Tag: voting (page 2)

Not long ago, Jason Gillman wrote on this blog, "As there are often races where a few votes separate 1st place and 1st to lose, it could be YOU that makes a difference."  Last Tuesday, the 1st District proved him right.  In my campaign for the Republican nomination, we faced a tough opponent and fought for every last vote.

And as every count has established more convincingly than the last, we won.

If we must endure an expensive and time-consuming recount, a dedicated few could easily be the deciding factor once again.  That's why today, I need you.

If we want to uphold this conservative victory and retake the seat that Bart Stupak dishonored, we will have two critical needs: the resources to fight the legal challenge, and volunteers standing vigil in all 31 counties of the District.

Right now, we should be uniting around a single conservative banner, making the case for the reforms Washington needs, reforms that Gary McDowell and his allies will resist just as they have for the last four trying years under Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  But should we need one last push to affirm our victory, I hope you will help me see it through to the end.

Already the recount process has begun, and each of the candidates will pay their $10 per precinct they might feel has the greatest opportunity to find a mistake that corrected, would favor them.  In fact the Benishek team has released this message:

"Dr. Dan Benishek now leads Senator Jason Allen by 13 votes after a day of clean-up of election results from the cliff-hanger fight for the 1st District Republican nomination for Congress.

In Gladwin County, correction of a math error on the results sent to the Secretary of State's office resulted in an 11vote boost for Benishek. And when Delta County certified their vote today, Jason Allen added one vote to his tally, while Benishek added two votes to his, for a net gain of one. "

If that is the case, a Hundred or so other precincts may well find minor errors that aggregated, might produce a very definite difference from what we see now.

Believable?

Perhaps, as the there are enough potential true Republican Voters who are convinced enough to believe Rick Snyder is worthy of their support for the primary, much less an acknowledgment he is a Republican in the first place.  Something to take seriously when looking at a candidate who hopes to be the standard bearer of the Republican party of Michigan.  To be sure... the GOP can do far better than this RINO. (yeah.. I said it)

Am I being a little strong?

Michigan representative John Conyers along with other Democrats in congress are trying to make sure that Democrat leaning felons (and themselves) will never lose their voting rights permanently.  The contemptible miscreants who are attempting to subvert the constitution on matters of personal health and liberty, now want to make sure they have as many like minded individuals pulling the election levers as possible.

Conyers has said:

"The United States may have the most restrictive disenfranchisement policy in the world. Such prohibitions on the right to vote undermine both the voting system and the fundamental rights of ex-offenders." ` Congressional address, Mar. 16, 2005

Huh.. Pretty tall statement.  In the world?  Really??

Voting used to be treasured as a right and a privilege. Whenever I vote, I feel a genuine sense of pride at participating in the democratic process, and I made sure to take my children with me whenever I could in order to instill that same feeling in them.

Now, it seems like voting is becoming just another opportunity to scam the public.

The dregs of ACORN, considered criminals in days gone by, are now embraced by our federal government and given hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. Remember, this is the same group that, in concert with the Ohio Secretary of State (a Democrat) and a federal judge (appointed by Clinton), effected a settlement by which the homeless were permitted to use park benches(!) as their addresses for voter registration purposes. ACORN is being investigated or has been charged with voter fraud in 14 states. The U.S. Department of Justice has now ordered that states are not permitted to verify voter citizenship.

Still, all that is happening outside Michigan, right? Wrong. Not only has our legislature decided to endorse "no reason" absentee voting, but two legislators are trying to further dilute any protections we might have against voter fraud.

HB 4993, introduced by Reps. Melton (D-Pontiac) and Johnson (D-Detroit), would permit anyone to register to vote at any city, county, or township office anywhere in Michigan. The office receiving the application is required to process it and give the voter a receipt for it, then send the application to the city, county, or township where the applicant resides.

Why even require voter registration anymore? If we are going to allow people to register wherever and whenever they want, and if people can use park benches as addresses, how is it possible to detect voter fraud? What is to stop a person from selecting park benches in a dozen different locations, driving around the state to register, and then voting absentee in each location? Internet voting and same-day registration will only compound the fraud.

And is in-district registration really an issue? I called Rep. Melton's office and was told the purpose of the bill was to "make it easier to register" but not to encourage voter fraud. The example used was of college students who may find it difficult to register at home.

Oh, please.

This is the most mobile society in history (at least it is until our governor and our president succeed in destroying the automobile history). If a person wants to register and vote, he can, and there is no need to degrade the process into a free-for-all.

My personal view is that voting should be made more difficult. Requiring photo identification is a terrific first step, and citizenship checks should be next.

I worked the polls in a heavily Democratic precinct during the last presidential election. No one complained about the photo i.d. requirement, but there was one glaring example of why voting should be more - not less - difficult. A middle aged man entered, went through the process of checking in, and was handed his ballot. Rather than proceed to the booth, he stopped and asked, "Who's going to help me with this?" When no one responded immediately (probably from the surprise of it), he again demanded, this time more loudly, "Who's going to help me vote?"

And since you are curious (or I like to imagine a few of you are) and I'm not shy I'll tell you a secret, too.

Grand Rapids voters today are being asked to approve another giant tax hike (it's a $110 million project) to expand bus service down South Division, the street that cuts the River City in half, running north to south.  The project is being touted as a way to create 189 jobs at the bargain basement cost of $582,000 each.

There's already bus service that runs down South Division but apparently we need MORE bus service running down South Division.  Technically the "new" service is probably a little bit flashier than that but when you boil it down, it's just another bus line.  They're calling this one the "Silver Line."  (The old busses are the "Bronze Line" I presume.)

If (or when) this new tax increase passes... see, here in Grand Rapids we fashion ourselves very progressive, metropolitan, green-friendly... hippie-light... the local mass transit boosters will invariably get started on next year's campaign for the "Gold Line."

2011 will bring Platinum.  2012 we'll have Diamond.  By 2025 they'll be making up precious metals and gems.  The Adamantium Line in 2030 will offer doorstep-to-doorstep service anywhere in the Lower Peninsula via a new three billion dollar annual tax levy exclusively on residents of Ada.

For whatever it was worth, I voted NO and would have done so twice, had I been blessed with as few scruples as your average ACORN community organizer.  

Better yet, I rode my green Schwinn mountain bike down Eastern, a street that runs parallel to the Silver Line's proposed route, to get myself over to my voting booth.  Never let it be said that Nick De Leeuw isn't willing to do his part for Mother Nature.  

Now if only every Silver Line booster would make the same commitment I made, we could save the city from smog, the planet from humans, South Division from traffic congestion, homeowners from foreclosure and the singles in my wallet from abject loneliness.