>Come on John. The machines they use are old, the ballot was messy, >people were
>apparently not allowed to fix their mistakes . . .
The key word there is apparently. Thus far, we have one report from one voter to that
effect. If this was demonstrated to be widespread, that consitutes voter fraud. I
have not seen anything near amounting to that level of proof, however.
>no "everything" is.
>Obviously there was a problem with the system too.
I agree, I have supported for some time a move to entirely electronic balloting in
this country. I find the punch card to by Byzantine and arcane, and very prone to
fraud.
In New York, we use mechanical ballots, which at least seems a step up in that nobody
can accidentally vote for two candidates with a mechanical ballot.
>I have a serious problem with what you say here, though:
>
>>Come on now, do we really want people who couldn't
>>follow an arrow to a dot deciding the President of the United >>States?
>
>I thought that in your country, it was one vote per person of voting >age. Isn't it?
My point was not so much that, but more that we shouldn't have a great deal of
sympathy who made errors completely out of their own inceompetence. A reasonable
person, taking voting seriously, and taking their time with the ballot would not have
screwed up.
>That'd be a ballot for which NO possibility for contestation
> would be possible. Why not do that instead of saying "well, the >system has warts."
Because it *does* have warts Gord. Maybe as a Canadian, you don't realize all the
inadequacies of our system.
1) Secret ballot prevents us from checking ballots to ensure that they are filled out
correctly.
2) Universal sufferage precents us from checking the identity of voters with anything
more than a signature saying that they are who they really say they are. (which is
compared to a signature made when the voter first registered to vote.)
3) Ballot box stuffing is still not uncommon, especially in urban areas. Usually, it
is not to a degree to affect the result. This year, that is obviously a distinct
possibility.
4) Bribery remains widespread, especially in urban areas. At least one case has been
confirmed in Milwaukee The distribution of "walking money" remains common in
predominatnly black areas. Voter intimidation is not unheard of in rural, especially
predominantly black rural areas.
5) Bias and corruption in the counting and certification provess remains not unheard
of. In fact, a judge has recently declared the election in New Mexico to be
compromised.
>Make a consistent nationwide ballot-template to prevent such> >problems from
>recurring.
This is probably unconstitutional, as each State is responsible for electing their own
representatives.
>But I will point out one thing to you: anyone can look at another >group (usually one
>defined in the observer's own mind) and decide >that those people are unfit to decide
>something like who should run >the country.
Let me say again, I am not saying that they are unfit to vote. Merely that these
people are responsible for their own actions, and they were given a free and fair
opportunity to vote, the same as everybody else. Moreover, the needs of these people
are completely unsufficient to take the drastic step of ordering a revote.
My own example, if you choose the lottery numbers 2-4-7-13-24-40-57 and say that you
meant to pick 2-4-7-13-24-40-58, but the holes were too small and messed up, you don't
get to repick your lottery numbers after finding out how close you were.
You still had a *right* to pick those lottery numbers, and you were not
disenfranchised when you made a mistake. You are responsible for your own actions.
JDG
John D. Giorgis
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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