Clerk’s hateful note calls fairness into question
With long lines and an awkward set-up, early voting in Johnson County is a disaster. It’s possible that’s because early voting turnout is higher this year than ever before. But it’s also possible the county clerk is attempting to keep supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, who’s led the early voting push, away from the polls.
Just before Labor Day, Jill Jackson, a Republican, left printouts from a blog bashing Obama on two employees’ desks. “The U.S. citizens are just not ready to give up their country to this young, black ‘Adolf Hitler’ with a smile, poor direction and absolutely no experience!” the note said.
Johnson County’s clerk is hateful, inept or both.
Jackson said the note was a joke. But the fact that a local elected official thinks calling a presidential candidate a “black ‘Adolf Hitler’” is funny isn’t the problem. County clerks are the elected officials tasked with overseeing vote counts and training poll workers. Doug Lechner, the Republican Party chair in Johnson County, was right when he said the incident taints Jackson’s ability to appear unbiased as she administers this year’s election.
Johnson County is heavily Republican, with nearly three-quarters of the votes cast in the 2004 presidential election going to President George W. Bush.
But it’s Obama who has pushed the early voting drive this year. It’s possible Jackson is doing the best she can to accommodate early voting. But, as Lechner said, the note destroys any faith in Jackson’s fitness to conduct an unbiased voting process.
If it weren’t so close to the election, we’d call on Jackson to step down. It’s a shame that for now, voters can’t be confident their votes will be counted fairly.
