Oregon, the state that brought you full time vote by mail, is now moving the state toward vote by phone. In fact the Secretary of State (a partisan democrat who was John Kerry’s Oregon campaign chair) has expanded vote by phone to all 36 counties. He’s done this through administrative rule.
Ostensibly he’s done this to comply with the Help America Vote act (HAVA) which requires there be some way to help folks with disabilities vote. Sounds reasonable enough. However before this vote by phone change, sight impaired people were physically helped by county officials and volunteers.
Now what could possibly be the problem with this?
The SOS, Bill Bradbury, WILL introduce vote by phone to the wider populace. Currently, the SOS doesn’t even know who’s voting. Oh sure, eventually they catch up with the dead people who vote etc., but they don’t cull through to determine for instance whether you’re actually a citizen of this country before you vote. The SOS has stated several times in speeches to the AFL-CIO that he will do everything in his power to make it as easy as possible to vote. The problem in Oregon is any Tom, Dick or Jose can pack in a van, come to Oregon and get a driver’s license–AND THEY HAVE (in two recent cases in Oregon, prosecutors established that 80,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS came to Oregon to get driver’s licenses). Under the motor voter act they also get voter registration materials. The SOS does not check the voter database to determine if those registered to vote are citizens–even though we’ve begged him AND he has millions of dollars to do it from HAVA.
Bill Bradbury, whom John Fund has determined is the ‘most partisan Secretary of State in the country‘, also is under fire by a commission made up of some of Oregon’s big shots. They’ve determined that perhaps elections should not be in the SOS’s portfolio because the appearance of partisanship undermines the credibility of the electoral process. Yeah, you can look that up at noduh.com. Still, it’s gratifying that others—including democrats—see this Bradbury for what he is: a political hack.
We know what Bradbury will do. Even if he leaves office early so that the governor can name his replacement and they can run as an incumbent (the Oregon way…alas…), the democrat will continue Bradbury’s policies. Administrative rules, are written by staff, not the hack in the chair.
Shark @ www.soundpolitics.org has helped me sound the alarm here.