I’m 61 years old. I’ve been doing this work full-time for nearly the last five years. I long for the days, before I learned so much, when I was ignorant about dirty tricks, phony voter fraud accusations, voter list purges, voter suppression, poorly designed and inaccurate voting machines, absentee paper ballots that have the voters’ political parties on the mail-in envelopes (Yes, Broward Co, Florida, does that and strips privacy away from the voters and state law allows them to do it), long lines at the polls, and every other attempt to keep voters from voting and votes from being counted accurately, if at all.
It was kinda nice not knowing about all of those issues. Oh, maybe someone would bring up the old story about ballot boxes floating in the bay. What bay was that? San Francisco? Lake Michigan off of Chicago? The Hudson River? The location seems to have changed with the person telling the story.
It was nice thinking our democracy actually worked the way our founding fathers envisioned it would. It was nice thinking that, no matter for whom I voted, the majority voice was heard. Now, it just feels dirty and somewhat depressing.
I know way too much. It was nice being ignorant…
- National: US Election: Malfunctioning voting machines
http://senderodelpeje.com/sdp/contenido/2008/10/09/52930 - National: Update from Black Box Voting: Trouble with straight party voting and how you can help on Election Day
http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2008/10/update-from-black-box-voting-trouble-with-straight-party-voting-and-how-you-can-help-on-election-day/ - National: Investors agree to sell Hart InterCivic to management team
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2008/10/06/daily48.html?ana=from_rss - National: ACLU: Justice Department Should Enforce Voting Law
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0810/S00217.htm - National: College students face barriers to voting
Registration problems, ID requirements, long lines at polls cited as discouraging factors.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081010/POLITICS01/810100312 - National: Clearing Up The Issue Of Provisional Ballots
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0810/S00163.htm - National: Voter Purges Could Cause Florida-like Presidential Recounts
http://www.alternet.org/democracy/102374/voter_purges_could_cause_florida-like_presidential_recounts/ - National: Election 08: The Difficulty Stealing It This Time
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0810/S00164.htm - National: Professor examines voting misconceptions
http://spectrum.buffalo.edu/article.php?id=37421 - National: Our Hackable Democracy
http://www.forbes.com/technology/personaltech/2008/10/09/hacking-electronic-voting-tech-security_cx_ag_1010hack.html - National: Report: Voter Purging Process Is Shrouded in Secrecy, Prone to Error and Vulnerable to Manipulation
http://i3.democracynow.org/2008/10/9/report_voter_purging_process_is_shrouded - National: Voter Fraud, Voter Suppression
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/voter-fraud-vot.html - National: Questions and Challenges Surround Voter Registration Process
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/politics/September-October-08/Questions-and-Challenges-Surround-Voter-Registration-Process.html - National: Briefing: Bracing for another Election Day mess
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/89621/3/3/Briefing_Bracing_for_another_Election_Day_mess - National: Opinion – Who’s the Fraud?
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/whos-the-fraud/?ref=opinion - National: Voter Registrations Spark Testy Exchange
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/10/voter-registrations-spark-testy-exchange/?mod=googlenews_wsj - AZ: Pima County – Pima officials: More than 350 residents tried to vote twice in primary
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/99161.php - CA: Los Angeles County – Surge in voter registration highlights electoral fraud
http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2008/10/10/news/news6.txt - CA: San Joaquin, Sacramento counties expect record voter turnout
http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2008/10/10/news/4_election_081010.txt - CO: State disputes voter purge
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10682767 - CO: Colorado to Review How It Purges Voters’ Names
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/us/10voting.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin - CO: Coffman disputes voter-purge report
http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/10/10/news/local/doc48ef14d420898206871936.txt - CO: No vote for you: Coffman responds to NYT voter purge story
http://coloradoindependent.com/11004/no-vote-for-you-coffman-responds-to-nyt-voter-purge-story - CO: Clerks to voters: Bring a sack lunch to the polls
http://coloradoindependent.com/11037/clerks-to-voters-bring-a-sack-lunch-to-the-polls - CO: El Paso County – State Senator Accuses Clerk of Suppressing Votes
http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=9155567 - CO: Moffat County – Test election extended to today
Public participants not worried about errors
http://www.craigdailypress.com/news/2008/oct/10/test_election_extended_today/ - FL: Few reliable voting machines in Florida
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/117183 - FL: Lee County – Florida unprepared for Election Day?
http://www.nbc-2.com/articles/readarticle.asp?articleid=22117&z=3 - FL: Palm Beach County – Wennet won’t challenge voting machines
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2008/10/09/1009merriman.html - FL: Palm Beach County – Training intensifies for 8,000 poll workers
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2008/10/09/a1a_poll_workers_1010.html - GA: Lawsuit: Georgia Illegally Purges Votes
Complaint Claims Voters Being Dropped From Registration Rolls Because Of Challenges To Citizenship
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/09/cbsnews_investigates/main4512526.shtml - GA: Fulton County judge denies voter ID challenge
http://www.fortmilltimes.com/124/story/319963.html - HI: Maui County – Rise of the machines
As election technology blazes ahead, will voters get left behind?
http://www.mauitime.com/Articles-i-2008-10-09-185874.112113_Rise_of_the_machines.html - IL: With Misleading Report On ACORN, CNN Misses The Real Story In Lake Co.
http://progressillinois.com/2008/10/10/vilifying-acorn-without-facts - IN: Opinion – Home foreclosures shouldn’t keep registered voters from polls
WE SAY Blocking those caught by economic distress would be a blatant act of voter suppression against the poor
http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=63456&comview=1 - IN: As voter registration rises, so do fears of fraud
Claims include potential for ineligible voters, disenfranchisement
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081009/NEWS0502/810090575 - MO: Are we ready for Nov. 4?
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/dc-download/uncategorized/2008/10/are-we-ready-for-nov-4/ - MT: GOP voter challenges got our attention
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/10/09/opinions/top/irview_081009.txt - MT: Montana Democrats to drop voter challenge lawsuit
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081010/NEWS01/81010012/1002 - NC: Times story on voter databases called ‘very misleading’
http://www.news-record.com/content/2008/10/09/article/times_story_on_voter_databases_called_very_misleading - NC: State defends database use for IDs
http://www.news-record.com/content/2008/10/09/article/state_defends_database_use_for_ids - NC: N.C. to change the way it vets its new voters
http://www.newsobserver.com/110/story/1249665.html - NH: Dual check-in system draws complaint
http://www.cabinet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081010/BEDFORD01/810109922 - NY: Making Our Votes Really Count
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/10/express/making-our-votes-count - NY: Barack ‘Osama’ on Rensselaer County ballots
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=728326 - OH: The Right Stuff: Brunner enables, rather than investigates fraud
http://www.thepost.ohiou.edu/Articles/Opinion/Columns/2008/10/10/25805/ - OH: Mahoning County – County forestalls ballot tampering
http://www.vindy.com/news/2008/oct/10/county-forestalls-ballot-tampering/ - SC: Beaufort County – Voter office performance must be better for Nov. 4
http://www.beaufortgazette.com/opinions/story/580621.html - TX: The hurricane vote
For storm-dispersed residents of the Texas coast, voting early makes good sense.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/6049924.html - TX: Waller County – Texas County Agrees to Stop Vote Suppression Efforts Against Black University Students
http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/press-3407.html - VA: Is Va. ready for heavy turnout?
Rights group says state is ill-prepared to handle voters
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/politics.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-10-10-0134.html - VA: Arlington County, Va. Ramps up for Election Day
http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/420766 - WI: GOP asks judge to make some show ID at polls
http://blogs.jsonline.com/allpoliticswatch/archive/2008/10/10/gop-asks-judge-to-make-some-show-id-at-polls.aspx - Washington DC: E-Voting Machine Produces Out-Of-Whack Result. D’oh!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-tucker/e-voting-machine-produces_b_133339.html
**”Daily Voting News” is meant as a comprehensive listing of reports each day concerning issues related to election and voting news around the country regardless of quality or political slant. Therefore, items listed in “Daily Voting News” may not reflect the opinions of VotersUnite.Org or BradBlog.Com**
Same here John, but there is no going back now.
Keep up the good fight man
A little tuneage fur ya John
Don’t encourage them, John! 😛
Stiff upper lip….
Floridiot, thanks for the tune man. Mucho appreciated.
Last night I got an email from a “Daily Voting News” subscriber in Florida. She thanked me for my work and said that I needed to remember that we are doing all of this for “them”. Below her signature line were three names:
Michael Schwerner James Chaney and Andrew Goodman
She’s right of course. It is about them and all of the rest of the activists who came before us. All the way back to the activists in the colonies who spoke and acted out against tyranny.
Dear John,
For what it’s worth–
I have not been doing this full time as you have but I have been obsessed with election integrity issues since the 2000 election was stolen. For the last eight years I’ve been trying to spread the word on the reality of electile dysfunction in the U.S.A. My fiendish studies on the subject have brought me the clarity and understanding I sought but as you note there is a loss of innocence. With understanding comes a sense of urgency to spread the word on this most unwelcome of subjects. Discussing this with the uninformed whether it’s my representative Barney Frank, Josh Marshall at TPM, or friends, enemies, or family is not just swimming upstream, it’s swimming upstream in a lead straightjacket. Add to that the sometimes abysmal statements and actions of Obama, the only candidate we have, like the FISA capitulation, the bailout travesty, the notion that nuclear power, offshore drilling, and increasing troop levels in Afghanistan are all good ideas and sometimes I just have to give up. I mean why bother. Nobody wants to hear what we have to say and the candidates are both behaving like nightmares.
But then I see Dennis Kucinich fighting on. A Don Quixote elf in our own time! I see Secretary of State Brunner fighting the good fight. I see evidence all over the place that even as the dark clouds of Mordor spread there is a growing light in the West. And I can’t help but feel that your efforts, all of our effrots, are slowly, so painfully slowly having effect. And there is beauty in the world. I stood within twenty feet of a great blue heron the other day. There’s young Stephanie Trick play stride classic Carolina Shout. There’s music, Martin Sexton, and swing dancing!
Anyhoo, I just wanted to send you a little solidarity note. You’ve been providing an invaluable service to this country for those of us who’d like to see democracy given a chance. Thanks for all your work.
love,
David Lasagna
John I thank you also. It IS discouraging but what’s the alternative?
I use many of your links, especially regarding ID for voters, to send to Canadian progressive blogs, my MP’s and PM Harper, although I am sure Mr. Harpocracy doesn’t read them.
Liberal supporters with signs on their lawns in Toronto have had their had brake lines on cars cut, cable lines and telephone lines too.
Brake Lines Cut
Thanks again for all your work helping to make the world a better place.
(here we go again)
Ignorance is NOT bliss. It is necessary to know the origins of a problem in order to solve it, whether it is industrial waste leaking into drinking water (as was in news about China today) or statistically impossible election results in American elections. Thanks to the diligence of people like you, I think the whole world is on edge about the integrity of American elections (even Russian newspapers featured articles on American electronic vote-rigging). The United States has become the laughingstock of the world. Even Canadians I know seem to regard the United States as a brilliant and scary bipolar relative with serious delusions. It seems that the only people clued-out about the dangers of electronic voting with no paper ballots in elections are the mainstream American media (such as CNN’s Anderson Cooper), vast sectors of the American electorate, and dead people. Heck, even Homer Simpson knows about it.
Just FYI, I was interviewed the day before yesterday by Russian television (Russian Today). Yeah, they’re watching, even if our media are not.
Thank god John is, and so many of the others who give a damn here at The BRAD BLOG.
For Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and so many others who have died for the cause. Their sacrifice shall not be in vein…Not if I have anything to say about it. And, as it turns out, I do! As do you!
Hey John, this quirky sister loves you! I know your a vietnam vet, and just remember what that war on ignorance produced. The world is watching many things, thank God:
http://www.madcowprod.com/09102008.html