Voter Registration
 

I certainly hope that everyone who is eligible has registered already, and is just waiting for November 2nd. However, you may need to double-check that registration. This sort of thing might be happening around your hometown. :upset:

Regardless of who you support, get out there and vote!

I'm adding more here, since this kind of thing scares the life out of me every time I read about it, and the only way to counter it is to make sure people know.

Voter registration problems in Florida and Pennsylvania. The link in my previous post talked about Oregon, Nevada and West Virginia. Yes, truthout.org is a pro-Kerry site, but they do a good job collecting articles from the AP, Reuters, and elsewhere that might normally slip through the cracks.

This is outright voter fraud. If a man can still face a death penalty for treason in this day and age, what about those who actively work against the democratic process, who work to destroy everything that makes this country worth living in? (I won't say "makes this country great," we still have a long way to go.)

Once again, this time in Ohio. The Rebublican party themselves will have 3,600 paid recruits waiting at the polls to challenge anyone who might not be eligible to vote. And here I thought more voters was always a good thing.

It seems that if you live in a battleground state and registered Democrat, you stand a good chance of getting turned away at the door. Solution: vote early. What, do you think there's anything Kerry or Bush could possibly do in the next few days that would change anything?

Makes me sad to see how few ppl seem to be interested in the upcoming presidential elections in the US. There's no doubt about the result here: Bush is going to make it. Once again, he will not get the majority of the votes, but thanks to your outdated system of electors, he won't have to move out of the White House. With all the new computer-aided ballot-casting-systems, you won't even be able to recount votes in any given state. Somebody just has to enter the count of choice, and everything will turn out smooth. Needless to add that this system was sponsored by the WH.

</rant>

Not my country. Still my world. Go for another area of 'Splendid Isolation', do us the favor, yes???

Okay, I'll say right up front that though I don't subscribe to any single political ideology I do lean far more towards the liberal side which I'm sure colors my reading of this article, but...

Did I just read that?!? Was that implying that because democrats had a large push to register voters they are considered ringers?! Sounds a lot like a case of sour grapes that the republicans didn't manage to get as many eligible voters to register.

I thought the last election caused me to lose faith in the system, the way this election is playing out it looks like it will be even worse.

You're right, this is outright fraud, but both parties are doing it. I fear there is no one in politics today that actually has the interests of the country in mind. They're all just in it for their own personal quest for power, fame, or wealth. I don't see how democracy can survive in this country unless some very dramatic changes are made. The problem, however, is that few see this disturbing trend and most of those who do have become so apathetic that they just dont' care anymore. Unless the american people, as a whole, wake up and say that they won't stand for this corruption any longer, things will just get worse.

All sides are guilty, just depends which side you ask.

This is true, I only called out the GOP because they are openly hiring recruits to stand outside the polling places and tell people they can't vote.

Regardless of who does it, to let that kind of behavior slide due to apathy is horrible. If both sides are doing it, stick it to the both of them, and let them know that you are aware of your legal rights. And whatever else you do, VOTE!

Alright, NOW I'm worried about the GOP
 

I mean, wow. Just wow.

I think the part that made my wince the most was
I thought this was America, where we the people can sue for whatever we want, and no one, especially not the government, has the ability to stop us. That doesn't mean we will always win the case, but we are always allowed to make one. It's not a perfect system, but that's freedom for you.

Maybe it's just me, but I thought it was the voters' right and responsibility to ensure fair and due process. Now we are told that there is "no private right of action to enforce a federal statute". Ouch. I'm sorry, what country did I grow up in?

And since when was it the job of the Justice department to interpret the law anyway? That's the whole reason we have seperate sections of government. The legislative (Congress) to create the law, the executive (including the justice dept.) to enforce the law, and the judicial (hello, Supreme Court) to interpret the law.

And here's an update on those 3,600 GOP recruits and their democratic counterparts.

I like this Judge Dlott, she seems to have her priorities straight here. By effectively banning both parties from the polling place, she's done her best to make sure that the election remains unswayed by potential fraud. Good job. :D

BTW, if you're a voter in the state of Ohio, you have my sympathies. Tomorrow is going to be a tough day for a lot of people.

For my own personal knowledge, I would like to know exactly how this US "electoral system" works.

What's wrong with just using the popular vote? It always makes me wonder why the US has this weird election system that no other Westernized nation understands.

THIS WILL SCARE YOU!

It has already gotten out of hand....How sickening is that. On another note I heard from a friend that Micheal Moore has stated that he has 1200 people with hidden camera's that are going to filming certain important polling places watching for fraud.

Electorial system was based upon the theory that the mass majority is illeterate. This was true when the system was setup - it's also pretty true now. It protects the rights of states from majority rules. If it's popular base, smaller states lose power since they have less say. If you look at the contested states, you noticed that the majority is in the small states. who would have thought that Hawaii, Navada, and mid-western states are all in contest. If it was majority rule, candidates would concentrate only in New York, texas, and California. If you win all three states and a handful of other states, you win since those three states hold 48% of the population.

The real reason is because we did it first. Unfortunately at the time there were technical issues with ensuring the votes being reported properly. Rather than try to resolve that, our founding fathers cobbled together the system we use now. Having our example to work from, every other democracy knew better than to follow in our footsteps. We'd probably change it if it wasn't so much trouble to amend the constitution for something that mostly works.

I was unable to vote in the General Election because the Democrat lawyer challenged my vote. Why? The street I live on is on the border between two districts. My house is on the line. They also challenged me since I voted Republican 4 years ago to oust our corrupt Governor. State Law forces us to declare affiliation on the ballot.

Am I going to hold this against them? Maybe. I usually vote Democrat but I will probably vote Republican for my local government. I'm not telling you what I'm going to vote for the federal gov;t!

Well America is NOT a democracy. As AnimeOni said, the system was set up so that the larger, more populated, states don't have power over the smaller ones.

As for HOW it works... Each state has a certain number of electoral votes based upon it's population. The more people that live in the state, the more electors. If a state has 6 electoral votes, the candidate that gets 51% gets all of them. Then all the electoral votes are added up and the candidate with the most wins.

This means that the candidates struggle to get even a 1% margin in the states with the largest population (and the most electoral votes) while being willing to loose by 30% in states that have only a few electoral votes. A loss is a loss regardless of the margin.

That's how our current president could win the election without winning a majority of the votes. (He got small margins in big states.)

The United States is a REPUBLIC. Republic = Representative. Representative = Electorals.

States rule vs Federal Rule vs. Majority Rule.

Electorial college provides State more power.

Illiterate - adj. Ignorant; Uneducated; esp., Not knowing how to read or write

I think at least in today's world your statement is a broad sweeping generalization and I do not agree that the mass majority is illiterate.

Sorry, let me clarify. The thing is that many people in the US does not know the issues and some do not care what the issues are. They vote with their hearts vs heads. this is true with most elections. Think history: Reagan, Clinton, Kennedy. Kennedy is an interesting issue. He got in basically on looks and family but ended up being very good.

I can't remember the CNN poll but a lot of people want Kerry to win since they do not like Bush. When asked to list what Kerry stands for, a lot of people cannot say what he stood for.

Another thing is the Draft. A lot of people think that it's Bush's idea. It's actually a Charles Rangel, Rep from NY (D). Why did he submit this? As a protest against having young and uneducated and poor people die while the "rich" and "educated" are safe from the front lines.

Basically, what I'm getting at is people are either mis-informed of the issues, uneducated as to what canididates stand for, vote by emotions, and so forth.

Oh, BTW, since you are listed as WA state. You can say Gary Locke is a very good govenor. He got in because of the concentrated asian vote. As to how good he was, well, you know.