From The Hartford Courant:
http://blogs.courant.com/susan_campbell/2010/11/a-little-more-reading-with-tue.html
Connecticut's election? What a prize.
By Susan Campbell
November 9, 2010
In a brief phone conversation Monday morning, Av Harris at Connecticut’s Secretary of State office must have said “We have a small staff in the elections department” three times.
The state’s midterm election last Tuesday was a pig pile. Bridgeport election officials didn’t order enough ballots, and a judge ruled that city’s polls stay open an extra two hours. And then a bag of uncounted ballots was discovered in -- yes -- Bridgeport. Election officials counted through the night, and the official tally - which gave the advantage to Democratic candidate Dannel Malloy - was posted online by the Secretary of State’s office Friday afternoon.
On Monday the Connecticut GOP announced it would seek an investigation into the Bridgeport Bungle. On Monday afternoon, Republican candidate Tom Foley said he would not pursue a recount, or a legal challenge to the close election. He ended a press conference to phone Malloy to congratulate him.
That was classy, if you ask me. It only takes one snafu to make people question the system and this go-round, we’ve had several. Midweek last week, some people who voted for Todd Vachon, a University of Connecticut graduate student who was the write-in candidate for U.S. Senator on the Socialist Party ticket, logged on to the secretary’s website and did not see their votes. Voters in Salem, East Lyme, and beyond emailed Vachon, who urged people to be patient. Every one should be counted, he said, though there wouldn’t be many.
Vachon did not run an active campaign - as he did in ’08, when he campaigned to show the difference between Sen. Barack Obama -- whom Vachon calls a “hedge-fund Democrat” -- and a real Socialist who supports, said Vachon, “single-payer, public health care, ending the wars, and bringing tax dollars and troops home.”
Later Monday -- working, as Harris promised, as fast as they could hand-entering the write-ins -- Vachon votes began showing online, though one voter who’d contacted Vachon said he was told by someone in the Secretary of State’s office that Hartford officials didn’t start counting write-in votes until Monday - six days after the election. Vachon acknowledged that he hadn’t a shot at winning, but it’s the principle of the thing.
Sometimes, “the principle of the thing” is the last-ditch argument in a lost cause, but in this case, it means something. By way of explanation, Harris said, “It’s very important to get all the results up there quickly for the citizens of Connecticut to see, but we had an extraordinary situation, and we made a decision to shift priorites in order to get result for governor’s race.”
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Was Your Write-In Vote Counted?
Three days after polls have closed, there are still several towns that have not reported write-in votes. The Vachon Campaign began recieving complaints from voters Thursday morning, after the Secretary of State posted the official vote-tally spreadsheet(available at: http://www.statementofvote-sots.ct.gov/StatementOfVote/WebModules/ReportsLink/USSenSumStat.aspx). Voters from Hartford, New Haven, Mansfield, Salem, East Lyme, West Haven, West Hartford and Middletown all expressed concern about whether their vote had been counted. "Being a write-in campaign it becomes very easy for voters to determine if their vote had been counted," said Vachon, "if their town shows 'zero' and they know that they voted, then they know something is not right."
The campaign has urged all supporters to check the SOTS website to ensure that their votes had been counted. If they discovered that they had been disenfranchised they were urged to take two steps: 1) contact their town's clerk, and if that did not resolve the problem, 2) contact the secretary of state's office to complain.
Complaints have thus far led to the appearance of votes from Salem and New Haven. When a Vachon supporter called in Middletown to inquire about her vote, a representative "discovered" a whole pile of write-in votes that they "forgot to submit," however the votes are yet to be counted on the official tally. While representatives of the Vachon Campaign and the Socialist Party of CT deny that this is any kind of organized conspiracy to quiet their voice, they do add that "the two-party system itself is a conspiracy in that two groups have conspired to write and enact laws which block any challengers." The shear lack of regard for the votes of dissent, the write-in votes which most challenge the status quo, says a lot about the state of democracy in America--money may not be able to buy elections, as we've seen with Linda McMahon, but it certainly can guarantee ballot access and media coverage.
If you voted for Vachon, or any other write-in candidate, you should take a moment to ensure that your town has counted your vote. Many people, including countless socialists, fought hard for equal rights to vote in this country; they certainly did not do it so that votes for certain groups would count while others would be ignored. Every single person has a right to vote for an official candidate, and every single vote must be counted, period.
-The Vachon Campaign
CT Blogger Kerri Provost, of RealHartford.org, elaborates on the vote count problem in her recent piece, "Something Rotten in a Blue State."(http://www.realhartford.org/2010/11/04/something-rotten-in-a-blue-state/)
The campaign has urged all supporters to check the SOTS website to ensure that their votes had been counted. If they discovered that they had been disenfranchised they were urged to take two steps: 1) contact their town's clerk, and if that did not resolve the problem, 2) contact the secretary of state's office to complain.
Complaints have thus far led to the appearance of votes from Salem and New Haven. When a Vachon supporter called in Middletown to inquire about her vote, a representative "discovered" a whole pile of write-in votes that they "forgot to submit," however the votes are yet to be counted on the official tally. While representatives of the Vachon Campaign and the Socialist Party of CT deny that this is any kind of organized conspiracy to quiet their voice, they do add that "the two-party system itself is a conspiracy in that two groups have conspired to write and enact laws which block any challengers." The shear lack of regard for the votes of dissent, the write-in votes which most challenge the status quo, says a lot about the state of democracy in America--money may not be able to buy elections, as we've seen with Linda McMahon, but it certainly can guarantee ballot access and media coverage.
If you voted for Vachon, or any other write-in candidate, you should take a moment to ensure that your town has counted your vote. Many people, including countless socialists, fought hard for equal rights to vote in this country; they certainly did not do it so that votes for certain groups would count while others would be ignored. Every single person has a right to vote for an official candidate, and every single vote must be counted, period.
-The Vachon Campaign
CT Blogger Kerri Provost, of RealHartford.org, elaborates on the vote count problem in her recent piece, "Something Rotten in a Blue State."(http://www.realhartford.org/2010/11/04/something-rotten-in-a-blue-state/)
Monday, November 1, 2010
A Final appeal: Bring a Pen and Vote For Jobs, Peace and Freedom Tomorrow!
Good Morning Everyone,
Today is the final day before the election and I wanted to reach out one last time to make an appeal for your vote.
Albert Einstein once defined "insanity" as engaging in a similar action repeatedly and expecting a different outcome. Expecting the Democratic Party to ever create real change is a quintessential example of practicing insanity. Not only will they fail to deliver the kind of progressive change that voters call for again and again, but they will not even fight to hold on to what little we have left. The election of Barack Obama with a Democratic Majority in both the Congress and the Seante has seen not only a continuation, but an expansion of much of the Bush era policies. The war in Afghanistan has been escalated, the military is cemented into Iraq with a permanent occupation force of 50,000 troops, private health insurance is now compulsory, the privatization of education which began under No Child Left Behind has been accelerated under Race to the Top (or should I say bottom?), the annual military budget has exceeded $800 billion per year for the first time in history (not including the cost of wars or VA health). These are all destructive and wasteful policies, and they were all ushered in not by some neoconservatives, but by the current Democratic Administration. Insanity? Yes, and it is time to stop acting so crazy and start creating real paths for change.
The destruction of the middle class has been happening since the middle of the 1970s and it has continued at a steady pace with both Democrats and Republicans at the helm. The problem is not the Republicans, it is unfettered "free market" capitalism and both major parties are firm believers in it. The average real wage of American workers is the same today as it was in 1979 despite the nearly three-fold expansion of worker productivity and similar growth in wealth of the capitalist class. The average CEO earns 300-500 times more than their average employee in America. The official unemployment rate is 10% and the real unemployment rate is approximately 20% when discouraged, part-time and contingent workers are considered. Tax rates for the wealthiest individuals and corporations have been steadily reduced since the 1950s. The social safety net has had so many holes cut into it that it's now about as useful as a DVD rewinder. The Democratic Party will never make any sweeping changes to fix these problems for fear that they become labelled "Socialists,"at which point they begin their pro-capital knee-jerk reactions to demonstrate that they are more pro-busienss than the Republicans. If fighting for real universal healthcare is Socialist, if ending the wars a broad is socialist, if guaranteeing retirement is socialist, and if fixing unemployment is socialist, then shit, it's high time we all started voting socialist!!!
The Socialist Party offers clear alternatives to just appeasing the billionaire class in hopes that they might be so kind as to "give" us some jobs. Every vote for a socialist is a vote for peace, a vote for living wages, and a vote for the environment. Every vote for a Democrat or a Republican is a vote for capitalism, which daily destroys each of these things. I invite you to visit my campaign page (www.votevachon.com ) or the CT Voter Guide (www.remindernews.com/voter-guide/2010 ) to learn about my stance on the major issues, and if you are so compelled, to bring a pen with you to the polls tomorrow and tell the ruling class that we are ready to start governing ourselves despite their millions of dollars of personal and private campaign spending. Take a Stand and draw a line in the sand; write in "Todd Vachon" for U.S. Senate tomorrow! And if you live in congressional district 1 you can vote for socialist Chris Hutchinson for U.S. Congress who will be on the ballot.
Thank You for your time and support!
Sincerely,
Todd Vachon
Socialist for Senate
ps; please pass this on to other friends and family members who are fed up with the two business parties.
Today is the final day before the election and I wanted to reach out one last time to make an appeal for your vote.
Albert Einstein once defined "insanity" as engaging in a similar action repeatedly and expecting a different outcome. Expecting the Democratic Party to ever create real change is a quintessential example of practicing insanity. Not only will they fail to deliver the kind of progressive change that voters call for again and again, but they will not even fight to hold on to what little we have left. The election of Barack Obama with a Democratic Majority in both the Congress and the Seante has seen not only a continuation, but an expansion of much of the Bush era policies. The war in Afghanistan has been escalated, the military is cemented into Iraq with a permanent occupation force of 50,000 troops, private health insurance is now compulsory, the privatization of education which began under No Child Left Behind has been accelerated under Race to the Top (or should I say bottom?), the annual military budget has exceeded $800 billion per year for the first time in history (not including the cost of wars or VA health). These are all destructive and wasteful policies, and they were all ushered in not by some neoconservatives, but by the current Democratic Administration. Insanity? Yes, and it is time to stop acting so crazy and start creating real paths for change.
The destruction of the middle class has been happening since the middle of the 1970s and it has continued at a steady pace with both Democrats and Republicans at the helm. The problem is not the Republicans, it is unfettered "free market" capitalism and both major parties are firm believers in it. The average real wage of American workers is the same today as it was in 1979 despite the nearly three-fold expansion of worker productivity and similar growth in wealth of the capitalist class. The average CEO earns 300-500 times more than their average employee in America. The official unemployment rate is 10% and the real unemployment rate is approximately 20% when discouraged, part-time and contingent workers are considered. Tax rates for the wealthiest individuals and corporations have been steadily reduced since the 1950s. The social safety net has had so many holes cut into it that it's now about as useful as a DVD rewinder. The Democratic Party will never make any sweeping changes to fix these problems for fear that they become labelled "Socialists,"at which point they begin their pro-capital knee-jerk reactions to demonstrate that they are more pro-busienss than the Republicans. If fighting for real universal healthcare is Socialist, if ending the wars a broad is socialist, if guaranteeing retirement is socialist, and if fixing unemployment is socialist, then shit, it's high time we all started voting socialist!!!
The Socialist Party offers clear alternatives to just appeasing the billionaire class in hopes that they might be so kind as to "give" us some jobs. Every vote for a socialist is a vote for peace, a vote for living wages, and a vote for the environment. Every vote for a Democrat or a Republican is a vote for capitalism, which daily destroys each of these things. I invite you to visit my campaign page (www.votevachon.com ) or the CT Voter Guide (www.remindernews.com/voter-guide/2010 ) to learn about my stance on the major issues, and if you are so compelled, to bring a pen with you to the polls tomorrow and tell the ruling class that we are ready to start governing ourselves despite their millions of dollars of personal and private campaign spending. Take a Stand and draw a line in the sand; write in "Todd Vachon" for U.S. Senate tomorrow! And if you live in congressional district 1 you can vote for socialist Chris Hutchinson for U.S. Congress who will be on the ballot.
Thank You for your time and support!
Sincerely,
Todd Vachon
Socialist for Senate
ps; please pass this on to other friends and family members who are fed up with the two business parties.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
