Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Saturday, March 9, 2002

In his last year in the White House, Clinton issued Executive Order 13166. It specifically aims "to improve access to federally conducted and federally assisted programs and activities for persons who, as a result of national origin, are limited in their proficiency.”

Whereas elections have been conducted by the states and localities, the election "reform” law now being considered in the Senate (S.-565) would create an Election Administration Commission to enforce the "reforms” prompted by the confusion in Florida during the 2000 election.

A Commission of 'Kooks'?

Jim Boulet Jr., executive director of English First, tells NewsMax.com the question in his mind is, "Is the commission going to be full of kooks tomorrow?”

Liberals who live and breathe the world of arcane election procedures, and government in general, know how to weave their way through this kind of thicket. Few Republicans or conservatives get involved in that. Boulet believes that is why Al Gore was so persistent and confident that he would win the legal battle in Florida to steal the election from George W. Bush.

Liberals are always available and only too willing to serve on a commission of this type, either as members or staffers, so they can put their twist or interpretation of the law on every case such a panel considers.

That federally created commissions dealing with volatile issues tend to be havens for extremists is amply demonstrated by the antics of so-called U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which has virtually declared that every controversy, no matter how far fetched, is a "civil rights” issue.

Conservative lawmakers have appealed to President Bush to rescind the Clinton order, which he can do anytime, Boulet says. What they hear back from the White House is that the wartime president is focused on other things.

Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., tried unsuccessfully to get his House colleagues to defund any effort to enforce the Order 13166.

Most of the publicity in the media about S.-565 has spotlighted Democrat efforts to remove an anti-fraud provision requiring new voters to provide a photo ID.

Boulet’s English First sees a more far-reaching sleeping time bomb. He says a new leftist-staffed commission, armed with enforcement powers and Executive Order 13166, may one day insist that foreign language ballots be provided to anyone who wants one.

There are 231 languages spoken in the United States, Boulet says. There are about 6,800 languages in the entire world. Can you imagine the nightmare of confusion and paperwork that would result? What about the cost to the taxpayers? Never mind the "Tower of Babel” effect that could balkanize this country to the point where our nationhood means nothing.

NewsMax.com has heard reports that back-channel planning is under way aimed at imposing the requirement for foreign language ballots even if the new commission is somehow derailed during the congressional debate. One way to do this would be by claiming a new legal interpretation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

This measure was originally passed to deal with Jim Crow practices in the South that had prevented blacks from casting ballots. Since then, it has been expanded way beyond that original intent. Left-wing lawyers would love to sink their teeth into a court case arguing that failure to provide ballots in any one of the 231 languages spoken in the U.S. is a prima facie denial of "civil rights.”

According to Governing Magazine for April 1993, only 927 Los Angeles city residents asked for bilingual ballots - at a cost of $125,250.

$10,000 a Ballot

Hawaii spent nearly $40,000 for one particular ballot, which was used four times — a cost of $10,000 a ballot.

Congressman Istook says these new rules in the executive order are "a formula for confusion, expense and resentment.”

Leftist political operatives thought they were so entrenched in knowledge of the minutiae of the electoral process that turning any dispute to their advantage would be child’s play.

Florida 2000 sent shock waves through their political precincts. They thought they had everything under control. They were disappointed. English First says the left does not intend to allow that happen again. The executive order and the proposed new commission are seen as weapons in the leftist arsenal.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Al Gore

Bush Administration

Clinton Scandals

Presidential Race 2000

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