"It doesn't matter who votes; it matters who counts the votes".
I am convinced that the results of the elections have not much to do with the votes cast. Stalin had a point.
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While we're very happy to have you in the Gulch and appreciate your wanting to fully engage, some things in the Gulch (e.g. voting, links in comments) are a privilege, not a right. To get you up to speed as quickly as possible, we've provided two options for earning these privileges.
An idea for more accurate and fraud proof (or fraud reduced at a minimum) voting without the need for a national ID card.
First we must agree that only legal of age citizens of the United States can vote in federal elections. Next we must also agree that only legal of age citizens of a state that is having elections can vote in those elections.
That being the case, the following procedure could be put in place:
1. Voter goes to voting place and presents ID proving citizenship
The government recognizes several types of identification such as birth certificates and passports among others.
2. Voter then votes for whoever and whatever, using an electronic voting machine.
3. At the conclusion of voting, the voting machine issues a receipt indicating all votes cast by that voter and adds a randomly generated number to which these votes are linked.
4. The voting machines are connected to a central location using the Internets VPN and high level of encryption. All voting information is sent there via that path.
5. In addition, each voting machine contains a flash drive which is only accessible under lock and key. This drive contains a duplicate of all voting information that was sent via the VPN.
6. When all voting is concluded at all precincts, all flash drives are collected and sent to the central location.
7. Votes from the VPN connection are then compared with votes recorded on the flash drives.
8. Votes are tallied and placed on the Internet along with any errors due to mismatches between the VPN and flash drive data.
9. Error resolutions are updated with details as they are addressed
10. Using the Internet, a voter can then look up their votes on the government run site using the number on their voting receipt. This shows that their vote was counted and what it was counted for.
Though this proposal is likely not bullet proof, it would go a long way toward reducing fraud, IMHO of course.
Jan
I disagree about reviewing your vote at home.
What do you if you voted wrong? Get to vote again?
Apply this nationwide, and you would never get a final result.
Jan
That would be good...check to see if your receipt matched the database. Make sure that your vote wasn't pilfered.
Your reference to "(in case he pushed the wrong button accidentally)" would cover a voting mistake, and that should be 'too bad'. Otherwise, in a close election, a third party voter could claim "mistake", and demand to change their vote.
I know a bunch of Perot voters that would have claimed to have meant to vote GOP...!
Jan
Unfortunately, they have somewhat of a point, we really don't have a system of ID in the US other than the driver license.. We could use passports, but then that requires paying for one and is pretty much a poll tax.
So it's the honor system... and unfortunately a lot of the dead people in Chicago seem to vote every year and very reliably for democrats...
It would be way way better than what we have now.
Iraq had a simple, and foolproof, method...purple fingers!
Who is counting the votes?
Jan
Link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/07...
Also check out: http://politicaloutcast.com/2014/10/touc...
And finally: http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?...
Feel Free? Peace, Whisky
The voices predominately on the progressive left, cry foul when voter ID is promoted. What does that say? Kind of makes one all warm and fuzzy inside; doesn't it? (sarc.)
Respectfully,
O.A.
There's more than one way to cheat in an election.
he's registered to vote in Chicago. -- j
The Dems have as solid a lock on the zombie vote as they do on the black vote with Obama in office.
GOP really missed an opportunity there...zombie voters are forever
The parties choose candidates that they can control. The media and "bi-partisan" debate process are used to discredit and/or disqualify other potential candidates.
Voting has little effect on the eventual office holders.
However, recognizing the state of affairs currently in the USA, you just might be right. If you are right, elections are a charade; a not too well orchestrated one at that. Cogitating about it, it really pisses me off when I think about all the trouble I go through in order to learn about the candidate and issues.
I always wished that I had gone ahead and printed up a van full of bumper stickers that said: Hey Gore--EAT CHAD AND DIE
1. On some issues gov't is trying for a national or statewide solution to things that should be handled locally. If most everything were local, you could simply move to the area that does things your way.
2. Politicians have to take advantage of this state of affairs to win. They have to say things that sound comforting to people in urban areas and bizarre to rural people, and vice versa.
The result of this is lots of talking and no limiting the size and intrusiveness of gov't.
This is why the Electoral College will favor the Democrats increasingly so, and the politicians will pander to the liberals dominating the real seats of voting power...the major cities.
We need to shut the College down (it has outlived it's intended purpose), and go to a popular vote for the Presidency.
That aside, it should be remembered that the office of President of the United States wasn't originally intended to be voted on by the population at large. The position of the President was supposed to be selected by the Governors of the States through their appointees to the Electoral College. That way the President was responsible to the Governors for carrying out the laws enacted by Congress and paralleled the Governors' duties as Executives. To go along with this, the Senate was supposed to be beholden to State Legislatures, being chosen from them, while only the House was chosen by popular vote. This was to make it so that the States retained more power than the Federal Government. Be making each of these races a popular contest, all we do is undermine the very safeguards written into the Constitution.
Exactly.
It is obscene that California and N.Y. places my candidate in the 'hole' right out of the gate.
Given the recent polls that give conservatives a sizeable edge over liberals, a popular vote would go a long way to 'fixing' the Republic.
A voter needs:
1 proof of citizenship
2 proof that they are resident in the precinct they vote.
Voter ID cards should accomplish the above
I still have to have a photo ID.
Your question strikes me as one Eric Holder would ask while restating his guileful garbage about requiring a voter to show a picture ID as being racist.
It's damn obvious why Dems in high places dislike voter IDs.
An Objectivist shouldn't be offended when asked for evidence, eh? Should not an Objectivist's decisions and opinions be based on evidence?
I'm not saying there isn't voter fraud. There is, especially in the big (blue) cities. But that's a long, long ways from saying that our election system as a whole is fraudulent and/or ineffective. As witness the 2012 overhaul of Congress.
I have no way of ascertaining if the problems were of a scale required to alter the results, but... A google search with the Key words "voting machines changing votes" turns up 156,000 results. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=ch...
Additionally when our AG does nothing regarding the obvious voter intimidation like the black panthers committed... https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=ch...
No doubt this is not the only act of voter intimidation or the kind Holder would be inclined to investigate. One is naturally suspicious of the system coupled with the fact that the contract for the voting machine code is foreign controlled (Scytl...the evidence of Soros' involvement is thin, but shell corporations do exist and who knows... there are ways to hide one's involvement...still rather speculative). Why any part of the American voting process should not be completely in American hands is unfathomable.
http://townhall.com/columnists/michellem...
Respectfully,
O.A.
Why do you think the 2000 Florida case led to Al Gore coming mentally unhinged? No matter how hard they tried, the couldn't bullshit their way into a win.
And it failed.
I am having a slow day at work today. Anything I can do...
Regards,
O.A.
Think for a moment about the scale of an operation like this. We're talking about deliberately corrupting thousands, maybe tens of thousands of machines, in thousands of precincts, all over the country. That's staggering in scope; it would take the (secret) involvement of thousands of people.
Would you ("you" in the generic sense, not you personally) have us believe that not one of those people would have a pang of conscience and blow the operation? Or perhaps more to the point, not one of them would see the chance to become an instant celebrity and make millions in appearance fees, book sales and a TV mini-series by blowing the deal wide open?
Not one? Out of thousands?
Yes, a lot of the machines used are pieces of crap. Yes, there is a lot of voter fraud in the major cities - and in some small towns, too. Yes, Voter ID is vitally important to the integrity of the process.
But a nation-wide, nefarious, Soros-funded conspiracy to rig elections? I don't think it passes the smell test.
A close election that uses only electronic voting could be thrown by one person (no conspiracy required) who has ability and opportunity to corrupt the machines code prior to installation or piggybacked on an update. All of us that use computers are painfully aware of the need for malware protection.
As far as the pang of conscience goes: There are those of us with integrity and those without.
An honest person has difficulty accepting the nature of the dishonest.
Who is John Galt?
Indeed. It smells very fishy. Somehow we keep teetering on this two party system. One wonders just who is in control and how much your vote is really worth. One thing for sure is that this administration and any of its appointed AGs will not pursue voter fraud charges as long they perceive it as helping their cause.
Respectfully,
O.A.
Point is, my vote is worth absolutely nothing. I feel like a black person in the south in the 20s who knew his vote was irrelevant! That was wrong then, and this is wrong now.
The only reason I keep voting is so I can gripe about the results.
I believe that the Electoral College has outlive it's initial purpose, and a popular vote would guarantee that everyone's vote counts.
But on a national scale? I ain't buying it.
It doesn't have to be a nationwide conspiracy - just one that covers the critical states.
That is why we need a popular vote, and the end of the Electoral College.
It amazes me we don't have a better system.
I was in Tampa from 98 to 04. While I was there they instituted voting machine that didn't generate a receipt. You just touched the screen, at it said, "your vote has been recorded."
In the 2000 election, in which they abandoned counting and selected Bush president, they used paper ballots. They sent out a thing a few weeks showing which chad should be punched out for which candidate. It told you to check b/c if you didn't have it inserted all the way, you would punch the wrong chads. It wasn't confusing, but I could see it being difficult for elderly people.
Those are your words, and the ever increasing migration into the major cities makes these voting blocks the outcome factor in how a state swings.
Why do you think that the candidates focus on the largest cities in each state? Because that is where the campaigns get won.
This is a great argument for requiring Voter ID. Simply requiring proof if identity for voters would eliminate a LOT of this fraud.
But my observations about massive, nationwide conspiracies still apply.
Had to look at that razor thingie. I only discovered Ayn Rand and her way of thinking three short years ago.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovat...