Two-year campaigns, line-ups for six to eight hours to vote in Florida and other places almost as bad, multiple reports of irregularities, batteries of lawyers on standby, etc. Why?.Canada you need 36 days notice to call an election. Usually its around 40 days from issuing of the writs to election day – ample time in this age of multiple media to make your case. I can walk in and vote in about 5 minutes. Results are know within hours of the polls closing. Voter turnout is similar, slightly over 60% in Canada, slightly under in the U.S. Voting irregularities in Canada are rare..Why is democracy so precarious in the U.S.?
In a society where a person is assumed innocent until proven guilty, a voter showing up in person should be considered valid until a reasonable doubt calls for that validity to be tested. I am voting for Obama, but I find the possibility he could win the electoral vote but lose the popular vote to be…distasteful- even wrong. I feel the same way about the Republican’s efforts over the last 2 years to make it harder for people to vote. My state of Virginia came up with a good solution where any one of several forms of I.D. can be used to verify your right to vote. Too many states are using tactics more akin to those used by the “Dixiecrats” of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, during the forties, fifties and sixties.If you defend these more stringent/rigid rules for being elected, you risk having your own rights suppressed in the future if the majority in your state government passes laws. There is even a movement by some conservatives to introduce legislation where senators to the DC senate are chosen by state legislators instead of a state’s citizens. We should always err on the side of liberty and freedoms. it has become easier to make something illegal than to make it a right or freedom. If women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement is an indicator, it still is hard to make something into a right than to make it a crime.Respectfully,C.
My SIGNATURE is the only thing I’ve needed to validate my RIGHT to vote. It is NOT like buying booze, or cashing a check out of state. Voter suppression has been rampant from the right since 2000. We will see tonight, tomorrow, and maybe for weeks the lawyers out if Romney loses, as he should in a landslide if anyone voting just thinks about the future.
They say there is no EVIDENCE of voter fraud… but that is because it is illegal for polling officials to ask for any proof in Texas! If the same guy comes in 3 times with different ID’s, all the officials can do is ask if this is really him. If the guy says it is, then they have to let him vote!
Gypsy8 over 11 years ago
Two-year campaigns, line-ups for six to eight hours to vote in Florida and other places almost as bad, multiple reports of irregularities, batteries of lawyers on standby, etc. Why?.Canada you need 36 days notice to call an election. Usually its around 40 days from issuing of the writs to election day – ample time in this age of multiple media to make your case. I can walk in and vote in about 5 minutes. Results are know within hours of the polls closing. Voter turnout is similar, slightly over 60% in Canada, slightly under in the U.S. Voting irregularities in Canada are rare..Why is democracy so precarious in the U.S.?
chazandru over 11 years ago
In a society where a person is assumed innocent until proven guilty, a voter showing up in person should be considered valid until a reasonable doubt calls for that validity to be tested. I am voting for Obama, but I find the possibility he could win the electoral vote but lose the popular vote to be…distasteful- even wrong. I feel the same way about the Republican’s efforts over the last 2 years to make it harder for people to vote. My state of Virginia came up with a good solution where any one of several forms of I.D. can be used to verify your right to vote. Too many states are using tactics more akin to those used by the “Dixiecrats” of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, during the forties, fifties and sixties.If you defend these more stringent/rigid rules for being elected, you risk having your own rights suppressed in the future if the majority in your state government passes laws. There is even a movement by some conservatives to introduce legislation where senators to the DC senate are chosen by state legislators instead of a state’s citizens. We should always err on the side of liberty and freedoms. it has become easier to make something illegal than to make it a right or freedom. If women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement is an indicator, it still is hard to make something into a right than to make it a crime.Respectfully,C.
Cinci Steve over 11 years ago
Umm, so where is it easier to vote if you’re Republican than if you’re Democrat?
Dtroutma over 11 years ago
My SIGNATURE is the only thing I’ve needed to validate my RIGHT to vote. It is NOT like buying booze, or cashing a check out of state. Voter suppression has been rampant from the right since 2000. We will see tonight, tomorrow, and maybe for weeks the lawyers out if Romney loses, as he should in a landslide if anyone voting just thinks about the future.
GregTeggeman over 11 years ago
They say there is no EVIDENCE of voter fraud… but that is because it is illegal for polling officials to ask for any proof in Texas! If the same guy comes in 3 times with different ID’s, all the officials can do is ask if this is really him. If the guy says it is, then they have to let him vote!
Gypsy8 over 11 years ago
Thanks for those responses. Should be an interesting evening. And the results will affect more than just those in the U.S.
Dtroutma over 11 years ago
Oh, my, the people wised up! (and got to vote!)