Kobach Exposed at Trial

EXCLUSIVE: Florida Telling Hundreds Of Eligible Citizens That They Are Ineligible To Vote

Voter fraud is perfectly OK - as long as your a Republican!

Voter Fraud Retires Shameless GOP Official

 dionysius wrote: 
We are starting to have a bit of a problem in a small number of inner city constituencies.  With postal votes/registration fraud.  I think our system needs to be tightened up a bit but just so you take a driving licence/passport with you to vote (not this whole matching thing) and if a postal vote is requested a letter is sent to the normal address so people are notified if something funny is going on.

I have an idea that I have heard some commentary on the ease of voter registration/ lack of ID needed to vote here.  The opinion seemed to be that voter fraud is low here so that the priority is to make it easy to vote to try to hold up turnout figures.  The inevitable seems to have followed- they made postal registration so damn easy that the fraudsters thought- easy pickings and so a problem developed because of the new system whereas there wasn't a problem before.

 MrsHobieJoe wrote: 

Bemusement works both ways. However, because of a bewildering patchwork state-by-state pattern of voting rules, there is more opportunity for voter suppression here in the US, looks like.

More later. Gotta go pick up the wifey!

 dionysius wrote: 
How does it all work then?  I'm a bit bemused.  I'll give a summary of how our system works.

Once a year (around October time) each household receives an electoral notice to confirm the names of eligible voters living at this address.  Most elections are in May so this works OK and there is some sort of notification that you can give if you move house.  I think you usually have another time window to make sure you are registered after an election is called (most elections are called 6 weeks before voting) but the onus is on you to sort it out.

In terms of the form if all you need to do is to confirm it's unchanged from the details on the form (ie what they have from last year) you can just call a number and use the keypad to confirm your details.  Otherwise you complete the form (which takes about 2 minutes) and stick it in the post and forget about it.

Once an election is called you receive a slip in the post and its a good idea to take that with you to vote.  There is no requirement to prove your identity.  It's fine to vote if you forget the slip of paper too- you just need to tell the people at the polling station who you are and your address.  Voting is carried out about 2 minutes walk from our house at the townhall.  I haven't seen a queue yet.  Voter turnout in 2005 was 61.36%.  All voting is paper voting.  You put a cross in the box next to your candidate.  After polling finishes at 10pm on election day all the local bank clerks/staff from the local council get sorting and counting.  The local political parties can be present for the count but can't touch anything.

There is quite a significant problem developing around postal voting.  This is starting to be encouraged to get the numbers up but because there is no onus to prove identity anyone can write to the council and request a postal vote at a different address to their normal address.  This is a recipe for serious problems as a number of prominent broadcasters found out at the last election.  People had written in for postal ballots for them and they knew nothing about it until they were unable to vote on election day.  They lost their right to vote.

OK, that's it.  There are 645 MPs in our parliament (for a population of about 60m), average age 50, 125 are women, 15 are from ethnic minorities (however there should be about 50 to accurately reflect the population).  First past the post system and 3 main political parties.  Currently 349 Labour, 193 Conservative and 63 Liberal Democrat- the balance is made up by regional parties. 

CNN reports on voter suppression efforts already under way. Not that it will help GOP candidates at all in this landslide election cycle. Just goes to show the lengths they will go to.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
I can imagine Mr. Kurtz dieing again as in the end of Heart of Darkness, but instead of saying, "The horror, the horror!", he'll be saying, "the irony, the irony."

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
It is laugh-worthy....

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 



Can you spell "ad hominem"?  Sure, I knew you could!

 exotraxx wrote: 

Mmmm... Ham Fish. 

Servo wrote:

stewliscious wrote:
Shooting the messenger again, are we?

 exotraxx wrote: 
Rolling Stone.  Now there is some hard- hitting, unbiased journalism by clear-headed reporters.  Next week: "How to Clean your Bong With Sarah Palin's Underwear".

 islander wrote: 
Telling how you mentioned "typing" but not thinking.

You people are the most bombastic, self-absorbed idiots that I have ever seen on the Internet.  And that's saying a lot.  I've seen teenagers living in their parent's basement with far greater reasoning abilities than the average RP political pundit.

If this was any other topic, I'd just ignore such colossal ignorance and move on.  But since this whole nation is at the precipice, and the most important election in the history of the USA is coming up in less than two weeks, and I am scared shitless by the possibility of the consequences of another wrong "roll of the dice" by the stupidest electorate on earth, I will keep on hammering away.  My future depends on it.

Let me put it in language that you'll understand.  If you fuck this up, you're not going to be able to spend your days stoned, drunk or both, typing nonsense on the Internet.  Let the wrong people win and you're going to have a new President with a new War on Drugs that will make the last one seem pitiful in comparison.  Eventually you'll sober up, but by then it will be too late.  You'll be screwed.

Is that really what you want?

If not, then sober up for just a little while, long enough to think clearly on November 4.  Try to pay attention to the instructions.

 islander wrote: 


Thanks for the laugh!!

 jadewahoo wrote: 
Shoot you down? I'll buy you a beer. You saved a lot of people a lot of typing.