Printer Employment Security Act passes in the Senate

There was a move afoot, to take unused absentee ballots
and (re)use them on election day.

Senator Kent Cravens, a printer, stepped on that foot.
As a direct result of his effort, the bill is dead.

Instead, taxpayers will pay someone to shred hundreds of thousands of perfectly usable ballots.

I cannot show you him doing this, because the camera on the Senate floor doesn't even show his seat, much less his face. And even if there were such a camera there would be no archive to point you to.

Cravens argued that wasting a few hundred thousand dollars, was no big deal, that the amount was inconsiderable.

Too little to worry about.

Yet too much, apparently, to have appropriated for use by the State Auditors Office, or the Attorney General's Office, or webcasting, or an Ethics Commission.

I cannot find any way that Cravens made any money on the deal, he does not print ballots, nor does he have any state contracts.

In so far as a rising tide lifts all printing presses,
he probably should have recused himself.
Stepping up to kill the bill personally, was beyond the pale.

In fairness to Senator Cravens: in response to one of his arguments, the next set of ballots will be likely be printed on recycled paper to save money.

Apparently, no one in that entire branch of government ever had the bright idea to buy the cheapest paper. Nothing too good for taxpayers.

Being the cynic, I will imagine that somebody knows somebody who knows somebody, who sells paper and offers kickbacks.

Also, as the result of his questioning, we know that roughly four ballots are printed for every one that is actually used. In other words, in the last election, taxpayers bought four ballots, and then paid someone to shred three of them.

Which brings us back to the guy who knows a guy, who sells paper. And printing.




photo Mark Bralley