Bob Mecklenborg on Need to Know

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Bob Mecklenborg recently made an appearance on the PBS program "Need to Know".  This was very interesting to me for several reasons.

Mr. Mecklenborg is my state representative.  I don't know what his true motivations are on this or any other issue.  I agree with him on most issues, but I think that he is mostly just another slick politician.  He is definitely someone who is biased toward the Republican party.  I have heard him say that the redistricting should be done in the way that most favors Republicans.  He has criticized the Tea Party for demanding the cutting of state spending, saying that there is nothing left to cut, but he himself voted for the wasteful Ohio Third Frontier Project.  Among other things, OTFP contained $2 million in appropriations to design hospital gowns and food trays.

But I don't trust PBS any further than I could throw them either.  As I was viewing this video on the PBS website, I noticed on the same webpage an advertisement which said, "Support provided by Goldman Sachs".  That should be proof enough for anyone to say the probability that what they are saying is a lie is at least equal to the probability that it is the truth.

As for the issues discussed in the program, I think I agree with PBS on the first bill that they discussed.  There are a lot of people who would be disfranchised if they were required to show photo ID.  Having such an ID shouldn't be requirement if you have some other proof (such as a birth certificate).  We didn't used to have to have any proof.  Its funny, though,  that PBS can't see that illegal immigrants vote illegally.

But on the second issue, I definitely agree with Mecklenborg.  In fact, his bill doesn't go nearly far enough.  There should be no early voting at all except for absentee (mail-in) voting.   And the only ones who should be allowed to vote absentee are military voters and others who have a really good reason (like being home-bound).  That is the way it used to be.  And of course, PBS is so blind that they refuse to acknowledge the incident in which the Democrats gave high school voters ice cream cones to entice them to "get on the bus" going downtown to the polling place.  No vote fraud?  Yeah, right.  This was an early voting day incident which would have been more difficult to pull off if all voting had to be done on election day.  They were registering voters and they were voting on the same day!  Not cool.

But I think the majority of the fraud is not due to any of the issues addressed in this program.  Neither PBS nor Mr. Mecklenborg want you to know about Diebold.  If you really want to preserve the integrity of the electoral process, demand that your state get rid of all electronic voting machines.  The only truly transparent system is one where the ballots are paper, marked by hand, placed in a clear plastic receptacle, and publicly counted by hand.  Mr. Mecklenborg mentioned that one his purposes was for public perception to be that the process is fair.  About that he is right and there is no more important battle in this effort than to get rid "black box" vote counting!