was I half asleep this am--or did I actually hear those clowns on cnn saying we should be proud of

[niyad]

having to stand in line for hours, as a sign of our civic duty?

when I calm down from all the crap I have heard from them lately, they are getting one long, angry letter about the bs that passes for news on that station.

[Lerkfish]

1. how about the civic duty to have better planned polling systems?

[BamaTideFan83]

5. YEH! And how about . . .

. . . a better system to buy concert tickets???

[Lerkfish]

10. um... not sure I get the point of the sarcasm to my serious post.

[niyad]

8. that was my thought--as rachel said the other night, these lines and problems are a new form of poll

tax.

when I pointed out to my local election mgr that her saying "because there will be so many more voters, I am closing three of the early voting stations to make it more efficient" was totally insane, she said, "well, they could have asked for mail-in ballots" she didn't have any response when I pointed out that just the week before, there was a report that the company that was supposed to be mailing many of these ballots had failed to mail over 20 THOUSAND of them. the secretary of state is a repuke, and running for congress--AND they are using diebold machines.

[anigbrowl]

2. Yeah, you should be proud

Believe it or not voting in an election involves some standing in line in most countries; considering the length of American ballots where you may be casting 20+ votes at once, it's not that bad here. My feet were sore after 2.5 hours of standing in for early voting the other day, but it was worth it.

[bdamomma]

3. they haven't done

anything to alleviate the problems in voting this has been going on since 2000.

[LanternWaste]

4. People are proud to stand in line for weirder reasons...

People are proud to stand in line for weirder reasons. God-son bragged to me he stood in line for three hours in the middle of the night to see the newest batman movie. :shrug:

[niyad]

6. that is a personal choice, though, and therein lies the difference.

[LanternWaste]

7. proud or not proud to stand in line to vote also a personal choice...?

Isn't a person feeling proud or not proud to stand in line to vote also a personal choice...?

[niyad]

9. the difference being that these lines for voting are a direct result of republican tricks and bs to

make it as difficult as possible to vote.

did you see the piece on rachel's show last night with paul weyrich (heritage foundation idiot) who said, back in 1980, that he preferred that fewer people, rather than more, voted.

[LanternWaste]

11. I'm missing something...

I'm missing something. I've been navigating through piss-poor local elections since '86. It's inconvenient-- not difficult.

This year, we're projected to have the highest turnout in both absolute and percentage numbers since 1882. None of my experiences have been colored by dirty-tricks-- simply a lot of people (voters and poll workers) not knowing what they're doing.

I've been expecting to stand in line for hours at my precinct after work this evening for months now. If the process happens quickly, I'll be the one surprised.

And yeah-- It'll be my own personal choice to feel proud about it...

[Atman]

12. I don't ever remember this being a problem pre-Bush.

It seems BushCo fucked up literally everything. I voted back in the Carter/Reagan election -- no problem. Reagan/Clinton...no problem. Suddenly Bush steps up and the GOP takes over and everything is mysterious...polling no longer is valid, every race is a tie until the last minute. It's fucked up. Just the way Bush wanted. Undermine all trust in institutions as a way to usher in the BushCo neocon's "New World Order."

.