One other quick issue for discussion

[dmac]

I got into another disagreement this evening about how the Dems can change their fate. Everyone has an opinion but no one really wants to hear that maybe Kerry really won and that maybe where we need to concentrate our energy is on election reform. Though most people believe it is needed, they do not seem to think it is any more important than platform, or moving more to the middle, or moving more to the left. My spouse believes that America is so used to being spoon-fed in sound bites that they do not have the attention span for anything else - and therefore any message the Dems are trying to get out needs to be able to fit into little 30-60 second time slot.

I agree with this to some extent, but if the problem is vote reform and we do not tackle that first, little else will matter (IMO). But there is no way of explaining why vote reform is so essential in 30-60 seconds, is there? As I pointed out to him, I have a hard time even getting him to listen to or read anything about this. No one seems to want to spend the time and I feel people find my relentless pounding on this subject tiresome.

I feel most Americans have created such incredibly busy lives that they have chosen the quickest and easiest ways of staying "informed". Unfortunately those ways are leaving out some possibly very serious concerns they need to be paying attention to. How are we ever going to change this? Is there a genius out there somewhere that can fit what has happened into a 30-60-90 second time frame to build up the force of believers?

[GetTheRightVote]

1. I believe with Kerry finally making statements concerning Election

reform that the media will start picking up on it.
This then will lead to the public being made aware of the elections problems, etc, etc, I hope.

:kick:

[Carolab]

2. Honestly. It's a huge dilemma.

A 527 like Move-On can put together "spots" about the election. But who is going to run them? If we say there is a problem we need to say why; if we say why, we are "questioning the election"...it's the same as * telling America we "didn't fire him" and therefore he has our "blessing" but if we try to protest what he is doing we are shut down.

We just need to keep finding alternative ways to wake people up. And we need to talk to our representatives. Bev Harris said it best: "Be the media". So what if people find it "tiresome"? You are only speaking the truth about what they need to hear. Try finding some simple analogies: For instance, ask them whether they would bank without a receipt and without a hard copy available to them about their transaction so they can reconcile it to the total in their account. With e-voting, the totals shown on the "statement" are unverifiable unless we each have a receipt and we can count them all up to see if they match. That can only happen by hand-counting the receipts and then checking those receipts against the ledger book (pollbooks/registers), just like matching your banking transactions against your own bank statement or checkbook.

[marions ghost]

3. one of the most effective things I've seen

are the short video clips people put on the net--very lo-budget, very
"real." (Yes we have slick media, but we also have "reality TV").
Made with simple editing programs, no special effects. I'm thinking of the one somebody put up showing the harassers at the polling places, and the various clips of speakers here and there. What if a series of these could be made, showing regular people talking about how they felt about voting on a machine with no record, or watching people keel over from standing in lines, or how they got a intimidation letter. Mix it with good footage of "what needs to be done, what u can do." A view from the voter's perspective. I don't have the expertise to do this, but I sure can "see" it.

I realize these clips would be available only to those who frequent the net, but you could also put a compilation on DVD, which a lot of people have access to, and distribute it cheaply.