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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, December 15, 2016 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor MARISSA WILLIAMS Regional Advertising Director MARCY ROSENBERG Circulation Manager JANNA HEIMGARTNER Business Office Manager MIKE JENSEN Production Manager OUR VIEW Uniquely Oregon Every state has its quirks, and some quirks come to define that state in the national consciousness. Florida, for instance, is part retirement community, part Deep South stronghold, part Disney World, part Latino immigration hub and part swamp, with an annual hurricane or two. The other 49 states aren’t sure exactly what to make of it. Texas, which is not to be messed with, has an outlaw Western spirit and wide open spaces, but is also home to six of the 20 largest cities in the U.S. California is the magnet for show business and tech development, Michigan is the sputtering frame of a once-great economic engine and Delaware is a state, too. Oregon’s place in the national consciousness is as a liberal testing ground for progressive policies, rooted in Portland’s firm seat as the state’s thought center. Sometimes this doesn’t work out. Promising our public employees a Rolls Royce retirement package must have sounded nice at the time, but is hurting us badly. Every new iteration of the state’s education plan, touting a better future for our students, seems to pan out as more style than substance (remember CIM and CAM testing? Or more recently 40-40-20?). But sometimes that striving for progress pays off. We believe Oregon’s innovative Motor Voter law, given its first real test drive this election, is an example of creative thinking that solves a real democratic problem. The state already allows everyone to vote by mail, a rarity in the country, and the state legislature passed a measure in 2015 to automatically register residents through the Department of Motor Vehicles unless they specifically opt out. In essence, this means it’s more difficult to opt out of getting a ballot than to register to receive one. While lawmakers in other states have contrived ways to make voting more difficult, which always disproportionately affects poor and minority citizens, Oregon has made equal voter access a priority. The downside is negligible. Voter fraud, which was briefly a national concern this fall until the conspiracy’s most prominent promoter won the election, is not likely and certainly not easy in this system. Ballots require verifiable signatures before they are counted. The East Oregonian obtained a list of every registered voter in the November election and can check, line-by-line, if concerns are raised about improper votes cast. There were two cases of fraudulent registration in Oregon, according to outgoing Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins, and both are being investigated. As for the cost, more postage and staff time does come with a price tag. In Umatilla County the November election cost $47,168 — $7,549 more than the 2014 general election. The state is expected to reimburse $5,727, leaving a little less than $2,000 for the county to cover. But the payoff is worth it. Oregon had 97,000 new voters cast ballots this year, about 44 percent of those registered through the new law. That’s a lot of people newly enfranchised in a cornerstone of our democracy. That engagement, while maybe a drop in the bucket in the wider scheme of, say, the presidential election outcome, has a great effect on statewide and certainly local politics. A state can’t choose its reputation on a whim. Or-E-gawn will always be full of tree-hugging hippies if you ask a random resident of Florida, Texas, California, Michigan or Delaware. But by proving automatic voter registration can work, we’ll give those other states a reason to again follow our lead. OTHER VIEWS A fresh start or crazy reckless? M Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. aybe it will all turn out OK. crafted security balance among the If it does, put me down as U.S., China and Taiwan — which promising to applaud. has produced prosperity and stability But my fellow Americans, whatever in Asia for over four decades — is mix of motives led us to create an reckless. Electoral College majority for Donald For an administration that lost Trump to become president — and the popular vote by such a large overlook his lack of preparation, his margin to suddenly take the country record of indecent personal behavior, Thomas to such extreme positions on energy, his madcap midnight tweeting, Friedman environment and foreign policy — his casual lying about issues like unbalanced inside by any moderate Comment “millions” of people casting illegal voices — is asking for trouble, and it votes in this election, the purveying will produce a backlash. of fake news by his national security adviser, Already, some Republican lawmakers who his readiness to appoint climate change love our country more than they fear Trump’s deniers without even getting a single briefing tweets — like Sens. Lindsey Graham and John from the world’s greatest climate scientists McCain — are insisting that Russia’s apparent in the government he’ll soon lead, and his cyberhacking to help Trump win election cavalier dismissal of the CIA’s conclusions be investigated by Congress. If Congress about Russian hacking of our affirms what the intelligence election — have no doubt about community believes — that one thing: We as a country have Russia intervened in our Growth that just done something incredibly democratic process — that is an is heedless of act of war. And it calls for the reckless. There is actually something economic sanctions. environmental severest “prehistoric” about the Cabinet At the same time, Trump’s that Trump is putting together. readiness to dismiss the entire impacts is It is totally dominated by people intelligence community because reckless. who have spent their adult lives its conclusions contradict his drilling for, or advocating for, instincts and interests could fossil fuels — oil, gas and coal. really haunt him down the road. You would never know that what has Let’s imagine that in six months the CIA actually made America great is our ability to concludes that North Korea is about to perfect attract the world’s smartest and most energetic a nuclear missile that can reach our West Coast immigrants and our ability “to develop and President Trump orders a pre-emptive technology and to nurture our human capital” strike, one that unleashes a lot of instability — not just drill for coal and oil, remarked in Asia. And then the next day Trump and Edward Goldberg, who teaches at NYU’s his national security adviser, Mike Flynn, the Center for Global Affairs and is the author of purveyor of fake news about Hillary Clinton, “The Joint Ventured Nation: Why America defend themselves by saying, “We acted on Needs a New Foreign Policy.” the ‘high confidence’ assessment of the CIA.” Don’t misunderstand me: It is excusable Who’s going to believe them after they just to raise questions about climate change. But trashed the CIA? it is inexcusable not to sit down with our own Finally, Trump has demonstrated a government experts at NASA and the National breathtaking naiveté toward Putin. Putin Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for wanted Trump to win because he thinks a briefing before you appoint flagrant climate that he’ll be a chaos president, who will deniers with no scientific background to every weaken America’s influence in the world senior environmental position. by weakening its commitment to liberal It is excusable to question if Russia really values and will weaken America’s ability to hacked our election. But it is inexcusable to lead a Western coalition to confront Putin’s dismiss the possibility without first getting a aggression in Europe. Putin is out to erode briefing from the CIA, some of whose agents democracy wherever he can. Trump needs to risked their lives for that intelligence. send Putin a blunt message today: “I am not That is reckless behavior — totally your chump.” unbecoming a president, a professional or just As Stanford University democracy a serious adult. expert Larry Diamond noted in an essay on It’s not that all of Trump’s goals are Atlantic.com last week: “The most urgent wrongheaded or crazy. If he can unlock foreign-policy question now is how America barriers to innovation, infrastructure will respond to the mounting threat that investment and entrepreneurship, that will be a Putin’s Russia poses to freedom and its very good thing. And I am not against working most important anchor, the Western alliance. more closely with Russia on global issues Nothing will more profoundly shape the or getting more tough-minded on trade with kind of world we live in than how the Trump China. administration responds to that challenge.” But growth that is heedless of ■ environmental impacts, collaboration with Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer Russia that is heedless of Vladimir Putin’s Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer for malevolence, and greater aggressiveness The New York Times. He became the paper’s toward China that is heedless of the carefully foreign-affairs Op-Ed columnist in 1995. OTHER VIEWS Trump resistance pins last hope on electoral college T he Electoral College meets this on Election Day, then no candidate Monday in what will be the would have 270 and the election final step in Donald Trump’s would be thrown to the House of improbable rise to the presidency. Representatives. If the 37, plus one But it will also be the last chance for more, voted for Clinton, she would #NeverTrump dead-enders to keep reach 270 and become president. Trump out of the White House. And “This election is not in the books,” now, the anti-Trump effort has been said Chris Suprun, a Texas Republican given new fuel by allegations of elector who says he will not vote for Byron Russian attempts to interfere with the Trump, at a news conference Sunday. York presidential election. “While we have been perhaps remiss Comment Trump won 306 electoral votes. in thinking it is, Dec. 19 is when There are 306 electors, actual people, ballots will be cast.” who are expected to vote for him next Suprun would not reveal who he will vote Monday in Electoral College meetings in for, but said it will not be Clinton. “While I state capitals across the country. Trump’s have not chosen my candidate, I am going total is 36 more than the 270 required to to vote for another Republican, someone become president. With that in mind, a group who I think can unite our country and will of Trump resisters is hoping to convince 37 do so effectively without the issues that Mr. Trump electors to vote for someone else on Trump faces that disqualify him from the Monday, taking Trump just below the magic presidency,” Suprun said. 270 mark. If that were to happen, Trump Although Trump won Texas by more would not become president. than 800,000 votes, there is no law requiring The hope is to create one of two scenarios. Suprun to vote for him. Texas is one of 21 If rogue electors vote for candidates other than states that do not require electors to vote for Hillary Clinton, who won 232 electoral votes the winner of the popular vote in that state. In 29 states, however, there are laws requiring electors to vote for the popular vote winner. California and Colorado are two of those 29 states. Now, in the wake of Trump’s win, there are lawsuits in both states challenging restrictions on electors. Neither suit was filed by Trump electors seeking to vote for someone else; there are no Trump electors in California and Colorado, which Clinton won. Instead, both suits were filed by Democratic electors seeking to knock down the laws in other states that bind electors to Trump. In the California suit, Democratic elector Vinzenz Koller argues that he “must be allowed to exercise his judgment and free will to vote for whomever he believes to be the most qualified and fit for the office of president and vice president within the circumstances and with the knowledge known on Dec. 19, 2016, whether those candidates are Democrats, Republicans, or from a third party.” There are reports that a total of 10 electors support the lawsuits. The problem for the anti-Trump forces is that nine of those electors are Democrats who weren’t going to vote for Trump anyway. Only one, Suprun, is a Republican. The Trump resisters have formed a group called the Hamilton Electors, named in honor of Alexander Hamilton, who wrote Federalist 68, which deals with the Electoral College. The group says it represents electors “who are pledging to put America first and vote for a qualified Republican alternative who can unify our country.” (The group doesn’t name names, but some involved in the cause have mentioned Ohio Gov. John Kasich as a possible compromise candidate.) There are other efforts as well. There is a petition created by change.org urging Republican electors to vote for Clinton. “We are calling on ‘Conscientious Electors’ to protect the Constitution from Donald Trump, and to support the national popular vote winner,” organizers say. They claim 4.7 million people have signed the petition. ■ Byron York is the White House correspondent for National Review and the author of The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy, published in April by Crown Forum.
