On Things Being Just The Way They Are - Or Not

And Another Thing…

What is this business about ‘open primaries’??  Why do some states let people who are not members of a particular political party vote in that party’s primary?  They can vote for whoever they want in the final elections.  But a party has a right to put up candidates for office that its party members selected to run.  

Is that what was really behind the brouhaha over some Trump votes, and some Republican Party member saying that ‘the Party selects its own candidates’??  If so, that person had a legitimate point.  Why should a particular party have to put up with a candidate or candidates that its own party members didn’t choose, but whose votes in the primaries were possibly drowned out by organized efforts by ‘the opposition’ to select their candidate for them??? 

This is on a par with all the corruption going on in the voting system itself.  Names on the registration rolls which are not of citizens.  False names, false addresses.  People showing up to vote who are not who they say they are.  More names on the rolls than there are adults in the county/voting area.  Electronic voting machines that can be hacked - and are - in a number of ways.   

‘This is the way we do voting business in this country’??

No longer. 

That party’s over.  

The Games That People Play…

When I went to vote the first time back in my home country after living away for many years, I was appalled that they didn’t ask me to identify myself.  This state - California - has a cheap and easily obtained photo ID card, for which one has to produce a certified copy of their birth certificate to obtain; that’s all.1  But that’s enough to identify oneself for a whole range of transactions: open a bank account, cash a check (including a welfare check), get a library card, get a Senior’s Reduced Fare Transit card…That was in 2012.  I refused to take part in what I perceived as a charade, a farce, a fraud.2  

What a welcome back to my home country…I tried again, in the elections of 2014 - because I felt strongly about the need to help change the direction in which the country was going under the Marxist Usurper at the helm of our ship of state (the Founding Fathers & Generation could only be weeping and groaning at that point) - and this time asked more questions, including why, if you have to learn to speak and read English to become a citizen3 - with the precinct supervisor agreeing with me as to the point - all the voting material was in other languages as well (not just Spanish; with Southern California on the cusp of becoming the first region of a rebirth of Aztlan)??  She smiled ruefully, and had no response, other than a look of, ‘That’s just the way it is.’ 

I later found out that it was a federal law, not a state law.  Curious, that…

I tried again, in local elections of this year, determined to follow up further this time, and first of all, to be sure of my facts.  Sure enough: All they asked me for was my name - not even to produce some letter showing my name and address - and to sign alongside it on their rolls.  I asked to speak to the person in charge, to issue a formal complaint about the procedures of voting in this state/county.  She a) told me that they were trained not to ask for ID, and b) kindly provided me with the number of the local Elections Office.  Whose representative - a young lady - confidently assured me over the phone that they check the names on the voter registration rolls against various sources, including “the DMV…”  When I pointed out that that source was no longer a valid check, with this state now allowing non-citizens (and illegal aliens to boot) to obtain a driver’s license, she quickly sent me on up the chain, to the L.A. County Voter Registrar’s office.  Where I found out the lugubrious information that they don’t actually even do that.  With the young fellow’s supervisor even listening in on the conversation (for training purposes), I was informed from the horse’s mouth that no check is made as to the legality of the names on the registration rolls; that people sign their names “on penalty of perjury”.  And that’s it?  

That’s it.  

I tried once more:  Never a check made as to whether the people are actually bona fide citizens?

That’s it.

I asked to register a formal complaint as to the voting procedures in this county.  I was told a) that the law did not require asking for ID, and so they don’t, and b) if I wanted the law to be changed, I should go to my State Assemblyman and/or my State Senator.  The first of whom I dutifully did, via email; outlining the main points of my case, and complaint.  The response?

Crickets.  

That was over ten days ago, now.

I have a given up hope on The System.   

It needs to be cleaned up.

From top to bottom.   

Thoroughly.       

—

footnotes:

1 When I first came back - in 2012 - a driver’s license could also be used for the same, voting  purpose; but now, in the infinite wisdom of this state’s politicos, that is no longer the case, with this state now issuing driver’s licenses to non-citizens as well.  

   No wonder ‘they’ call it The People’s Republic of Kalifornia.

   To the point where, a couple of years ago, the governor - Jerry Brown; who used to be, at least, a Democrat; which used to be, at least, a respectable political party - was quoted as saying at an event in the L.A. area at which it was known there were illegal aliens in the audience, “You are welcome here”.

   Go figure.

2 I personally could have been anybody.  All they ask you to do is sign ‘your’ name alongside a name on their registration roll.  I asked the person in charge if they actually go through the rolls every election to check the signatures against the signatures that they have on file on the original registration form.  Crickets.

   And that’s to even assume that you were a bona fide voter - a citizen, and living in that area - when you submitted your registration form in the first place.  A point to which I will return shortly, in this diatribe against The System.  

   

3 One of the people at the check-in desk, overhearing my conversation with the supervisor at the precinct, quickly spoke up, saying, “No you don’t.”  I ignored him. 

   The fellow also spoke up a short time later, after the gist of my conversation with the supervisor was very clear, telling me that “We’re trying to get people to come in and vote, and you’re trying to keep people from voting.”  No doubt which side of the electoral divide that guy was on.