Re: [A-List] US elections 2004

["Ralph Johansen" <michele@xxxxxxxx>]

I don't understand why, if this technology is of such benefit to one party,
the other party isn't acting against it; collusive or not, they must have an
interest in their share of the spoils through the electoral process, I would
assume. And why would not a third party, a Black organization of voters, or
maybe just someone with standing to sue take this into the appropriate
court? Are there problems of proof, of standing, of the reliability of the
judiciary, of funding? Plainly, Black clout through collective action is the
real answer, but just wondering.
Ralph


----- Original Message -----
From: <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>
To: <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 7:18 AM
Subject: Re: [A-List] US elections 2004


> We are already facing the attempted imposition of new touch-screen voting
machines across the south that generate NO PAPER TRAIL, the manufacturers
and programmers of which have suspicious ties to the Republican Party.  It
is becoming a huge issue in local elections here in North Carolina.
>
> This will certainly provoke some dilemmas for various species of
"progressive", including genuine leftists.  A good friend of mine last
election, an African-American woman who feared Republican scortched earth
policies that impacted on women and people of color, knowing full-well that
Democrats were complicit, said - speaking of Nader-voters - a vote for Ralph
Nader is an exercise of white privilege.
>
> When these machines and other chicaneries by Republicans are directed at
Black voters, there are real questions of solidarity that come up, for which
easy abstractions developed out of sight of ravaged neighborhoods and
collapsing Black Belt communities will prove inadequate.
>
> This points again, I think, to the critical task of developing Black
political power, beginning at the municipal and county levels, and not
necessarily along the ideological lines that white progressives might
prefer.  A Black comprador is often easier for communities to hold
accountable than a white vestigal planter.
>
>