W.T.F. was THAT?!

If there were 100 Americans (295m) then… 68 would make up the electorate (200m), 41 would have actually voted (120m), (that’s a disgraceful 60% turnout), 21 supported Bush, 19 supported Kerry, 1 supported the other candidates.

Of course, these results can never be verified because of electronic
voting machines without a paper trail. And that’s just the beginning of our problems.

Setting aside the threat media consolidation (and a general lazyness and lack of critical thinking in the electorate) makes on our democracy, there are many systemic problems at work which were displayed quite obviously (and shamelessly) Tuesday.

The biggest and most important problem to address, low voter turnout (60% here compared to 90% in most other democracies and the 60 is a record, I think) is major and is certainly not helped by the rampant voter suppression efforts we saw on display yesterday.

Here is a list of things bothering me about the ‘election.’

– 6 hour lines to wait to vote (in certain neighborhoods.) There was no wait at all where I voted (in white suburbia.)

– voter suppression

– non-local voter challengers practicing “racial profiling”

– black box voting with no means of accounting

– Kerry betrays his supporters after promising that he would fight to the end so all votes would be counted. It doesn’t matter whether he thinks there are enough votes out there to change the outcome, there are problems in the system. And we need to address them to save our democracy.

– Ohio: CEO of Diebold delivers on his committment to deliver Ohio’s electoral votes to Bush. [See also: ‘Why were the exit polls wrong?’]
11/29/04 Editor’s note: According to Dennis Kucinich, “..no Diebold electronic voting machines were employed in Ohio.” See:
A Note On The Presidential Election in Ohio by Dennis Kucinich.

– Why were the exit polls wrong? After years of being the most reliable predictor of election outcome, why is it that the past two Presidential elections, suddenly they don’t work.

Voting is a state issue, it is ennumerated thusly in the constitution. The US congress has already shown their lack of interest in addressing the technical problems inherent in voting. They have refused to pass a law requiring a paper trail for e-voting. This is an area for urgent grassroots action. Local people need to organize and push for these changes in their states and municipalities. I vow to support these efforts as much as I can.

Here is an article by Greg Palast:
TomPaine.com – Kerry Won. . .