Patriot Trojan, Glenda Hood Actions
Act for Change is a subsection of the Working Assets Group. There are several such online action groups now, of course, but I thought I’d post these alerts (below) and also recommend the WorkingForChange online journal where I usually read the latest stuff from Molly Ivins and look at the comic (grin).
A couple of important current actions at Act for Change:
Beware the PATRIOT Act Trojan Horse
Attorney General Ashcroft and his allies in Congress are using the 9/11 Commission report (which you remember that they fought tooth and nail) as cover for new government powers that would infringe on the rights of Americans and foreign guests. The new vehicle for their ill-advised efforts — a new bill in the House of Representatives — would likely create what amounts to a national identification card, drastically curtail basic fairness in the nation’s immigration system and expand on the PATRIOT Act.
Tell Glenda Hood: Resign Now, For Democracy’s Sake
Partisan elections must be administered by non-partisan election officials to ensure they aren’t tempted to use their power to influence the outcome. Unfortunately, the chief election official in Florida, Secretary of State Glenda Hood, is a fierce and unapologetic partisan whose actions indicate a willingness to take audacious actions in support of the Republican Party’s efforts to win Florida for President Bush.
Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood was hand-picked and appointed by Governor Jeb Bush. She came up through party ranks as a Republican mayor who campaigned for President Bush in 2000. Like her role model Katherine Harris, Secretary Hood tried to use a purge of tens of thousands of presumed felons to disenfranchise thousands of African Americans until several lawsuits and public pressure forced her to suspend the effort. She is also a strong advocate for a new Florida law that outlaws manual recounts entirely and has passionately championed the use of paperless touch screen voting machines. Glenda Hood’s actions demonstrate her partisan bias. In order to restore faith in American democracy, Glenda Hood must resign, and a
truly non-partisan replacement must be selected immediately. Our democracy depends on it.
I find it interesting you are not calling for the resignation of the Supv of Elections for Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties where all the problems have been recently ( and almost all the problems in the 2000 election).
Is it because they are all partisan Democrats, and the votes lost were Republican?
See:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/4063332.htm
A decidedly Democratic leaning paper talking about some of the problems.
I appears you are too partisan to care about really making a difference in the election and are only using the issue to further your own biased leanings.
Well, first of all, I wasn’t aware of this episode (even I can’t be everywhere – lol). After having read it, it looks to me as though it had to do with the voting machines themselves. “Miami-Dade County officials lost faith Thursday in their own ballot count, saying a spot check of returns from Tuesday’s botched primary revealed serious discrepancies that could require a re-examination of all 7,200 machines.”
It is interesting to me, in return, that Republicans are solidly against a paper trail for these machines, which Democrats are for.
In fact – Miriam Oliphant was suspended amid charges of late-opening polls, uncounted absentee ballots, and failure to update voter rolls, so I guess it would be a little silly to call for that. The episode you discuss was in 2002.