"Ohhhh, those mawicious wascawwy wepubwicans."
Posted on 09/08/2006 10:05:06 PM PDT by TWohlford
Outgoing Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney hinted Thursday that she or her supporters might try again to challenge the legality of state voting laws that allowed Republicans to vote in the Democratic primary where she lost her House seat last month.
McKinney, the first black woman elected to Congress from Georgia, said "malicious crossover" voting by Republicans disenfranchised black voters in her district from picking their candidate of choice, despite the fact that the winner of the primary is also black.
She said the state's primary system violates the Voting Rights Act, which was first passed in 1965 to protect minority voters.
"In the state of Georgia, we have some unfinished business with respect to the Voting Rights Act," McKinney said after a panel session on U.S. intelligence programs she hosted at the annual conference of the Congressional Black Caucus. "We have got to do subsequent lawsuits to deal with these statutes."
McKinney's supporters made similar arguments in a 2002 lawsuit after McKinney lost her seat to Denise Majette. A U.S. District Court judge dismissed the suit, and the decision was upheld by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
McKinney, who won the seat back in 2004 after Majette gave it up to run for Senate, would not say Thursday whether she is planning another lawsuit. She said the question might be better posed to her constituents and that she is not ready to announce a next step.
Unlike some other states, Georgia allows voters to pick which primary they want to vote in, regardless of their party status.
"What happened to me ... is that an incredible number of Republicans decided they would pick up Democratic ballots," she said. "I guess you could say I'm the poster child for Republican crossover."
McKinney, a firebrand known for her confrontational style and a scuffle with a Capitol Hill police officer earlier this year, was forced into a runoff in the July Democratic primary by challenger Hank Johnson, an attorney and former DeKalb County commissioner. Johnson, who also is black, went on to defeat McKinney 59 percent to 41 percent in the Democratic runoff.
Voting results show that Johnson fared well in heavily Democratic areas of the district that had been McKinney's base of support, such as south DeKalb County, where Johnson won 57 percent of the vote in the primary runoff.
McKinney, who declined to discuss her political future, also charged that the state's system for runoff elections, in which winners must take more than half the vote to avoid a runoff, violates the law.
Shortly after the election, McKinney blamed her loss on the media and on electronic voting machines, which she says are a threat to the nation's democracy.
She hosted a forum on alleged civil rights abuses by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, comparing them to well-documented efforts to silence black activists in the 1960s. Panelists blasted the Bush administration for creating what they said was a police state in which fundamental constitutional rights are consistently violated.
"We know where the wickedness is in Washington, D.C. It's at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," McKinney said.
" I don't see how letting party bosses who weren't elected or even appointed by elected officials tell the voters which candidates they may choose from would benefit democracy."
It is changing that system that will end democracy.
Party bosses are called party bosses because they run a political party whether it is Libertarians, or Greens or the Constitution party or the Republicans, or the Black Lesbian party.
Let the people form parties then choose a candidate within that party to represent it in the general election, then the public at large makes their chose from those candidates.
To now give the government power over how the people choose their party's candidates can do more harm than good.
I think the vote results show that the Republicans were more likely to favor McKinney. She was very useful in Washington.
I doubt it. She was "useful" to Republicans on the national level, but less so to the folks of any party who happened to live in the 4th district -- and they were the only ones eligible to vote in the race.
"I am against allowing crossover voting though."
Is that any relation to cross dresser voting. Is this some South Beach idea?
Or is this a Democratic standby, an old (no pun intended) reliable - the graveyard vote, where those who have "crossed over" vote Democratic?
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
"the graveyard vote, where those who have "crossed over" vote Democratic?"
I like that.
First of all, the USA is NOT a "democracy"; it is a REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC.
Secondly, many states ( the majority, IIRC ), do NOT allow crossover voting in primary elections.
Thirdly, what's with that junk about "PARTY BOSSES"? The FF's ORIGINAL intent was for the PARTY BOSSES to select ALL of the Senators and that procedure wasn't changed for about 100 years.
You haven't an iota of an idea WHAT a "party boss" is.
Nor, obviously, do you understand how our election system works. So, here's a wee clue........there are two major political parties in this nation. There are something close to 100 fringe parties. Because we don't have a parliamentary system, no matter WHAT it is you appear to "think", the winner of any major, national political race will ALWAYS be from one of the two major parties.
Primaries ARE the time when people actually get to vote in WHO the candidate for their party, as long as it's one of the two major ones, is going to be. But in some races, there may NOT be a primary, because nobody is willing to run against an incumbent or a big name.
Fringe party candidates have ALWAYS ( with one and ONLY one national exception and that because most of the defeated party had run off and formed a new one ) been what is know as "spoilers".
I do suggest that you do some reading up on American history and voting.......you need to; badly.
1. First of all, the USA is NOT a "democracy"; it is a REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC.
ans. we knew that
2. Secondly, many states ( the majority, IIRC ), do NOT allow crossover voting in primary elections.
ans. we knew that
3. Thirdly, what's with that junk about "PARTY BOSSES"? The FF's ORIGINAL intent was for the PARTY BOSSES to select ALL of the Senators and that procedure wasn't changed for about 100 years.
ans. that has nothing to do with our conversation about todays "party bosses"
and then the nonsense continues.
My question is why do these ramblings out of the blue always sound so angry and mean?
Why not just join in the conversation with a couple of fellow freepers?
I responded to your post. I suggest that you go read it, because you have now contradicted yourself completely, in this reply to me.
Would smiley faces help? Are you THAT thin skinned, that any refutation or engagement is seen, by you, as "angry" and "mean"?
Your posts are full of nonsense. My reply to you was historically correct and factual. :-)
"I am against allowing crossover voting though."
I am too, what's the point of a primary then? And why is that up to the state, and not the parties? If you want to do that do what Louisianna does and just have open "jungle" elections.
Guess we'll have to file this under: stopped clock right twice every day.
"Guess we'll have to file this under: stopped clock right twice every day."
In her case I'm sure that is being overly generous, but it is close enough.
"Ohhhh, those mawicious wascawwy wepubwicans."
Just a typical leftist without any sense of restraint. This is what you'll get if the dem party gets back into power.
That's what happens, when you cut history classes to demonstrate at the collective.
Everyone being allowed to vote in the Democrat primary stems from Reconstruction and the one party Dixie South. When winning the Democrat primary was the only way to win the General election.
That's also why there are runoffs.
And last but not least, OMG those Republicans crossed over and voted for a black person. That can't be what the Voting Rights Act was about? Can it? Just doesn't seem right somehow.
It's done easily enough. In Texas there is no party registration. Party does not appear on the registration card at all.
A book/list of registered voters is furnished to the precinct at primary time and you sign in to vote in the primary of your choice. You are considered in that party at that time. You are then prohibited from voting in any of the opposite parties primary runoffs untill the next general election has passed.
"McKinney said after a panel session on U.S. intelligence programs she hosted at the annual conference of the Congressional Black Caucus."
LOL....McKinney does not have the intelligence to host a panel on US covert agencies.
She had a chance not to be a wicked b!tch and she chose otherwise. On another note, the dems and the MSM loved open primaries where the favored John McCain in 2000.
Not to worry, there is an over supply of village idiots to take her place.
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