Reply #5: I emailed him asking to shed some light, nonetheless. [View All]

[krkaufman]

Dear Mr Olbermann,

As an Independent voter -- temporarily turned Democrat until some sanity is restored to our political discourse -- I want to thank you, in advance, for whatever you might be able to do to shed some much-needed light on the various voting "difficulties" experienced this election cycle. The media seems to be spending all its time conjecturing about what fatal flaw exists in the Democratic strategy, while turning a blind eye to what appears to be, at best, an incompetently run election in several states.

From voting queues up to 8 hours long(!), to threatened challenges, to remarkably transparent attempts to arbitrarily disqualify newly registered voters (see Ohio, Blackwell, 80-lb card stock), and to unauditable electronic voting and tabulation systems, this election was a far cry from a democratic ideal. All I am looking for is a reasoned, fair, courageous investigation into the various allegations, to uncover what facts are available -- for the inability to authoritatively detail the vote will in itself be a condemnation of paperless voting systems.

Further, the people are owed an investigation into why the exit polls in certain states were wildly inaccurate while others matched nearly perfectly. Lest we forget, claims of the Florida 2000 exit polls being wrong proved false. It was the exit polls that more accurately measured the intent of Florida voters in 2000; unfortunately, the mechanisms implemented to translate intent into votes were horribly flawed and the "will of the people" was defeated. And if this year's exit polls are any indication, the "will of the people" may have again been thwarted. Either the exit polls or the vote totals failed to reflect voter intent this cycle, and an investigation is needed to authoritatively determine which -- and to what degree.

However the chips have fallen this election cycle, we must move towards fully auditable voting systems. Ignoring concerns about this election cycle will only slow necessary reforms, and may again lead to uncertain election results in 2006, 2008, etc.

Regards,
Firstname Lastname
Town, State
(phone)
(email)

p.s. If you're looking for alternate topics, I'd also cherish a segment commenting on the PIPA study (link) and its implications relative to this election -- including the perspective contributed by Bob Herbert, of the NY Times, in his Nov 8th Op-Ed piece.

p.p.s. You'll earn further gratitude from this voter for avoidance of the terms "mandate", "sweeping victory", "values voters", etc. in relation to this election. One can hardly call a second within-the-margin-of-error election a mandate -- aside from the fact that gains originating from an illegal or illegitimate act cannot be made legitimate.