Friday, October 19, 2018

Overseeing your own election


It is possible with a scrupulously honest candidate with integrity to run an honest election for governor while remaining Secretary of State and overseeing the honesty of that election. In the current mid term elections there are 3 men in that position, all are Republican and none are considered either honest or men of integrity.
In three states, the referee for the midterm elections is also on the field as a player.

Elected secretaries of state in Georgia and Kansas — who in their official capacities oversee the elections in their states — are running for governor. Ohio’s secretary of state is running for lieutenant governor. All are Republicans.

They have faced scattered calls to resign but have refused to do so. Election reformers say the situation underscores the conflict of interest when an official has responsibilities for an election while also running as a candidate.

“There is just too much of a temptation if a political party is in a position to run the mechanics of an election to try to tilt it, and it’s a temptation we ought not to encourage,” said former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat who spent 34 years on Capitol Hill. “This is not nuclear physics.”

While the three secretaries of state are Republican, concerns about inappropriate actions by partisans who hold the office transcend parties. An independent counsel earlier this month began investigating Kentucky’s Democratic secretary of state, Alison Lundergan Grimes, over allegations that her office accessed voter registration data to check the party affiliation of job applicants. Grimes may seek higher office next year.

Grimes father was indicted in late August for trying to funnel money into his daughter’s failed 2014 bid to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp faces charges of voter suppression in his state, while Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has become an emblem of a political warrior. A former chairman of the state’s Republican Party, Kobach organized the Prairie Fire political action committee to attack moderate Republican candidates while serving as secretary of state.

Issues about his dual hats swirled around Kobach during the Aug. 7 primary in Kansas when he was locked in a tight race for the Republican nomination with Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer. It marked one of the closest primary races in U.S. history and came down to counting provisional ballots.

After an uproar, Kobach stepped back and put his deputy, Eric Rucker, in charge.

For the latest updates on the 2018 midterms, sign up for news alerts here. To support more elections coverage like this, click here for a digital-only subscription.

Even the Republican seeking to succeed Kobach as secretary of state has distanced himself. “Whether you like it or not, Kris has been distracted with lawsuits. He was an early part of the president’s transition team and running for governor for several years,” Republican candidate Scott Schwab said in a forum earlier this week.

Political scientists say lawsuits and perceptions of favoritism are bound to arise as the post of secretary of state is seen as a stepping stone to higher office.

“You don’t want to have a misperception that you are placing a thumb on the scale of your own election,” said Michael P. McDonald, a University of Florida elections expert who heads the United States Elections Project, a nonpartisan research and information service.

In the case of Ohio, where Secretary of State John Husted is running for lieutenant governor, a spokesman said Husted’s office is not directly responsible for counting votes.

“That is done at the local level by the bipartisan boards of elections,” spokesman Sam Rossi said. “If any issues were to arise regarding Secretary Husted as a candidate, he would recuse himself and defer that decision to the deputy secretary of state who is a former election board director in Franklin County (Ohio).”

A fourth secretary of state, Shantel Krebs, a Republican in South Dakota, ran for a seat in the U.S. House earlier this year but lost in the primary.

The issue of electoral influence goes beyond what unfolds when votes are counted.

“Election officials have a lot of discretion,” said Daniel P. Tokaji, an authority on electoral law at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, adding that a variety of legal questions inevitably arise during campaigns.

“Just to give you a few that have arisen in years past, in a state that has a voter ID law, what forms of voter ID are acceptable and unacceptable? Often the statute doesn’t spell that out with perfect clarity,” Tokaji said.

“Where and when should early voting and absentee voting be allowed? Under what circumstances should provisional ballots be counted? What should be the practice when it comes to removing voters from the rolls?”
The Secretary of State doesn't necessarily have to cheat on the counting and certification of election results, he has plenty of time to prepare the field and weigh the advantages heavily in favor of..... himself. But don't think for a moment these public servants would do such a thing. No keep that thought in your head forever and rejoice anytime they do not.

Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]





<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]