“Congress must support electoral reforms such as guaranteeing paper receipts for electronic voting machines, providing remedies for long lines, and prohibiting partisan election officials.” is the quote that started the discussion I read on election reform. Hard to argue with that!
I believe it is time to fix the voting process in this country. Ever since the election embarrassment in 2000 (and even before), where the Supreme court had to be called upon to pick the president (instead of the other way around,) to this year’s continued issues over IF the election was rigged, changed, misrepresented, or altered, all means something is broken, and it is time to do something to fix it. Sure, if you were on the “winning” side, I’m sure you think everything worked just fine because these last few times the Republicans appear to have “gained” and only the Democrats screamed about it. But next time it may be the Democrats who will gain, and you can be sure if that happens, the Republicans will be screaming about fraud and election reforms. And even if you think the elections were all fair and good, just look at the amount of contention there has been, which is enough to prove that something is wrong with the system to cause such issues.
So lets fix it now and prove that we CAN work together for a change as one country. We should not EVER be having these kinds of issues, arguments, or concerns in this country over elections, and a proper voting system with proper audits and accountability would end these silly arguments once and for all!
Since we are trying to set a standard for the ‘free world’ on elections, we need to show that our elections are completely unbiased and fair, and work to be sure that the one person, one vote system works, and that all votes count. It is time to be a true democracy in this country, NOT a republic, get biased and unfair voting polices thrown out so no one side gains any advantage, and show everyone in this country that their vote will be heard, and will be counted, and will mean something.
The electoral college really is old and worn out, was created in a day that did not allow communications of every vote, but today’s communication systems can assure that every vote is counted and heard. It is time to create a system that no longer makes a vote in Ohio or Montana count more than a vote in California, New York, or Texas, which the electoral system does by giving some electroal representatives the right to represent significantly less people than do other representatives. Every person’s vote must count the same whether they live in Texas or Nebraska. If more populated states seem to get more “power”, well, a bigger percentage of the US’s people live there. One person, one vote. Period!
We the voters need to make this reform happen and happen now! This reform must include not only voting reform, but truth in campaign advertising with significant penalties for misrepresentation or lies, campaign funding reform, so a wealthy candidate has no better access to media than ‘Joe Average’, and a nation wide standard for voting machines and processes, with paper receipts and a proper audit trail to end the noise abuot voting scams.
How can we claim to teach free and fair elections to the rest of the world when our own system appears to be so corrupt?
It should not matter which side of the political fence you sit on, at one time or another, this inequity will end up going against you in some way. I find it hard to argue why any one person’s vote should count more or less than any other’s, regardless of where you live (but I am sure some of the more conservative of you out there will try and tell me!)
If you beleive it is time for voting reform, I urge you to go to MoveOn.org (http://www.moveonpac.org/repairthevote) and sign the petition for voting reform (conservatives, get over the fact that it is MoveOn.org and understand the issue, not who is sponsering the petition) go sign it, add your own comments on what should be done, and tell your own “elected” representitives that you want this system fixed now.
Putting away the soap box and getting ready for the backlash I am SURE I will get on this!
-Owen-
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.