{"id":3261,"date":"2006-08-17T23:29:04","date_gmt":"2006-08-18T06:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bradblog.com\/?p=3261"},"modified":"2006-08-18T00:39:09","modified_gmt":"2006-08-18T07:39:09","slug":"usa-today-reports-on-the-battles-to-decide-who-counts-the-votes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=3261","title":{"rendered":"USA TODAY Reports On The Battles To Decide Who Counts The Votes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Guest blogged by <a href=\"http:\/\/WinterPatriot.blogspot.com\">Winter Patriot<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Jill Lawrence<\/strong>, writing in <em>USA TODAY<\/em>, looks at some hotly-contested races for positions that were once largely ignored: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/washington\/2006-08-16-secretary-state-democrats_x.htm\">Top vote counter becomes prize job<\/a>&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"media\">The political battle for control of the federal government has opened up a new front: the obscure but vital state offices that determine who votes and how those votes are counted.<\/p>\n<p>The state post of Secretary of State was a backwater until 2000, when Florida&#8217;s Katherine Harris became a central figure in the presidential recount controversy. Now national Democratic groups and White House prospects, unhappy about Harris&#8217; decisions and those of Republican Kenneth Blackwell in Ohio two years ago, are pouring resources into contests for the job.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nSecretaries of State control most voting regulations and influence state purchases of voting machines. Looking ahead to 2008, Democrats say they want people they trust in those offices.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nThe report mentions a few facts that are painfully familiar to regular <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/\">BRAD BLOG<\/a> readers, but which might not be so well-known elsewhere:<\/p>\n<div class=\"media\">While serving as Secretaries of State, Harris and Blackwell were also top officials in George W. Bush&#8217;s campaigns. Democrats alleged that their rulings on matters from recounts to the weight of registration forms thwarted voters and helped put Bush in the White House.<\/p>\n<p>Harris and Blackwell say they were following state laws and regulations and did not suppress votes.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Right. Of course they do. <\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;ll say anything. But will you believe them?<\/p>\n<p>The report contains several other very interesting details, but I won&#8217;t spill all the beans here. Please <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/washington\/2006-08-16-secretary-state-democrats_x.htm\">read the whole thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest blogged by Winter Patriot Jill Lawrence, writing in USA TODAY, looks at some hotly-contested races for positions that were once largely ignored: Top vote counter becomes prize job&#8230; The political battle for control of the federal government has opened up a new front: the obscure but vital state offices that determine who votes and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-2006"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3261"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=3261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}