In the United States there's a long and well documented history of voter manipulation via suppression and voter registration purges. From GOP efforts to require proof of ID and U.S. citizenship, to cutting the number of days available for pre-election day voting, the goal is to hassle and harass enough of your opponents voters so that they get discouraged and don't vote.
While making it harder to assist voters with registration and eliminating election day registration are key tactics perhaps the best documented case of the deliberate manipulation of democracy in America was the Bush administration's firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias (and his U.S. Attorney colleagues) for refusing to go after Democratic officials.
I bring all of this up because voter manipulation and election fraud lie at the heart of this local story in Kern County.
It turns out that voters in "the tough, working class neighborhoods" of Bakersfield signed petitions that they were told "would support efforts to get rid of California's three strikes sentencing law." According to the Bakersfield Californian's James Burger, what they really signed "was a form supporting the political candidacy of 5th District Kern County Supervisor Karen Goh, who is seeking to return to the office she was appointed to by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010."
According to the article Supervisor Goh immediately tried to withdraw the signatures. If you go to the on-line commentary section the person in charge of collecting signatures, Desiree Lopez, says she didn't mean for this to happen. And this may be the case. But it did happen.
We need to keep in mind that once may be an anomaly. Twice may be a coincidence. What we have here is a pattern.
But the real story here isn't the crime. It's Karen Goh's tepid response. As the appointed supervisor of Kern County's 5th district Karen Goh is responsible for representing some of Kern County's poorest and least politically active citizens. Home to one of the regions largest Latino populations, it's Gohs duty to stand up for a population that's often turned off and made cynical by tough economic times and fair weather political friends.
If Karen Goh is serious about representing Kern County's 5th district she should call for an immediate investigation, and press for criminal charges where appropriate.
Because Kern County's 5th district offers us a microcosm of the demographic challenges that confronts California the spotlight is on Goh. If she can rise to the occasion, she will show what it means to stand up for some of California's most economically dispossessed and widely ignored electorate. Simply saying you're doing your own investigation - and trying to recall signatures because a canvasser says they're really sorry - isn't enough (isn't O.J. still doing his own investigation?).
Goh needs to think through what it means to be the representative of Kern County's 5th district. She needs to call for an investigation and let the chips fall where they may.
- Mark
While making it harder to assist voters with registration and eliminating election day registration are key tactics perhaps the best documented case of the deliberate manipulation of democracy in America was the Bush administration's firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias (and his U.S. Attorney colleagues) for refusing to go after Democratic officials.
I bring all of this up because voter manipulation and election fraud lie at the heart of this local story in Kern County.
It turns out that voters in "the tough, working class neighborhoods" of Bakersfield signed petitions that they were told "would support efforts to get rid of California's three strikes sentencing law." According to the Bakersfield Californian's James Burger, what they really signed "was a form supporting the political candidacy of 5th District Kern County Supervisor Karen Goh, who is seeking to return to the office she was appointed to by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010."
According to the article Supervisor Goh immediately tried to withdraw the signatures. If you go to the on-line commentary section the person in charge of collecting signatures, Desiree Lopez, says she didn't mean for this to happen. And this may be the case. But it did happen.
We need to keep in mind that once may be an anomaly. Twice may be a coincidence. What we have here is a pattern.
But the real story here isn't the crime. It's Karen Goh's tepid response. As the appointed supervisor of Kern County's 5th district Karen Goh is responsible for representing some of Kern County's poorest and least politically active citizens. Home to one of the regions largest Latino populations, it's Gohs duty to stand up for a population that's often turned off and made cynical by tough economic times and fair weather political friends.
If Karen Goh is serious about representing Kern County's 5th district she should call for an immediate investigation, and press for criminal charges where appropriate.
Because Kern County's 5th district offers us a microcosm of the demographic challenges that confronts California the spotlight is on Goh. If she can rise to the occasion, she will show what it means to stand up for some of California's most economically dispossessed and widely ignored electorate. Simply saying you're doing your own investigation - and trying to recall signatures because a canvasser says they're really sorry - isn't enough (isn't O.J. still doing his own investigation?).
Goh needs to think through what it means to be the representative of Kern County's 5th district. She needs to call for an investigation and let the chips fall where they may.
- Mark
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