Post by TRIPWIRE on Nov 1, 2004 23:40:31 GMT -5
November 1, 2004
Electoral Process
Written by David M. Hickerson
Originally posted at tripwire.hickersonfamily.net/2004_1101.html
I've been putting a lot of thought into this election... and since we vote tomorrow I figured now was a decent time to write about it. I remember the last time I voted I was amazed to find several things missing that I would expect to be critically important to a free and un-influenced election, and I've been made even more aware of these flaws over the past three months while I've been researching as much as I can on all of the candidates (at least, all of the ones on the Ohio ballot).
First, and I think most important, there is really no verification when you go to the polls that you are who you claim to be. Oh yeah, a pair of elderly ladies check your crappy handwriting against a signature they have on file (that you can see while you sign), big whoop-de-doo-da, I'm sure that keeps voter fraud down. [sarcasm meter thru the roof] They don't require photo ID, they don't check social security number, they don't even verify that home address is correct for God's sake. How in the world do they know that when I go to vote I'm not somebody else? I mean, I'm sure I could forge someone's signature just good enough to fool the old ladies, not like that'd be hard when the ones at my precinct last year had glasses thicker than my finger.
Then there is the funny business of dead people voting. This is a peculiar situation, one which I was surprised to hear from my dad a few days ago... my mom died four years ago... the last time he went to the polls her name was still listed. Aparently death certificates don't make their way to the board of elections so in theory some woman could probably have walked up, found that name, forged a half-decent replica of her signature, and voted as my mom even after she had been dead for two years. What is the stinking deal with that? Seriously, how is it that the IRS gets notified of a person's death but aparently the board of elections doesn't? Ohhh-kay...
In addition to the fact that dead people are allowed to vote, there is no national level registry to keep track of voters registered in multiple states so there is nothing preventing "snow birds" (usually older people who go south for the winter) from voting absentee in one state and then voting in person at another as well... so I guess some people are allowed to vote twice. There is no system to cross check these voters' registrations because when you go to the polls there is no perminent and unique identifier required. Theoretically this cencept could probably be expanded in some manner to allow a voter to vote at least once in each state, if not more...
Doesn't that seem kinda messed up?
On top of all the above-mentioned fallacies, the way things are set up seems to favor a two party system. Personally I find it offencive that the people of the United States of America are so dumbed down by the rhetoric that they cannot even see the alternative choices! If you don't agree wth Bush, you're not limited to just one other choice, but people are conditioned to believe that the other parties cannot win. That mentality is self-defeating, the only damned reason they can't win is because no one believes they can. This is sort of the same thing as if I tell my child that he is stupid repeatedly, over the course of twenty or so years I'm sure he'd begin to believe it.
I won't even go onto the topic of the electoral college, save that and it's associated issues for another topic... anyway, I just hope that you read this and go out and vote. I couldn't care less who ya vote for just like you probably don't care to know who I'm voting for, but I think it is important to get out and at least make your voice heard... I mean, really, whats the bloody point in living in a "free" country if you don't excersise that freedom?
Reference:
No reference materials were used.
Electoral Process
Written by David M. Hickerson
Originally posted at tripwire.hickersonfamily.net/2004_1101.html
I've been putting a lot of thought into this election... and since we vote tomorrow I figured now was a decent time to write about it. I remember the last time I voted I was amazed to find several things missing that I would expect to be critically important to a free and un-influenced election, and I've been made even more aware of these flaws over the past three months while I've been researching as much as I can on all of the candidates (at least, all of the ones on the Ohio ballot).
First, and I think most important, there is really no verification when you go to the polls that you are who you claim to be. Oh yeah, a pair of elderly ladies check your crappy handwriting against a signature they have on file (that you can see while you sign), big whoop-de-doo-da, I'm sure that keeps voter fraud down. [sarcasm meter thru the roof] They don't require photo ID, they don't check social security number, they don't even verify that home address is correct for God's sake. How in the world do they know that when I go to vote I'm not somebody else? I mean, I'm sure I could forge someone's signature just good enough to fool the old ladies, not like that'd be hard when the ones at my precinct last year had glasses thicker than my finger.
Then there is the funny business of dead people voting. This is a peculiar situation, one which I was surprised to hear from my dad a few days ago... my mom died four years ago... the last time he went to the polls her name was still listed. Aparently death certificates don't make their way to the board of elections so in theory some woman could probably have walked up, found that name, forged a half-decent replica of her signature, and voted as my mom even after she had been dead for two years. What is the stinking deal with that? Seriously, how is it that the IRS gets notified of a person's death but aparently the board of elections doesn't? Ohhh-kay...
In addition to the fact that dead people are allowed to vote, there is no national level registry to keep track of voters registered in multiple states so there is nothing preventing "snow birds" (usually older people who go south for the winter) from voting absentee in one state and then voting in person at another as well... so I guess some people are allowed to vote twice. There is no system to cross check these voters' registrations because when you go to the polls there is no perminent and unique identifier required. Theoretically this cencept could probably be expanded in some manner to allow a voter to vote at least once in each state, if not more...
Doesn't that seem kinda messed up?
On top of all the above-mentioned fallacies, the way things are set up seems to favor a two party system. Personally I find it offencive that the people of the United States of America are so dumbed down by the rhetoric that they cannot even see the alternative choices! If you don't agree wth Bush, you're not limited to just one other choice, but people are conditioned to believe that the other parties cannot win. That mentality is self-defeating, the only damned reason they can't win is because no one believes they can. This is sort of the same thing as if I tell my child that he is stupid repeatedly, over the course of twenty or so years I'm sure he'd begin to believe it.
I won't even go onto the topic of the electoral college, save that and it's associated issues for another topic... anyway, I just hope that you read this and go out and vote. I couldn't care less who ya vote for just like you probably don't care to know who I'm voting for, but I think it is important to get out and at least make your voice heard... I mean, really, whats the bloody point in living in a "free" country if you don't excersise that freedom?
Reference:
No reference materials were used.