
Have you ever noted how in the months running up to an election whichever of them are running seem to be the ones doing the newsworthy things? Many voters (too many) vote for the name they know. You know the principle - "The devil you know rather than the unknown one". How often has an incumbent Commissioner been defeated for re-election? In the '08 race, two incumbents ran and oddly each had 2 opponents.
One did get just over 50%, while the other squeaked out a very narrow (about 43% to 41%) win. He is a County Commissioner again for 4 more years, but 57% of the votes actually cast were against him. I wonder how many opponents each of the 3 running in '10 will have? If you check the contributors to the campaigns, you find that all four of the others give to any one of them running. Where else in politics do you find that!
They, our county officials, will say "it's the state law". Yeah, and it needs to be changed. Politicians at all levels really don't like elections, except that first one. There are ways to get some accountability into the Commission and Commissioners who have a majority mandate. Here are some beginning by requiring 50% + 1: Period.
a) A separate run-off (Oooooo that costs so much more than living under the tyranny of 3).
b) An “instant” run-off where you vote for 2 or all in order of preference.
c) A publicly elected Chairman (and Vice-Chairman?) so the office is the people’s to loan out, not the property of the Commission and he/they could check the will (whim) of the others.
d) Some combination of the above.
Strength and Honor
The term "whim" is not used lightly.
These 5 Commissioners regularly grant any variance to our County ordinances supposedly controlling development.
These 5 Commissioners regularly ignore their own development planning, itself developed over years with (as it turns out) the window dressing of citizen involvement.
These 5 Commissioners regularly ignore even their own private agreements and understandings with respect to maintaining at least some bit of the rural and agricultural heritage of Henderson County.
These 5 Commissioners bind themselves by no law or from any action except the desires of any three of them. North Carolina law says that to win a seat on our County Commission, a candidate must win 50% + 1 of the votes cast in a valid election.
That sounds kind of familiar no matter how little we may have been taught in civics class at a government school. Except, of course, if there are more than 2 candidates; then the state law says it only takes 40% + 1 to be elected. That doesn't sound quite the same. A sitting Commissioner has a big advantage in having that "name recognition" thing. Already just being a Commissioner might get you pretty close to 2 out of 5 votes, with your name being in the paper regularly.
Have you ever noted how in the months running up to an election whichever of them are running seem to be the ones doing the newsworthy things? Many voters (too many) vote for the name they know. You know the principle - "The devil you know rather than the unknown one". How often has an incumbent Commissioner been defeated for re-election? In the '08 race, two incumbents ran and oddly each had 2 opponents.
One did get just over 50%, while the other squeaked out a very narrow (about 43% to 41%) win. He is a County Commissioner again for 4 more years, but 57% of the votes actually cast were against him. I wonder how many opponents each of the 3 running in '10 will have? If you check the contributors to the campaigns, you find that all four of the others give to any one of them running. Where else in politics do you find that!
They, our county officials, will say "it's the state law". Yeah, and it needs to be changed. Politicians at all levels really don't like elections, except that first one. There are ways to get some accountability into the Commission and Commissioners who have a majority mandate. Here are some beginning by requiring 50% + 1: Period.
a) A separate run-off (Oooooo that costs so much more than living under the tyranny of 3).
b) An “instant” run-off where you vote for 2 or all in order of preference.
c) A publicly elected Chairman (and Vice-Chairman?) so the office is the people’s to loan out, not the property of the Commission and he/they could check the will (whim) of the others.
d) Some combination of the above.
Strength and Honor
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