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Remember in 2000, when the Supreme Court decided in Bush v. Gore that while Americans have a right to vote, they did not necessarily have the right to have their vote counted? Fate may have provided Americans with revenge (and maybe a change of heart?) with one judge in Minnesota.
An election judge in Minnesota, who is a constituent in the currently contested Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken, discovered that her own vote did not count.
This situation reminds me of Michael Moore’s piece “A Prayer to Afflict the Comfortable with As Many Afflictions As Possible”, found in his book “Stupid White Men“. Moore noticed that when bad things happen to politicians and the rich, those folks suddenly change their political stances to be understanding. So, Moore wished interesting challenges upon on the comfortable, such as that all Senators from the South become addicted to drugs, and that the children of all the Senators in the Mountain Time Zone become gay.
I don’t think Moore even imagined wishing that an election judge would have her ballot go uncounted. Though, perhaps, now, our judiciary will think harder about the right of every American to have their vote counted. I believe that Shirley Graham’s predicament may provide a boost to electoral activists and voting rights advocates.
(excerpt from) the Star Tribune
Election judge is dumbfounded her ballot was rejected
By Larry Oakes
Last update: December 30, 2008 – 11:03 PM
DULUTH – Shirley Graham was astonished to learn that a lawyer from Norm Coleman’s campaign on Tuesday blocked her absentee ballot from being added to the U.S. Senate recount.
“I’m an election judge,” said Graham, of Duluth. “I expected to be the last person whose ballot wouldn’t be counted.”
Her sealed ballot was among 60 from St. Louis County that were blocked by representatives of Coleman and Al Franken during the first day of a statewide review of absentee ballots that may have been wrongly rejected in last month’s election…
Graham said that because she works each Election Day in a neighboring precinct, she votes absentee. She didn’t have any idea that her ballot had been rejected, reconsidered and rerejected until receiving a reporter’s call.
“I want to see my ballot,” said Graham, who added that she’d consider going to court, if she must, to get her vote counted…
Filed under: activism, Ballot issues, election, Election 2008, elections, News, Political Websites, progressive politics, reform, US Politics Tagged: | absentee ballot, Al Franken, bush, Bush v. Gore, courts, election law, Electoral, electoral activism, Gore, justice, Minnesota, Norm Coleman, Norman Coleman, senate, Shirley Graham, Supreme Court, vote
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