Fred Grimm hits a bullseye with this oped, giving FL SOS hell for not being a sentinel or "guardian of democracy", and for not coming to Ion Sancho's defense.
I must say Reporter Fred Grimm appears to be a very fast-learning reporter. Perhaps Grimm "gets it" because he repeatedly uses the "guardians of democracy" frame, in which it is equally clear that the elections officials SHOULD be guardians or sentinels of democracy but at the same time it is clear that they are generally NOT acting like guardians of democracy. Take your pick: guardians, sentinels, or defenders of democracy.
In order to defend these lousy systems, they've got to make excuses, and lots of them. That's why you lead and constantly ask the question "are these officials defending democracy?" Fred Grimm apparently asked himself that question, couldn't find a good answer. Now he's asking state officials that same question, in Florida's largest newspaper. Give 'em hell, Fred!!
This reporter deserves thanks and support. fgrimm@herald.com
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/fred_grimm/14181959.htm> More election shenanigans in Sunshine State The Miami Herald March 26, 2006 Sunday
The Miami Herald
March 26, 2006 Sunday
SECTION: BR; Pg. 1
BYLINE: FRED GRIMM, fgrimm@herald.com
Not even the toadies on the Florida Public Service Commission {PSCC} would allow their corporate buddies to get away with this. Customers might give the power companies hell. {snip} But power companies don't retaliate against even their fiercest critics. They don't dare. Not even the Public Service Commission abides such behavior.
The Florida Secretary of State's office harbors a different ethic. The guardian of Florida democracy raised not a peep of protest when the only three certified vendors of voting machines retaliated against a critic. Diebold Elections Systems, Election Systems and Software (ES&S) and Sequoia Voting Systems all refused to sell machines to Leon County's Supervisor of Elections.
EASY TO HACK
{History of Hursti hack and Ion Sancho repeated here} This was Sue Cobb's cue to raise hell. This was the time for Jeb Bush's newly appointed secretary of state to grab vendor reps by their ears and inform them that either they serve Florida or they don't. If a company blackballs a Florida county, then Florida blackballs the company. {I guess not!!}
{More Sancho history here}
Unabashed, Cobb summoned Sancho and a member of the Leon County Commission last week to discuss the voting machine impasse. When reporters -- thinking the public might have an interest in how its elections are managed -- tried to attend, she called the Capitol police to toss them out. (Her way of observing Sunshine Week.) ''I've always said I have no objection to the press, but we do make faster progress without people having to look at cameras,'' said our guardian of democracy. Behind closed doors, Cobb made sure that Florida elections remain the exclusive province of three private corporations. It was a performance that would have embarrassed even the PSC.
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Ask yourself the question: Are these guys defending the procedural integrity of democracy? WE need fewer Pollyannas and more defenders of democracy.
Some quotes in recognition of Fred Grimm:
" There is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle which does not live by secrecy. Get these things out in the open, describe them, attack them, ridicule them in the press, and sooner or later public opinion will sweep them away."
-- Joseph Pulitzer
"The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people."
Justice Hugo Black, New York Times vs. United States, 1971 (Pentagon Papers)
"Openness empowers citizens, weeds out the worst policy proposals, ensures the most efficient flow of information to all levels of law enforcement, makes a little more honest the despots who are our temporary allies against terrorism."
Thomas S. Blanton
executive director, National Security Archive, 2003
This lesson from the history book comes from the suffragette movement. Susan B. Anthony never lived to see women able to vote:
“Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about reform. Those who are really earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.”
-Susan B. Anthony, 19th Century suffragette
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