FOGEYISM’S ELECTION SQUIBS--

The election pundits never cease to amaze me. These days we often read of their speculation about Republicans crossing over to vote for Obama in many primaries; the theory being--no matter how noble--they are anxious to rid the political process of the Clinton(s) once and for all.

That’s insane when Obama is already favored to beat McCain—the GOP presumptive nominee—by a large margin this fall.

If Republicans were trying to manipulate the Democrat nomination don’t you think they would be trying to nominate the weaker candidate?

And, this sheds light on an even more pertinent problem--

--which is; this scenario is a clear demonstration of why many states have closed primary elections. The primaries are for political parties to choose their candidates for the fall election.

When voters can freely participate in the other party’s nominating process the kind of electoral mischief alleged above is not only possible but likely.

This is the same as having members of the Bengals football team in the Brown’s locker room at half-time.

That’s how Ohio’s semi-open primary voting process works. Any voter, regardless of their party voting history, can ask for any party’s ballot in the primary.

That needs fixed.


and…VOTE COUNTING IN CUYAHOGA COUNTY—

As a former elections official I fear we could be heading toward embarrassing turmoil in Cleveland election night.

They have had several political tugs-of-war with Ohio’s Secretary of State of late; the most recent being her forcing them to replace their recently acquired, multi-million dollar voting system with one more to her liking.

Naturally, she thought this latest system would get its first test in a fairly obscure election where the winning presidential candidates would have been chosen long before the primary contest arrived in Ohio this year.

Now, with the Clintons struggling to preserve their political dynasty, Ohio has been thrust into the limelight as the vote count here could be the death knell for that once pre-ordained campaign and the world will be watching us very closely tomorrow night.

Where things often go astray when all is working normally, they will be running an untested voting system with only about 60 days of preparation. Already they have had a failure in vote counting with one of their optical scanners reading the paper ballots *gasp* they will be using for the first time since election antiquity.

I shudder to think what might happen up there as I recall the vote counting fiasco the country recently endured in a Florida presidential election.

Let’s hope I am wrong.