Reply #30: AR: Nepotism: Charlie's real problem [View All]

[rumpel]

Arkansas News Bureau
A Stephens Media Group Company

Sun, May. 21, 2006

Secretary of State Charlie Daniels tells me he "hopes to goodness" that all goes smoothly enough in the primaries Tuesday.

No doubt that's partly because he knows he'll get blamed otherwise, though he shouldn't.

Election reforms dictated in the federal government's Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 made him the state's grant recipient and point person. Still, Tuesday's activity remains by state constitution and actual practice the direct and sometimes disparate responsibility of 75 county clerks.

More to the point, problems most likely would reflect (1) failings of the probably overextended new equipment contractor, Election Systems and Software of Omaha, Neb., which was one of two qualified bidders and as reasonable a choice as the other, and (2) not an uncommon predicament in a national context, considering problems encountered recently in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, California and elsewhere.

That's not to excuse the disenfranchisement of anyone or the imposition of undue hardships on any citizen seeking to exercise his right to vote.

It's not even to excuse Charlie Daniels. He doesn't excuse himself. He knows he's the secretary of state. He knows where bucks go to stop in politics.

It's simply to say what's ultimately fair and correct: Kinks in our voting process transcend any person, certainly an old boy in the secretary of state's office in Arkansas.

Jim Lagrone, the Republican candidate against Daniels in November, tells me that protecting everyone's right to vote amounts to the very essence of his candidacy. But he could be forgiven for finding himself in a private moment wishing for a snafu here and an outrage there.

http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2006/05/21/JohnBrummett/336293.html