Here We Go Again

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Here We Go Again
by Robert Yoho, Columnist and Senior Editor

September 20, 2002

"Eye on Conservatism"

Columnist Robert Yoho Despite the fact that Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties are primarily supervised by Democrat election officials, the Republican Party was blamed for polling irregularities in Florida that allowed George W. Bush to become president. However, those same problems were just repeated in those same counties in Florida’s 2002 primary. Once again, according to Democratic operatives, the Republicans are the ones to blame.

Could somebody please explain that to me?

More than anything else, liberal Democrats, still bitter about their loss in the 2000 presidential race, wish to harm and embarrass a greatly popular and trusted President George W. Bush by defeating his brother in Florida. For evidence of this, I need only mention the name of Rosy O’Donnell, who moved to Florida with her live-in girlfriend to highlight the difficulties of gay couples in Florida to adopt children.

Despite her appearances and notoriety from NBC’s Saturday Night Live, former Attorney General Reno would be the preferred Democratic candidate for Florida’s Gov. Jeb Bush. Bill McBride would clearly be a much tougher opponent. Therefore, what possible reason would Republicans have to tamper with the Florida elections, turn away voters, and make it harder for Janet Reno to win?

The simple truth is this: if voters are being turned away or disenfranchised in Florida, then you can only blame the Democrats who oversee these county elections. It was not Republicans who sought to exclude the ballots from overseas military personnel.

I would be ashamed if I was from Florida! To the casual observer, it would appear that Florida is little more than a poverty stricken, third world republic. Perhaps that smiling, peanut farmer from Georgia, who recently went into house building, needs to go there on his next attempt at establishing a post-presidential legacy. Much like he did in Central America, Jimmy Carter could venture to Florida to make sure that the state will hold fair and democratic (small "d") elections.

You can only reach two or three conclusions from these recent Florida elections. It could be that many of the state’s voters are illiterate or too unsophisticated to read a simple ballot. Perhaps the voting problems are the fault of ignorant, lazy, or poorly trained officials. Or lastly, the voting irregularities are simply a matter of deliberately organized voter fraud.

You can come to no other conclusions!

Nobody wants to be the one to say it: If election fraud is taking place in Florida, then you can only blame the Democrats.

I believe those outlaw counties of Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami are a microcosm of what is happening in numerous big cities across America. Voter fraud is rampant! It used to be a joke in Chicago, near where I went to college, and in West Virginia, where I was born and reared. It was only funny because it was humor largely based on fact. Dead people regularly participated in the electoral process. Some of them even changed parties after they were deceased.

On Election Day in 1980, while I was driving to class, a local DJ said on the radio, "Remember, folks, this is Election Day in Chicago. Vote early and vote often!"

I do not think federalizing elections is the answer to the problem. Nor is it constitutional. However, I think each state needs to require photo identification from all those who vote. No doubt this will predictably bring complaints of voter intimidation. But only the guilty or illegal have anything to fear from proper voter ID.

Democracy should not necessarily be an easy process. When open elections are held in these republics formerly run by dictators, the people walk for miles and often risk their lives for the chance to vote. The easier we seek to make it for people to vote, the more fraud we experience.

I dare say that Florida is full of senior citizens, wintering in the state, who are voting there and also casting absentee ballots in their home state. I believe this also happens regularly in our college towns, with students voting in local elections and also in their home communities.

I cannot stress this fact enough. America is no longer a democracy when we cannot guarantee the veracity of our elections! People who tamper with the electoral process are no less a threat to our liberties than those who fly planes into skyscrapers. ***

Photo of Robert Yoho courtesy of staff files