Soccer Dad

All no-ing

Next Tuesday, Marylanders will have two constitutional questions on the ballot. The big one, of course is Question 2 about legalizing slots.

Question 1 though, is to amend the state constitution to allow early voting. Monoblogue:

More importantly in Maryland's case, the Constitutional Amendment as written allows voters to vote in any precinct statewide, regardless of where they reside. This presents a nightmare scenario of provisional ballots being cast by thousands of voters who aren't familiar to the polling place officials, officials who cannot make the voter present a form of ID to verify their identity and address. Amendments to provide these safeguards were offered by Republicans during the original debate over the bill, but those common-sense provisions to require early votes to be cast in their home county and identification were both defeated by the Democrats in the Senate.

Already in place in Maryland is a system where voters can sit in the comfort of their own home, do whatever research they feel they need to on issues, and can fill out their ballot in a much more leisurely fashion - it's called an absentee ballot. In Maryland, they're available for the asking, without restriction except for being a registered voter. It's a system that has been proven over time to effectively allow those who wish to vote at their convenience to do so. While the absentee ballot system would remain in place regardless of the disposition of Question 1, the potential for fraud and the additional expense for keeping polling places open for up to ten extra days outweighs the small gain in turnout early voting has been shown to provide.

About slots, Pillage Idiot weighs in:

Usually I'm in favor of having stupid people pay taxes instead of me, as if having slots in Maryland would actually reduce taxes for the rest of us, which of course is not the case in this high-tax dystopia. But this slots issue in Maryland leaves me with one sickening thought:

After the subprime mortgage fiasco, haven't we learned what happens when the government encourages people to spend money they can't afford to spend?

He offers an alternative (apparently revenue neutral) Pillage Idiot Plan.

Attila's more creative, but Monoblogue was closer to my thoughts on the topic.

Over the last half-decade, several attempts to legalize video slot machines for the purposes of raising money for the state have been made in the General Assembly, but none passed under Governor Ehrlich. Partisan Democrats were determined not to give Ehrlich credit for any legislative accomplishment, thus the bills would die prior to adoption. But things changed once the party affiliation switched at Government House and this proposal to place slots on the ballot as a Constitutional Amendment passed with mostly Democrat support. Instead of the General Assembly doing the job they were elected to do, they punted their responsibility to the voters in an effort to alter Maryland's Constitution.

Why do it through a constitutional amendment? Why not direct legislation? And why approve it now when Martin O'Malley is governor but not when Bob Ehrlich was?

I figured that House Speaker Michael Busch would back slots once O'Malley was elected. I was wrong. He still will vote against them, but he doesn't object to it as actively he did when Ehrlich was governor. The Baltimore Sun, of course, now supports slots. Much of the objection to slots was an objection to allowing Governor Ehrlich enjoy a legislative victory. The cynicism that's on display is my reason for opposing slots.

Look, last year the Governor and legislature held a special session to raise our taxes instead of looking to cut 6% of the budget. This is a state whose budget had increased 100% in the previous decade. You can't tell me that all that growth was due to absolute necessities.

In general when dealing with ballot questions - the others are bond issues - my first inclination is to vote no. My second inclination is to see what the Baltimore Sun recommends and vote the opposite. Does the state need to borrow money for the Maryland Science Center? I don't get it.

So I'm pretty certain next Tuesday I'll be in the minority, but I'll likely be all "no-ing" the ballot questions.