This is a spin off of my earlier post about have the Texas legislature becoming a full time thing and having our legislators work hard for their money.
This post is about the "ghost votes" that take place during the last couple of days during the legislative session. Ghost voting take place when legislators aren't there to cast their vote but the other legislators take it upon them to do so. Why? Is it as a favor? Is it because they had permission to do so? Or is it because they are taking advantage of the absent law maker?
It all seems fishy and shady right? What happened to "one man one vote" I guess that only counts towards the citizens that are voting in the gerrymandered area. This is all just completely and utterly, for a lack of a better term, fucked up. How do can you sit there and vote at least five or so different times completely taking advantage of the system?
This is why Texas needs to have a full time legislature, if ghost voting takes place and no actions are being taken place to stop it, how is it that our voices are being heard? Not to mention it has a huge impact on what does and doesn't go through to becoming a law. How about we have more voting machines so all our legislators can vote once for themselves and lets have a full time legislature and stop being so shady. MMMMK Texas?
The idea of ghost voting is just haunting......yeah that one was pretty bad, sorry. But honestly, the fact that this is a way that our bills and laws get passed is extremely unsettling. As Tonisha has pointed out, it is unclear to us as to why these people think it's ok to do this. Ok, maaaaaybe you could say that the people are just acting out of the interest of the people who are not present and are in fact voting in a way that honors the absentees. Maybe I'm a cynic, but I have a really hard time believing that. Regardless, I think this is something that just shouldn't happen. It leaves to much opportunity for people to be misrepresented. More importantly, these votes that could be possibly being misrepresented by selfish politicians are ultimately affecting us, the people. This comes down on us. Are we really ok with people cheating and voting in a way that suits their needs and not the people they should be representing?
ReplyDeleteThis is where Tonisha brings up an excellent point, make the legislation a full time gig. This seems like it will end the whole possibility of ghost voting. As it is the legislators have such a short session time, they are rushing to complete everything they have on their agenda. Some legislators have meetings and are not always able to be present when the voting is taking place. This is the kind of situation that lends to ghost voting. A full time legislature will give the legislators more time to address all the issues. This will allow for all the legislators to be present during voting and we will have honest voting with proper representation. Even on a personal note, the legislators will probably also be less stressed. This is important because a less stressed legislator is one who can calmly address the issues in a reasonable and logical manner instead of a rushed and apathetic one. There are many things that need to change about Texas politics and this is one of the more important ones, especially if Texans want to be properly represented when it comes to making laws.