BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

Okay, so I’m becoming a little obsessive with this delegate count that is going on and on and on but none too well.  New Mexico has granted Clinton 13 delegates and Obama 12.  Apparently, there is one delegate left over that has to go to someone and New Mexico still can’t figure out who should be awarded the lone delegate.

Isn’t it a little funny that the two candidates who keeps talking about a system that is broken are now being victimized by the break?  What could be worse than not being able to ration out the delegates?  Not having enough ballots? 

According to one AP Report

It was a mess: Overwhelmed polling places with long lines, some up to three hours. Too few ballots. Confusion over where to vote. Bad weather in the north. In Rancho Rio, one of the state’s largest cities, a single polling location where 1,900 people remain lined up at 7 p.m on election night.

The man in charge, Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colon, has apologized repeatedly: “We absolutely miscalculated and I apologize. It’s a tragedy when folks are not afforded the opportunity to vote.”

The finger-pointing has begun: Colon is receiving a firestorm of criticism — including from Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, a former presidential hopeful who said he was “deeply disturbed” by the problems. Partly because he was a candidate himself until mid-January, Richardson himself never got involved in helping plan or promote the caucus, as he did in 2004, the first year New Mexico tried it.

“The governor’s disappointed and I am, too,” Colon said Thursday. “I can assure you that I’m even more disappointed than the governor.”

I don’t want to pick on New Mexico.  They may be slow in counting, but at my own polling place someone had sent ballots that belonged to another district and it took until noon to get it straightened out.  Many voted as soon as the polls opened and it wasn’t until a couple of hours into the day that someone noticed that the ballots on hand couldn’t be counted because they were for the wrong district.  Maybe that’s why the line was so long when I got to the polls.

Americans have been voting for over 200 years and it would seem with that much experience under the belt, we could get it right… just once in this century!  Let’s face it, the 2000 election was a farce.  I’m not even going to offer an argument.  It’s old hat and there is nothing more to say.  2004, perhaps it was the campaigning more than the actual election, but it was not picnic unless you enjoyed the ants and the locusts. 

Here we are again in the midst of an election year and we still can’t count the ballots… and in some cases we can’t furnish enough for everyone to vote.  The voting machines work when its convenient and many leave no paper trail.  You may trust that system.  I don’t.  At least with “hanging chads” you could see what you were arguing about. 

We are nine months away from electing our next president, the leader of the “free” world.  We claim to be one of the most democratic societies on earth.  In fact we have so much democracy that we are forcing our overflow onto others.  And, more and more it seems to me that we may need to call in neutral election watchers to make sure our votes are counted… if you can get a ballot.

I know I sound rather cynical about the entire process, especially in this year of hope.  But, if there is one sure way to wash away any hope for the future, let our next election be tainted as the others in this century have been.