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Carter says Florida Voting Still Not Fair
linuxwrangler writes "Ex president Jimmy Carter is claiming that Florida has still not created conditions for a fair election. The Carter Center has monitored over 50 elections worldwide for fairness and says that the absence of uniformity in voting procedures and the lack of a non-partisan election commission sets the stage for a repeat of the 2000 election. That election, overseen by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (aka co-chair of the Bush-Cheney state campaign committee), was officially decided by a margin of 537 votes. According to Carter, Florida governor Jeb Bush (aka brother of George W. Bush) has done little to correct the problems found in the 2000 election. In addition, Harris' successor Glenda Hood, (aka an elector for George W. Bush in 2000) recently attempted to disqualify 22,000 African Americans (likely Democrats), but only 61 Hispanics (likely Republicans), as alleged felons."
The issue isn't whether Glenda Hood is going to fix the result but that someone so partisan is in that position in the first place.
If Iraq had had an election in which Tariq Aziz was in charge of the election and Saddam Hussein had been elected would anyone believe it had been a fair election? Same thing applies here, the process should be seen to impartial and it isn't.
It's unAmerican. When someone has done their time, their debt to society is repaid, and they should have all their rights back, including the right to vote. If they don't get their right to vote back, then that's effectively an additional punishment. It's the punishment of being a second-class citizen in this country. One thing that justice strives for is a punishment measured to the crime. Removing voting rights permanently is a punishment that is not just, because it is not measured to fit the crime.
It also hurts the rest of us, because we live in a society where some people are not considered full-class citizens, and justice is not served. Unless we constantly strive to make our country MORE equal and MORE just, we will not have been the best country that we can be.
Your tough-guy talk is all very impressive to some people, but we're all better served by some rational arguments here.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Should the people who help run an election campaign also be in charge of vote counting or collection?
Isn't there some conflict of interest there?
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Posted on 08/25/2004 6:20:16 AM PDT by moonman
ABC News (radio) announced that over 46,000 New York City residents were registered to vote in both their home district and also in the state of Florida. The anouncement mentioned that two-thirds (2/3) are registered Democrats.
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NEW YORK, (UPI) -- Allegations first made by the New York Daily News that residents of New York state may have voted illegally in Florida elections has produced calls for a formal investigation by Florida officials.
A study of computer records in New York and Florida conducted by the Daily News found 46,000 New York residents illegally registered to vote in both states.
The paper's investigation also uncovered the fact that as few as 400 and as many as 1,000 of those illegally registered voted twice in at least one election.
In some cases, people were found to have violated the law by voting twice in as many as seven elections.
"We expect that people will follow the law," said Florida Department of State spokeswoman Alia Faraj. "If there is an indication that people haven't, then the appropriate agencies must look into this matter." -30-
909089-89089080-
A convicted felon is banned from owning a handgun for life in this country. That's a second ammendment right.
Why should voting be treated differently?
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
Another problem is that felons aren't the only ones being excluded. In the 2000 elections, there were people turned away from the polls because their name was the same as or similar to a convicted felon's, or even because of bad data entry which was never corrected. It's one thing that felons can't vote. It's quite another that law-abiding citizens can't vote because they're black, or their name is similar to someone who has commited a crime. That's just plain wrong.
That's it. I'm no longer part of Team Sanity.
Let's see, after his interesting call on the Venezuelan elections (it is legit, said Carter before all of the votes were even certified, and well before all of the interesting information about electronic voting machines programmed by a company owned by Chavez's brother were out in the open), he now wants to call the Florida elections before they happen?
Not a word about the estimated 15000-20000 voters in the FL panhandle (generally a Republican area) who didn't vote after the networks called the election for Gore before the polls closed in the panhandle.
Not a word about the 4.4% error rate (mostly overvotes) in Palm Beach County (controlled by Democrat election officials) vice the 0.4% statewide error rate. Or about the interesting fact that Bush got fewer votes in Palm Beach County than all four Republican congressional candidates combined.
No word about the tens of thousands of New Yorkers (generally Democrat-leaning) also registered in Florida.
Not a word about motor voter issues, or the illegality of even asking for an ID at the polling place in most states.
Not a word about electronic voting machines that don't produce a paper record. Not a word about problems with absentee ballot fraud. Not a word about the interesting character of elections in Chicago.
I think that there are problems with the integrity of votes in the US. But I only see the Democrats getting exercised about it when the issue might play against them. Then, they are vitriolic. But never when the problems help them.
There is room for a dispassionate look at the issue. This is just partisan grandstanding.
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
The editors aren't required to cater to anyone's views, yours included. If you don't like it, leave and send Taco or somebody else important an email explaining why you left. If enough people do this, then advertising numbers will go down, and the site will eventually shrivel and die. However, judging by the number of people who hang around here complaining and never leave, that day will probably be far in the future.
That's it. I'm no longer part of Team Sanity.
Wait a minute - that discribes ALL of Slashdot!!!
How is the Politics portion different?
Have you compiled your kernel today??
No, Carter is belly-aching about the non-felons that were not being able to vote, because the Florida Secretary of State decided that they might be fellons or worse - vote Democrat.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
From my point of view - Mrs. Harris followed the letter of the law. It was the State Supreme court that kept on making it up as it went along!
Yeah, well... are you partisan?
Obviously, Jimmy Carter is a Democrat. If being a Democrat entails being so partisan that his comments should be ignored... then you should ignore my comment too. And probably yours as well.
Otherwise, Carter has proven himself to be one of the most honorable and honest people to have ever entered public service. No, I don't think he was necesarily a great president. But he was certainly honest. His credibility is impeccable.
Right?
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Nice troll.
"It's the punishment of being a second-class citizen in this country."
It's the punishment of being a felon convicted by a jury of his or her peers.
"One thing that justice strives for is a punishment measured to the crime."
The comission of a felony shows a gross indifference to the rights of others (at best), and as such those others (namely the population at large) has the right to take steps to make sure that they can't continue to abuse the rights of others in the voting booth.
"It also hurts the rest of us, because we live in a society where some people are not considered full-class citizens, and justice is not served."
It has, by definition, been served. If you're in jail you may still be able to vote; if you've never been convicted of anything worse than a misdemeanor you can still vote. Only upon conviction by a court of law of a felony are voting privileges revoked.
"It's unAmerican."
No, it's "being held accountable for your own actions."
> The comission of a felony shows a gross indifference to the rights of others
Nonsense. Prisons are full to overflowing with people who went there in order to support the rights of others to control their own thoughts through the use of the chemical supplements of their choice.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
I'm Christian, and I'm fairly conservitave, and I think Bush is a danger to the free world (assuming such a thing exists). So don't assume that the "right-wing Christians" support Bush.
This power grab thing has nothing to do with "right wing Christians", it's all about people who are in power, wanting to stay in power.
When religion and politics get together, it's not because a religious person uses politics to spread his or her views, it's because a political person uses religion to increase his or her power.
Repeat after me: It's all about power. Power. Power! POWER!! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!!!
I hate it when I make a joke and I get modded "+5 insightful". Mod the stupid comments "funny", not "insightful", pleas