Daffodil Lane

I must say this is a pretty uninformed statement about the election process in Maryland. Respectfully, on multiple levels you have it wrong.

First, the county implements the local voting. The last time I checked, that would mean Janet Owen's administration who is not a Republican.

Second, the state dictates the procedures for voting and purchases the equipment. Usually, this would mean that blame could land squarely on the Republican governor. Bingo! We have a Republican to blame! Finally, meaning in life.

But not so fast...

The General Assembly has stripped the Republican Governor of all his power in overseeing the elections. He can no longer appoint members to the State Elections Board without approval from the Democratic State Party; and the Board of Elections cannot fire the state elections administrator without super majorities in the State Senate (even after this debacle).

So you see, the Republican Governor has nothing to do with the voting problems in Maryland because they have nothing to do with the process and never have. Except control of the Government House which happens once every 30 years or so, the Democratic Party has controlled the electoral process, which will continue to experience failures, until real change is implemented.

Respectfully,

Steve, I'm actually not unaware of the actual structure of the electoral structure of Maryland. Which is why I picked my words so carefully. I said it didn't appear to be a Republican plot. And I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Republican voter suppression efforts. If you recall Ehrlich was the one slowing up the purchase of the electronic voting registry because his vile minions were working so hard to undermine the early voting efforts. So when we see that voting was disrupted by the fact that election judges weren't able to get trained on those electronic registries caused problems on election day. It's not a quantum leap I'm making here. It's just the facts that's getting in the way of your partisan beliefs. Sorry about that, but truth first, propping up unrealistic partisan beliefs of Republican is like one millionth on my list of concerns.

I once met an old school yellow-dog politician who subscribed to the philosophy that he who makes the rules, wins the game. When the majority party tries to change the rules in the 59th minute of the eleventh hour, I have problems with that...

But...

The problems on Tuesday had nothing to do with early voting or the machines. It had everything to do with the FACT the Board of Election did not have enough judges and had to fill slots with untrained judges. These judges weren't untrained because the machines were late arriving. They were untrained because until Tuesday morning, they weren't going to be judges.

The FACT is that the Board of Elections has known for quite a number of years that an electin would be held on September 12, 2006 in Maryland and that poll workers would be needed to cover a certain number of precincts. Their inability to prepare and have enough judges to cover the precincts falls squarely on them and is the direct cause for the problems on election day.

Tuesdays election underscores a much deeper problem in our election system. A lack of accountability -- the status quo will continue as if nothing happened.

With regard to early voting, I will reserve comment until the 2007 General Assembly to determine the true intent of the leadership in the House and the Senate.

And if they pass early voting, I am all for it - just not in the 59th minute of the 11th hour. I hope that they put together reasonable, constitutional legislation which gives the Board of Elections enough time to prepare properly for the changes and keep elections in MD fair.

not partisan. just the truth.

That's one perspective I guess Steve. But you leave out the fact that the Governor vetoed the bill purposely after the General Assembly was out of session, forcing it to come back the next year and override his veto. Then you claim that it's not his fault because it was rushed? This entire situation was by design of the Republican party and then you are blaming the Democrats because they did their jobs and tried to do the will of the people.

I'm all for fair elections, but for as long as the notion of a fair election is a ruthlessly partisan issue, it's never going to be fair. I think once we have a Democratic governor, we will see a quick move towards a better system than we have now. With a Republican governor, it's just not going to be possible, because he needs it to be unfair to have a chance of getting reelected and it clouds his judgment.