Paying People to Recruit Voters
An article in the Dallas Morning News, which was picked up by the web site Raw Story reports that Governor Rick Perry’s campaign…
…has unknowingly paid convicted felons as part-time workers under its incentive program to turn out voters for the Republican primary.
The campaign lists about 300 part-time workers on the financial disclosure forms it filed with the state, recruits under the "Perry Home Headquarters" program that pays people to get others to sign up as a Perry supporter and pledge to vote. A handful have criminal histories, a Dallas Morning News review shows.
Beyond that, the program has become a money-making opportunity, especially for those with extensive social networking profiles. Some may be in it more for the cash than the candidate. For instance, one lists herself as a Facebook fan of President Barack Obama, an unlikely political pairing [Emphasis added].
Campaign officials don't screen those who sign up to be part-timers. They say that both the re-election effort and the workers benefit from the Home Headquarters program.
"People in life make mistakes," said Perry spokesman Mark Miner. "It doesn't mean they can't get a second chance and work hard. That's what these people are doing. They are out there trying to change their lives and make a difference."
Perry has described the campaign as a grass-roots effort that would help sweep him past Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the primary. But the voter turnout program has been problematic, requiring campaign staffers to spend crucial time verifying the voters who are recruited, campaign e-mails show [Emphasis added].
The problem with such an effort is that the weeds sown by the Establishment Elite threaten to wipe out “grass-roots” of democracy and the seeds of individual liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. The same situation occurred in the 2008 election when ACORN employed criminals in signing up voters who would vote for Obama. This is just one part of “Perry’s Political Playground.” Go here for more evidence of Perry’s “fiscal irresponsibility.”
Thus, we find, distilled in these instances, a fundamental problem facing our representative democracy, based as it is on majority-rule selection of candidates to represent us. The essence of the problem is that once elected by manipulating the voting process, the so-called “representatives” typically end up not representing the views of their constituents, but the views of whatever special interest groups were instrumental in their election and which will support their reelection to continuing terms.
Here is how the program, known as Perry Home Headquarters was initially set up to operate.
1. Volunteers are asked to recruit friends and neighbors, who are called Perry Home Headquarters.
2. The "headquarters" pledge in turn to recruit 11 more people to vote for Perry in the March primary.
3. The initial volunteers get $20 for each Perry Home Headquarter recruited, plus another $20 for every 11 voters each headquarter signs up to vote in the primary. The campaign has recently quit paying out for the recruitment of an additional headquarter.
•The campaign paid out $360,000 to "part-time field staff" in the second half of 2009, and more than 300 people were listed on Perry's report as "part-time workers."
The lowest amount paid out was $20. The highest total was $34,060 to Jeff Cline of Rockwall [Emphasis added].
For those who are adept at social networking on the Internet, this recruitment program works better than most network marketing programs in generating extra income. One recruiter posted the following on Twitter.
Shaniqua Curry of Denton earned $3,420 for her effort, which included a plaintive Twitter plea: "HELP ME RAISE MONEY FOR MY NEXT CAR!!! COPY, PASTE, AND SIGN UP TO SUPPORT RICK PERRY!" the tweet read.
Good try, Shaniqua, but what, pray tell does this have to do with being a genuine participant in the democratic process? Absolutely nothing, I submit! It is participation in a subversion of the democratic process and it clearly highlights the vulnerability of “representative democracy,” which I have pointed out elsewhere and followed up here.
Campaign Reform Desperately Needed
Paying people to register voters or to recruit voters is a perversion of the democratic process, period. It should be stopped. It should be illegal and violators should be subject to harsh penalties for any efforts to circumvent the laws that prohibit it. Such perversion of the principles on which our Republic were founded can only occur when the crews of our “Ships of State” are asleep while the “Captains of Industry” steer these vessels on the shoals for their personal gain.
Permitting partisan recruitment of voter registrations or votes is anathema to the spirit of Liberty and the importance of one’s individual voice. If we allow such individuality to be drowned out by the efforts of those who would circumvent the democratic process and thus suborn unprincipled, self-serving individuals to violate Liberty, then we are guilty of a failure to uphold the cherished principles upon which this country was founded. The ultimate outcome of this failure to support freedom can only be the loss of Liberty and the unquestioned acceptance of slavery. The American people and the people of Texas are like frogs in the pot which is being slowly heated. The trick that is being employed by those who would manipulate the democratic process is to turn up the heat so slowly that we frogs are not prompted to jump out of the pot before the heat has gradually exhausted our ability to jump. This is just another of the Freedom Follies which face us as individuals and as a free people.
What Price Democracy? I say not this “Price.” In my opinion, we need to think in terms of a new, “post-representative” democracy in this country.
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