Thursday, November 11, 2004
HAS ANYONE SEEN MY TIN-FOIL HAT?
I promise, I've tried to avoid doing this, I really have. But the liberal half of the blogosphere is erupting with stories of voter fraud, suppression and other election night shenanigans. To be honest, I was actually relieved when Kerry conceded quickly last week, glad not to have to suffer through another endless, not-made-for-TV recount saga. But in the past week an ever-growing fountain of eyebrow-raising stories have compelled me to throw my 2-cents in.
My point is not to stir up the left-leaning conspiracy theorists into a wild frothy fervor, that's already been done. Nor is it to whine about or claim that the Democrats we're robbed, not directly anyway. My point is this: Why the hell have we not been able to figure this out?? Since the vote count debacle of 2000, a reasonable person would think that those responsible would spend a lot of time, energy and money on fixing vote inconsistencies and flawed counting practices. But the confusion surrounding this election make it clear that they haven't. Of course, maybe those responsible for fixing the problems aren't interested in fixing them at all, but that leads us down the Mulder trail again.
Why hasn't this been fixed? Why are voting standards so varied from state to state, county to county? Why do people have to wait in line until 4 am in a freezing Ohio ran just to cast their votes? How is it that we have the technology to launch billionaires into space in the morning and bring them back that same afternoon and yet we still vote as though we were Fred and Wilma Flintstone? (of course, in those days I don't think Wilma was allowed to vote) Why can't we simply trust that our elections are being conducting fairly?
The answer to all these problems seems simple to me. For national elections, why don't we have a national voting standard? It seems only logical to me. Why don't all US citizens vote the same way, across the board? It seems as though it would make things a whole lot easier and it would, for the most part, eliminate all of this conspiracy nonsense. Of course, it would also eliminate the ability to manipulate an election, so maybe neither side is interested in fixing the system. But in my opinion, democracy is failing if it doesn't get fixed.
And now, just for fun, a sampling of election fraud stories:
"As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?" - Tammany Hall boss William Tweed.
I promise, I've tried to avoid doing this, I really have. But the liberal half of the blogosphere is erupting with stories of voter fraud, suppression and other election night shenanigans. To be honest, I was actually relieved when Kerry conceded quickly last week, glad not to have to suffer through another endless, not-made-for-TV recount saga. But in the past week an ever-growing fountain of eyebrow-raising stories have compelled me to throw my 2-cents in.
My point is not to stir up the left-leaning conspiracy theorists into a wild frothy fervor, that's already been done. Nor is it to whine about or claim that the Democrats we're robbed, not directly anyway. My point is this: Why the hell have we not been able to figure this out?? Since the vote count debacle of 2000, a reasonable person would think that those responsible would spend a lot of time, energy and money on fixing vote inconsistencies and flawed counting practices. But the confusion surrounding this election make it clear that they haven't. Of course, maybe those responsible for fixing the problems aren't interested in fixing them at all, but that leads us down the Mulder trail again.
Why hasn't this been fixed? Why are voting standards so varied from state to state, county to county? Why do people have to wait in line until 4 am in a freezing Ohio ran just to cast their votes? How is it that we have the technology to launch billionaires into space in the morning and bring them back that same afternoon and yet we still vote as though we were Fred and Wilma Flintstone? (of course, in those days I don't think Wilma was allowed to vote) Why can't we simply trust that our elections are being conducting fairly?
The answer to all these problems seems simple to me. For national elections, why don't we have a national voting standard? It seems only logical to me. Why don't all US citizens vote the same way, across the board? It seems as though it would make things a whole lot easier and it would, for the most part, eliminate all of this conspiracy nonsense. Of course, it would also eliminate the ability to manipulate an election, so maybe neither side is interested in fixing the system. But in my opinion, democracy is failing if it doesn't get fixed.
And now, just for fun, a sampling of election fraud stories:
- Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked
- Greg Palast: Kerry won. Here are the facts.
- Fuzzy Math? States with E-Voting Show Wonky Numbers
- David Corn: A Stolen Election?
- The Incredible Reverse-Count Voting Machine!
- BlackBoxVoting.com: Bev Harris is Crazy!
- Bob Fitrakis: Did Kerry Concede to Soon?
- A Wikipedia round-up
- Bush's Incredible Vote Tallies
- Keith Olberman at MSNBC, the only mainstream media voice to lend credence to the fraud story... that is, if you consider MSNBC to be mainstream.
- Perhaps the oddest story of election hijinks has to be this one out of Warren County, Ohio, where officials locked down the vote count from public eyes (reporters, inspectors, etc.) due to an unspecified but "serious" terrorist threat. Of course, this was the only county in the nation to do so. Surely, al Qaeda was targeting that holy grail of all terrorist targets: The Dude Ranch in Morrow, Ohio.
- And if all that isn't enough to convince you, check out this video of Sen. Peter King, (R) NY, shot about month before the election.
"As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?" - Tammany Hall boss William Tweed.
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