NOW can we talk about voting reform?

[techweenie]

It didn't matter at all to the neo-conned that there were serious voting irregularities in the past 3 elections... because they won.

Now that the 'other side' has won some races, can we address voting irregularities?

Easily hacked electronic voting machines are in place all over: Ohio, Florida... I think most states use electronic voting machines to some extent.

These machines are subject to tampering, and the reporting software that tabulates votes from the machines is also easily messed with.

Good example:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127838-c,currentevents/article.html

18K votes *disappeared* from the Congressional races in Sarasota County. classified as 'undervotes' because other races on the ballot were checked, but the main race -- the key reason for the election -- was 'not voted.' Sure, it's only Katherine Harris, but if someone wants to elect Bat***** Boobjob Kate, their vote should count.

Just because 'we' won doesn't mean the machines don't need fixing -- or at least let's establish 'paper trails.'

Lots of good info here:

http://blackboxvoting.org/

[fastpat]

Reforms I'd like to see. Some are federal, some state, and others apply locally.

1. Restrictions on who can vote; move to another state you can't vote there for 5 years in local elections, and for the president only in federal elections. Immigrant citizens can't vote at all, only children of immigrants will be allowed to vote if born and raised in America. (Note: I could give this up with the supermajority requirement in effect) Only property owners can vote for anything that will increase or stabilize property taxes. Of course, elimination of property taxes would allow everyone to vote.

2. Supermajority (2/3's or higher) required to win elections, and that's of all registered voters, even those not voting. No winner, the seat remains empty.

3. Vote of no confidence for the President at any time, meaning an election is held, the vice-president serves only until the election is complete.

4. Repeal of the 17th Amendment.

5. Remove all restrictions on who may appear on the ballot for offices; even it 200 or 20,000 names appear as presidential candidates.

6. Part time state AND federal legislatures, no recess appointment powers for the president unless some office holder dies of natural causes.

I'm sure I could think of others, but those will do to start.

[Jeff Higgins]

#2 is merely a back-door way to vacate all seats.

[MRM]

Boobjob Kate can have me for a boy toy any time she wants. She could have my vote, too, if she could get me registered in Florida. How hard could that be?

One vote for each tax dollar paid. Now that's voting reform.

[techweenie]

Originally posted by MRM
Boobjob Kate can have me for a boy toy any time she wants. She could have my vote, too, if she could get me registered in Florida. How hard could that be?

I'd really rather not think about how hard it may be.

[nota]

a vote for none of the above catagory

and if [none] wins a new election with new candidates

[fastpat]

Originally posted by Jeff Higgins
#2 is merely a back-door way to vacate all seats.

And, that's a problem.....because?

[cowtown]

Originally posted by techweenie
Now that the 'other side' has won some races, can we address voting irregularities?

Let's put it this way:

Since gas prices came back down, have you heard anyone press for gas price regulation?

Politics is the business of leveraging the short attention span of the electorate.

[Rick Lee]

I'm only 35, but I've never missed a chance to vote for any election where I was eligible and, somehow, I've just never run into any of these voter intimidation or fraud tactics. I think the longest I ever waited in line was about 15 min. Last week I was in and out in under 5 min. If the voting machines are so susceptible to tampering, why can't they make the margins of victory more than a few hundred or thousand votes? If FL 2000 was rigged, wouldn't they have made Bush win by more than 537 votes? Or on the other hand, wouldn't they have made Gore win WV or TN? Sure would have been a lot more believable than what actually happened.

[red-beard]

I'd like to repeal the 12th amendment, 16th amendment, 22nd amendment, and then exercise by the courts of the 9th and 10th amendments to kill almost all of the Federal Nanny laws.

[cool_chick]

It's sad they can't recount in Virginia even if they wanted to.

[Rick Lee]

Originally posted by cool_chick
It's sad they can't recount in Virginia even if they wanted to.

My understanding is that they can but it would be around mid-December before all the hurdles were cleared for a recount.

[cool_chick]

Originally posted by Rick Lee
My understanding is that they can but it would be around mid-December before all the hurdles were cleared for a recount.

From what I understand, 75% of the new machines didn't provide any sort of method for recount. In other words, it's physically impossible.

Maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I heard.

[id10t]

No term limits, but no consecutive terms in the same office, no pres this term and vp next and pres again though...

[Moneyguy1]

id10t

I agree.....Senate: no consecutive terms; one term off between attempts

House: two (or three) consecutive terms, one (or two) off between attempts

[fastpat]

Originally posted by id10t
No term limits, but no consecutive terms in the same office, no pres this term and vp next and pres again though...

The president is limited to two terms, and cannot be vice-president later since to be vice-president you have to be qualified to be president. Anyone who has held two terms as president is no longer qualified to be president.

[the]

Interesting article in the November 13 issue of Fortune on electronic voting, and the Diebold company.

I didn't know much about Diebold. They are a 147 year old, $2.6 billion/yr company. They were once headed by Eliot Ness. Their prime business is banking, things like ATMs and bank vaults.

Looks at the other methods of voting, and the ways that all methods can (and have been) cheated in the past (paper ballots used since the 1700s, lever machines in the 1800s, punch cards, optical scans, etc. are all easy to tamper with and have been tampered with.)

Here's an interesting quote from the article: "There has not been a single confirmed instance of vote tampering with a Diebold machine - or any other electronic machine."

[rammstein]

This "boob-job" Kate of whom you speak...

some pictures would really help me to decide how I feel.

[tobster1911]

The electronic machine I used this year had a printed record that would scroll one page at a time and you could verify it (which I did). You could change things up to two times. Seems fine by me. I like it better than filling in ovals with a pen.