Friday, August 23, 2013

Fingers pointed while state counts Detroit's disputed votes

I concluded Student sustainability video festival 12: Bed Bugs on 'The Simpsons' with "Crazy Eddie's Motie News now resumes its regular programming, whatever that is."  Since the last entry that wasn't part of the video festival was Detroit's version of hanging chads, I'm returning to the topic of Detroit's disputed 18,000 write-in votes for Mike Duggan.  WXYZ has a comprehensive update in The latest on Detroit's Mayoral election mess.

7 Action News looks at the latest in the mess surrounding the Detroit Mayoral Election.
The good news is that those votes will not be summarily thrown out; the state will tabulate the disputed ballots.  The bad news is that the video reinforces my opinion that the poll workers were poorly trained.  The ugly news seems to be this election in general and this controversy in particular has exposed a rift between the Wayne County Clerk and the Detroit City Clerk.  The County Clerk openly favors Benny Napoleon and her ruling on the disputed ballots favors him, while the City Clerk's tabulation favored Mike Duggan.  In fact, she has ruled in Duggan's favor in all of the previous disputes over his being on the ballot.  This has led Tom Barrow to accuse her of favoritism.
“An incredible amount of money has been expended by all sides during this legal battle, all of which was unnecessary and should have been avoided had the Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey upheld her oath of office and not favored one office-seeker over others who were not allowed onto the ballot based on the same Charter violation,” Barrow said in a statement calling for her resignation.
I think the quote attributed to Stalin is appropriate here.
"I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how."
Pass the popcorn.

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