Your vote counts in Durham -- so go vote!
John McCann column. Herald-Sun, Nov 5, 2006
Pardon my laziness for not following through on commissioning a poll called "Nifong and the Negroes" to find out whether potential black voters viewed the current district attorney favorably because of his advocacy for the accuser in the Duke lacrosse rape case.
Best I can do now is tell you the majority of them must figure their 2 cents doesn't matter anyway.
There are 81,372 white people in Durham who are registered to vote Tuesday. Compare that to only 54,041 black people.
Which aren't numbers we can use to definitively conclude anything.
But maybe it says something about the notion that many black folks don't vote because they believe the system is rigged.
And what a shame here when desperate Democrats are itching to win back the once loyal African-American voter base -- here when some pundits believe black people could decide whether control of Congress stays with the GOP or swings the other way.
But because of what's happened in past elections -- shenanigans in Florida, hanging chads, voter suppression by misinformation -- there is no shortage of black people who may exercise their right not to color some ovals on Tuesday.
I voted early -- did it Friday -- and while at the Board of Elections saw some guys in Duke lacrosse gear. Any wonder who they didn't pick for district attorney?
Here's another question: Will my vote count?
Durham NAACP president Charles D. Smith said his organization doesn't have anything set up to monitor the polls for any funny business.
"We're hoping everything will go smooth," Smith said. "Durham has been going fairly well."
But in the event that you even bother going to the polls, if you don't like what you see, call (866) OUR-VOTE. That'll get you to the NAACP's national headquarters in Baltimore, where a command center has been set up. The civil rights organization has lawyers keenly interested in 10 states with histories of voting problems: Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Maryland. As you can see, North Carolina is not on the list, but you can still call.
Explaining the need for such a hotline, NAACP spokesman John White cited polling places not opening on time in Maryland's primary election. There's also concern about some of the new voting machines not leaving a paper trail, creating more doubt among leery voters.
"I think that's something that's overcome through history. It's not something that's overcome overnight," White said.
If my name was Mike Ashe, I'd have a problem with all of this voter skepticism. In case you don't know, Ashe runs the Board of Elections here in Durham and is about the most open government official you'd ever want to meet, one of the most honest. I mean, if he told me I was switched at birth and my mama's not who she says she is, I'd have to consider it.
Yet Ashe said he wouldn't be offended if someone questioned the integrity of Durham's electoral machine.
"No, I wouldn't be," Ashe said. "And I wish more people would question me."
I did. I actually had Ashe prove that my vote wouldn't just be floating around somewhere.
I'll break it all down for you Wednesday after the election.
And I'll let you know if your vote counted. But first things first:
You've got to at least vote.
John McCann's column runs Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/columnists/mccann/
* And E. T. is barely cold yet. Shame on this pathetic excuse for a journalist.
Why the Duke Hoax Continues
Part II: Durham and the Politics of Entitlement [excerpt]
"Nifong is able to drive this case forward because the black voters (and some white liberals) – led by a number of black ministers and other educated black elites* – believe that they are entitled to seeing Finnerty, Seligmann, and Evans convicted of kidnapping and rape and thrown into prison and treated without mercy. Furthermore, I am firmly convinced that most of the people in this category do not care if an actual rape occurred or not; they want a conviction because they believe that the "system" owes a guilty verdict to the community, and they want Nifong and the judges involved in this case to grease the skids to where a conviction will be possible to obtain in what appears to be a court of law. Yes, Nifong has been "pandering," but he has been "pandering" to people who are demanding such conduct. Such is the ugliness of a political prosecution."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson149.html
* A small but controlling minority who specialize in shakedowns.