Outpost associates Brad Molnar and Rob Natelson take a predictably dim (and blistering) view of the Supreme Court decision in the House District 12 race. As I noted over at City Lights, I agree with them that the Supreme Court acted improperly if all it did was substitute its own opinions for those of the duly constituted local officials. But since we haven't seen the legal reasoning behind the court's decision, I'm willing to cut the justices some slack for now. But there are interesting parallels to the 2000 debacle in Florida, with implications for both parties:
1. Remember all the Bush supporters who said that people in Florida who were too dumb to mark their ballots properly didn't deserve to vote? I'm still waiting to hear a Republican make the same observation about this race, even though, if you look at the disputed ballots, it's pretty clear that some of these voters were pretty darn clueless.
2. Democrats who didn't like having the U.S. Supreme Court nose its way into the Florida vote better not crow too much about the Montana Supreme Court's decision in this case. As a rule, elections ought to be settled at the most local level feasible.
Having said that, I still think that the ballot I posted below (provided by the Jore campaign) is highly questionable. I don't know what the "NLA" or "NRA" by Cross' name is supposed to mean, but one reasonable guess would be that the voter wrote his or her initials to show that Cross, not Jore, should get the vote. However, I should have noted yesterday that the Jore campaign says the smudge is an erasure. That isn't obvious in this copy, but if it was clear in the original, that would lend weight to their argument that it was a vote for Jore.
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4 comments:
Since Molnar and Natelson are both idiots and feeders at the state trough that they pretend to despise, why do you bother quoting them? Natelson has yet to back up anything he says with facts and he certainly is not supporting the common person of Montana or anywhere else when he wants to eliminate popular election of U.S. Senators, as much as I sometimes deplore the ones who get elected. Molnar is a laugh in a consumer protection agency post such as he has just been elected to. As a legislature and private citizen he fought hard against the consumer-protecting contractor licensing law which protected us against lawsuits if a laborer hired by a contractor without workmen's comp fell off our roof.
It boggles my mind how anyone can argue that they know the intent of those seven voters. If a ballot has more than one mark on it, I don't see how anyone can decide which mark is the "intended" one. I wouldn't want anyone to make that decision about my ballot. What if they were wrong?
I had a conversation with a Republican legislator this morning who complained about the Supreme Court deciding the Lake County election. Funny how he didn't mind a court deciding the U.S. presidency a few years ago.
By the way, what's the deal with having to create a blogger's account to post on your blog?
Dont look now, but on top of all of his other accomplishments, Robert G. Natelson is an "expert" on Butte...
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