Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Miami Dade County Commission: Whittling away your rights one vote at a time


Today the Miami Dade County Commission raised its middle finger to the common man when it voted 5 to 1 to make it more difficult for them to petition their government-- especially if the petition is trying to remove a commissioner from office. Sponsored by commissioner Jose "Pepe" Diaz, it will require:
  1. The circulator to be a registered voter in MDC,
  2. An individual who knowingly signs more than 1 petition or attempts to sign another name or fictitious name, shall be deemed to have violated F.S. 104.185 and shall be guilty of a misdemeanor in the 2nd degree)
  3. Petition form must have title and text in English, Spanish and Creole

The onus now is put squarely on the shoulders of the private citizen. Their options in choosing a professional company to run a petition campaign have been taken away. There will be no more hiring professional companies outside of the county to run a petition campaign. Although there is nothing wrong with cracking down on those who intentionally sign a petition more than once, it adds a layer of bureaucracy that could drag an unsuspecting well-intentioned citizen into a court room (what's wrong with just throwing multiple signatures out and giving the benefit of the doubt to the lowly citizen? Wouldn't that be much more cost effective than dragging the poor bastard into court?) Finally, the three language requirement is BS. Less is always more when it comes to government-- especially this government.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

An extraordinary black-purple color and an enormous voluptuousness that would make even Pamela Anderson jealous . . . a truly magnificent poop.