Doug Gansler Plays the Race Card

Attorney General Doug Gansler took a break from carrying O’Guvnah’s water to leave the capital and travel around the state discussing the recommendations of a task force on ways to improve voting in the state of Maryland. Of course, none of the recommendations included “require photo ID for anyone attempting to vote”.

Instead, Doug Gansler decided to play the race card.

According to the Calvert Street Communist Pary Newsletter:

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“This is America in the 21st century, yet it took three hours to exercise their franchise,” Gansler said. “It reminded me of the days of literacy tests and poll taxes — obstacles to voting — to just merely exercise one of the most fundamental rights that we have in our democracy.”

Literacy tests and poll taxes? Are you frakking kidding me? Who is this frakking ass clown?

The election in 2006 saw some of the largest turnout in the state in over four decades. The local boards of election – which answer not to the Attorney General, but fellow water-carrier for the Democrat Party Linda Lamone — dramatically underestimated the demand that would be placed on the system. On top of that, Linda “Peter Principle” Lamone has done a miserable job choosing the right voting equipment for the state, too. So in 2006, after decades of crappy ass turnout, the system was overloaded.

It wasn’t discrimination. It wasn’t Jim Crow. It wasn’t Bull Connor. It was an incompetent state bureaucrat who inadquately prepared her agency and its subordinates. Trying to turn this into a racial thing is such a fundamentally cheap shot. It’s bush league. The State of Maryland deserves better from its Attorney General.

1. I think several big questions need to be asked about our election process:
2. Why can’t voting machines work like ATMs? Billions of dollars flow through ATMs every day, with an error rate well under 1%. The same companies that make ATMs also making voting machines (like, say, Diebold). So why can’t we have voting machines that work like ATMs?
3. Why can’t we require a state-issued ID in order to vote? Image a state-issued ID with a pin number that could be inserted into an ATM-like voting machine. You walk up, use the machine, vote, and walk away. Votes can be recorded and stored real-time. Heck, votes could even be transmitted to a central counting office real-time. You could cut down on the nonsense at the voting locations where records are out of date, lines, etc.
4. If you really want to increase turnout, why don’t we require citizens to vote in order get their tax refunds? Or to claim a tax benefit? Or to receive government benefits? The one thing we would need to do: make sure all ballots include a “none of the above” option.
5. If we are worried that ballot measures (like the slots referendum) aren’t clear to voters, why don’t we make sure that the politicians do a better job of meeting with constituents to explain them. I’ve lived in Northern Baltimore County for 14 years now. I’ve met my county councilman once. I know my delegate, because he was my seventh grade math teacher. But I cannot remember the last time State Senator Larry Haines was spotted in the Hereford Zone. It seems to me our elected leaders aren’t fulfilling their leadership options here.

But playing the race card to issue a bunch of meaningless “measures” to help speed up the election process is despicable.

Gansler should know better.

Crossposted at Gunpowder Chronicle.