And I Am To Care About What A Travis County Grand Jury Says, Because?
Pack it up TPPF. You, too, CPPP. Conservative Coalition, you’re no longer needed. TFR, you can go a head and take a long vacation and go on and take all of the other think tank organizations that hang around the Capitol with you. Our very own Travis County grand jury has all of our policy recommendations from here on out under control.
Forgive me if I can’t stop laughing (or crying, for that matter).
The brave souls that they are, our Travis County grand jury has shed their courtroom obligations in favor of now telling the Texas Legislature how to do it’s job. And I might point out, they did so promptly after telling the Lege that the current job they’re doing isn’t in violation of the law.
Ever heard of, if it’s not broke then don’t fix it?
For those of you who seem lost, I’m talking about the grand jury’s ruling on the House practice of Ghost Voting, and if it violates state law. How did this even get in front of a grand jury, you ask? Oh, stay with me.
Someone who probably spends way too much time on u-tube filed a formal complaint against the Ghost Voting practice with the Travis County DA. Except, the DA took one look at that and wisely said, f-that criminal complaint. But not to be deterred, the complainer decided to then go over the DA’s head and take his case directly to the grand jury.
In issuing their ruling, the jury found no criminal activity on the part of our Legislature, but they did issue our lawmakers a “scolding”. Ouch, does this mean they have to go to bed without dinner? Are they grounded until they get their grades up?
So the Travis County grand jury is urging Ghost Voting to end because lawmakers need to win back public trust. Hey jurors, do our lawmakers come into your office and tell you what formal charges to bring up on who? I don’t think so.
My thoughts on Ghost Voting are well documented right here. I think it is a necessary evil because the system is set up for failure. Anytime a lawmaker steps off the floor to visit with constituents, take a picture with a visiting school group, or heaven forbid to work on getting their bill package pushed out of the Senate, they have to miss multiple votes. Since our lawmakers can’t be in two places at once, why penalize them?
But people don’t seem to agree with ole’ Jake, so instead I’ll offer my solution to Ghost Voting Gate. We’re going to incorporate a little bit of Tony Goolsby’s idea here and equip each floor desk with a finger print voting machine that can only be accessed by the member who is assigned that desk. Then we’re going to fix each Member with a shock collar around their neck.
And every time they either step away from their desks during a vote or try to vote for one of their absent olleagues, well…you get the picture.
Now that would make for some good u-tube coverage.