Today We Have Two Choices: Fix the System, or Don't Bother to Vote

[Wilms]

Today We Have Two Choices: Fix the System, or Don't Bother to Vote

By Guy T. Sturino

October 22, 2005

You are a good citizen. You find out all you can about the important political issues. You research candidates. You put signs in your yard and stickers on your car to encourage others to see your side. You contribute time and money to political campaigns. You brave weather and long lines to be sure that you cast your ballot on election day. You have performed an important, probably the most important, civic duty. All is well with the world.

Or, is it? The reality is, with the advent of electronic voting machines without a voter verified paper trail, you don’t know today how your vote was counted in the last election.

Before you cry foul, or insist that this can’t be true, or worse yet – that this is no more than the raving of a sore looser liberal, I encourage you to investigate the reports from two organizations, the General Accounting Office (GAO), and The National Election Data Archive (NEDA), a nonprofit organization of statisticians and mathematicians devoted to the accuracy of U.S. vote counts.

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If there is one letter that every U.S. citizen of voting age should write, it is a letter to each and every one of their Senators and Congresspersons insisting that the electoral system be repaired before the November 2006 elections. If you value your democracy, do it now.

Our fate is in our hands.

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http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=3117

[bullimiami]

1. so freaking true. the frustration. got us in 2000.

i think in 2002 we go jobbed on our state races. and in 04 we got the shaft big time and we worked so hard for it.

smash the machines?

[Caution]

2. This is the big problem i have with the vote reform

movement. Even if you think the system may be rigged, go and VOTE. Always vote. Speak up at the polls about your misgivings as to the system, write letters to the editor and your congress critters but most of all ALWAYS VOTE.

Those who tell you to stay home because it's rigged or broken or whatever are actively screwing up our democracy just as much as those who rig the system. Democracy and representative government REQUIRE your participation.

[Wilms]

3. I have a problem with that notion though I don't think it's representitive

And I hesitated to post the article because of the title.

I don't think the author was advocating not voting. Rather, I think he was trying to say if we don't fix it--voting or not won't make a difference.

Really poor choice of titles given the misperception that efforts to overhaul the system are turning people away from it.

[BeFree]

5. Who says don't vote?

The 'movement' that you refer to does not say "don't vote". I have never once on this forum or website, seen a post with that intent behind it.

Where did you get that idea that the 'movement' is trying to stop people from vote? It's a wrong idea and damn near slander so you'd best back it up or apologize, eh?.

[Wilms]

6. Oh, he ain't alone in that.

I challenged the assertion over in GD the other day.

It may have it's genesis in that concept, "all politicians are crooks, so why bother".

Face it BeFree, we live in a logic challenged nation. :cry:

[BeFree]

7. It's slander

It must be fought every time it rears it's ugly head.

The latest, here, I see as an attempt to smear our movement... Lord knows we are causing some pant stains in certain offices and so they are attempting to limit our reach. What better way to do that than to propagate such slander?

Glad to hear you challenged it elesewhere, Wilms, did you get a response? We all need to stop them from smearing the movement, and I pledge I will do it every time that crap crosses my screen.

[Wilms]

8. I didn't get a response.

I took that to mean they rethought.

No one here, including the author of the article referrenced in the OP, is suggesting that we should quit voting.

One other possible cause for bashing the ER movement is people who wish to believe that Kerry really lost to bolster their idea that he shouldn't have been nominated.

Kerry wasn't my first choice. But I don't feel a need to ignore the myriad of electoral irregularities to underscore that position.

I can walk and chew gum at the same time.

[pretzel4gore]

4. americans have been disenfranchised!

it's astonishing, in a way