More Republican ballot box bullshit:
Over the objection of state Attorney General Jim Hood, the state sample ballot to be used in the November general election will have the U.S. Senate race between Ronnie Musgrove and Roger Wicker at the end of the ballot.
Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann recommended to Gov. Haley Barbour today during a meeting of the state Election Commission that the special election between Musgrove, a Democrat, and Wicker, a Republican, be placed at the end of the ballot.
Barbour approved the recommendation.
All in all, this is a pretty brazen move designed to discourage first-time voters — many of which are expected to be African-American Obama Democrats — from casting a ballot in the state’s hotly-contested Senate special election. Barbour and the boys really went to great pains in order to hide this race at the tail end of the ballot.
Full statement from the Ronnie Musgrove campaign after the jump.
UPDATE: A local judge has blocked the ballots from being distributed after a restraining order was filed by Pike County Election Commissioner Trudy Berger earlier this afternoon.
Secretary of State Presents Unlawful Ballot, Buries US Senate Race in Ballot
Secretary Hosemann Unable to Cite any Statute to Move Race from Top
Jackson, MS- Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann today presented an unlawful sample ballot which buries the special US Senate race between Governor Ronnie Musgrove and interim US Senator Roger Wicker. The ballot was approved by Governor Haley Barbour.
Hosemann buried the Musgrove-Wicker race below all local races near the bottom of the ballot.
Hosemann could cite no statue supporting his decision to move the race from the top of the ballot. However, Attorney General Jim Hood did cite election law requiring federal races be placed at the top of the ballot.
“We will win this election no matter where the Secretary of State puts it on the ballot,” Tim Phillips, Musgrove for Senate campaign manager said. “But this is about the law and they don’t get to make up their own laws.”
The unlawful ballot is expected to cause confusion for voters expecting to find the Musgrove-Wicker race with other federal elections where it belongs. The most prominent election in the state will be one of the hardest races to find on Election Day.
Mississippi election law, code 23-15-367, clearly states federal races, like the Musgrove-Wicker race, belong on the top of the ballot.
there is a law on-point cited above, no?
I mean, obviously, this is a cheap political stunt engineered by one of America’s dirtiest political hacks, Haley Barbour. But even if I was Barbour, I do not think I could formulate even a pretext for why this should be done. It has absolutely no the purpose except to depress turnout among first-time voters unlikely to scan the entire ballot. What a cynical charade. Sadly, with the courts packed with Barbour appointees, I doubt this is getting overturned.
If there is one tiny silver lining, it shows how worried Barbour is about this race. Clearly, he is somewhat wary of Musgrove’s chances, and he knows that after what happened in MS-01, he will get blamed if the zero he appointed, Roger Wicker, were to fall.
As I said, Haley Barbour does not get near enough credit for being the devious and unethical scoundrel that he is. To my mind, he is one of the best in GOP politics, and he should get more recognition to that effect.
The dude blatantly moved the election to November, from April, despite the clear language of the statute, all the while knowing that his supreme court would uphold him.
Now, he just decided to move this monumentally important race to the bottom of the ballot for no reason. Apparently, he has not even bothered to create a reason; he is that arrogant.
He knows he has his political credibility on the line if Wicker loses. While the Rasmussen polls the last two months have been discouraging, make no mistake: this race is of enormous importance to Democrats, as it represents their absolute best chance in a generation to win a Mississippi Senate seat.
Seriously, our system for elections is completely fucked.
When Obama gets elected, people like us need to push HEAVILY for the Democrats to look at our elections and solve every problem. Same day registration, national holiday, paper trails, a system for ballot set-up. This is just so undemocratic and ridiculous and I dont see how we can even call ourselves a democracy anymore.
But first, lets make sure we are working to get Obama elected. I just helped sign-up 60 of my fellow college students as Obama supporters today, what have you done today? This week? This month?
and Musgrove better damn well appeal it, all the way to the Supreme Court if he needs to.
Why you so many of you still keep voting for these dirty scumbags?
Ones who have no sense of right-and-wrong or honor, despite speaking of moral values?
This thread here reminds me of exactly why I absolutely hate the Republican Party these days (or at least their leadership). Absolutely corrupt, absolutely power-hungry beyond belief, and will stop at nothing in order to increase their influence and control everything.
It’s these kinds of people who really, really, really, desperately need a good lesson taught to them. Preferably through being absolutely and humiliatingly whupped in an election cycle, whupped by people who play fair and do the right thing.
How can they just ignore the law? Barbour and Hosemann were elected to uphold the laws of Mississippi and instead they have ignored those laws in an effort to help the Republican Party.
I just went and donated to Musgrove- I suggest y’all do the same. http://www.actblue.com/entity/…
Headline on CNN.com:
If I were Musgrove, I’d be off to Federal Court.
“I voted for Bush in 2000. That’s right, I’m a reformed Republican. But, I now know that Bush is a terrible President and yes, worse than Clinton. Bill Clinton, when he was President I complained about his wrongdoings, and I listened to Rush, and I spouted Rush’s talking points. I was a Clinton-hater myself! But then, I actually realized what Bush was doing to this country. It requires a bit more “thinking” and less “feeling”.”
– a commenter named “bobbrent”