Tag: voting

D.C. Voting – House vs Senate

Post author By David
Post date March 4, 2009
2 Comments on D.C. Voting – House vs Senate

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Apparently the Senate cloture vote is more newsworthy than the House rules vote on a bill. We have heard on many bills that the cloture vote is the bottleneck or the hurdle that can trip up a bill. In the House the rules vote is the procedural hurdle that must precede the actual vote and can be used to kill or hamper a bill. This is taking place right now with the D.C. Voting Rights Act. I am not particularly a fan of using technicalities, but considering my position on this bill I’m happy to see any delay.

I figure that each passing day makes the bill less enticing for Utah as we draw ever closer to getting our extra seat anyway. In fact, if this bill had still not passed by 2013 and Hatch were still in office I would love to see him reverse position on the bill once Utah were no longer next in line to get the "balancing" extra seat. (I would doubly expect this if the state next in line for a seat leaned Democratic.)

Having studied the issues surrounding this bill there is no doubt that the residents of D.C. have a complaint worth addressing – the only problem is that it must be addressed within the constraints of the law. The only issues that are truly clear cut here are the tax related arguments. The proper resolution for those arguments is not a simple bill but a constitutional amendment to the effect that "The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states and all territories subject to the same federal taxes as the several states."

I don’t claim that the threshold for an amendment is an easy one to climb, but I think that a majority of fair minded people could be brought to support such an amendment along with the requisite supermajorities of both houses of Congress. Problem solved, constitutional objections averted.

Tags Constitution, fourth seat, government, house, voting

National State

Orrin Depends on Sloppy Journalism

Post author By David
Post date January 7, 2009
14 Comments on Orrin Depends on Sloppy Journalism

The news media is supposed to help us make sense of the world around us, but to a large degree most news organizations have relegated themselves to being nothing more than data streams. A perfect example today comes with the news regarding the D.C. Voting rights bill that Orrin Hatch introduced (again) yesterday. In the Washington Watch section of today’s Utah Policy we get news of the event with no analysis and a mention of, but no link to, the press release. They manage to quote Hatch as he contradicts himself (I’ll get to that in a minute) but offer no analysis or context. The Washington Post covers the story in a biased fashion, but at least in their case we could expect that as Washington has everything to gain and nothing to lose by this bill. Simply put, the residents of D.C. have a legitimate complaint and they would rather compromise on the issue than take the time to make the change in the right way. The compromise is that they offer to help Utah to a temporary solution to Utah’s legitimate concern of being denied a seat in conjunction with a permanent solution to their predicament. Looking at the Deseret News coverage we find the story played as a tussle between Hatch and Jason Chaffetz but still little analysis of the merits of the bill.

Let’s see what analysis of the merits of the bill would tell us.

The residents of D.C. have a legitimate grievance about their lack of voting representation in the House. The proper solution would be an amendment that would grant voting representation in the House to the citizens of any territory that pays federal taxes, or returning the residential portions of D.C. to Maryland as suggested by Rep. Chaffetz – this bill does neither of those things. Likewise Utah has a legitimate complaint about being denied another seat after the 2000 census. The proper solution is our pursuit of a redress through the judicial system and a bill to examine and improve the methodology of counting for the census as well as growing our way outside the margin of error in the census system. We have the growth, we pursued the judicial relief, and this bill does not address the census methodologies in any way.

Let’s see what sloppy journalism ignores in Hatch’s statement.

While the 2010 census and reapportionment might provide Utah an additional seat, the failure of the 2000 process showed that this is not a sure thing. This bill maximizes the chances of securing an additional seat for Utah, which has had one of the country’s fastest growth rates since the last census.

I have no doubt that when Hatch spoke he emphasized the word "might" regarding Utah gaining another seat after the 2010 census. Somehow he can get away with saying that, and admitting that Utah has one of the fastest growing populations since the 2000 census, without anyone questioning in their stories how having one of the fastest growth rates in the country would allow us to still be below the margin for error in the next census.

For those who are wondering, the bill makes no mention of Utah. It provides two new seats in the House and assigns one to D.C. The supporters of the bill are trying to work fast before Utah gains their seat in the 2010 census because they aren’t willing to wait until Congress will give them what they deserve, which is representation in the house without resorting to a gimmick such as offering a balancing seat to poor, picked-on Utah. They also fear that after 2010 there will not be a Republican state with a legitimate grievance about their apportionment of representatives. I understand that legislation is dependent on the art of compromise, and rightly so in most cases, but gimmicks are not the same thing as compromise.

Orrin is not representing the interests of his constituents – he’s simply representing the interests of some of his friends in Washington. If that were not the case he would not have to lie to us and say that we might not get our deserved representation from the 2010 census.

Tags amendments, Deseret News, fourth seat, media, Orrin Hatch, Utah Policy, voting

life Local

Go Vote Now

I went to my polling place this morning and the lines were so long (at 7:00 am) that I decided to go to work first. My first thought was that maybe I didn’t need to remind anyone to vote today but then I thought better of it. Everyone go vote as early as you can (especially in the Bountiful 18th Precinct) so the lines won’t be so long at 6:00 pm when I will go try again. Due to sickness and the subsequent catching up I was unable to participate in early voting last week so now I will be trying to go after work. I will be waiting in line if necessary.

I talked to Scott, one of my coworkers who voted this morning, and he noticed that one of the things that made the lines go slower was having people standing at the voting booths reading about the issues (such as the Constitutional Amendments). Having done his research in advance, he was able to cast all his votes and leave while the people at the other booths before him were still making their choices. Based on that, perhaps the Lieutenant Governor might provide a one page summary of those types of issues that will be on the ballot so that people can read while they stand in line rather than holding up the line by reading at the booth.

While you are waiting to vote, go have a look at Jordy’s list of potential ways to choose who you vote for.

Tags 2008, amendments, ballot initiatives, civic participation, connections, elections, voting

State

Climbing the Mountain

A week ago Scott posted a 1500 word analysis of the mountain I have invited others to climb with me. As usual, he provided many useful insights that should help us to navigate this climb successfully. After having a week to begin to digest his analysis I am finally ready to begin to address some of the issues he raised. Before I do so I would like to make it clear that I never believed that this would be a simple undertaking and I hope that nobody else thinks so either.

Scott begins his analysis by addressing the question of what causes voter apathy. I saw 3 factors in his analysis that contribute to higher voter apathy in Utah: age – the propensity for people under 25 to generally not be active in politics combined with Utah having a higher percentage of younger voters among our population; a consistent supermajority – incentive goes down whether there is no hope of winning or virtually no chance of losing; and lack of adequate information. There is little we can do about age except to reach out to young people and encourage them to be informed and involved. (It was the questions of my teenage neice that finally pushed me into taking some action.) The consistent supermajority in this state makes it so that I am more inclined to vote for Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. I will only vote for candidates I can support based on their positions and qualifications, but if both parties offer such a candidate I will go with the Democrat every time. The lack of adequate information is what this group is most directly hoping to address which is why it cannot afford to be limited to a website and a blog-cloud. We need to do things that will catch the attention of all citizens whether they use the internet actively or not. The information that we provide must be information from candidates for voter consumption as well as information from voters for use by candidates and elected officials.

Scott also identifies the obstacles we face such as lack of time in our busy world and the challenges of organizing diverse people. Scott points out the potential for duplicating the efforts of other groups such as Project Vote Smart (PVS) and The League of Women Voters. These are very real issues to consider. My goal has been to minimize the demands that we make of those who participate and find ways to get maximum benefit from those things we do ask of them. A good example of such an approach is Downsize D.C. which has made it very easy for people to participate in politics by providing information on the subjects they are trying to address and allowing people to write to their senators and representatives with one link. (Click the link, add your personal comments and click "Send" to deliver messages to all your legislative leaders at once.) By working in tandem with existing groups such as those listed above we can have a greater impact in our initial efforts. One difference I see between what I hope to accomplish and what PVS is trying to do is that I want to focus on our one small state. I believe that the nationwide efforts of PVS help to perpetuate the top first mentality that is a root of many of our problems. I would encourage anyone who is so inclined to support and assist the efforts of PVS but their focus should not be confused with what I hope to develop.

Anything But Neutral should focus on gathering information from candidates here in Utah and sharing that information as widely as possible As much as possible, let the candidates speak for themselves and encourage them to speak about issues rather than getting too focused on parties, associations, and opponent bashing that pervade national politics. This is why I called for people to ask questions of the candidates locally and post their answers before election day. I know we’re pretty late this cycle, but hopefully we can do something now just to get some momentum before we enter the post-election burnout period. After election day I will quickly share my ideas of how we can make a difference in our political process between elections – hopefully without burdening our already busy lives too heavily.

I wholeheartedly agree with Scott’s conclusion:

I encourage others to get involved and help in this effort. But let’s not delude ourselves. We are fighting against significant disincentives to political involvement. Simply providing information and discussion isn’t going to overcome that.

Tags Anything but Neutral, candidates, connections, elections, Utah, voting

Local State

Ask the Candidates (and Share Their Answers)

Post author By David
Post date October 23, 2008
No Comments on Ask the Candidates (and Share Their Answers)

In an effort to not lose all inertia, I am publicly inviting anyone who has any interest in Anything But Neutral to choose a political race in Utah and ask the candidates of that race a few questions of their own choosing. When you get responses (or by Friday, October 31st even if not all the candidates have responded) post the responses you receive somewhere that people can read the responses – preferable somewhere that people are free to share their own thoughts after reading the answers. I have asked the following questions from the candidates in House District 20:

In your opinion, what is the most important job of a state legislator?
What is the most important challenge or issue for the state of Utah?
What is the most important challenge or issue for House District 20?
Based on the best information you have, what ideas do you have to tackle the important issue(s) you identified in questions 2 and 3?
What is the most important political task for voters to undertake?

Most of the people who have expressed interest have their own blogs where they could post such answers. Some examples of others who have done this include Utah Rattler (House 20) and Thad Van Ry (Senate 23). If you prefer not to post the answers on your own site I would be willing to post answers for other races.

Tags 2008, Anything but Neutral, civic participation, elections, House 20, voting

culture life meta State

Make “the Silent” a Minority

Post author By David
Post date October 1, 2008
14 Comments on Make “the Silent” a Minority

Recently my niece approached me to ask questions about politics. She’s a young teenager, years short of being able to vote, but she wants to become informed and involved so that she could positively participate by the time she can vote. The conversation served as a reminder to me of how important it is for our young people to be able to obtain information on political issues that is not tainted by the rancor that often pervades political discussions. In other words we need a clearinghouse for civil civic conversation. I decided that I wanted to form an organization that would work for that purpose.

When I read the plea at Ladies Logic regarding our atrocious levels of participation in Utah (and remembered my own pleas to encourage greater levels of participation here), I realized that the time to act was now and that the need was not only for our youth who are approaching or recently passing the age where they can vote but also for every citizen who can’t bring themselves to really participate in the dirty game of politics – many of whom simply stay out of the discussion and vote without becoming well informed on the issues. We need to reach “the silent majority.”

The group I will be forming will be open to, even encouraging of, participation by people of all political perspectives. The only requirement for participation is a commitment to avoid the playground politics of name calling and guilt by association. The aim of the group will be to draw people out of the silent majority until the silent become the minority by fostering civil dialog between people of differing perspectives. We will not aim to come to a consensus except the consensus that wider participation is better than narrower participation. I would like the group to seek to engage other group members in public discussion of issues so that people who have been silent will have a chance to be exposed to various positions on important issues without the likelyhood of being personally insulted by those who disagree with them. I also would like the group, individually and collectively, to engage in discussing issues with candidates for office and elected officials with an emphasis on local candidates and officials and a balance of local, state, and national issues.

In addition to my own energy, and knowledge I need the energy and experience of others who can help me to spread the word, engage effectively with public officials, organize group efforts, and generate ideas to further these aims.

I would ask anyone who believes in the importance of broad political participation, especially if you are in Utah, to please contact me publicly or privately to help me get this off the ground. Leave me comments or drop me an email if you have interest in participating, ideas about what can and should be done, or if you know of people who could help me in this.

Tags Anything but Neutral, civic participation, connections, discourse, elections, issues, voting

culture National

Why We Vote “No”

Two weeks ago I suggested that our tendency as voters is to vote against the subject of any given election. This morning my brain supplied me with a possible explanation as to why that might be. Scott Hinrichs has written on various occasions about the fact that we expect more from our president than could ever be met by one person. When my brain connected those two ideas I began to wonder if the reason we tend to vote against whoever is in our focus is because the more we focus on someone the easier it is to see that they could never do all that we expect of them as President.

Thoughts?

Tags connections, elections, government, voting

General

Incentives to Get Off Welfare

Post author By David
Post date August 13, 2008
38 Comments on Incentives to Get Off Welfare

Another spinoff from the discussion about Equality Under the Law clicked a switch in my brain. Nothing that Anti-PC Infidel says in his post should surprise anyone who has seen the discussion already, but for some reason the following statement made a connection to another issue that I have struggled to resolve for a long time:

This is often combined with the sin of destroying the recipients of {welfare} by encouraging them to be lazy and unproductive, irresponsible and greedy, by putting them on the dole.

I have long wished for some way to make it more difficult to vote for those who do not care to take the time to become informed. The thought struck me that we could make the right to vote contingent on paying at least as much in taxes as we receive in government handouts. This does not directly solve my original conundrum, but it would give incentive to those receiving welfare to find a way to become independent from government handouts if they desire to vote. Essentially, in addition to current requirements for voting, the payment of taxes equal to or in excess of any money received as welfare, food stamps, social security, unemployment benefits, rental assistance, etc. would give each person the right – like a shareholder – to vote in elections. This same rule should probably apply to board members of corporations that receive subsidies from the federal government as well.

I recognize that some will complain that such a plan would favor Republicans since poor people are statistically more likely to vote Democratic, but I would appreciate it if arguments for and against were framed in a way that was independent of party politics.

Tags civic participation, connections, responsibility, taxes, voting

culture

American Citizenship

I really liked this Deseret News profile of a naturalized citizen.

Airman 1st Class Elena Dulger’s face lights up the room when she talks about her first chance to participate in a democratic election.

Dulger, 21, is taking her oath of citizenship today, seven years and one day after meeting her father at JFK International Airport in New York. After becoming an official U.S. citizen, Dulger will get her passport, and she plans on registering to vote.

“A lot of people don’t realize how important (voting) is,” she said. “It is a privilege.”

This is how every American citizen should feel about voting. (I’m not delusional enough to actually believe that we will ever have a time when every citizen actually does feel that way.) I seriously wish we could find a way to limit the right to vote to those people who do recognize the importance of that privilege.

Tags citizenship, civic participation, Deseret News, voting

National

The Best Day to Vote

As a perpetual proponent of incresing voter turnout, I enjoyed considering the story on NPR about Rethinking The Tuesday Vote. I’m not sure when voters would be noticable less busy than Tuesday – especially considering that we would not want the vote to be on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday as each of those days is sacred to one major religion or another. If we ever find an easy way to increase voter turnout that would not cost lots of money we should do it. (I thinkthat changing the day of the week would be easy to implement so long as there is advanced warning.)

Tags civic participation, elections, NPR, voting