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Starting your week smartly with some Kurly Komments:

01.09.12

 

by Steven H. Kurlander  

 

#1 - Hold on to those Absentee Ballots!

 

Last week, I received my absentee ballot to vote in the Florida Presidential Primary on January 31st.

 

Normally, I would have immediately opened the envelope, voted for a candidate (by reverting back to second grade mechanics to carefully draw in a neat, straight line to connect the base with the arrow pointing to the candidate's name so that the scanning machine does not miss my vote), and then mailed it back (again, carefully making sure I had the right amount of postage since the AB weighs more than one ounce) that same day. 

 

This year is different.  I'm not mailing it so fast. 

 

Actually, I'm probably going to wait to the last minute to mail it-and I bet a lot of Florida Republicans will do the same who are voting by absentee ballot or casting their ballots at early voting sites, which starts on January 21st.

 

Three factors are at play:

 

First, because the Presidential Primary season has already been in full swing for over a year before the Iowa caucuses held last week, the continuous, intense coverage of this already prolonged race in the 24-7 news cycle and the impact of the numerous debates that have already taken place have made it a very fluid contest with a number of candidates already peaking in popularity or dropping out.

 

With three weeks left in January that includes contests in New Hampshire and South Carolina and six more debates scheduled, the rest of the month could prove a lifetime in terms of surges and catastrophes for the remaining six candidates.

 

As a result, I really don't want to vote early for a candidate like Perry, Huntsman, Gingrich, or even Santorum who may be already out of the race by the time the 31st comes around

 

The second factor is that a large number of Republicans, including me, persist in being "underwhelmed" by their choice of candidates. 

 

While prominent "Republican establishment" figures continue to bolster Mitt Romney as the only candidate to be able to beat President Obama in November (the latest being the last Republican Presidential candidate Senator John McCain) in effort to make Romney the true frontrunner in the race, Romney can't break out.  Polls in mid December found that 4 in 10 Republicans are not happy with any of GOP candidates running for President.  At that time, 8 in 10 who said they were backing a candidate said they were open to changing their mind. 

 

The fact that over 40% of Iowans voting in the Republican caucuses last week could not state who they were voting for 24 hours before the caucuses showed that this underwhelming factor will go on being the big bogeyman (particularly for Romney) in the upcoming primaries, including Florida, even if the candidate field continues to whittle down in size after the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.

 

The third factor is the "civil war" dynamic building to disrupt the primary process in 2012. The GOP is split badly in Congress and it is reflected more as time goes on in the primary race.  This deep division between the "Traditional Republicans" and the "Tea Party/Arch Conservatives" in GOP presidential politics is becoming an increasing influence on the direction of the campaign in terms of dialogue and nastiness of the rhetoric between the candidates. If the Santorum victory in Iowa is an indication, it is going to grow as a big factor in the immediate upcoming races, including Florida.

 

Many political pundits are already characterizing a diminished Newt Gingrich's continued campaigning as nothing more than means of assisting other "conservative" candidates like Rick Santorum to prevent the mainstream Romney from grabbing the front runner status as the campaign continues into other primary states. 

 

Also in this regard, I'm sure some Florida GOP voters are waiting to see if uberconservative GOP stars like Allen West, Florida Governor Rick Scott, or any of the candidates running for the Florida US Senate seat up this year endorse any of the Presidential candidates before the primary. 

 

Former Governor Charlie Crist had a huge impact endorsing John McCain in the last Presidential primary in Florida and it will be interesting to see if any of these Florida uberconservatives have the same influence this time around to fuel the flames of conservative discontent with Romney with Florida primary voters

 

In the meantime, I will definitely go out this week and get that special $1.17 stamp needed to mail the absentee ballot-and I'll be practicing my line drawing too. Comment 

 

#2 - I must compliment the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office for mailing me the ballot immediately upon my request off their website. I received the primary ballot in my mailbox two days after filling out a request on the SOE website.  

 

The use of an absentee ballot to vote is great because it allows a voter not to have to take time out (and not forget or distracted) to vote on Election Day. 

 

While we can use the internet to request such ballots, it's a shame that in 2012, we can't vote from our computers or personal mobile devises too.

 

The whole idea of maintaining polling places and requiring voters to be at a place to vote at a certain time on Election Day is antiquated. As characterized by the increasing use of absentee ballots to vote and early voting, voters want more convenience and less stress in voting at a polling place on Election Day. 

 

While campaigning has made the transition to email, texting, and apps and we can perform secured functions like buying items with credit cards online, the way we vote is still stuck in the 1990s.  

 

It's time to make the voting function in this country totally internet electronic.

 

If it is a matter of insuring the reliability of the voting process that prevents a discussion of voting by internet, there is evidence that voting at the polls is not really that reliable either.  There was an article in USA Today in December  reporting that The U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which is responsible for inspecting voter equipment, found that a ballot scanner used in several key battleground states can freeze up without warning, fail to log errors and misread ballots.  These machines are used in a number of major battleground states like New York, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin and Indiana and if they fail, it could throw the whole Presidential process into chaos.

 

So if these scanners are not reliable, why not seek the reasonable alternative in setting up an encrypted system of voting by personal computers and personal hand held devices that would be more accurate, reliable, and safe? Comment |  

 

#3 - Speaking of throwing the 2012 Presidential race into chaos, it looks like there won't be much acrimony on the Democratic side this year.  

 

The Hill reported over the weekend that Ralph Nadar has thrown in the towel in trying to get a progressive candidate to challenge President Obama in the 2012 primaries.

 

The idea behind a primary challenge to Obama was to stimulate a debate within the party about a number of "progressive" ideas and policies which the President has been perceived as abandoning during his first term. 

 

The latest issue which alienated Progressives was his signing of the National Defense Authorization Act on New Year's Eve, which authorized the military detainment and torture of US citizens, indefinitely in certain national security circumstances.  ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero declared that Obama would be "forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law."

 

Nadar blamed the White House for threatening to politically ruin anyone who would run against the President. 

 

Nadar, the well known consumer advocate, ran in 2000 as a third party candidate and cost Democratic hopeful Al Gore the state of Florida, which in turn determined the election in favor of George W. Bush.

 

Nadar had announced in September along with scholar Cornel West that they were seeking six "recognizable, articulate" candidates who would not mount serious challenges to Obama, but "rigorously debate his policy stands" on issues related to labor, poverty, foreign policy, civil rights and consumer protections. He had hoped to find a candidate to first make an initial impact against Obama in New Hampshire, but the early timing of the election prevented the formation of such a candidacy. 

 

So it looks like despite his disappointing anti-Progressive agenda, there'll be no challenge to the President within the Democratic Party - maybe Nadar should give a call to Donald Trump to see if he would bankroll another independent Presidential bid to get the that important progressive debate going again.  

 

That would be a very interesting phone call!   Comment

 

Have a great week, Kurly.  

 

Check out my latest column in the Sun Sentinel:

 Iowa results bad omen for GOP unity and victory

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