Iowa: The Importance of Voting
by Linda Thieman
I find it truly amazing what the GOP will do to win an election. I suppose my question should be, “What WON’T they do?”
We’ve seen blatant evidence
that the GOP intends to prevent people from going to the polls by any
means, and now Iowa’s House Speaker Christopher Rants (R-Deep Black
Hole) is joining the cause against Democracy, recommending that people
stay home this election year and NOT VOTE.
Of
course, what he really means is he doesn’t want the Democrats and
anti-Bush Independents, a growing crowd, to vote. If you’re a
Republican, he’ll probably send his chauffeur to drive you to the polls.
In
particular, Rants is against the promotion of the use of absentee
ballots, no doubt because in Iowa, Democrats who vote by absentee
ballot far outnumber Republicans. According to the Iowa Democratic Party, Rants
has made statements critical of voter education programs being
undertaken by the Iowa Secretary of State, including distribution of
statewide voter guides.
“Maybe
Rants doesn’t remember that after the Florida election debacle in 2000,
a federal law was passed to help prevent voters from being
disenfranchised,” [IDP Chair Gordon] Fischer said. “The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) is
the law in all 50 states, and requires states to create new and
proactive voter education and outreach efforts. The voter guide is not
only helping to educate Iowans about the election, it is required by
Federal Law.”
Oh, he
remembers. He voted for the Iowa HAVA bill, after all. But
that was probably because, at the time, it looked like a sleeping
public would just sit by while county after county spent millions
replacing old voting machines with the new, highly-riggable
touch-screen voting systems. Well, we woke up in time, and that
didn’t happen – not in many counties in Iowa, anyway.
Shoot.
Just when you think you’ve got the election in the bag, people actually
go out and vote and ruin all your plans.
The desperation of the
GOP is really showing.
As always,
looking for ways that Democracy for Iowa can co-operate with the Iowa
Democrats, we’d like to share that the IDP has asked that everyone in
Iowa call Christopher Rants personally and tell him about the
importance of voting in a Democracy such as ours. Rants can be
reached at (712) 274-8874, or by e-mail at christopher@rants.us
Blog For Iowa 