Category: Civics

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Trump Crossed the Line Yesterday

Dear Group,

Trump didn’t even wait through a news cycle to start a fresh outrage. It is hard to miss the parallels with the Saturday Night Massacre of the Nixon administration. The Sessions’ firing is likely the beginning of a slow moving version of the Massacre, one more step toward the Trump autocracy. Forty-five years ago Nixon’s own party stood up to his outrage. That was when there were still Republicans with integrity.

I doubt McMorris Rodgers has the spine or appreciation of history to make a stand on this one, but she needs to hear from us, her constituents. She kept saying publicly Mueller should “be allowed to do his job” even as she added how she’d like it to conclude quickly. Then she nodded with approval at the Spokane Club as her invited guest, Devin Nunes, proclaimed how important it was to protect Trump from Mueller by retaining a House majority. Now that majority is on its way out with the end of this Congress at year’s end. Trump is wasting no time. He wants to shut down the Mueller investigation before the new Congress is seated.

Now is her chance to stand behind her statement about letting Mueller do his job.  

Here are McMorris Rodgers’ numbers:

Spokane Office       (509) 353-2374

Colville Office         (509) 684-3481

Walla Walla Office  (509) 529-9358

D.C. Office              (202) 225-2006

In Spokane there is a protest brewing for noon on Friday, November 9 at the

Tom Foley Federal Building

920 W Riverside Ave

Spokane, WA 99201

In Sandpoint it is scheduled at 5PM today, November 8 at 

Bonner County Courthouse

215 S 1st Ave.

Sandpoint, ID 83864

Here’s the link to both events (and events all over the nation):  https://www.trumpisnotabovethelaw.org/event/mueller-firing-rapid-response/search/

Just enter your zip code for the time, location, and sign-up of the local event.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

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The Day After

Dear Group,

As I write this I do not know the outcome. I do not know if one or the other has given a concession speech or if the result will wander back and forth as the late returns dribble in. The county certification of the election results is November 27 and the official Secretary of State certification of final results is November 30.

I do know that I plan to take a little time off, whatever the outcome. I do not know if I will publish again this week, but I plan to be back next Monday with something, perhaps with a plan for how to will proceed. So look expect to see something from me again on Monday, November 12 at 5AM. 

I wish you all well. Regardless of the outcome of the midterms there will remain much to learn and much to do.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

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WA Election Civics-Things I Didn’t Know

Dear Group,

When I was a kid Election Day was a big deal. My family didn’t spend a lot of time discussing politics, but my parents always voted. To them it was an important civic duty. I remember the line of people, the official confirmation and checking off of registered voters, the greeting of neighbors from the precinct. I remember going into the voting booth with my dad, the curtain drawn, the levers on the old mechanical voting machine. It was a ritual, slightly mysterious, memorable.

Back then “Get Out the Vote” meant literally that: offering a ride to the precinct polling place to neighbors, often without paying much attention to whose voting level they might pull. Political parties, of course, worked hard to get the party faithful to the polls. It all happened on Election Day. It was a big deal. 

I thought that was all gone when Washington State went to all mail-in ballots. Last year when I first encountered “GOTV” as an abbreviation I was puzzled. Go TV? A new cable channel? Once a kindly Democrat took pity on me and explained it meant “Get Out the Vote” I thought, “How odd…no one has to ‘get out’ at all. That’s a dumb, inaccurate abbreviation.” Well, at least in part, I was wrong. Again.

Election Day Buzz Lives on–If you help

Casting ballots in Washington State is not a done deal until 8PM on Election Day, even if you’ve lost or never received your ballot and even if you’ve just not done your homework. At least in Spokane County there are six “Voter Service Center” locations that are open on Election Day, Tuesday, November 6, between 7AM and 8PM. (No other day, e.g. NOT Monday.)  I’ve reproduced the locations again below. (Copied from: here.) If you are knocking on doors or calling friends on Election Day and you find someone who thinks they are a registered voter but have lost or never received their ballot (but can be convinced to vote) it’s still not too late. You could offer to give them a ride to a Voter Service Center–just like the old days! 

At these Voter Service Centers you can: 

  • Drop Off Your Ballot
  • Get Replacement Envelopes
  • Vote a Provisional Ballot
  • Use an Accessible Voting Unit
  • Get Answers to Voting Questions

Let’s clarify some of that. I called the Elections Office with some questions and a very nice elections worker filled me in. 

A “Provisional” Ballot has everything on it that anyone anywhere in Spokane County has an option to vote on. The Elections Office takes these ballots over the next several days and cross-checks to make sure they are cast by a registered voter. Based on the voter’s address the “Provisional” Ballot is extracted so only votes cast in that address’s overlapping voting districts are actually counted. (e.g. my address is in LD3, the provisional ballot includes candidates in LD6 that I might mark, but in the extraction process, the LD6 votes I may have marked are discarded.) If that sounds like a nuisance for the Elections staff, it probably is, but they strive to get it exactly right.

To use an “Accessible Voting Unit” a voter with a disability brings their official ballot, puts it in the device and the device, in private, reads and displays the contents of the ballot to the voter and offers an easier way of marking the ballot than using of a black pen to fill in a tiny oval. Neat!

A registered voter who lost or cannot find or never received their ballot can also go to MyVote.wa.gov and, using their name and birthdate, can print out a replacement. (There’s nothing illegal about printing such a ballot out for someone who asks you to do so, but you will need their first and last names [as they were registered] and their date of birth. Of course, the voter him or herself needs to fill out and sign the ballot. Signatures are checked!) These ballots can be mailed in a regular envelope (I think these DO require postage, unlike the official envelopes) or they can be dropped at the ballot drop box locations (usually libraries). 

Put the “optional” daytime phone number on your outer ballot envelope. They really do check the signature against the signature on record. When there is a question they use the phone number to contact you.

It is the voter’s responsibility to be sure, if they are using the mail, that the last pickup from that mailbox is after the time they drop the ballot in the box. I was assured that the mail service is very meticulous about those times and about getting all the mail properly post-marked that gets picked up at the deadline for that mailbox . Election Day can still buzz! It is not over until it is over. Don’t slack off!

Bottom line: The Spokane County Elections Office (and, I’m sure other County Elections Offices in Washington State with which I am less familiar) do everything they can to make it easy to vote right up to the deadline. Take advantage of their diligence. It is our civic duty. The ballot casting process isn’t over until Tuesday evening, November 6, at 8PM. The final tally won’t be “certified” and official until November 27, three weeks later. It could come down to that.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

 

Voter Service Center Locations

Area

Location

Address

Downtown Spokane

Elections Office

1033 W Gardner Ave

 

STA Transit Plaza

701 W Riverside Ave

Northside

North Spokane Library

44 E Hawthorne Rd

Southside

Spokane South Hill Library

3324 S Perry St

Spokane Valley

CenterPlace Event Center

2426 N Discovery Pl

West Plains

Cheney Library

610 First St.
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Ten Friends

Dear Group,

Is there anything else you can do?

Several times now I’ve heard Lisa say, “If everyone here contacts just ten friends to urge them to vote, it could make the difference we need.” 

My old pessimistic self said, “Oh, come on. All the friends I can think of are surely going to vote for Lisa anyway.” I was wrong. Again.

I contacted old friends, a retired judge and his wife, people I know are of a liberal bent, to ask for some insight on the elections involving judges. It turns out they are in the middle a two month walking pilgrimage in Europe. I contacted them by email. I got the information I needed. Then I wondered, “Did they manage to vote?” So I asked.

“No, we left before absentee ballots were available.” 

With a little digging around on the Spokane County website I determined that on MyVote.wa.gov a registered voter in Washington State can sign on, print out their ballot, and submit it by mail. It should be counted if it is postmarked before 8PM on Tuesday, November 6. The response to this information? “Will do!” That’s two more votes…

Another couple of a liberal bent had recently moved. Any other election I would not have asked, but this time I did, “Was your ballot forwarded or did you have a chance in all your turmoil to change your voting address?” It had not and they hadn’t had the time. We talked about the importance of every vote in this election. I explained they can still go down to the  County Elections Office at 1033 W. Gardner Ave, Spokane and cast a provisional ballot OR, a little like the old days of precinct voting, they can go down on election day, next Tuesday, to one of six Voter Service Center locations in Spokane County between 7AM and 8PM (see the list below) and cast a “provisional” ballot there. Two more votes.

We are privileged in the State of Washington to have a voting system that is remarkably secure and strives to include, not exclude. We do not have Kris Kobach (the infamous Republican pusher of the false narrative of voter fraud) here. If you’ve had a scrape with the law and have paid your debt to society you can register and vote. If you’ve lost your ballot and it’s down to the wire on election night, you didn’t get it together to do your homework ahead of time, there are even places to go where you can still vote right up to 8PM (as long as you’re already registered). You can check out your ballot’s status on MyVote.wa.gov. 

We have these options…and many of us are unaware. Spread the word. Call ten friends, like Lisa suggests. Ask if they managed to vote yet. Tell them an anecdote about what you now know of our voting options. Tell them how important it is to you that they manage to cast their ballot in this election.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

 

Area

Location

Address

Downtown Spokane

Elections Office

1033 W Gardner Ave

 

STA Transit Plaza

701 W Riverside Ave

Northside

North Spokane Library

44 E Hawthorne Rd

Southside

Spokane South Hill Library

3324 S Perry St

Spokane Valley

CenterPlace Event Center

2426 N Discovery Pl

West Plains

Cheney Library

610 First St

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Things I’ve Learned

Dear Group,

In 1994 George Nethercutt (R) edged out Tom Foley (D) by a mere 4000 votes out of roughly 200,000 votes cast. Tom Foley was the long term incumbent of Congressional District 5 (eastern Washington). He had done great work for Eastern Washington on the House Agriculture Committee (the same Committee Lisa Brown wants to join). In 1994 when he was nudged out, Tom Foley was Speaker of the House. In that same election Foley was endorsed by the Spokesman Review, likely extolling his “pull” in Congress.

In a way, those 4000 votes here in Eastern Washington changed everything. (Or was it just 2001 votes? After all, if 2001 of those folks had voted for Tom Foley instead of Nethercutt…)  On a national level, Newt Gingrich, a political pugilist and (arguably) the architect of the political polarization from which we now suffer became Speaker of the House.

Regime Change and the Power of Incumbency

On a local level, we experienced regime change in1994. George Nethercutt overstayed the term limits he touted in his run against Foley. Then he spread out his incumbent coattails and McMorris Rodgers rode them into Congress in 2004. McMorris Rodgers, her annual 1.3 million dollars from the federal treasury, and the backing of the Koch-funded Washington Policy Center have facilitated the rise and election of the likes of Jaime Herrera Beutler, now the U.S. Representative from WA CD3 (Southwest WA), and Spokane Mayor David Condon, a former congressional staffer for McMorris Rodgers, and provided a springboard for the careers of others. An infrastructure has grown around her incumbency.

If 2001 voters had gone for Foley instead of Nethercutt (or if 4001 more Democratic voters had turned out) in the 1994 midterm election, the tenor of Eastern Washington might now be very different. Votes matter.

Incumbency is powerful. It is supported with our taxpayer dollars and by powerful interests (like the Spokesman Review) that dislike any disruption of relationships they have worked hard to develop.

Regime change, like the takeover of a Congressional District from an incumbent, nearly always depends on a small margin of votes. Incumbency, once established, is like a hill over which a challenger must push a large rock. Once over the crest, the effort will roll down the other side to a whole new political alignment. It is the time for that to happen in Eastern Washington.

The margin that elects Lisa Brown over McMorris Rodgers will be narrow. Every vote will count. We need to scrape for each vote that might make that margin.

Many voters who could help are discouraged, disconnected, and uninformed

Mind you, many of us have been canvassing a select group of potential Democratic voters who often don’t vote in the midterms. “I don’t vote.” or “My vote won’t make any difference” or “I’m a registered voter, really?” or “I just want to be left alone, I can’t bear to pay attention to politics” or “I don’t know if I have my ballot or not” or “Who is Lisa Brown running against?” are phrases commonly heard.

Many of these people may well cast a favorable vote in response to a friendly conversation at their doorstep. Sometimes that conversation is as rudimentary as explaining the basics:

A vote isn’t required on every issue to turn in your ballot. If you don’t feel you can make an informed choice with which you are comfortable don’t vote that candidate or issue. The ovals you fill in will still count.

No stamp is needed. That’s new this year. Just put it in the mail in time to get it postmarked before 8PM on Tuesday, November 6, or drop it in the box at the local library.

Once the ballot is received by the County the campaigns know. Soon people will quit calling and knocking on your door. (It is known that you voted but NOT for whom you voted!)

Can’t find your ballot, it got ruined, or you didn’t receive one? For Spokane County residents, just call the Spokane County Elections Office at 509-477-2320 and they’ll mail you a replacement to your address of record. Or visit them at 1033 W Gardner Ave and pick up a new ballot between the hours of 8:30AM and 4PM Monday through Friday. The people working there are friendly, pleasant folk in spite of a stressful job this time of year. (The barcode system on the envelope prevents duplicate ballots from the same voter.) OR go on line to MyVote.wa.gov, enter your name and birthdate, click “MyBallot,” print it out, follow the directions, and turn it in.

You can look yourself up at MyVote.wa.gov and learn all sorts of things about voting and your particular ballot. You can even find out if the Elections Office has received your ballot.

Several times I’ve heard, “I can’t vote. Many years ago I was in jail.” These are people who are self-disenfranchised. They’ve been listening to the national news and assume the controversy they hear there extends to Washington State. Some of these people even received ballots, but are afraid to vote. In Washington State if you have served your time and you’re not on probation you can register (up until last Monday). If you received a ballot you can and should vote.

So get out and canvass. A whole lot depends on it. (See the box above for details and links.) There is a small army engaged in this ground game, but the result is not certain. Every vote counts. Don’t awaken the day after and wonder if you could have done more.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

 

P.S. I just learned this morning that there is even an option if you can’t find you ballot on Election Day. On that day, Tuesday, November 6, there will be six Voter Service Center Locations open from 7AM to 8PM around Spokane County where you can:

  • Drop Off Your Ballot
  • Get Replacement Envelopes
  • Vote a Provisional Ballot
  • Use an Accessible Voting Unit
  • Get Answers to Voting Questions

I’ll post this all again Monday and Tuesday. The locations are:

Area

Location

Address

Downtown Spokane

Elections Office

1033 W Gardner Ave

 

STA Transit Plaza

701 W Riverside Ave

Northside

North Spokane Library

44 E Hawthorne Rd

Southside

Spokane South Hill Library

3324 S Perry St

Spokane Valley

CenterPlace Event Center

2426 N Discovery Pl

West Plains

Cheney Library

610 First St

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Judge Triplet Has Died

Dear Group,

Who was Judge Triplet? Why am I announcing his passing? The Spokesman article last Friday (October 26) informs me he was an honest and decent man, a skilled jurist committed to fair application of the law. Surely the Spokesman account is accurate. I have no information to the contrary. I’ve never had any dealings with the “Superior Court.” 

Yes, the article was accurate. But did the Spokesman provide the orientation I’ve now come to crave? 

As I read the article on Judge Triplet’s passing, questions came to mind: How many people will read this? Of those who do, how many know what the Superior Court does? How many judges serve on it? How will the hole this good man’s passing leaves be filled? How does this gap relate to the judgeships on which I just voted? Why the hell does it seem too much to ask for the local newspaper to provide this orientation as part of their coverage, coverage that could educate citizens trying to understand civics and its importance to their daily lives?

Is it any wonder I read the Spokesman article on Judge Triplet more as an obituary than as information I can use? 

So here’s the backstory, all obtained from the comfort of my laptop:

Judge Triplet served in Department 2 (of 12 funded Departments aka “Positions” as they are called on your ballot) of the Superior Court of Spokane County. The twelve judges on the Superior Court hear cases from Spokane County concerning: 

• Civil matters

• Domestic relations

• Felony criminal cases

• Juvenile matters

• Appeals from courts of limited jurisdiction

The “Courts of Limited Jurisdiction” are the Spokane County District Courts and the City of Spokane Municipal Courts, where non-felony cases involving limited amounts of money and limited jail terms are heard. There is a nice diagram of much of this here.

Judge Triplet’s untimely death at age 55 leaves a gap in a very busy court, a gap that Governor Jay Inslee will appoint someone to fill “until the position is filled by voters in a countywide election.” Come on, Spokesman, when? The next regular election next fall? A special election? How does that work? How about a little civics? 

Here’s another part the Spokesman doesn’t touch: Michelle “Shelley” D. Szambelan was appointed by Governor Jay Inslee just this year (2018) to Department (“Position”) 10 of the Spokane County Superior Court. Inslee chose among a number of well-qualified candidates, Ms. Szambelan and Dennis Cronin among them. We are now asked to vote between these two in the current election. Mr Cronin indicated at the time of the appointment he would run for the seat this fall. Had he not run Ms. Szembelan would have stood for election only in 2020. By all accounts I can read both of them are will qualified for the position.

Will Governor Inslee appoint to the newly vacant Position 2 the candidate with the lower vote count of what is likely going to be a close race for Position 10? Will Inslee wait until the voting is done to announce his choice? How will this work? Stay tuned.

Ordinarily there aren’t a lot of challengers for seats in the various courts in the State of Washington. Incumbency is powerful, unless a judge does something that is egregious and newsworthy. Of course, part of the reason for that is that most of us (including me) have only a rudimentary understanding of the court system…and information on the folks who are running for these seats can be pretty scant. 

In that vein, let’s take a brief look at “Judge” Brandt, running against Patrick Johnson for an open seat in Position 1 on the Spokane County District Court Bench (one tier below the Spokane County Superior Court). First, Brandt was a judge, but he is not now, so running as “Judge” Brandt is at least questionable and arguably an outright deception. Second, he was never elected as a judge. He was appointed to a different position on the District Court (#7) in 2011 by the Spokane County Commissioners and then, in spite of incumbency (and Spokesman endorsement), he was voted out in a race against challenger Aimee Maurer in 2014 by a nearly 3% margin. In the current race I voted for Patrick Johnson. He’s relatively young, late 40s. If history is a guide, he will serve a long time.

Some random take-aways:

1) Newspapers that still do print versions could be more useful and interesting if they provided a little more context, if they quit assuming their readers know the background.

2) The Washington State judicial system is multi-layered and worthy of some study.

3) Judges, once elected, are not often challenged and even less often bested in an election. When they are (as with Judge Brandt) perhaps it says something.

4) Interim vacancies on the Spokane County Superior Court are filled by appointment by the Governor. Interim vacancies on the Spokane County District Court are filled by appointment by the Spokane County Commissioners. What is the history behind that, I wonder?

5) The State Supreme and Appeals Court Judges serve on 6 year terms. All the other judges (County Superior, County District, and Municipal [City of Spokane]) serve 4 year terms.

I should have learned all this in a civics class in my youth. Maybe I did, but a half century later it is all a bit rusty. It bears review–and our local newspaper could help.

And, now, after this short civics lesson: Get out and canvass! There are only nine days to flip this thing.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry
Posted on

Is the Electoral College Sacred?

Dear Group,

I borrow from a New York Times opinion piece from Friday, October 5, “The Supreme Court’s Legitimacy Crisis” by Michael Tomasky:

In the entire history of the court, exactly one justice has been

a) nominated by a president who didn’t win the popular vote and

b) confirmed by a majority of senators who collectively won fewer votes in their last election than did the senators who voted against that justice’s confirmation.

Who was it?

Tomansky goes on:

 …it turns out you don’t have to go back very far at all. The answer is Neil Gorsuch.

Donald Trump won just under 46 percent of the popular vote and 2.8 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. And Judge Gorsuch was confirmed by a vote of 54-45. According to Kevin McMahon of Trinity College, who wrote all this up this year in his paper “Will the Supreme Court Still ‘Seldom Stray Very Far’?: Regime Politics in a Polarized America,” the 54 senators who voted to elevate Judge Gorsuch had received around 54 million votes, and the 45 senators who opposed him got more than 73 million. That’s 58 percent to 42 percent.

Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed the next day, October 6, by a vote of 50 to 48, surely making Kavanaugh even more of a minority justice than Gorsuch.

With this Republican/Libertarian minority takeover of the judicial branch of government we should not be surprised to find the Electoral College has become an article of faith for the Republican Party, even an article of religious faith among a extreme segment of “evangelical” Christianity. It should also come as no surprise this same segment wants to present itself as representative of all Christians. 

WeBeleiveWeVote.com is the glaring, Stevens/Spokane County local example. Their voter guide advertisement appeared this year on yard signs at homes and churches, complete with their cross and flag logo. Any hurried Christian who feels a lack of time to research actual candidates is invited to vote the WeBelieveWeVote slate of candidates as exclusively representative of Christian values. From their website: “The vision of We Believe We Vote is to see our Cities, States and Nation receive more of God’s blessing because we are honoring His laws and Biblical principles in government.” [For more background and funding information for WeBelieveWeVote, click here.]

Ah, so easy! If you consider yourself Christian…vote with us! Only the curious and the diligent will dig deeper on the website to find the Evaluation Criteria under the menu item “About Us,” the last option in the menu bar. I invite you to visit the Criteria to see if they represent your Christian values. 

You will look in vain for the Christian values with which I grew up in the United Methodist Church. There is no mention of “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” no empathy, no mention of rich men and needles’ eyes, only pronouncements concerning the regulation of other people’s lives according to a particular literal interpretation of the Bible.  

Way down the page of “Evaluation Criteria” as the eleventh point of evaluation we find: “Our Position: The Electoral College System was written into the US Constitution to assure proportionate representation for rural citizens and smaller states.  We agree in [sic] the Electoral College system.” 

Since when is the Electoral College System considered a tenet of Christian faith? Check out the complete list of “values” on the Evaluation Criteria webpage of WeBelieveWeVote. As a Christian or as one brought up as a Christian, do you recognize any of the evaluation criteria as your Christian values? At the top of the page they leave no doubt: “Below are the issues and position statements used to determine candidate alignment with We Believe We Vote values.” 

The We Believe We Vote criteria are about political power, not Christian values. Fealty to the Electoral College System is simply code for the maintenance of minority-control government, the minority government that just stole two Supreme Court seats from the majority of voters. 

It is no coincidence McMorris Rodgers hails from Stevens County, the likely origin of We Believe We Vote, a place where auctioning off an AR-15 at a Republican fundraiser seems completely natural, a place where far right fundamentalist Christianity and Republican/Libertarian politics have melded into a seamless whole. WeBelieveWeVote rates McMorris Rodgers as “Highly aligned with WBWV.”  

Both McMorris Rodgers and the folks behind We Believe We Vote would like you to believe your Christian values and theirs are the same, avoiding any need to consider what their values really are. Encourage your friends to take a closer look. These “values” are not my parent’s, my grandparent’s, or my Christian values. 

The Electoral College System is not neither a Christian value nor is it sacred. 

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. As a friend observed, a visit to WeBelieveWeVote.com can serve a useful purpose: clearly identifying those for whom NOT to vote, once you understand the criteria.

P.P.S. On the positive side of the equation check out the ProgressiveVotersGuide.com.