[Marxism] Realo chicanery

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Counterpunch Weekend Edition
July 10 / 12, 2004

How to Steal an Election
The Green Version, 2004
By MICHAEL DONNELLY

We all know what happened four years ago. Arguably 2000's vote-rigging
and Supreme Court usurpation of power had to be the most undemocratic
event in the history of presidential politics...until last month that is.

Bad as 2000 was, what would we be saying had a candidate been selected
if he had garnered but 10% of the vote in his populous home state? What
if he was selected using a system where one had to first pay one's way
to a distant polling place? And, what if once there, one had to pay a
"poll tax" just to be able to cast a vote?

Couldn't happen? Well, it just did. All this and more is the methodology
whereby David Keith Cobb was chosen the presidential nominee for the
Green Party last month--a guy who as part of his long career on the
non-profit dole once was a paid consultant for something called The
Center for Voting and Democracy!

Voting and Democracy

The Green Party came up with a National Convention Delegate system that
is modeled on the undemocratic Electoral College whereby smaller states
get representation in proportion far larger than that of one-person,
one-vote. And, only delegates with the wherewithal to make the
Convention actually get to cast their vote. Few states actually held a
Primary to determine delegate apportionment. Most held some form of
state mini-Convention which could be accommodated in a space the size of
an average living room. In fact, that's where many did take place.

In my own state of Oregon, one had to get to a state convention--not at
all an easy task for those outside the major metropolitan area of the
expansive state. And, once there a donation was expected of all who
wished to cast a vote. Even though Oregon has led the nation in the use
of mail-in voting (it's used in all elections here), the Pacific Green
Party has consistently rebuffed efforts and donations from members to
use the same easy system to determine its delegation.

One major state did hold a Primary, and Cobb won about 5,000 votes in
California, about 10% of the total cast in his home state. He garnered
FEWER votes than that in all of the other state caucuses, conventions
and primaries combined. Yet, somehow Cobb came to Milwaukee's National
Green Convention with nearly one-third of delegates already committed to
him. Peter Camejo, who won 33,000 votes in the California primary alone
(over three times Cobb's national total) ended up with less than half
the number of delegates that Cobb did. And, of course, only delegates
with the wherewithal to get to Milwaukee got to vote.

In the end, Cobb gained a small majority of the almost 800 delegates who
were able to attend and the ticket of Cobb/LaMarche was selected over
Nader/Camejo in a voting procedure that makes the Bush 2000 selection
look positively enlightened.

full: http://www.counterpunch.org/donnelly07102004.html


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