Richard WarnickVouchers: Got Democracy?
I’m really looking forward to the warm feeling I’ll get when I fill out my mail-in ballot, driving another nail on the coffin of PCE’s ill-conceived school voucher scheme. I’m counting the days until we veto the vouchers. Frankly, last March I wondered if we would ever get this opportunity– or if the Utah Legislature would get away with passing yet another unconstitutional law that two-thirds of Utahns were against. The real question is: Got democracy?
That’s enough for me, the thrill of beating back our undemocratic legislators just one time. Thanks to the 130,000 Utahns who signed a petition, and especially to all the people who got organized and circulated those petitions.
The voucher debate has tended to get sidetracked with discussions of political dirty tricks and dissecting the minutiae of HB 148, HB 174, the “Bramble Memo” and the “Jones Memo.” Here are the basic facts:
- The PCE private school voucher program was created to give parents a financial incentive to withdraw their children from public schools and enroll them in private schools.
- Private school voucher programs attempt to break down the separation of church and state by providing tax money to religious institutions.
- Privatization of education is part of a larger, national right-wing effort to privatize government functions and seize public resources. Private mercenary outfits in Iraq and Afghanistan, reckless oil and gas leasing on public lands, and the Bush administration proposal to privatize Social Security are all part of this agenda. Bush just vetoed SCHIP because it was competing successfully against private health insurance plans.
- The PCE private school voucher program is an entitlement program. Even the wealthiest families can sign their children up for vouchers.
- Utah is expected to be the laboratory for this national right-wing experiment at our own expense– an estimated $429 million over the next 13 years, according to the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst. Taxpayers will pay an average of $2000 per private school student.
Archived One Utah posts on the private school vouchers debate
October 4th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
My favorite PCE commercial is the one that plays about 100 times per day on ksl radio and says we should vote for the referendum because (1) the NEA is against the referendum and (2) Hillary, Nancy, Teddy and the ACLU support the NEA. Now who the fuck in Utah can argue with logic like that?
October 4th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
These people who took to the streets on principal are costing the people of Utah millions of dollars. Diebold is cashing in whether they win or lose.
Cha-Ching!
October 5th, 2007 at 7:30 am
Larry– Vote by mail. It’s easy to sign up.
October 5th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Of course you know why they’re letting us vote by mail, and vote so early that we don’t even know what might happen in the last days of an election Richard. It would have been absolute chaos on election day for voters, polling officials and everybody else. That’s why Gary did his cute ad in his pajamas, tellings us that we were being given new opportunities.
I’ll vote in the referendum somehow, but I’m not going to like it.
By the way, I forgot Diebold voting corporation doesn’t exsit anymore. Because of the embarrassment of having their machines decertified in California a couple of months ago, they finally changed their name to protect the mother company’s image.
We really need to be suing Diebold, not voting to enrich them.
October 6th, 2007 at 3:06 am
Richard?
October 6th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Or don’t vote by mail. It’s your choice. I like paper ballots.
October 7th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
I’ll be going to the polls - I don’t trust the mail.
October 7th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
I voted on a paper ballot the last election and it felt really good to see my check mark right next the the name of the person I wanted for the first time in my life. What bothered me was that it was almost impossible to know that option was available without actually showing up in the election office and asking beforehand. I was told some polling locations wouldn’t even have the option. I was surprised the place I voted did have the option.
I’m positive most people were unaware you could request it.
I don’t trust the mail either, but would do it over voting on the machines.
The reason I prodded you for a reply Richard was because I was hoping to get your opinion about Diebold being decertified and changing their name. Of course it’s totally up to you to reply, but I was just curious.
October 9th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
I’m conflicted on the vote by mail ballots. What if I sent it in, and then changed my mind for some reason? I really hate e-voting, though.
October 9th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Larry– I actually thought the Diebold name change was old news, but maybe it took a while to actually implement it. I always thought it was ironic that the very same company that made ATMs couldn’t count votes correctly or securely and didn’t want us to have a paper record of our vote.
Misty– You can vote by mail until the day before Election Day, just make sure the envelope is postmarked that day.
October 9th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
They have been floating the balloon of a name change for over a year I think, but didn’t actually do it until very recently. That’s probably why you had heard of it before. I wonder if the people of Utah will have to pay to have them change the logo on their machines now.
October 9th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
It is ‘old news’ but still very much extant. That’s one of the problems with our craving the very most up-to-the-minute info. Stuff that hit the fan will just keep stinking, only its stink will be masked by the fresher stuff. and on and on. So that pretty much leaves us surrounded on all sides with presidential signing statements, bad law making and a cadre of completely traitorous pols and wanna be’s. That it was old news isn’t the same as saying that the problems that they created or enabled have been fixed.
Further the longer these crazy ideas stay on the books and at our polling places the more likely it is that there will be engendered legal momentum and staying power, making them even more difficult to fix. I was at some of the meetings where the legislature seemed to be saying that a paper trail was going to be required, but they obviously balked at that democratic and auditable notion as soon as the meeting let out. It was all just for show. That pissed me off and consequently I’ll never resolve to thier use.
October 10th, 2007 at 7:22 am
They just throw all the mail in ballots in the garbage. It’s easier to fraud elections if a person participates in such a remote manner. At least you get receipt.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:19 am
glenn– Actually, mail-in ballots proved decisive in the recent Draper municipal primary. So they weren’t thrown out. Where do you get your information?
October 10th, 2007 at 9:24 am
I got my vote by mail card, but I’m going to vote in person.
I did just get my Vote No to Vouchers yard sign.
October 10th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
[...] of the opinion that the voucher referendum is primarily if not exclusively about taking back our democracy from the special interest-ridden Utah legislature. But what if the special interests were right [...]
October 10th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Depends on where you live. After so much lying and malfeasance, in so many venues, I am less trusting than you. Utah is republican, why would they not follow the grand lead?
My source is history, recent, Ohio, Florida, and other places, all over the world, at different times.
“Those who cast the votes mean nothing, those that count the votes mean everything”
Joseph Stalin.
Hey, hitler was “elected”.