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September 21, 2006

Al Wynn brags of stealing election

MYDD.com got this email from the Donna Edwards campaign: [via atrios]

Hello,

By now you are aware of the multiple layers of problems that occurred in the Tuesday, September 12, election in Maryland's 4th Congressional District. Whether these flaws are attributable to incompetence, inefficiency, or fraud -- we may never know. Votes are still being tabulated in Maryland's 4th District -- provisional ballots arriving as late as Tuesday, September 19, a truckload of machines and memory cards arriving 21 hours after the polls closed on September 12, changing estimates of absentee ballots to be counted, etc.

Needless to say, the system is deeply flawed -- leaving voters with little reason to be confident. In the midst of all of this system failure and uncertainty, I wanted to share with you the transcript of an exchange that took place on Tuesday, September 19, between my opponent, Albert Wynn, and his colleague on the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee:

BARTON: Down in Texas, we had a Democratic primary about 50 years ago that Lyndon Johnson won by 54 votes. And he got the nickname "Landslide Lyndon." We have Mr. Wynn next. He had a little bit of a tussle last week, but he did win. And so, I want to recognize "Landslide Wynn" for any opening statement that he wishes...
WYNN: Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. In fact, they're still counting, but we're quite optimistic. And I did take a couple pages out of Lyndon's book, so if I win, it can be attributed to Texas know-how.
(LAUGHTER)
(UNKNOWN): Did you (inaudible)?
BARTON: I hope not. I hope you win fair and square.
(LAUGHTER)
WYNN: A win is a win.

P.S. Just within the last couple of hours, the Board of Elections in Prince George's County opened up a machine with no tamper tape (so much for security), and at least one other machine that recorded votes for other offices but none for U.S. Congress.

That's just awful. Albert Wynn who is regularly rated among the worst of the CBC, is nonetheless likely to survive this challenge. It seems sometimes like black voters are particularly unable to punish crap or corrupt black politicians, that no matter how disgusting or ineffectual, pols safely ensconced in black districts are hard to extract. Is it that we feel like we are going to be underserved no matter what, so we might as well be underserved by one of our own?

I'm glad to see the so-called liberal blogosphere tracking this story, though. Between their fear of being called racists and their cultural affinity for talking androids like Harold Ford or Cory Booker, the more vocal sectors of the online volume industry have been pretty invisible on the issue of effective governance for black folks. Calling Edwards "the black Ned Lamont" is to use unfortunate, predictable shorthand, but it beats white folks having no emotional hooks at all for understanding her fight with Wynn.

Posted by ebogjonson in politricknal sciences, talking androids, on September 21, 2006 6:36 PM