RESOLVED: the number one, most urgent issue before us is

[pnwmom]

fixing the broken election system -- before the November election.

Agree? Or disagree?

And if you agree, what should we all be doing right now?

[Jed Dilligan]

1. Hi pnwmom

I hesitate to agree that there's any one issue that is most important for every person on DU, but this is a big one. I have no idea what to do about it. I feel like the margin is pretty safe where I live (CA) so I would have to travel elsewhere (OH, FL) to do whatever needs to be done--which is what? I don't know. I think the local social justice causes I'm involved in will benefit more from my presence than a national campaign vs. BBV (if that's what you mean? Not sure what "broken" means in the OP).

[pnwmom]

20. Hi Jed Dilligan

You wouldn't need to travel anywhere. I'm hoping that if enough of us keep sending emails and phone calls to our reps about voting issues, they'll finally start to get the message. When I said "broken" I was referring to the whole raft of problems that occurred during the last election -- de-registered voters, broken machines, machines vulnerable to tampering, machines unevenly distributed through voting districts, voters sent to the wrong lines to vote, etc. Personally, I'm leaning toward all paper ballots, until they can convince me that electronic machines can't be tampered with.

I think it's great for people to keep working on the issues that mean the most to them -- better than getting dragged down into feelings of hopelessness. But on top of other things (Iraq is my most pressing concern), I'm going to keep nagging my reps about voting issues. Because having fair elections seems vital to everything else that's important to us.

On edit:
Even though you live in California, you are affected, of course, by unfair vote counts in other states. So you might want to let your Senators and Representatives know that this is an issue for you.

[In Truth We Trust]

2. Agreed! Paper ballots and Hand counts NOW!!! Democracy NOW!!!

We should use any means neccessary to protect the constitution and very core foundation of democracy.

Rallys

Boycotts

signage anywhere and everywhere

editorials

petitions

calls to local and state as well as federal representatives in every office of influence.

"acts of God" wink wink

a constitutional amendment requiring paper ballots and hand counts ONLY. This would not happen before Nov naturally however it is a must do for your country to become a democracy again.

[Guaranteed]

3. No, it's the media.

A healthy democracy needs media with integrity even more than a perfect voting system.

Media deconglomeration is our most important issue.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Man, I go back and forth between these two issues

It is surely one of them ......

If we had an honest (as in unbaised, not left or right leaning) media, the whole country would be out in the streets with pitchforks and torches over the voting problem.

If we had honest voting systems, we'd be in a position to legislate some fairness back into the media.

I'm soooooooo confuuuuuuused .........

[BeFree]

6. What can we do about the media?

And what can we do about the vote?

It is our vote, not our media. We can get many forms of media at any time of the day or night, every day of the year, but we only get to vote once, maybe twice, three times a year.

Our dollars extracted from us, by way of government mandate, pay for the system that counts our votes. The media has many different financing avenues.

Media is private business, the vote is owned by each and ever voter.

We have political parties whose fortune is founded on how the vote is counted. Media will go on no matter which the way the wind blows.

We cause change in the party, we can change how the vote is counted.

[Doctor_J]

11. It's not our vote

Whitewell decided that dems shouldn't vote in OH in 2004, so they didn't. Expect a LOT more of this in November.

[depakid]

16. re-regulate it- to the way it operated before Reagan

tore down 50 years of responsible rules and oversight.

Divestment, fairness doctrine and equal time provisions, extension to Cable "news," enforcement of the public interest standard at licensure renewal, etc.

Wouldn't be that difficult- the framework's already there, and it would be TREMENDOUSLY popular. I bet 70% would support these proposals if some Dems had the courage to present them right.

Of course, if we manage to elect another Clinton type- none of that will ever happen. They'll just sell us down the river again.

[POAS]

5. I thought it was Natalie Holloway

[MH1]

7. Agnostic, but what we need to be doing for trustworthy elections, imo,

#1 is making sure you have democrats on every precinct election board in your area. Make sure you have people committed to be poll watchers. TRAIN these people on what to look for that might be an indicator of shenanigii, and what to do if they see it.

Also find out the vulnerabilities of your own county's system and process. Even if they use paper, there are probably vulnerabilities.

[dave502d]

8. I Agree,take it to the street's.n/t

[zeemike]

9. I agree

And we should take all the actions listed above
But beyond that we need to have a federal election law that states that no one can win an election with less than a majority of the votes.
I would like to see this before the 08 election. But I may be a dreamer because it will take a great deal of pressure from the people of this country to bring that about, like a mass general strike and march on the capital.

[Doctor_J]

10. You'll have better luck trying to turn the tide

or having a snowball fight in hell.

[IndianaGreen]

12. The war!

We can't do anything until the war comes to an end. It is bankrupting the country and is destroying lives!

[pnwmom]

13. I agree that the war must be stopped ASAP. But do you think it will be if

the Repubs are in charge -- or will they just move it to Syria, etc.?

It still seems to me that the first thing that has to happen is to elect Democrats to Congress; but that won't happen without fair elections.

[bdamomma]

14. our privilege to vote

is in grave danger if we don't push this paper ballot issue, or get rid of these diebold machines.

[orleans]

15. ban the machines!!! n/t

[ProudDad]

17. Fat Chance

There's no way to fix the election system without PUBLIC FINANCING of ALL elections.

Remember Box 13?

It's ALWAYS been corrupt. It's always been about money and power for the few who have the money and the power.

[Robeson]

19. You got it, ProudDad...

...it's always been corrupt, from the beginning. Only the technologies have changed.

And as you said, only public financing will change it, and that's not going to happen without a revolution. And I don't see that happening in the near future.

[pnwmom]

21. There's always been corruption but we've never been this close to

a fascist dictatorship before. On top of being on the verge of World War IV.

[Robeson]

22. Not to be picky, but it's going to be WW III. Otherwise, I don't....

...disagree. Though I do think that we've had a "dance of democracy" long before Bush came to office. This country has been keeping up the trappings of a Republic for a long time, but it really isn't, and hasn't been....for a long time.

[pnwmom]

25. Sorry -- accidentally echoed the repubs who said that cold war was WW3

And the current is WW4

Guess they just want to get us used to the idea of continuous nonstop war.

[ProudDad]

27. Actually, we have been close to a fascist dictatorship

The business elites and owners of this society are always ready to build a fascist state. They're just much better at it now.

THE BUSINESS PLOT TO OVERTHROW ROOSEVELT

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Coup.htm

"Part 1 explained why the British, and their Wall Street allies, the Morgans, hated President Franklin D. Roosevelt and how FDR battled to reduce their influence and power. Part 2 continued the story of FDR's fight and laid out Morgan's counterattack, featuring a 1934 plan for a fascist coup against the FDR White House, which the Morgans hoped would be led by the Marine hero, Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler."

http://members.tripod.com/~american_almanac/morgan4.htm

--------------

Butler turned into an actual hero:

'War Is a Racket'

http://www.twf.org/News/Y2001/0911-Racket.html

[Rosemary2205]

18. I totally agree

if we can't vote out the scumbags then all the media attention and bellyaching in the world won't matter.

[BlueIris]

23. "What Went Wrong in Ohio." Buy dozens of copies. Pass it around.

It won't solve the crises entirely, but it will at least create more public outrage. It's $10, plus tax. Not hard.

[pnwmom]

26. good constructive idea. thanks.

[GreenArrow]

24. entrenched political corruption

and corporatization, which includes the election system issue, are the biggest issues. It's not enough to simply fix the voting tabulators, it is necessary to fix the broken political system itself. Term limits, public financing, and paper ballots are just a few of the changes needed, though instituting them will be difficult because the people who benefit from the system as it exists now, in both parties, are not going to voluntarily kill the goose that lays the golden egg.