Carter says Florida Voting Still Not Fair

linuxwrangler writes "Ex president Jimmy Carter is claiming that Florida has still not created conditions for a fair election. The Carter Center has monitored over 50 elections worldwide for fairness and says that the absence of uniformity in voting procedures and the lack of a non-partisan election commission sets the stage for a repeat of the 2000 election. That election, overseen by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (aka co-chair of the Bush-Cheney state campaign committee), was officially decided by a margin of 537 votes. According to Carter, Florida governor Jeb Bush (aka brother of George W. Bush) has done little to correct the problems found in the 2000 election. In addition, Harris' successor Glenda Hood, (aka an elector for George W. Bush in 2000) recently attempted to disqualify 22,000 African Americans (likely Democrats), but only 61 Hispanics (likely Republicans), as alleged felons."

Comments

Re:Carter's comments are totally partisan!

[Anonymous Coward]

Similarly GWB is totally partisan wrt Iraq and so I discount EVERYTHING he says on the subject due to that fact.

The issue isn't whether Glenda Hood is going to fix the result but that someone so partisan is in that position in the first place.

If Iraq had had an election in which Tariq Aziz was in charge of the election and Saddam Hussein had been elected would anyone believe it had been a fair election? Same thing applies here, the process should be seen to impartial and it isn't.

Re:waahhhh

[Profane MuthaFucka]

It's unAmerican. When someone has done their time, their debt to society is repaid, and they should have all their rights back, including the right to vote. If they don't get their right to vote back, then that's effectively an additional punishment. It's the punishment of being a second-class citizen in this country. One thing that justice strives for is a punishment measured to the crime. Removing voting rights permanently is a punishment that is not just, because it is not measured to fit the crime.

It also hurts the rest of us, because we live in a society where some people are not considered full-class citizens, and justice is not served. Unless we constantly strive to make our country MORE equal and MORE just, we will not have been the best country that we can be.

Your tough-guy talk is all very impressive to some people, but we're all better served by some rational arguments here.

Something bothers me..

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Should the people who help run an election campaign also be in charge of vote counting or collection?

Isn't there some conflict of interest there?

Re:waahhhh

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

A convicted felon is banned from owning a handgun for life in this country. That's a second ammendment right.

Why should voting be treated differently?

Re:waahhhh

[PurpleFloyd]

The problem isn't that felons can or can't vote. It's that people who are likely to vote for Democrats are getting their voting rights taken away, and that people who are likely to vote for Republicans aren't. If the standard is fairly applied, there's no problem. However, if it's used to disenfranchise only one group, that goes against everything that America is supposed to stand for.

Another problem is that felons aren't the only ones being excluded. In the 2000 elections, there were people turned away from the polls because their name was the same as or similar to a convicted felon's, or even because of bad data entry which was never corrected. It's one thing that felons can't vote. It's quite another that law-abiding citizens can't vote because they're black, or their name is similar to someone who has commited a crime. That's just plain wrong.

Re:waahhhh

[Lars T.]

No, Carter is belly-aching about the non-felons that were not being able to vote, because the Florida Secretary of State decided that they might be fellons or worse - vote Democrat.

Re:Carter's comments are totally partisan!

[Elwood P Dowd]

From my point of view - Mrs. Harris followed the letter of the law. It was the State Supreme court that kept on making it up as it went along!

Yeah, well... are you partisan?

Obviously, Jimmy Carter is a Democrat. If being a Democrat entails being so partisan that his comments should be ignored... then you should ignore my comment too. And probably yours as well.

Otherwise, Carter has proven himself to be one of the most honorable and honest people to have ever entered public service. No, I don't think he was necesarily a great president. But he was certainly honest. His credibility is impeccable.

Right?