![New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks at a news conference at Bristol-Myers Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University October 07, 2014 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks at a news conference at Bristol-Myers Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University October 07, 2014 in New Brunswick, New Jersey.](http://www.msnbc.com/sites/msnbc/files/styles/ratio--3-2--830x553/public/456810950.jpg?itok=d2m4OGL2)
But that’s all the more reason to take note of Christie’s comments this week on “voting mechanisms.” The Bergen Record reported:
Christie pushed further into the contentious debate over voting rights than ever before, saying Tuesday that repugicans need to win gubernatorial races this year so that they’re the ones controlling “voting mechanisms” going into the next presidential election.Christie stressed the need to keep repugicans in charge of states – and overseeing state-level voting regulations – ahead of the next presidential election.
In remarks to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the New Jersey
governor said, “Would you rather have Rick Scott in Florida overseeing
the voting mechanism, or Charlie Crist? Would you rather have Scott
Walker in Wisconsin overseeing the voting mechanism, or would you rather
have Mary Burke? Who would you rather have in Ohio, John Kasich or Ed
FitzGerald?”
I’m not sure which is worse: the prospect of Christie making these
remarks without thinking them through or Christie making these remarks because he’s already thought this through.
In theory, in a functioning democracy, control over “voting
mechanisms” shouldn’t dictate election outcomes. Citizens consider the
candidates, they cast their ballots, the ballots are counted, and the
winner takes office. It’s supposed to be non-partisan – indeed, the
oversight of the elections process must be professional and detached from politics in order to maintain the integrity of the system itself.
So what exactly is Chris Christie suggesting here?
One possible interpretation is that repugican thefts will
lead to control over elections, which in turn will lead to more repugican thefts. If this is what the governor meant, Christie is endorsing corruption.
A more charitable interpretation is that the governor thinks
Democrats will try to cheat, so electing repugicans will ensure the
proper “voting mechanisms.”
Still, political scientist Norm Ornstein paraphrased Christie’s comments this way: “How can we cheat on vote counts if we don’t control the governorships?”
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