Deleting your vote
As the candidates enter the final stretch, the big elephant on the table (no pun intended) continues to be vote fraud. In many ways, 2004 was just as problematic an election as 2000: in particular, there’s ample evidence that Ohio was stolen, and that if this hadn’t happened, Kerry would be in the White House (Remember all those exit polls that showed Kerry winning? Well, they may have been quite accurate.)
The public’s denial on this issue runs deep indeed: who wants to admit that democracy isn’t just in crisis, but that it’s already failing? Scientists at UC released the results of a study last week showing how easy it is to hack voting machines; in fact, Diebold (the most notorious of the manufacturers of those wonderful gizmos) admitted earlier this year that its machines do in fact contain a glitch . . . but that safeguards will be in place to prevent it from impacting the 08 election. (It’s tough to write that with a straight face.)
All of which is very worrying indeed, particularly given that the GOP has already started a massive effort to start fucking with the vote by disenfranchising as many people as possible. Sure, it may be the Rovian tactics and the smears that get all the headlines, but let’s face it: there’s no better way to win elections than to rig them. Keep it up for a few more elections, and there won’t BE any more elections. And I’m starting to think that’s exactly the way a lot of people want it.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Yep. Very much agree. The question is, what can be done about it? I mean, how do you have populist intervention in something covert like that? Any ideas?
September 16th, 2008 at 11:50 am
The only one I have is that as many people as possible need to raise this as early as possible as much as possible. . . . i.e., the actual vote tampering is part of a larger pattern that’s already going on right now (disenfranchising people, making sure that inner cities will have as few voting machines as possible, sending out tampered absentee ballots to Democratic voters, etc.). That Michigan story (linked to in the post) should be mainstream news . . . but of course it’s not.
But if enough people got pissed off enough, it would be.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
we should also be aware of the boards of election in certain places. even here in DC i am having a mother bleeping hard time getting myself registered. months ago i tried because the DMV apparently didn’t want to register me.
i went in person last week and they said to check in a week. i did this yesterday and today. still nothing.
i am not in the system and new reports are coming out that there are so so many people registering. i know that the district isn’t a battle ground state but come on. we have the right to vote.
so today i wrote a nice long letter to the DC board of elections.
this kind of crap shouldn’t stand but it does.
i know this isn’t really what you wrote about but….it ties into the disenfranchisement of the people. think about all the people in the ‘battle’ states that could very well be going through this same thing.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:12 am
I still contend we have a far larger problem in the actual monkey that wanders into the polling place to exercise their right to vote–but can’t tell you a single policy difference between “his/her candidate” and the opposition, hasn’t bothered to read a single local initiative and learned the difference (where the reality of politics matters most), and just has his/her cheat sheet from the asshole in the parking lot.
Hit the buttons monkey. There’s a banana waiting for you if you get them all right. Most Americans shouldn’t be allowed to vote in the first place–or breed for that matter. We have a long way to go before we really need to worry about the voting machines. Get the operator to understand what he/she is voting for first, and then we can start on the assholes wrenching the machines.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
i totally agree with that brian guy.
i just want to be able to exercise my right as an informed citizen to vote.
i honestly don’t think that’s asking too much.
oh and as a nanny, big supporter of the idea that some people should NOT breed….but they do….and they will continue to do so…..
October 14th, 2008 at 10:09 am
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