Mickey Z

Cool Observer

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Monday, June 06, 2005

Voteless in Seattle

Six months after the gubernatorial election, the state of Washington is still trying to figure out who won...and now (gasp) it’s being settled in court.

“Politically speaking, it’s the trial of the century—at least in these parts—though it hasn’t been much of a century yet,” writes Geov Parrish in Seattle Weekly. “It’s a trial to settle, once and for all, who was elected governor of Washington last November: Christine Gregoire, the Democrat who was sworn in, or Dino Rossi, the Republican who has sworn not to concede. Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges and, inevitably, the state Supreme Court are unlikely to actually settle this. We’ll never know who really won in an election decided, so far anyway, by a margin of 129 votes out of 2.8 million.”

While it’s tempting to mock the GOP for having the balls to accuse anyone of electoral fraud, the issues that swirl around voting in America are clearly bigger than so-called partisan politics.

Last year, I wrote an open letter to the people of of Iraq, re: American-style democracy. Although I focused on presidential politics, this excerpt might help put the Washington debate into context:

Dear Future Democrats:

Many of you must wonder what lies ahead once the benevolent forces of freedom have succeeding in creating an American-style democracy in Iraq. Allow me, if you will, to offer you a glimpse into the future.

American democracy allows for free and fair presidential elections open to any candidate over the age of 35…who praises god and the free market (am I being redundant?), describes his enemies as “evil,” understands that the rest of the world hate us because we’re free, and can raise at least $200 million.

Third (sic) party candidates are routinely barred from public debates (and often censored by misguided “progressives,” for that matter), only half the eligible voters even bother showing up (trust me, more of you will vote for the winner of Iraqi Idol once you have our system), and the vast majority of congressional elections are essentially uncontested. Prisoners (and there will be lots of those) will not vote…the same goes for many former prisoners.

When all else fails, you can count on your Supreme Court to set things straight (and I do mean straight).