How Much More Brazen Does the Voting Chicanery Need to Get?

I apologize in advance to all principled nonvoters in the audience for focusing yet again today on a most distasteful action others—including even some self-professed anarchists—engage in under the pretense of civic duty, self-defense, doing good, or some other equally flimsy justification. There’s just been so much bullshit spouted in the news recently that I need to vent some here. I simply do not understand how anyone can read the mainstream headlines on the coming primaries and still think that USSA elections aren’t rigged.

Dieb– oops, it’s now Premier Election Solutions—continues its long history of failing to provide security and accuracy via electronic voting, for starters. Does anyone really think that the name change is “premier” for anyone except those already deeply plugged in to the electoral political system?

But that’s old news, really. The new news is just how far other players seem to be going to rig the presidential primaries. The Wall Street Journal has this to say about the contentiousness this year:

For months, states have been leapfrogging each other to move up their primary votes, seeking a bigger voice in the selection and more revenue from big-spending campaigns. But the race has caused confusion among candidates, who must make advertising and travel decisions, and irked some party officials, who want to bring order to the process of picking their nominees.

Oh, yes, the party officials simply want “order” in the electoral process. And the states just want “a bigger voice” and “more revenue”? Please. Sure, they want those things, but there’s something else at work in all these shenanigans. Arizona is perhaps the most shameful example, pulling out the Newspeak in order to change the rules for the voting. A headline bluntly cuts to the chase—Independents not eligible to vote in Arizona's presidential primary—in order to help cut through the fog of the subhead (“Pinal County Recorder Laura Dean-Lytle has released information about the 2008 Arizona presidential preference election”) and text:

The Feb. 5 vote is a political party election and is limited to those registered voters who have designated a Democratic, Republican or Libertarian party affiliation. The Arizona Open Primary Law is not applicable. Those who are registered as Independents or are otherwise unaffiliated with a recognized party will not be eligible to vote.

"The purpose of this election is to give qualified electors the opportunity to express their preference for the 2008 presidential candidate of the political party of their affiliation," Dean-Lytle said.

Nice trick. By changing the name of the election, Arizona politicians have dodged the open primary law, which (if it’s like other open primaries) would allow voters to cross party lines in order to vote for the candidate of their choice. And it disqualifies a whole swath of individuals from voting! The situation in Virginia is a little less clear, although based on the comment there, it appears that signing an “oath of disaffiliation” henceforth locks one out of the disaffiliated party.

Florida’s electoral shenanigans have been ongoing, and very messy. An article titled Florida faces a primary problem appears to summarize it fairly well; the upshot is that the DNC is punishing Florida for moving its election up too far, by not allowing its delegates to participate in the national convention. How’s that for every vote counting, eh? But have no fear, Florida democrats—your valorous leaders have spoken:

“I don’t think it’s going to damage us,” Bonita Councilwoman Martha Simons said. “The fact that Florida will be having a primary this early is important.”

Even if the delegates aren’t seated at the convention, the will of Florida Democrats will be known early in the primary season, and that’s important, Simons said.

Well. Isn’t that special. Predictably, those who recognize reality are getting castigated for doing so. Lest one think that only the Democrats are this colossally boneheaded, this article on Florida contains this bit about the Republicans’ strongarm efforts:

The Republican National Committee (RNC) announced it would strip states violating the rules of half their nominating delegates at the party's national convention next year.

The aforelinked WSJ article mentions Wyoming as the only state currently likely to be so punished.

Back in late September, Dubya himself opined that Hillary would be the Democratic nominee. He didn’t predict she’d win, of course, but that seems to matter little: the Democratic National Party seems to be falling all over itself to ensure that she does indeed become the annointed one. Even more curiously, so do the other candidates. Their action may be reversed, however ... but not without legislative action, which has the Republicans there fearing fallout from that course. And, in typical form, Hillary says her remaining on the ballot doesn’t break the pledge she made, along with other strong contenders, not to participate in any state that leapfrogged its primary to before February 5.

Much of this begs the question of why so many states are trying to push up their primaries. Attention-seeking, money, etc. is certainly part of it, as I’ve already admitted; however, I think something else is really driving much of this action: fear of something unprecedented happening that will break the BOYN Party’s stranglehold on electoral politics. [For those unfamiliar with that acronym, it’s L. Neil Smith’s phrase; it stands for “Boot on Your Neck” and includes both Dems and Reps.] This article spells it out, and provides loads more evidence than I have in all the above. It should be well established that I do not support him—I abstain from beans—yet I find it highly amusing that one person has become such a threat that the ruling class has tipped their hand as brazenly as they have this election cycle.

It’s all about control. Control of the message, control of the money, control of the electoral process, control of the individuals a supposedly free society can choose from as a leader ... How can any of you voters read all this, watch what has been going on in much of the mainstream media, and believe you—and the electoral process—haven’t been massively manipulated in order to keep choking on the status quo?

Never mind. This place almost certainly doesn’t get enough voters dropping by to justify throwing out those questions. Those who have, have likely dismissed me as one of those libertarian-wacko-conspiracy-theorists, when all I really am is an individual who wants to be left alone to live the rest of my life free from institutionalized and other forms of aggression.