What We Have Here is an Unwillingness to Communicate
Wanted: Interpreter for Ongoing Elections Dispute
The successful candidate will be fluent in “Yankee” and “Good Ole Boy” and be able to efficiently communicate the concerns of each. Candidate need not have any knowledge of election law or issues surrounding the current question as such information may lead the “Good Ole Boy” contingent to believe that said interpreter is impartial. Further, the successful candidate must leave all rational thought processes at the door to ensure the fragile sensibilities of “Good Ole Boy” are not disturbed. Finally, the successful candidate will also properly genuflect when called upon by said “Good Ole Boy” contingent, even when said request is unwarranted or seriously out of line. Any questioning of “Good Ole Boy” contingent will result in immediate disqualification.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you probably didn’t watch WREG last night. As far as I can tell, none of the other media outlets in the city are covering this issue. Here’s the report from WREG’s Mike Matthews.
LWC has a first person account (part 2) from Regina Morrison Newman.
As Trace noted yesterday, Shelby County isn’t the only place that’s having trouble. This thing is all over the state, and more problems are coming to light.
Over in East Tennessee, a “computer glitch” counted the votes of five precincts twice. That’s reassuring.
The biggest question I have, in light of the hedging and delay that the Shelby County Election Commission engaged in yesterday, is why all the hedging and delay? These are not the actions of someone who agreed just days earlier to be “open and transparent”.
Further, the assertion by election administrators that a text file is somehow “proprietary” is complete and total bull. The text files in question aren’t that much different from the “voter participating list” that the Election Commission posted on its website daily during the election.
So now, this process is tainted, not by any particular “mistake” but by a pattern of unwillingness to maintain the agreed upon “openness and transparency”. In behaving this way, the SCEC is being overly defensive, and creating the perception that they’re hiding something. They’re doing a disservice to themselves, and to the process they’re tasked with administering, by lowering confidence in that very process.
I think Mike Matthews wanted to call the whole scene a “cluster****”, but I’ll call it “self-defeating nonsense” on the part of election administrators who are more interested in protecting an unknown “something” than allowing the public to know the truth.
On to the coffee…
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Over in Nashville, Jeff Yarbro is asking for a recount.
Memphis Mayor A C Wharton brings down the hammer on the General Services Division, and enacts some whistleblower protections.
Our very own Steve Steffens will be on Informed Sources this weekend.
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Off to the races!
It was my understanding that the Election Commission called for an interpreter because Bev Harris’ “Yankee tone.” But judging by her soundbite in the Mike Matthews story, she speaks perfectly comprehensible English, without a trace of a Yankee accent, as far as I’m concerned.
” As far as I can tell, none of the other media outlets in the city are covering this issue.”
Hmmm. Am I/are we at the MF a “media outlet?”
http://admin.memphisflyer.com/JacksonBaker/archives/2010/08/14/the-lost-election-mystery-for-dummies
Granted, this account may not be quite as ex parte as the worthy accounts you’re referencing, but it’s a stab in the same direction.
And previously:
http://admin.memphisflyer.com/JacksonBaker/archives/2010/08/12/cohens-call-for-doj-probe-of-voting-snafu-climaxes-first-protest-meeting
Actually, I worte this Friday am, before i saw your article Saturday At that point I’d only seen the WREG piece.
You’ll get your props tomorrow am in Morning Coffee.