Hanging by a chad
The tiny chunk of torn paper that gripped the nation in suspenseis up to its old tricks. Now a household term, the chad transformedour 2000 presidential election into an embarrassing circus. Thesame has occurred in the already laughable California recallelection.
On Tuesday, an 11 judge panel reinstated the original electiondate, which had been postponed due to an earlier ruling thatantiquated voting mechanisms would disenfranchise voters.
From the start, this lawsuit was nothing more than a means ofkeeping Gray Davis in office. The American Civil Liberties Unionand the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, key members of the efforts to curb the election, claim to bedefending the rights granted to minorities under the EqualProtection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. However, they areclearly pursuing a political agenda by searching for loopholes topostpone the recall.
Here’s why: where was this lawsuit in the 2002 Californiagubernatorial election? The potential hazards of punch-card votingwere well established by this point, but no well-known attemptswere made to cease the election. If the ACLU was genuinelyconcerned with ensuring that every citizen’s voice was heard,they should have raised the issue years ago. The six Californiacounties in question are certainly not the only places in Americawhere chads are still hanging. However, the ACLU is choosing thiselection to speak up because Gray Davis is one of its flagshipsupporters.
Unfortunately, the ACLU is one of several factors that havetransformed California into the nation’s laughing stock. Theorganization founded to uphold our civil liberties is feverishlypursuing a political agenda, but so are a host of other characters,including Larry Flint, Gary Coleman and Arnold Schwarzenegger.Naturally, the media focuses on these attention seekers, largelyignoring the efforts of genuine politicians, such as PeterUeberroth, Tom McClintock and Peter Camejo. Ed Board is notclaiming that only career politicians are fit to hold office, butMr. Coleman, for example, has explicitly admitted that his campaignis an attempt to rekindle his acting career. Furthermore, any ofthe unorthodox candidates with a true desire to enter the politicalworld should begin with a local position, not one as complex asgovernor of California. By publicizing these Hollywood stars as topcontenders for the job, the entire state looks foolhardy.
Gray Davis is also exacerbating his state’s troublesduring this recall mess. Instead of working tirelessly to correctthe problems his administration has caused, he is wasting time atcampaign rallies. The citizens would rather see him workingovertime in his office than hear him deliver a speech thatcriticizes the recall election. To his credit, Mr. Davis agreeswith us. His spokesman released a statement saying, “Thisrecall has already cost enough in terms of public funds and timeaway from the public’s business. It is time to moveforward.” Alas, for Mr. Davis, moving forward will probablymean moving out.
