Al Diamon on Maine Senate and House control v. popular vote

The Portland Phoenix
January 2-9, 2003Complete controlby Al DiamonPolitical principles, like nocturnal jungle animals, tend to be creatures of a skittish nature, shifting positions rapidly whenever it seems advantageous.The Maine Republican Party (motto: "Trent Lott? Is that some kind of land-development deal?") provided a fine example of how this defense mechanism can be employed during the recent recount in the race for the state Senate seat representing Lincoln County. In that contest, Democrat Chris Hall beat GOP candidate Les Fossel by two votes in the November election. A recount confirmed Hall's win, but left 163 votes (later reduced to 44) in dispute. Republicans accused Democrats of "stealing" the election by refusing to add all those ballots to the final tally."[T]here are certainly [163] votes here that deserve to be counted," GOP Senate President Rick Bennett told the Bangor Daily News on November 21.The next day, Mary Small and Paul Davis, the leaders of the Republican Senate caucus, sent a letter to Democratic Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky urging him to refuse to certify a winner in the race "until all votes are counted."On November 24, the Associated Press reported, "GOP Chairwoman Kathy Watson said votes were not being counted because of "˜ridiculous' Democratic challenges."That same day, Republican senators went before a judge in an effort to prevent Hall's provisional seating. "We are asking the court to recognize it's not proper to take votes out of the count by disputing them," GOP attorney Mark LeDuc told the AP.On December 4, Republican protesters rallied outside the State House carry signs that read, "Every Vote Counts."A couple of weeks later, negotiators from both parties examined the ballots. While there was unanimous agreement on accepting most of them, the votes that sealed Hall's victory - and gave the Democrats control of the Senate - were approved along partisan lines. Republicans, on the losing end of those votes, rushed out a press release."The remaining eight votes eventually went to Hall in split committee votes," the release said, "despite precedent that dictates these particular ballots not be counted (emphasis added) . . . Senator Davis voiced his objection to counting certain ballots (emphasis added again)."The GOP then skittered into the underbrush, leaving a trail of what could have been slime, but was probably just discarded principles.The right profileSpeaking of principles, remember all those outraged Democrats complaining after the 2000 presidential election that Republicans had stolen the White House because Al Gore edged out George W. Bush in the popular vote. No doubt, those same Dems are busy right this minute writing letters demanding the Maine Senate be turned over to the GOP.Even though the donkey party took 18 of the 35 Senate seats in the November election to just 17 for the elephant gang, the popular vote gave Republicans a clear majority. GOP Senate candidates tallied 246,831 votes to the Democrat's 231,478. Another 7624 people voted for Greens or independents.If the number of Senate seats had reflected the popular vote, Republicans would have been awarded 18 and a majority, while Democrats would have been left with the remaining 17.Just for the record, the Dems also failed to muster majority support in state House races. Democratic candidates received 240,172 votes (and won 80 seats), while GOP hopefuls got 225,826 (good for 67 seats), and Greens and independents tallied 15,472 (four seats).If Maine had proportional representation (like they do in Iran and other successful democracies), the Democrats would have ended up with 75 House seats, the Republicans with 71 and the oddballs with five, giving those minor parties the balance of power.Wrong "˜em, boyoA Republican political operative, who wishes to remain nameless, emailed a dissenting opinion on a recent column supporting a bill to lower the voting age in Maine."I think it is ill-advised to consider expanding the electorate to include 17-year-olds," the operative wrote. "I'm not basing my opposition on the fact that most 17-year-olds are punks (they are you know), but rather on the fact that a slight majority of these kids are going to vote for Democrats. We simply have too much of that already."Fact is, I think we ought to make it harder to vote. I think every voter ought to get two ballots on election day "” an accurate ballot and one with the wrong state House and Senate candidates. If the voter submits the wrong ballot, his or her vote doesn't count."I also think we should strip journalists of the right to vote. After all, how are members of the fourth estate supposed to stay objective in their election coverage if in the back of their minds they're making personal choices on how to vote?"Objective? To whom could our correspondent be referring?When principles clash with politics, email this column at .http://www.portlandphoenix.com/archive/features/03/01/03/Diamon.html[ 01-03-2003: Message edited by: K-Dog ]