Is election reform possible?

[loritooker]

Many admirable congresspeople stated today that we need to move towards reforming the election process. Is election reform--meaningful election reform that creates fairness and transparency across the board--possible in a Republican controlled government? If yes, that's where we need to go next. If no...?

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. YES, one town, county and state at a time! It WON'T come from DC. So

let's get busy.

------------------------------------------------------
Election reform can help save this country!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[loritooker]

4. Stephanie Tubbs Jones was calling for federal standards--how do we

get there? We can work on our own states and hopefully have a great state system where we live, but will the power to change have to settle there? Is the effort to create federal standards unrealistic?

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. It will trickle upwards. If you have a better system locally, you'll

eventually elect better people to the top offices, thereby getting better policy.

No, it's not a quick fix, but it can work.

------------------------------------------------------
Election reform can help save this country!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[loritooker]

7. There's a lot of "husbandry" involved in that. So it's not coming from DC.

You have to "grow" your policies at a grassroots level? That will take years! Not that I'm complaining--if that's what it takes so be it. I'm just really doubtful, as I guess you are, that much can be accomplished "top down" on this.

[Amigust]

14. Your argument assumes a fair electoral process to begin with

if you are to elect better people trickling upward.

We don't have a fair electoral process to do that.

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. The trickle upward starts AFTER the reforms I am talking about

are in place.

Trust me, I live in a state with voluntary clean elections. I have seen that they have had a positive effect on the make-up of our state legislature.

------------------------------------------------------
Election reform can help save this country!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[SnoopDog]

10. We the People of the United States of America.....

[stray cat]

2. Don't know - but its worth some work

[Child_Of_Isis]

3. Of course.

Didn't you hear our admirable congresspeople telling the freeps the "voting irregularities" needed to be addresed? And of course the freeps are going to get right on that so a Dem can become Prez in 08.

[loritooker]

5. Yeah, that's what I'm wondering about!!

[Old and In the Way]

8. Don't look for help in a Republican majority in Congress to fix a

process designed to keep them in power. It'll take a seachange in people's attitudes about Party identification before we can get enough votes to overide their advantage in equipment and process control.

[GregD]

9. with the same level of pressure on electeds, like the past couple weeks,

but for a protracted period of time.

It's going to take significant effort to pass election reform under the current climate. If you listened to the Rs in their remarks, they simply are not unhappy with the way the system works. They like it this way.

[consciousobjector]

13. The deck is stacked, but

I'll still work for reform, but I don't see how we can all maintain the level of the last few weeks...I don't know about you, but I have to start paying some attention to my disintegrating home and business (not to mention my husband - who is once again asking if we can take the Kerry sign off the lawn)...

[loritooker]

17. I have to take care of my disintegrating husband, too ; )

Too many late nights at DU!!

[consciousobjector]

20. LOL

:nuke: (this was the closest representation of a "disintegrating husband" I could find)!

[loritooker]

27. that looks about like him! ;)

[kk897]

22. My husband asked me the same thing!

I don't know...I have said that they'll have to pry my sign out of my cold, dead lawn... but now it seems sort of an eccentricity rather than a pointed protest.

[consciousobjector]

26. I'm lobbying to keep the Kerry sign

at least until after the 20th

[RaulVB]

11. Not by legal means (n/t)

[loritooker]

19. you're my reality check RVB!

[eowyn_of_rohan]

12. In a word, No.

not with the fascist system we have.

[Peace Patriot]

16. I agree with GreenPartyVoter above...

...beware federal solutions with BushCons in charge. They could take our local power away. We CAN get this done locally, state by state. It's very simply

a) paper ballot
b) hand counts

or at least

a) paper receipt for every vote
b) open source code

and 3) undoctored exit polls to check for fraud (like they do it everywhere else in the world).

And I think we need to do it ASAP, while we still have the power. I don't think it will take years. Some states will be harder than others. But most people want fairness. It's an easy sell.

Congress is not going to help. BushCons likely to make it worse, if they get into it. And if they take our state powers away, then I don't know what we'll do. Boycott elections?

It's our last stand, really.

[loritooker]

18. how to we get paper ballots in our states--

do we lobby our state reps? I'd like to get accountable voting machinery in California. I think much of California, for example, is OK and I know people have been very dedicated to working on this in our state, long before me--but is this the way to start?

[bardgal]

23. STOP ASKING FOR PAPER RECEIPTS!!!!

They are USELESS when the fix is already in ELECTRONICALLY. There will never be a need for a recount. They will never allow a close enough election to warrent a recount so the receipt is USELESS.

E-VOTING IS THE PROBLEM.

The ONLY way is PAPER BALLOTS - HAND COUNTED. IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES TO COUNT THEM. We've got to get over wanting instant results, the outcome is too important.

[wiggs]

21. If the administration doesn't want it....

...it won't happen.

congress can even pass legislation (unlikey) and there are still many avenues for the adminsitration to use to derail it. Read Crimes Against Nature by RFKjr. One of the major points of the book is how this administration uses stealth tactics to do whatever it wants.

It can hold up implementation of a program or change enforcement conduct as it wishes.

[loritooker]

25. That sounds like a fascinating book-will check it out. nt

[solinvictus]

24. Yes..

it's called civil war.

[truthpusher]

28. No, not with what we have today n/t

[BigBearJohn]

29. Some would have said the formation of the U.S.A. was impossible

[genieroze]

30. All discrepancies need to be addressed. No more fake registrations

or multiple ones, no registering dead people or throwing out valid registrations. No more rigged or one party owned voting machines and software. No more long lines and not enough access to voting places. No more intimidation of any voter no matter what their party affiliation. All votes should be counted including absentee and military ones before a winner is declared, real democracy takes time. Every citizen over the age of 18 should have the right to vote even if they were a felon. Paper trails and receipts no matter what one voted with.

[AirAmFan]

31. We missed our chance in 2001, when the whole world had * under a microscope

But Jimmy Carter let us down with a Carter-Ford Commission report that did not insist on mandatory uniform national standards on voter registration, provisional ballots, voting devices, and other aspects of electoral administration. Then Chris Dodd and Steney Hoyer let the Republicans roll over them with the "Help America Vote Act" of 2002, which ratified the Carter-Ford commission's insistence on states' rights. Tens of millions of Federal dollars were spent to buy black-box voting devices with no voter-verifiable audit trail. These machines will last for many years and continue to bleed millions of votes from Democrats every election.

Lack of mandatory national standards allowed Ken Blackwell to nullify provisional ballotting's intended purpose, of allowing votes cast in the wrong place to be sent to the right place for counting. Lack of standards also allowed Blackwell to throw out registrations because they were not on the proper weight paper. Lack of standards for equality of number of voting devices per 100 registered voters led to people waiting in the rain until 4am to vote.

Realistically, we won't get another shot at election reform until at least one House has a Judiciary Chairman that's a Democrat. I hope Conyers is still around then to apply all he's learned over the past four years toward establishing a genuinely fair national election system.

[loritooker]

32. Thanks for the education. I think BBVing is a problem too.

Even with a paper trail, can't they be hacked so everything still matches? How long might it take to get a Judiciary Chairman in one house to enact the reforms you mentioned.