Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Also in the idea box
Some changes to that retabulation bill. The timing has been changed to put the results after the deadline for filing campaign violations. This is clearly something the major parties like, but that's because it keeps them from being held accountable.
For those of you who don't know, the major parties agree every election not to file campaign charges against each other. So they go out and gather evidence of campaign violations, but only charge them against third parties and Igor Tregub. They keep from filing charges against each other using a MAD-type theory. If either filed charges, the other party would file back, and everyone who broke the rules would get disqualified. This is unacceptable to the major parties, who don't want to have to follow the rules that other parties might have to.
Thus, having election results released before the deadline for filing campaign violations would probably cause the losing party to file those campaign violations, now that they have nothing to lose. This would provoke retaliatory filings from the leading party. In the end, people would be punished for violating campaign rules, which is a horrible, horrible result, if you're a major party.
It looks like Ali Ansary picked up on it, though he was perhaps a bit more tactful than calling it what it is: a desperate bid to avoid being held accountable.
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