At 23:44 11-11-00 -0400, Gord wrote:
> >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.
>
>Okay, and precisely my question: what's done about this? That was my
>question in the beginning: how can this be rectified?
Unfortunately, since it has historically been those in charge who have done
the intimidation, those who felt intimidated did not have anyone to
complain to. There has been such a history of actual and alleged
intimidation that even in this past week's election, some black voters
reported that they _felt_ intimidated by the mere presence of a sheriff's
deputy on the premises at the polling place.
>[snip] I guess I'm asking because, well, I am trying to think of a
>business that uses 40-year-old technology sans post-1960 improvements. The
>place I worked in this summer had air-conditioning systems that were less
>than 5 years old. Somehow I would place this idea of "democracy" somewhere
>ahead of air conditioning on the priority scale.
However, in this case, it is the local officials who are responsible for
purchasing new voting machines (of whatever sort) out of the budget they
have. They, like all other elected officials, are in the business of
getting re-elected. Spending the money for something the public uses every
day, such as paving roads, etc., gets them re-elected. Spending it on new
voting machines (which the public sees at most maybe once or twice a year,
if that) does not make such an impression on the electorate. Perhaps this
mess will make people more concerned about the election process and they
will pressure their leaders to improve it, but considering the typical
turnout at an election, I kinda doubt it. (I myself have missed one or
maybe two opportunities to vote since I turned 18: the one time I remember
definitely missing it was when I had to move too close to a local primary
election to register to vote in the new district, and there may have been
one other time that something similar happened.)
-- Ronn! :)
