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October 23, 2006

Zzzzz: Strib SOS Endorsements

The Strib endorses Mark Ritchie, predictably, over conservative lightning rod Mary Kiffmeyer for Secretary of State:

It's been eight years since she first won the office (with a 47 percent plurality, a political unknown benefiting from the Year of Jesse), and still she's beating the drum against vote fraud, virtually nonexistent in Minnesota -- while claiming credit for high-turnout trends that long predate her.

But there's nothing amusing about Kiffmeyer's actual record. Her policies and practices have had the steady effect -- some would say the partisan intent, as well -- of discouraging voter participation.

Ah, the mantra of "voter participation".

Voting, like marriage, is a good thing; that doesn't mean everyone should vote. People who don't think about their vote, who spend no time analyzing or learning about the candidates or their issues are a drag on the process. Not to deny their right to vote - far from it - but hauling people to the polls just for the sake of hauling people to the polls is more a matter of political expedience than moral imperative.

And Kiffmeyer's crimes against voting...?

She has opposed voting by mail, proposed to decorate polling places with alarmist warning posters about terrorism, and exasperated local elections officials statewide with changing directives about balloting practices and voter identification requirements. Worst, she continues to advocate for requiring voters to produce a photo ID card -- a move that would directly undercut Minnesota's proud tradition of allowing same-day registration and voting by citizens who are elderly, disadvantaged, new to the state or, well, organizationally challenged.
Finally - a paragraph too stupid to fisk.

Not the last one, unfortunately:

Attentive Minnesotans have learned from disgraceful examples around the country that monkeying with the mechanics of registration, voting and ballot-counting has become the modern method for manipulating election outcomes.
But they would not have learned from the Strib, whose coverage of Democrat voter voter fraud in Milwaukee was less-than-perfunctory, and whose coverage of the Washington state governor's race was ludicrously soft on that state's Democrat-rigged recount system.
Also, that Kiffmeyer's Republican Party is usually the leading beneficiary of measures that discourage participation at the polls.
Or, put another way, that the Strib's DFL is the "leading beneficiary" of policies that encourage participation by the indifferent, uninformed and illegal.

No, they all but say it in as many words:

Remember the black "NOVEMBER 2" bumper stickers that became ubiquitous in 2004? Those were Ritchie's handiwork as leader of National Voice, a coalition of 1,000 nonpartisan groups [Hah!] across the United States that brought more than 5 million new voters to the polls.
So in other words, he's a sloganeering stealth party hack who is dedicated to bringing masses of uninformed, disinterested people (and, apparently, suggestible ones) to the polls.

All the qualifation one needs, in the Strib's world, to be SOS!

But Obi Sium's public service experience is laughable?

Posted by Mitch at October 23, 2006 06:23 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Thanks for fisking these endorsements, Mitch. Some of us have grown too weary to do so.

I'd like to know where the evidence is that IDs and pre-registration affect Democrats more than republicans. The ID thing should be simple, you gotta have one to buy booze and cigarettes so you would think most people would have one, even the downtrodden. As for pre-registration, Republicans would be equally inconvenienced. In fact, a small business person could actually lose money by having to pre-register and vote if they have to take off work, unlike union members who get time off to vote.

Posted by: Margaret at October 23, 2006 09:31 AM
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