HAWAII DEMS SAY RULES TRUMP RIGHTS FOR VOTERS

.
"NO WORK-AROUND" ON MISSED REGISTRATION DEADLINE

CONFUSING PROCESS MAY HAVE DISENFRANCHISED THOUSANDS

Caucuses Plus Primaries Does Not Equal A Guaranteed Right To Vote In The General Election?

In other States, local Party organizations will whisk you into Court with one of their own lawyers, to make sure that you can vote, even at the last minute. In Hawaii, they just regurgitate the State's line that "you should have known" how the complex processes involved in actually getting to vote work, exactly, and thereunto summarily prestidigitated as per Section Blah of the Code, Paragraph Blah, official public notices pursuant to which were duly published in the smallest possible type in the most obscure part of certain publications that nobody under eighty ever reads any more, forthwith, Blah. Get it? Blah!

The Dems and the State refused to acknowledge that most people don't know or care about all this official political BS: They just want to go down and vote on November Fourth. And it is their BS, the Dems and the State they control: Despite their pretense that it is The Law, and Nothing Can Be Done, as if it had been handed down by Gawd A'mighty on stone tablets thousands of years ago, the local Democrats wrote these disenfranchising laws themselves in the very recent past. And they should have legislated a work-around for people who didn't get the word.

The State and the local Dems also refuse to acknowledge the obvious fact that most people under fifty rarely if ever read newspapers, where these official notices and mind-numbingly boring procedural stories get published. Nor do many more folks watch the local broadcast TV news, especially younger people, the new wave in voting this year.

Everybody knows, or SHOULD know, that it's the Internets, and cable TV shows like "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" whence most people are getting their news these days. The advantage is, they can avoid the endless corporate propaganda of the "official" media. The disadvantage is, there is little or no local news on cable or the Web, at least in podunk towns like Hawaii. In short, neither the State nor the Dems has a blog, nor do they ever text us. So, LOL, nobody knows WTF the rules are, IMHO. And their stodgy, ginormous, uninformative, convoluted websites are no help at all. Even they can't find stuff on them. So we damn sure can't, HELLO???

The State and the Dems who run it will find out when their peeps show up on 4 NOV 08, and find they can't vote because they forgot to say "May I?" They didn't have to say "May I?" for the privilege of paying taxes, fees, fines, or assessments. They didn't have to say "May I?" for the honor of serving in the military or on voluntary public service projects. They didn't have to say "May I?" to obey the signs posted EVERYWHERE telling you how fast or how slow you can drive, where and when to stop and turn and park and don't park, what to do at the airports, seaports and government buildings. So, maybe you can understand their forgetting to say "May I?" when it came time to vote on all that sh*t. Well, maybe you can understand, but the local government, i.e the Democrats, cannot. Nor do they care. They said so.

Personally, I think this is the pol's way of dealing with the popular tsunami that overwhelmed them in the caucuses back in February. Turnout increased by 700% over the largest previous voter turnout. Of course, these enthusiastic new and rare voters didn't have to register a month or more in advance. As with everything else in our convenience-oriented society, they simply went down there and voted. No worries. It got done. Many of those people may not have subsequently vote in the Primaries, which seemed redundant, probably assuming that it was OK to just show up in November for the general election. Not! Not to mention all those who blew off the pre-lims, figuring they'd just pop in for the big show.

I don't know what ever happened to "motor voter" -The freakin' jury-duty Nazi's all seen to have everybody's name. But somehow, the rest of the G, which knows everything else about us, isn't quite sure if we're all eligible to vote, year by year. So they silently expect us to do some ritual dance to register or re-register or re-re-register, but they don't make a big thing about it until you actually try to vote, unlike what they do when it comes time to pay your taxes, or when the cops decide to set up a vast network of roadblocks and arrest people who forgot about traffic tickets, under the "click-it-or-ticket" excuse. See, when they really want you to know something, they make damn sure you know it. Not so much on voting. How come?

Lack of voter participation favors incumbents, that's why. As far as the guy sitting in the office right now is concerned, they might as well not have elections at all, any more, now that he's won one. So why rock da boat, brah? Especially here in Hawaii. "One nail dat steek up gon' get hammahd down, eh." As far as I'm concerned, this arbitrary, confusing, anti-democratic system of registration is a deliberate attempt to keep people from voting, in order to assure the survival of the status quo.

But wait until this election day. If the caucuses were any indication, there will be thousands and thousands of new and seldom-seen voters showing up at the polls. And if the attitude of the State and the Dems is any indication, there will be many thousands turned away for forgetting to say "May I?" That just sucks.

Hey, Barry, I know this is not a good time for you, with your Tutu sick and all, and good health to her; but, while you're here . . . How 'bout kick your Party in the ass so we can all vote for our homey? Hm?

KPUA HILO
"State senator blames defeat on DUI, low turnout"

' Menor said he was surprised that he lost the race because his polling indicated he had a large lead. But he blames the lowest primary turnout in Hawaii primary election history — less than 35 percent of registered voters — for his downfall. "Many of those people who would have voted for me clearly did not show up to the polls," Menor said. '

HONOLULU STAR BULLETIN
"Voter registration deadline is tomorrow"

' Hawaii had a record low turnout of about 37 percent in its Sept. 20 primary election, but the Nov. 4 general election should generate more interest with Honolulu-born Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain on the ballot for president. During Hawaii's Democratic caucuses in February, Obama supporters formed long lines and overwhelmed caucus sites, ballooning the number of registered Democrats in the state from 22,000 to 51,000. "This year more than ever, it's valuable that those who feel strongly about change turn out on Election Day," said Hawaii Democratic Party Chairman Brian Schatz. "Turnout was abysmal in the primary. We are hopeful that we're going to see that trend turn around as a result of the enthusiasm for Senator Obama." Any Hawaii resident who is a U.S. citizen over 18 years old may register to vote. Currently registered voters who have changed their name or address since the last election should reregister. There are about 682,000 registered voters in Hawaii, which reflects a steady increase in each election since 2004. Turnout was about 53 percent in 2006 and 67 percent in 2004, when Republican President Bush won a second term against Democrat John Kerry. '

.
.

TO POST A COMMENT: CLICK ON "COMMENTS," "Post a Comment" or "# of COMMENTS" just below the SOCIAL BOOKMARKING LINKS (Digg, Delicious, etc), about three inches down from here. Please do comment. Thank you.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:

Suggestion Box & Tip Jar We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else. Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!