The re-election of Democratic Legislatures every biennium for 30 years and, with one exception – of Democratic or Democratic-leaning governors during that same political drought – seemed last year to the newly empowered Republicans in the Maine Legislature to be proof of voting hanky-panky. Convinced that they may have been victims of skullduggery, these sleuths of sin spared no expense to research past voting crimes for the past 30 years or so.

They should be commended for their efforts to improve Maine’s government, but their efforts to identify voting malfeasance were largely unproductive. They uncovered only a couple of cases of alleged impropriety that seem to have occurred among the college student criminal class. Nevertheless, they felt something was rotten enough in Denmark to justify at least some kind of restriction on voters. Since voting fraud turned out to be a non-issue, these newly empowered statesmen decided that registration on Election Day by those who were either careless, disengaged, old or prevented by circumstance or health from early registration, should be barred from the polls because they created too many problems for municipal employees.

As believers in good administration, known for their concern for public employee efficiency, these crusaders insisted that no election clerk should be called on for extraordinary effort at voting time. So, regardless of repeated assurances by municipal clerks that such registration posed no problem whatsoever, the GOP passed a law prohibiting registration on Election Day.

Unfortunately, when put to public vote through the referendum process, their law was rejected. The same misguided majorities that had been hornswoggled into electing Democrats for so long overturned their attempt to improve Maine’s elections.

Regardless of such a shortsighted setback, desire for cleaner Maine voting remains strong, and these pioneers of propriety have another arrow in their quiver. This time they want to require individual photos for voters to prove they are who they say they are. This continued dedication to the subject of voting reform has led observers to consider motivation. What has impelled such effort? GOP concern about election malfeasance has not previously been seen; what new force is moving the elephant? Certainly, the intent of these statesmen – these heirs of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt – could not be charged with crass partisan political intent.

Perhaps the recent Republican presidential caucus may offer an explanation. This election took place solely among party members operating under party rules – a circumstance where criminal intent is, for all purposes, impossible. In the one election that the Republicans operate entirely by themselves, there was a first-class cock-up. Local officials had trouble certifying the count, some polling places operated while others stayed home, county officials vigorously disagreed with one another, the outspoken state chairman has hunkered down while resisting calls for his resignation, and the media is providing unwanted publicity. Further, allegations that there may have been some skullduggery intended on behalf of one candidate are floating through the blogosphere and have drawn the attention of national party bigwigs and wealthy backers – as well as the lamestream press.

Maine Republicans are afloat on a sea of gaseous contention about their own voting procedures. Obviously, if it could happen there, it could happen anywhere.

No wonder they want things better for others.

Devil’s dictionary ?quote of the week:

Vote – The instrument and symbol of a free man’s power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his state.

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Rodney Quinn, a former secretary of state and university history and government instructor, lives in Westbrook. He can be reached at rquinn@maine.rr.com.

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