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Votes for the Lazy, Stupid....and Fraudsters...

Voting is not hard - for anyone who finds it hard, it's an automatic indication they shouldn't be voting.

We broadcast our elections far and wide - the dates one must register to vote are well known; when you register they clearly provide you information on where to vote. If by some chance you lose that bit of information, it's easily available by calling, writing or e mailing the local elections people - or, you can ask your neighbor who will almost certainly have the same precinct as you. Actually casting a vote is simple enough a child could do it - the names of the candidates are clearly listed and if you've taken any time at all to pay attention, you know by election day whom you are voting for. So, as I said - easy. So, what do our Solon's in government propose? Well, in Florida they are actually proposing (among other things) doing away with voting precints....

I don't know if this is just some bizarre strategy to destroy our electoral process, or if it's just plain and simple stupidity - but it's the most horrendous idea in all the history of democratic politics. You simply have to vote in your locality because as soon as you allow people to vote in any locality they choose, you will open up the floodgates of even more voter fraud than we have now. I can just see it - get the phony registrations and then have Joe Fraudster go from voting booth to voting booth casting ballot after ballot...

Look, for every right there is a responsibility - attached to our right to vote is the responsibility to know where and when we're supposed to vote; this isn't brain surgery - this is "you can do it with an IQ of 60" kind of stuff. If this is really too tricky for some, then they just shouldn't be voting.

Mark Noonan blogged for Bush at 5:55 AM in category Election

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Comments

The Ukrainian election is going have to be redone because of massive "carousel" voting...ie, same people going from place to place casting fake votes.

Let's not let our elections have the same problems we want foreign countries to avoid

Posted by: Ironman at December 2, 2004 07:34 AM

Why stop at precincts? Why not allow voting across counties, or even state lines?

Need a few hundred votes in FL? Well, just bus them in from Alabama. Nobody will be able to verify you can't vote there. The voter rolls will be so screwed up, that you can steal any election you want.

Posted by: Jim at December 2, 2004 08:16 AM

Well, in Florida they are actually proposing (among other things) doing away with voting precincts....

Not knowing all about the voting process, besides what I need to know (needing to be registered, going to my specified voting place on election day, etc), I really don't see how this is a solution to any issues that have been brought up with the voting process. It makes sense to me that a state and cities are broken up into voting precincts in order to make the jobs of the election officials easier. Instead of having to keep track of every single registered voter in the state or city, by breaking things down into precincts, and requiring everyone in that voter precinct to actually vote at their required voting place, this allows the voting officials to only have to keep track of those specified people in that voting precinct. If we get rid of the precincts, that means they have to have official records (and then verify them on election day) of every single registered voter in the state or city.

(As I said, I am not fully educated as to the voting process, specifically how the precincts are setup. Are precincts setup per city or per state? I'm assuming per state, which would allow multiple small cities in a small area to vote at the same precinct. Of course I could be wrong, so that is why I am asking as well as giving you my presumption which makes the basis for my comments on the issue)

Not even dealing with the potential for voter fraud, this seems to make the voting process less efficient instead of more efficient. I envision longer lines at some voting locations due to more people using a different precinct in order to vote other than their speficied precinct, thus making the wait longer for voters and also making things that much more difficult for voting officials. As a hypothetical, say that an area is broken down into 5 precincts, each with 10,000 voters registered at their respective precinct. Let's say that one of the precincts is in an area of town which is convenient for many of the voters to go.

1) We now have 5 voting areas which have to keep track of 50,000 voters instead of 10,000.
2) We now have 5 voting areas which have to accomodate the possibility of more than 10,000 voters going to their location instead of a max. of 10,000.

I don't see how this improves things at all. Then again, I could be missing something?

Posted by: MICHAEL in MI at December 2, 2004 08:43 AM

Next they'll try to rescind the law saying it's illegal to vote more than once. After all, the poor disenfranchised voter is only trying to make sure he gets his vote counted in case he went to the wrong polling place, and it's not his fault bur rather it's the government's responsibility not to count his vote twice.

"Right" news satire: http://eyesontheball.blogspot.com

Posted by: PlutosDad at December 2, 2004 10:12 AM

Whoever came up with this lamebrain idea should be run out of town!

Posted by: Macker at December 2, 2004 11:29 AM

I don't think it a bad idea myself. You could a fewer larger centers with computers that have the records of who can vote and you can mark them as voting so if that same person went to another site it would tell them no you already voted. Some area would still require smaller sites do to distance but area like miami and orlando could easly broken down in a small number of huge sites.

Posted by: Robert M at December 2, 2004 11:37 AM

If you remember history, you know that the founding fathers didn't give the right to vote to every imbecile who was a citizen. Only landowners and the like with a stake in the country were allowed to vote. This left wing BS of bussing people to the polls from mental institutions, and letting homeless people, and people with so low of an IQ they can't even figure out how to vote when they get there is a crock. That will be the ruination of this country.

Posted by: Bush4ever at December 2, 2004 11:45 AM

My thoughts:

1) Why don't we supply each voting place with computers. These computers will have a database of every single registered voter in America. The voting officials who verify voter registration when you show up to vote can just access this database and then check off some box in the database when you come to vote to declare that you have voted. This database will be available all over the country so that if someone tries to go to another voting location anywhere in the country, his/her name will be shown as already having had voted in the voting location they went to first. Wouldn't this be an easy way to track it and make sure that voters vote only once? (Also would have to put in a feature that the only person who can uncheck the box, for whatever reason, would be the person who checked it initially. This way some other voting official could not uncheck people thinking that there was some mistake or uncheck it for reasons of purposely committing voter fraud. Setup some kind of password or something which each voting official has and only they know.)

2) Get rid of same-day voter registration. I have only paid attention to the election process this year and I was sent things through e-mail and snail mail for months reminding me to register to vote. I don't see any reason (other than laziness or change of address) for which someone would need to register on election day. I am fairly certain there are cutoff dates in most states by which time you need to be registered or you may not vote in the election. This should be enforced. That way activists cannot go around on election day getting people to come out and vote at the last minute when they hadn't intended on it. Anyone who is serious about voting would have been payin attention for at least a couple months and would have registered far in advance of the election.

3) It's interesting that liberals whine and complain that the voting system is flawed and say that if it did not contain those flaws, then Democrats would win. Conservatives could just as easily say that because of the flaws in the voting system, that prevented Republicans from winning landslide victories.

4) Commonize the voting process throughout all voting place in all states. It is ridiculous that some places have fill in the scan tron circle, some places have punch cards, some places have computers, etc. If we make the voting process the same everywhere, then we won't have this selective blaming going on in which people say that certain voting processes were too difficult and that was why they lost. If the reason we have not made the process the same all over is because of money, then have the Federal Government pay for streamlining the system. Since there are complaints on both sides, a bill to spend money on the voting system surely should be bi-partisan and should pass unanimously. The only issue would be to decide which process would be the one used all over the country. We have 2 years before the mid-term elections, that should be plenty of time to debate this. We have years of democracy from which to take samples on which process worked best and which process voters found easiest. Let's use this data and choose one process for all. Then, if liberals still want to go ahead with their mantra that some people in America are just too stupid to know how to fill out their voting card, then we can include money for voting training in the bill.

There is absolutely no excuse that I can see for why this cannot happen. Instead of complaining and whining and insulting the other side and calling people stupid, our representatives need to start making suggestions and taking action.

I'd be interested in any feedback on my suggestions. As I said, I am not completely familiar with the voting process as it stands now, beyond what I need to know to vote myself.

Posted by: MICHAEL in MI at December 2, 2004 12:03 PM

Seems to me that everytime we try to make it easier for people to vote, fewer people vote.

People think the system is flawed now, but let's open it up for more flaws. Do any politicians have brains anymore at all?

Posted by: Carstairs38 at December 2, 2004 12:07 PM

Michael in MI

I absolutely agree with you about the voter database and standardizing the voting process. The technology is available to make this happen (and to make it secure to prevent tampering etc), and IMHO there's no rational explanation about why this should not be done.

April

Posted by: amdilli at December 2, 2004 12:27 PM

Wait, I thought it was the 61+ million who voted for Bush who were stupid.
I hate myself for sounding so undemocratic, but I do feel that if someone is so dumb or lazy that they can't figure out how to vote and where to vote, then the future of the country should not be in their hands.

Posted by: adriandrews at December 2, 2004 03:27 PM

I am sorry but what they listed doesn't sound bad to me. Consoldate small precints in a few sites that reprosents that area using a few large sites. Then open the sites for a week before hand to make it eaisier for people to vote and less likely for people to get stuck in lines. As long as these sites have someway to confirm that you haven't already voted I don't see a problem with that.

Posted by: Robert M at December 2, 2004 05:56 PM

Well, the FL Supreme Court and 6th Circuit Court of Appeals disagree.
We have ALWAYS had Election Day, not Election Week. I understand absentee ballots, but there's a day for voting for those who don't legally qualify for an absentee ballot.
I am sick and tired of these whiners who want to make it "easier" to vote.
120,000,000 people made it; I'm sick of their griping about a few mopes who can't find their proper precincts. We have precincts for a reason; the fewer the voters in a precinct, the less chance of confusion at that level (and the easier for challengers/election officials to spot fraudulent voters, as there are less people).

Posted by: pd at December 2, 2004 07:44 PM

pd: Nail. Head.

Posted by: The Valiant Elephant at December 2, 2004 08:26 PM

1. uniform national system with country-wide database of every registered voter

2. thumbprint verification that electronically records that a person has voted. It wouldnt record who voted for who, just that you have voted. I imagine you get scanned just before you step into the booth.

done and done

you cannot do without voter-registration though.

and precincts make the lines shorter

Posted by: luke at December 2, 2004 08:29 PM

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