The vote I was referring to was the potential vote, namely the number of those eligible to vote. He got 31% of that vote, because so many people who could have voted didn’t. That means somewhere in the region of 70% either voted for Carter or didn’t vote at all. That was my point: not voting is like pointing a gun at your head and pulling the trigger. It allows extremists like Reagan and Cheney and Bush to occupy the White House.

Perhaps you should be more concerned with things like this:

“However, in the end, Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority lobbying group is credited with giving Reagan two-thirds of the white evangelical vote.”

•In Bernalillo County, Albuquerque, Precinct 512, Bush received 206 votes even though only 166 votes were cast.

•Bush also won Precinct 558 where 178 absentee voters cast 319 votes. All of them for Bush.

•For Kerry, strangely, the reverse was true. In Precinct 46 the gremlins had been busy. Of 207 ballots cast, 114 had no vote recorded for President. Precinct 46 is a Democrat stronghold.

•The number of dead people who voted in New Mexico was 2, 087. This was half of Bush’s winning margin.

•In Duval County, Florida there were 27,000 ruined ballots and 11,000 of that total came from just five precincts. They were, of course, all black precincts.

•In Gadsen, the blackest and poorest of Florida’s sixty seven counties 1 in 12 votes was ‘spoiled’. Gadsen used optical scanners to read the paper ballots. Any stray mark whatsoever meant the vote was discarded. Yet in uppercrust Tallahassee right next door they used paper ballots in the 2000 election and didn’t lose a single vote.

•Computer touch screens produce unrecorded votes at a rate 600% higher than paper ballots with ‘try it again’ scanners. Computer touch screens cost 400% more than the paper and scanner combo.

After the sensationally controversial Presidential election of 2000, Jeb Bush appointed a ‘Select Task Force on Elections Procedures’. Having conducted their inquiry, these experts called for the introduction of paper ballots statewide. Jeb Bush overruled them. The fact is, you can’t re-count a computer vote, something the Bush family seems to find most attractive. It’s not hard to see why. Florida’s statutory right to a recount in close races was solved by Jeb Bush’s right hand woman, Glenda Hood. She issued a decree simply voiding the right to recount ballots for counties with computer voting. A Leon County elections supervisor objected and was told by Ms. Hood that he ‘wasn’t a team player’.

(From ‘Armed Madhouse’, Greg Palast).

All part of a larger plan by the richest minority and their wannabes to take over the country. They are getting closer to that final out come. Trashing our economy will speed them to that point. Then they call the shots, do the make over, create their own version of the USA. No matter how much of a parody it is.

@Juan

‘“The article does not cite the evidence that supports the premise “study after study has shown that fraud by voters is not a major problem”.’

I’m too lazy to look it up but I believe there have only been 10 convictions throughout the entire country for actual voter fraud in recent history - feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. Besides, since voter I.D. laws are supposedly meant to solve the problem of voter fraud the, onus of proof is on its supporters. Prove the existence of rampant, systemic voter fraud or admit you support a solution without a problem in the pursuit of another goal altogether.

DYSFUNCTIONAL DEMOCRACY?

I find none of the arguments in this article to be convincing, but neither would I dismiss the out-of-hand.

I would propose nonetheless that our national Congress has two failings:
* Gerrymandering is keeping America from a true one-person-one-vote rule in the HofR - which has been an integral part of national and local politics since the 19th century.
* Life tenure in the Senate tends to encrust its members into sinecure-like office and allows manipulation by K-street BigBusiness lobbyists.

Can you imagine a Representative of a constituency who does not even live in its boundaries? Happens all the time. In some instances, the apportionment was ludicrous – for instance, in a Vermont General Assembly, the smallest district once had 36 people, the largest 35,000, a ratio of almost 1,000 to 1.

California’s “Ahnold” put an end to gerrymandering in that state (even if the state legislature must approve the new apportioning method). And it appears that it may be catching on in other states as well. Let’s hope so.

The predominance of a two-party system has a benefit in that it brings stability to a political system. Anyone who looks at Europe understands what that means. But our political stability has come at a price. The longer an individual is seated,  the more they learn about the mechanism of governance. But, alas, they also become more prone to be manipulated by personal financial gain.

We instituted a law that requires a PotUS to step down after two terms in order to curtail the abuse of power. We cannot employ the same for our congressional representatives, say maybe limiting their tenure to 3/4 terms?  And do it on a state level as well, under the notion that one-person-one-rule is a fundamental right of all a nation’s citizens?

Is politics-as-a-career really in the best interests of our country? Does the ad infinitum tenure of millionaires in the Senate really add stability to the political process or does it facilitate grid-lock?

The answers to these questions are not evident. Yet, they are worth considering as valid questions regarding how our “democracy” functions.

You want to stand up. Move past the namby pamby liberal Obama/Dem apologists like the author?

You want to join something real?

New Progressive Alliance
newprogs.org

If you want to get at the forefront of the movement to take back our elections,
support the activists in Wisconsin who are fighting on the frontline right now to
protect the recall elections in July and August—they’re going to kick the
corporatists out of WI but ONLY if the election isn’t rigged by the computers.
Wisconsin Citizens for Election Protection has formed the resistance and needs
your help to get a secure hand counted paper ballot election! You can find them
on Facebook.

To read more, go here:

http://www.votescam.org/Votescam/Dont_Let_Them_Rig_the_Recall.html

“Yes, yes, I can see you want to occupy the moral high ground and be above it all…”
—
No, no, that’s not it at all. It’s simply a matter of being annoyed at people like you who refuse to own up to the facts.

Obama said he would get the troops out of Iraq, and he hasn’t.

He said he would close Guantanamo Bay, and he hasn’t.

He said he would end Bush era surveillance programs, and he hasn’t.

He said he opposed a healthcare mandate and preferred a public option, but once in office he signed a bill with a mandate, forgot about the public option altogether, and snickered at all his constituents who expressed dismay at his about-face.

Some people unfortunately are less swayed by the facts than they are by party loyalty and emotion.

“Ronald Reagan was elected on 31% of the vote…”

—

No, that’s false. Reagan won 50.7% of the popular vote in 1980 to Carter’s 41%. He trounced Carter in the Electoral College, 489-49, and he even did better in the EC in 1984, beating Mondale by a tally of 525-13.

“The real imbeciles are those like you who believe there’s a quark’s worth of difference between the two political parties.”

Yes, yes, I can see you want to occupy the moral high ground and be above it all but the simple fact is a return of the Republican party to government at this point would be a disaster so apocalyptic in its nature that I don’t believe you can even comprehend it. That would be the only outcome of everyone following your example and just not voting or voting for Ralph Nader or Superman, both of whom have an equal chance of forming government. Ronald Reagan was elected on 31% of the vote - pretty much the conservative base- so the lunar right doesn’t need to have good policies or have a vision for the future that’s not out of horror movie they just have to make voters hate Obama and their base will still turn out while the progressives sit at home watching ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ and sniffing ‘a plague on both your houses’ and feeling virtuous. The saying ‘Cutting off your nose to spite your face’ comes to mind. And just remember that they can’t steal the election unless it’s close, so not voting will make it possible for them to do it.

Why bother rigging an election that’s already rigged? Cmon! Who in the hell is there to vote for? The days of voting for the lesser of evils can no longer stand! Evil is running for every office from both of our Janus-faced parties! This nation doesn’t need another sham election; it needs an awakening! FREE BRADLEY MANNING AND TIM DeCHRISTOPHER!!!!!!

CJ Your 6 48pm comment;

Killer comment. The rest of the conversation has become useless.
  How to we fight back?

Once upon a time I was married to a woman who cheated on me during our eleventh year of marriage. After an ugly separation, she came visiting to ask me if it was possible for us to re-unite.

I had to explain that she had lied to me, and not only did it call into question that one event and its ramifications, it also called into question her veracity as to every single time she’d “gone out with the girls” during our past time together. I could no longer believe what she said. She no longer had any credibility.

This is how I see our electoral system. Its very security has been called into question, and the system currently in use invites misconduct. Why should I trust it now, given its history? After that sordid mess in Florida when the Supreme Court arbitrarily cancelled the votes of real Americans in order to declare the winner, how can anyone trust it? It’s not worth a hanging chad.

I wish I could get irate about this.  It wasn’t long ago that I felt passion about
my vote; you know, one vote makes a difference.  But we are faced with corrupt
politicians and cowardly Democrats who feel more obligated to their coroporate
donors than they do to their constituents, who are driven more by power than
civic duty.  The last time I felt this disappointed I voted for Nader and I have no
doubt that if Nader were actually running in an atmosphere like this, he’d now
get the progressive vote. 

We are engaged in over 3 wars costing billions a month and these clowns want
to cut Medicare and Social Security to finance tax cuts for the wealthy and
rebuild the Mideast.  And there are few effin jobs that pay anything, making us
all illegal immigrants.

People want to vote FOR someone, but the Dem strategy seems to be if you
don’t vote democratic, you’ll get Michele Bachmann.  At that point, I seek
asylum.

Voter Suppression? .. what the Republicans are doing now with ID bills and more is nothing compared to what Obama and the Democratic majority did to keep people out of the voting booth.. by their betrayal of the coalition of voters, including many first time voters, who went out to vote and put them in to office.

Corporate war, the environment, torture, an out of control Intelligence community, illegal wiretapping, the Justice Department as a political weapon, secrecy in government, the revolving door of corporate advocacy and public office, income inequality, fairness in the tax code including tax havens and dodges, single payer health care .. the list goes on..

Each of theses explicitly or implicitly condemned by candidate Obama and the (then) Democratic minority.. we gave them our hearts and the keys to Washington and they spat on us.

That’s voter suppression..

The Republicans? They want people to show who they are when they vote.. sure, it’s a canard! .. real voting fraud is in the software of these no-trail electronic voting systems.. But guess what.. a strong segment of Americans who do vote want more assurance that only people with the legal right to vote are doing so.. and only once..

Now the Democrats are crying about minorities and some people who don’t have photo ID and whatever else the shrill left minority and immigrant advocates and more tell them is so awful.. Here’s news.. voting is a primary privilege that mainstream America is protective of, rightfully so. The Democrats, instead of getting involved and helping to make the changes more fair or palatable.. became themselves the party of NO..  and are properly portrayed as being squarely on the wrong side of an issue that is important to very many American voters..

We like to portray the Republicans as stupid.. they are very smart. For every Progressive voter that decides (again) because of the voter ID bills they won’t vote Republican there’s a hundred undecided Americans who now think the Democrats don’t care about keeping the vote honest.

Good job Democrats!

Adios.

“Paradoxically, the rank partisanship of these measures is discouraging the media from reporting plainly on what’s going on. Voter suppression so clearly benefits the Republicans that the media typically report this through a partisan lens, knowing that accounts making clear whom these laws disenfranchise would be labeled as biased by the right. But the media should not fear telling the truth or standing up for the rights of the poor or the young.”

This is why Republicans constantly get away with the crap they pull; they know the mainstream media (and the Villagers especially) will never call them on it out of fear of appearing partisan.

At least Fox News is nakedly partisan which tends to keep Democrats honest. Who is keeping Republicans honest?

Dictellect,

You’re cute, and oh so clever.

But you know, I feel the same way about Democracies that I do about Christians:
They sound awesome.  Please let me know when you find one.

Ya know what?  The election is rigged no matter what shenanigans go on around voter registration.  We’ll get Obama and some obnoxious Repug, and they’ll fight it out over issues that some of us may care about but about which neither one will do much once in office.

It’s tiresome continuing to pretend that this election is about anything at all, except employment for all the election-whores who run these things and another attempt to legitimize a system that most people see through

Patrick Henry

I was an Official Green Party Observer in the 2004 Ohio Re-Count. Obviously, I could not agree more. What I seen in Eire and Seneca County as well as what happened all over horrifies me to this day.

Beverley and the good folks at Black Box Voting have covered this extensively. The movie American Blackout with Cynthia McKinney, likewise covers all this very well.

The real question is…

Why does TruthDig continue to give this apologist for a system corrupted and discredited to it’s very core any space at all? I mean it’s not like there are not good writers out there that are not apologists.

It was like at Netroots Nation. All of the SPEAKERS there were Obama/Dem apologists but the folks on the floor were not.

Golden microphone rules? If you have the gold or speak on behalf of those who have the gold, you gain the golden microphone.

What could be more emblematic of the lost cause America has become, or
always was, than our (for most of us, absolutely sincere and morally democratic)
demand that ALL citizens be freely allowed to vote for only one of two electable
candidates belonging to two political parties, which are really one party, neither
of which could be accused of being democratic in point of view?

The right or what is referred to as “right,” from moderate to extreme, is always
fully represented while the left is always left with Nader, who’s not exactly a
commie. Otherwise, Peace and Freedom Party when Nader’s affiliated with the
Green Party, both despised for the most part but also so irrelevant as to hardly elicit
usual hostility from either Repub or Dem, so secure are both of those in their
tyranny, albeit a more subtle form of tyranny than in, say, Uzbekistan.

But commentators are forever taking out after someplace like North Korea when
the U.S. exhibits the same one-party rule, even if the individual isn’t always the
same. It’s the form of rule that matters and not the ruler. Just as it’s the people
who make history and not individuals who become historic figures who make history.

It was never democracy vs. socialism, but capitalism vs. socialism—back in the
good ole Cold War days. (I hear turnover in the Duma, or was it the Politboro, is
greater than in the U.S. Congress.)

Actually, that’s not true either: It was one form of capitalism v. another form of
capitalism, since socialism was never practiced in the U.S.S.R.

Rigidly hierarchical capitalism by definition cannot tolerate democracy, a fact China
has finally demonstrated to any who still believed the two weren’t thesis and antithesis—in
the event pre-WWII fascism hadn’t already demonstrated the two weren’t
incompatible.

Fascism has already won the era, the historical period. Fascism is the name of
the 20th Century and so far of the 21st. WWII was finally lost, not won, if
winning meant the defeat of fascism.

So long as class difference, so long is democracy no more than a dream, and so
long, then, are elections not remotely what they could be (if useful at all) even
were there not effort (throwback or ongoing) on the part of the “still [or even more] crazy after
all these years” right to further restrict access.

A liberal is someone who thinks elections are stolen whenever Republicans get the credit for what Democrats designed.

The elections are the fraud in elections.

http://www.chenangogreens

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/coke-or-pepsi/

Honestly, every other week Dionne writes about something truly educational.  I had no idea this was happening.  All the knee-jerk ‘progressive’ ‘anarchist (ha)’ ‘really-just-cynical’ replies are here and expected, but this is election manipulation that is no different than the manipulation of Mid-Eastern countries that we invade in order to insure ‘fair’ elections.

After the Gore and Florida debacle, though, no one is surprised by the fraud.

Another general election with paperless electronic voting machines? 

More accountability with electronic blackjack.

The bit about gun permits being permissible while student ID’s are not is a silly
example.  Have any of you gone though the handgun screening process?  If
someone has a concealed hand gun license, they have gone through multiple
layers of screening and are most assuredly an American citizen without a
felony.  Seriously, they are not easy to obtain if you are not in good standing.  A
student ID on the other hand… I hear they are passing those out by the dozen.

I remember Bill Maher talking once about voting.  He said it SHOULD be difficult
to vote.  It should be an inconvenience.  It is the citizen’s responsibility to
ensure he or she understands the process and can legally vote.  I’m tired of all
this whining.

All that being said, I have to agree with MK77.  Voting is a joke and a waste of
time.  You’re a fool if you think there is any difference between the giant
douche and the turd sandwich.

“If people actually turn up to vote how can the Republicans get back into office? They know the voters are not going to elect them and imbeciles like you are their only hope.”

——-

The real imbeciles are those like you who believe there’s a quark’s worth of difference between the two political parties.

Both parties vote for the same wars and bloated Pentagon budgets. Both believe equally ardently that insurance companies should run the healthcare system. Both believe Israel has some God-given right to do with the Palestinians what she wishes. Both believe money is good for the affluent and bad for the poor. Both take obscene sums of money from the same corporate sources. Both are equally opposed to public funding of elections.

I wish I could be more sanguine, but I’m afraid my point has flown over your soft little head.

“We NEED voter suppression in America.

We NEED people not to show up to vote or to be turned away at the polls.”

Oh, of course ‘we’ do. If people actually turn up to vote how can the Republicans get back into office? They know the voters are not going to elect them and imbeciles like you are their only hope. And why is anyone surprised? The Republicans already stole two elections and the evidence that they did is overwhelming. When they know they can’t win they simply steal the election and if people take your advice it will be even easier for them to do it.

We NEED voter suppression in America.

We NEED people not to show up to vote or to be turned away at the polls.

Voting has become a truly obscene act in the U.S.—a filthy consent ritual which props up two political parties that are substantially indistinguishable from one another and which deserve to be banished from the face of the earth.