The voting process is ridiculous. It's already proven to be wrought with fraud (see GAO Voter Fraud Report if you think I'm exaggerating), and ways of turning voters away or just eliminating their vote altogether are getting more sophisticated and numerous every election. Voter turnout falls when it's raining, or even when it's cloudy. The lines get longer (well, if you're in a certain kind of neighborhood) and don't even get me started on the people who stand out front thinking that you're undecided and if they just get in your face the right way you'll vote for their [candidate] [proposition] [new hairstyle].
It took me 4 times longer to drive the extra 5 blocks past home to the polling place than it did to vote - 7 stoplight waits? Come on. It was either that or get up at 5 and stand in the cold and the dark. And I'm pretty motivated - if I'm not, moveon.org will keep reminding me that I need to be, or I'm a p.c. criminal. Who makes the computer-less feel guilty? Did you know that more people vote on any one American Idol show than in any national election EVER? That's because A. it's easy and B. they're comfortable with the process. Not to mention that they actually feel like they have a stake in something, that their vote will be counted.
This year there was a huge focus on producing ID's. The latest trick in the disenfranchisement franchise is punishing the transient, the car-less, or the simply disorganized for not having proper ID with them. Who are the transient and car-less? Yup. Poorer people who overwhelmingly vote Democrat.
Way before Diebolt guaranteed the Bush election and delivered, people couldn't even get the hang of paper ballots. Can you imagine deciding something REALLY important, like the new American Idol for example, by driving somewhere you may never have been, in the dark, waiting in line, punching holes in paper, and then having the 95-year old volunteers count them up by hand (when it takes them 5 whole minutes to find your name in an alphabetized column) while you rush home to watch the results on TV?
Sure, I can get an absentee ballot and mail it in, but I am not likely to find the ballot, or do it in time, or have a stamp (see above: disorganized). And if ID's are so important, than why don't you need one to mail something? If I am driving to a polling place through traffic, parking and walking a mile, waiting in line, and having the voting process explained to me by someone who thinks Jon Stewart is a 16th century philosopher, why would you need my ID? WHO ELSE IS GONNA DO THIS FOR ME?
But dude, I am almost ALWAYS near a computer. Sure, I may not remember my PIN, but if you compliment me by letting me vote the way I feel most comfortable, I will show up every time, and vote in every single election. I know this is scary for you, what with all the accountability and everything, but if the banks trust online transactions, you should too.
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3 comments:
but then there are always the hacker problems. I agree with you absolutely but I am not quite sure with the solution. Perhaps a bipartisan committee (1 dem, 1 rep) who oversee the new computer process.
I agree that there will be risks associated with any voting method; however, I don't think there exists a bigger risk than continuing to allow a republican-owned corporation to dominate electronic voting and to continue the disenfranchisement that is inherent with the polling-place process. I think the key is to reduce, rather than eliminate, risk.
I won't argue with your about Diebold. People are delusional if they don't see that for what it is.
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