Slashdot Mirror
Election Day Discussion
With the polls now already open in most of the country, this is the official on-topic place for all Slashdot readers to discuss the election itself. And get out and vote if you can. Also, if you haven't noticed, the Slashdot poll shows once and for all where Slashdot readers fall on the election. I'm off to vote in a couple hours. Wonder if we'll have Diebolds in my district.
For meaningful change, the only choice is Michael Badnarik!
"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it." -- Ayn Rand
Well... it looks like we already have our first reports of voter fraud in Phildaelphia, atleast, according to Drudge. I have been trying to see if I can find out if it's true or not through the Election Incident Reporting System (EIRS). So far, their site has been very, very slow to respond. Anyways.. Drudge says that there are reports of over 2,000 votes already being casted on voting machines BEFORE the polls were even open. Is anyone in Phily that can corroborate the stories? Nothing I have seen thus far says which candidate the votes were casted for, but I am very curious...
Hmmm.
At least that's what John Fund at the WSJ says this morning!
4 more years!
The next pasture is always greener
Drudge is saying voting machines were found with hundreds of votes on them, _before_ polling started in philidepllhia. Anyone know if they use diabold machines there?
Official GOD FAQ.
Submitted this, but in case it gets rejected, Matt Drudge is reporting that about 2,000 votes were "planted" in Philadelphia-area voting machines before the polling places opened this morning. I guess it would be un-Drudgelike to mention which candidate the votes favored, but regardless, here's the abstract as of thirty seconds ago:
Before voting even began in Philadelphia -- poll watchers found nearly 2000 votes already planted on machines scattered throughout the city... One incident occurred at the SALVATION ARMY, 2601 N. 11th St., Philadelphia, Pa: Ward 37, division 8... pollwatchers uncovered 4 machines with planted votes; one with over 200 and one with nearly 500... A second location, 1901 W. Girard Ave., Berean Institute, Philadelphia, Pa, had 300+ votes already on 2 machines at start of day... INCIDENT: 292 votes on machine at start of day; WARD/DIVISION: 7/7: ADDRESS: 122 W. Erie Ave., Roberto Clemente School, Philadelphia, Pa.; INCIDENT: 456 votes on machine at start of day; WARD/DIVISION: 12/3; ADDRESS: 5657 Chew Ave., storefront, Philadelphia, Pa... A gun was purposely made visible to scare poll watchers at Ward 30, division 11, at 905 S. 20th St., Grand Court. Police were called and surrounded the location... Developing...
The dude was a coward when he could have seen action... Easy to be brave with other's lives...
Irag was an optional war.
Virtually his whole org are chicken-hawks.
wusses.
Let's keep a tally of sites with relevant information. Not sure if there's a bias in their reporting of news, but I've come to like Real Clear Politics as a way to keep track of the polls, etc.
Of course there's always non-US news sites like The Guardian and The Economist's articles regarding the election.
Breaking "news" also appears on Drudge Report. As far as blogs go, I don't really have any good ones. Any other ones you guys like?
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
> And get out and vote if you can.
No, no, no, no. Get out and vote EVEN IF YOU CAN'T.
I don't care how hard it is, how inconvenient it is, what state you live in - think your state's tally is a foregone conclusion? So what - the totals still matter.
Seriously, folks - no matter which "side" you're on, this election MATTERS. GO VOTE!
Or don't complain for four years.
No gods, no demons, and no masters. Secular Humanism!
Looks like the early polls are favoring kerry 53/46/1 overall and 300/270ish electorally.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
In Northern Virginia, they're using WINVote machines. I used one this morning in North Arlington - and waited TWO HOURS PLUS to vote.
The wait was not due to the machines, though; they only had one set of voter rolls, and one person flipping through them to verify voters. They had us divided up into A-K and L-Z lines. The L-Z line was maybe 30-45 minutes; the A-K line was the aforementioned 2+ hours. I worry about how many people turned away from the lines, just because they didn't man the polls appropriately...
doosh? what is that? oh, you meant...
douche Pronunciation (dsh)
(Medicine)
n.
1.
a. A stream of water, often containing medicinal or cleansing agents, that is applied to a body part or cavity for hygienic or therapeutic purposes.
b. A stream of air applied in a similar way.
2. The application of a douche.
3. An instrument for applying a douche.
Noun 1. douche bag - a small syringe with detachable nozzles; used for vaginal lavage and enemas
and also
Douche Bag http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=do
Main Entry: douche bag
Pronunciation: 'düsh 'bAg
Function: noun
Date: circa 1963
slang : 1 One with an undescribeable fucked up-ness hence stupidity, poor idea of what's cool, possibly an arrogance about them. 2 One with an intolerable personality.
Other Forms: Douche, Douchey
Meat heads are douche bags.
Dude, stop being a douche bag.
Dude, stop being a douche.
Dude, that was a douchey move.
* why yes, I have nothing better to do today having already voted for the doosh bag
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
Reliability of Existing Voting Equipment
Using an average of "residual votes" weighted by the prevalence of the voting equipment type, they found that about 2.1 percent of all ballots resulted in an uncounted vote.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that at least one state (and quite possibly enough electoral votes to swing the election either way) will be "decided" with a margin of victory lower than 2.1%.
--kirby
I personally do not think that everyone should be voting. In fact I think a lot of people SHOULDN'T be voting!
Ignorance is rampant and I would rather have an intelligent informed nation choosing their leader based on facts, logic, and rationale rather than emotional responses, self-interest, and personality marketing/propoganda.
The Cato Institute published a report which is here: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-525es.html [Cato.org] and it details its findings on the study of voter ignorance. Here is an excerpt:
"Overall, close to one-third of Americans can be categorized as 'know-nothings' almost completely ignorant of relevant political information," writes Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, in "When Ignorance Isn't Bliss: How Political Ignorance Threatens Democracy."
"Most of the time," Somin notes," only bare majorities know which party has control of the Senate, some 70 percent cannot name either of their state's senators and the vast majority cannot name any congressional candidate in their district at the height of a campaign."
Overall, voters tend to be "abysmally ignorant of even very basic political information... the sheer depth of most individual voters' ignorance is shocking to observers not familiar with the research."
A few examples from many in the report:
* The Patriot Act? What's that? Three-fourths of Americans say they know little or nothing about it. 58 percent say they've heard "nothing" or "not much" about it.
* Seventy percent don't know about the $500 billion new drug benefit added this year to Medicare, which Somin describes as "probably the most significant domestic legislation passed during the Bush administration."
* A majority cannot make even a rough estimate of how many Americans soldiers have been killed in Iraq.
* 61 percent believe that there has been a net loss of U.S. jobs in 2004.
* Over 60 per cent don't know that, during President Bush's term, there has been an explosion in domestic spending (about 25 percent above previous levels) that has enormously increased the national debt.
* Last year, 58 percent of Americans could not name a single federal Cabinet department.
And such voter ignorance is, alas, nothing new:
* In 1964, at the height of Cold War tensions, only 38 percent of the public knew that the Soviet Union was not a member of NATO.
* In 1994, after Republicans took control of Congress under the highly-publicized leadership of Rep. Newt Gingrich, 57 percent of Americans said they'd never heard of Gingrich, despite the avalanche of press coverage.
* In 1996, 67 percent couldn't name their congressman, and only 26 percent knew that senators serve six-year terms.
* In the 2002 elections, only 32 percent of voters knew that the Republican Party controlled the House.
In 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote: "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
Mass ignorance is easy to exploit and sway opinions based on nothing more than emotions.
And in conclusion I say that if you do not truly understand the issues, have a good concept of how the government and the world works, and grasp the ideals and principles of what this government was founded on and it's history - then stay the hell out of the voting booth!
Libertas in infinitum
This is the best interactive electorial college map I found on the Internet. Clicking on the button 'Electorial votes' changes the proportions of the states to reflect the electorial college. Lot of stats and fun to play with too.
As of now, I believe after reading this that the states are going to be voting almost exactly as the did in 2000, and it will come down to Florida making the call, yet again!
the Philly machines are now the Danaher Controls ELECTronic 1242 voting machine. i don't think any distric in Philadelphia has had the vintage 1950's mechanical machines for over two years now. they rolled out these machines for the 2002 elections. it was a local big voting year because it was the Mayoral race.
as for the drudgereport story..... it has not made local news that i caught. not sure what the deal is with it.
Take a look at the polls here (I'm in Durham) and you'll see why Bush feels pretty good. At the State Fair last a couple of weeks ago, you could of mistaken it for a Bush rally - there were that many people with Bush/Cheney stickers. I predict a Kerry/Edwards win in Orange and Durham counties, and that's about it.
"The problem with internet quotations is that many are not genuine" -Abraham Lincoln
Took me an hour of waiting in line near Philadelphia. To the point where I was worried about being late for work. Got there just after 7 when they opened. My wife had a problem. Seems they registered her to vote here when we moved, then decided on a whim to move her out of the county. Then claimed they mailed us a letter asking us to confirm that she moved out. We we never got a letter nor did we move...
They allowed her to vote anyway after showing a driver's lisence and a utility bill with our current address on it.
Not to mention conservative groups bulk-challenging votes in Ohio.
After SWVFT, Diebold, and this, how can anyone defend the mentality of the right in America? Oh, right, if Kerry wins the economy will tank and the terrorists will invade Wyoming, like they did under Clinton.
"we've invaded Iraq and killed 100,000 Iraqis..."
Actually, that figure does not say that Americans were the killers. That figure includes all "excess deaths" that occurred in Iraq. In fact, only half of those deaths were do to violence, and it does not say what party was the cause of the death.
You should see what Iraqis think about this.
And, there were _many_ good reasons for invaded Iraq, a few of which I've listed elsewhere.
Engineering and the Ultimate
I'm blogging live today, as usual
The faulty log with 3 missing hours (9:52pm to 1:31am) is here
India conducted a full-scale electronic election earlier this year successfully - few of the EVMs were connected or hacked
...polling place.
MyPollingPlace.com will tell you what voting equipment is being used at your polling place, as well as instructions on how to use it. It will also give you the location for where you vote based on your street address and zip code if you are unsure of where to go to vote.
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
Moderators: The Dupe is because I hit submit before I added my html tags. Sorry amigos.
.. 5.7 billion people in the world. ... and on and on.
One half trillion dollars will be spent in Iraq according to the Congressional Budget Office. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University estimate we have 100,000 dead Iraqis on our hands. 16.7% of our soldiers will bare this incredible burden in psych wards according to The New England Journal of Medicine, assuming theyre not dead. And today, 1,122 Americans will not vote because they couldnt escape the American torture chamber that is Iraq. Tomorrow a few more will die and several more will be added to the 7,532 people that were serious injured in Iraq, so do not forget this when you vote.
Kerry's not my favorite, but today he represents everything the republican party would offer traditionally and more!
(1) He's fiscally conservative
(2) He's socially liberal (no bigotry here!)
(3) He's environmentally friendly
(4) His foreign policy acknowledges the other
(5) He's actually aware of national security
Now, let the flame war begin!
That's very interesting considering the lists released by the Clinton administration don't even show Arafat as ever having stayed at the White House. For reference:
First term list of guests
Guests from 1999 through August 2000 (you'll have to click the link in the article to see the list)
Your source to back your claim?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Call the toll free voter alert line: 1-866-MYVOTE1
Did he inhale?
I appreciate your desire to see America return to it's former greatness. However, there is one thing that I've heard too many times to ignore. We are not a democracy, we are a republic.
There is a big difference between the two forms of government. A democracy gives power directly to the people. A republic gives electoral power to the people, and the decision making power to the elected officials.
Online Starcraft RPG? At
Dietary fiber is like asynchronous IO-- Non-blocking!
So, the democrats have had dibs on color for a long time.
Can't help it. Read this article yesterday and found it hilarious. Had to share :-)
Before posting the inevitable abuse, please bear in mind that the author is American.
The problem with this view: there's nothing to distinguish your "not voting to show disillusionment with the system" with someone else's "not voting because of laziness and apathy".
Traditionally, the former is expressed by casting a spoiled ballot. With voting machines, though, that's not really possible anymore.
This site does not represent all Iraqis. It's just a site set up by an American guy called Steven Moore (he worked for the American occupation administration). He clearly if not pro-Bush agenda, then clear job description as a USA-paid PR guy. So the site has some blatant lies and a lot of creative distortion of facts.
Read more about it in this Indimedia article: The truth about "thetruthaboutiraq.org".
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Ignorance can be astounding sometimes...
1. Sure, experience in other offices helps, but a 3rd party candidate shooting for high offices will always lose in an entrenched 2 party system.
2. Badnarik may not have held an office with a little name sign on his door, but has been studying the US constitution for over 22 years now. In fact, he teaches an 8 hour class on the constitution, which is available online for your viewing pleasure. He's been teaching it now for at least 4 years, but possibly more. I bet senator Kerry and presient Bush couldn't even tell you what article of the US constitution describes their position, much less what it actually says their powers are.
I could go on, but it's not worth my time. Libertarians actually go after a lot of this country's problems from the fundamental root, rather than using broad sweeping generalizations like "a safer america is what we want".
my last sig was too controversial... now, a new and improved useless sig!
On my registration form, I listed a mailing address that differed from that of my residence. I received my voter registration card in the mail, which gave me a polling place a few blocks from my listed residence. The card includes a note saying that since I'm a late registrant, I will not be receiving a sample ballot. No big deal. My mind is made up for the presidency, and I've done my homework regarding the local ballot measures. I'm also not a Florida resident, so I presumed I could figure out the ballot without seeing a sample. (Ok, cheap shot.)
Lo and behold, though, yesterday I receive a sample ballot after all. Complete with a polling place listed on the back. Only trouble is, it differs from the one on my voter registration card. It's not even in the same county. The local measures were the wrong ones, and there was a spot for Mayor of a town I don't even live in. Confusion arises.
So I go down to polling place #1. This is where I'm a resident, and as I understand it, that's the relevant issue at hand. I could theoretically have had them mail be a ballot overseas, if my legal residence was here in Northern California. I stood in line for quite a while, actually.. which was good to see. I finally get to the front of the line, and there's 3 poll workers doing their thing. I mention the ambiguity to them, and the 3 poll workers check their roll call sheets, or whatever the appropriate term is. Turns out I'm on only one of these 3, theoretically identical roll call sheets. Poll worker #3, who doesn't look like he's even old enough to vote, reasons, 'Well, you're on /my/ sheet, so you must be in the right place.' Unconvinced, I give them the ol' 'BBL' and drive down the road to polling place #2.
Again, I wait in a rather long line, and when I arrive at the front, it turns out I'm on all of the roll call sheets there, thus calling our pimply-faced friend's judgement into question.
So as I type, I'm trying to get through to the voter registrar's office, to see about clearing this up. Thus far, all I've received is the message, 'We're sorry, all of our representatives are helping other voters, please hold..' yada yada. Followed by 15 minutes of dead air. Followed by a dialtone. Hopefully, the registrar's office is just busy, and this isn't a ${Party} conspiracy to discount my vote. ;)
What concerns me most about this though, is that I just IMed a friend telling them what was going on, and she mentioned that several people at her job are going through the same thing....
Hopefully this will straighten itself out. Anyone have any other brilliant suggestions besides the registrar's office, and possibly that 866 number that keeps getting mentioned?
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine...
After reading the constitution yet again, it looks as though voting is more of a privilege then a right.
Look at it closely.
The only reasons they cannot deny you the right to vote are
1. due to race, color, or previous condition of servitude (Article XV) - Hmmmm and felons can't vote (look at Article XIII which seems to equate your sentence with involuntary servitude).
2. due to gender (Article XIX). Yay women can vote.
3. Failure to pay your taxes (Amendment XXIV)
and 4. Due to age, as long as your are oder then 18 (Amendment XXVI).
So except for those reasons you can lose your right to vote.
Use it while you've got it, it's the only way to keep it.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
I assume your question is about the party registration, for the voter registration card. Its actually optional, whether you want to declare you voter affiliation or not. And if you do declare it, you do not have to vote according to your affiliation. I don't why people do register a party affiliation, as I personally choose not to. If I had to guess, it would be because of pride or the feeling of needing to belong.
I hope that helps!
Just because you can, does not mean you should.
Why do you need to register as a party supporter? Up here in Canada, the voting list is automatic via the tax rolls and you can register at the polling station right before you vote, if they messed something up. It takes about 10 extra minutes (as long as you have your driver's licence and\or a recent phone or hydro bill with you name and address on it to prove residency in the riding).
Not dissing you, but I don't have to say whether I'm and NDP, Liberal, Green, Bloc or Conservative supporter at all - that's what the ballot is for. Why is it that you have to do that down there? Really, I've always been curious of that and it's never been explained.
Never by hatred has hatred been appeased, only by kindness - the Buddha
No, Kerry is just a lying, flip-flopping, liberal, rich traitor.
Kerry didn't volunteer until he had tried every way under the sun to get out of going. Read your history, Sparky.
In America they cannot deny you the right to vote due to non-payment of taxes. thus creating a voting list from the tax rolls would be unconstitutional.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
As an explanation to our non-US observers: It may seem odd to have to list your party affiliation. The main reason for this is to determine who can vote in which "primary" election, where Republicans chose the Republican candidate (Bush), and Democrats chose the Democratic candidate (Kerry), earlier this year. You can also state an "independent" affiliation, in which case you may not vote in the primary election but can vote in (today's) general election. No matter what affiliation you state, you can vote for any candidate (or no candidate) in the general election.
I know you are joking but in a few countries, including my home country Turkey, they use a special ink to mark the right index finger.
The ink does not come off for about a week, no matter what you apply to it.
In some States party affiliation is required because of they have closed primaries, only those registered in that party can vote in the primary. Other States like Virgina do not require party affiliation to register.
Neutrons are slippery little rascals, they can fool you. They can bounce and show up around corners you don't expect.
Agreed. And it's the same up here. It doesn't matter if you PAID your taxes, it matters that Revenue Canada has your address and sent you you tax form (this info is shared with Elections Canada to create the voter's list, which is shared for all elections - federal, provincial or municipal).
That's it.
And if that isn't right or you don't pay taxes (like University students), you simply show up to the polling station in your riding with some documentation as to your identity and proof that you live in the riding - like a lease agreement, a phone, cable, sewer bill etc (even a Visa statment is acceptable, as long as it has you name and adress on it and you have another form of picture ID that proves you are the person on the bill).
Very simple and verey effective.
We also mark an X on a paper ballot, which is then scanned so we get both electronic counting and paper ballots in the event of a recount. And we usually know the winner of the Election the night of the election (In 2000, our government called an election, had a 36 day campaign, voted and declared the winner and started back to business between the time of your election and the date the Supreme Court appointed GWB).
Just an FYI that Canada is not some draconian place. We have a pretty effective democracy up here.
Never by hatred has hatred been appeased, only by kindness - the Buddha
The upshot is that, in California, one does not have to feel like one is at the mercy of the paperless election system. Go, Kevin!
You are mistaken, please read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margin_of_error#The_
My experience wasn't quite as bad as yours but is related.
When I updated my address with the Califonia DMV, I checked the box to have them update my voter registration. That was about 3 months ago.
Last month, I called the county voter registration office and they said I wasn't registered.
So I drove down in person and submitted a change of address there.
I confirmed it last week over the phone and was on the updated list of registered voters for my polling place. They had the main list printed Oct 22 and another list with the folks who registered afterwards.
There are election monitoring web sites. I would reccommend you go to http://www.commoncause.org and click on the voter experience link.
They are collecting accounts of voting experiences (including irregularities).
If this is a pattern, they can do something about it.
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." -- Albert Einstein
That list you quote is "from a list of guests" and is NOT a complete list.It is from the Washington Post and another Post article says "President Bush, insisting that Arafat take more decisive action to rein in Palestinian militants, has refused to invite him to the White House, where Arafat was a frequent guest during the Clinton administration."
From American Spectator:"Bill Clinton, for example, invited a terrorist to the White House who had conspired in the deaths of Americans, even letting him sleep and sate himself at taxpayer expense as an honored guest for weeks at a time. His name was Yasser Arafat, the Kato Kaelin of the Clinton years, bunking so frequently at the White House the press described him as a "constant guest." One of Arafat's terrorists, marveling at his White House residency, was able to brag to the press, "Arafat was a guest at the White House more often than Netanyahu was."
What a stunning example of the slashdot mod system that your partial list is 'insightful'...
According to the Des Moines Register poll out late Saturday evening, 27 percent of Iowa adults have already voted. And among those Kerry leads 52 percent to 41 percent.
relevent links:
Salon War Room Report
Gallup Poll original data (I think this is the correct data set)
USA Today story
All news stories merely mention this in passing.....
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Nah, we are a hybrid democratic-republic. Some things are directly voted on, others things are accomplished by indirect election etc.
(Deep breath. I'm about to do something totally insane--try to present a rational, factual explanation of a political subject on SlashDot. Maybe its because I've been eating nothing but red M&Ms all day....)
IAMPAEO--BIHBO
I Am Not Presently An Election Official--But I Have Been One. And I can promise you, with all sincerity, that the margin of error is effectively zero. We count every single ballot, whether on the voting machines or in absentee ballots, regardless of how late we have to stay up to do it. The people in your county registrar's office total up all of the ballots from the polling places, and keep checking and re-checking until they have it right. The math is done in front of representatives from all political parties, as well as any candidate-appointed watchers that are present as well. When the election results are certified, the results are correct--with an error rate of zero.
Oh, c'mon. What about...
I have been an election official for more than fifteen years--and I have been involved in counting votes on Election night in heavily Democratic wards, and in heavily Republican wards. It does not matter--we get the vote total correct, and we turn it in to the county. Then the county re-checks our work--and they carefully preserve the voting machines until they're convinced we have done the work correctly. (One year, back in the 1980s, the county had questions about one of our voting machines and called the officials back in later in the week to make sure they understood what we'd done.)
Don't confuse the results announced on TV with the certified election
I have also done consulting work with the Elections Unit of a major TV network. They have an entirely different agenda: their goal is to "call" the election for one candidate or the other before any other media outlet. They are basing their "calls" on exit-polling data ("pardon me, ma'am, but could you tell me who you voted for?") in a handful of selected precincts across a state. They will report preliminary totals ("And we now see Governor Bloviate leading with 1,424,325 votes with 21% of precincts reporting...") without explaining the context (are those Bloviate's strong precincts? Who says the numbers are correct?) They're out to report fast, accuracy be damned. (Sorry, Charlie, but that's the way it really is.)
The real story, the real vote total, comes when the election is certified. And the "chaos" that we all saw in Florida was the actual process of certifying an election. There were flaws (the biggest: they hadn't defined any rules for how to count votes)--but they eventually arrived at a standard, and used that standard to count votes. They ended up with a total. That's the final number.
All that said....
The total vote count will be determined with a level of error of zero. What will not be determined--and what I fear will be rampant in this election, on both sides--is how many votes were fraudulent, due to duplicate registrations, absentee ballot fraud, etc.
This was actually done in the Chilean election in 1989. After voting, each voter put their thumb on a green stamp pad, marking it with ink that was very difficult to remove.
I prefer him over Cheney though.
I think that's really what this whole election is going to come down to... so many of my american friends are voting "against bush" rather than "for kerry"
The chains are broken
Loki is free
Ragnarok is at hand...
Our own Corporation for National and Commmunity Service "provides opportunities for Americans of all ages and backgrounds to serve their communities and country through three programs: Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America. Members and volunteers serve with national and community nonprofit organizations, faith-based groups, schools, and local agencies to help meet community needs in education, the environment, public safety, homeland security, and other critical areas."
And is not another name for the draft. Anyway, back to the page you linked to, if you read just a little further down you would have seen this:
So why didn't CNN link to the Full transcript of bin Ladin's speech? Perhaps because CNN is still desperately trying to spin a story they didn't fully report on in the first place.
Since when are we a Democracy? All this time, I thought that we were a Republic... Albeit a democratic Republic, a Republic just the same...
People should RTFC!
--
wwjd? jwrtfm!
Um, most people in the world use the word "democracy" to mean "representative democracy"
A republic run by representative democracy is not an oxymoron. (A republic can be democratic or non-democratic).
Democratic* republics: USA, Ireland, France
Non-democratic republics: Syria, Belorussia
In turn a democracy can be a republic or not a republic.
(*By "democratic" I mean a representative democratic government - people drop the representative because it is a pain to write it out when every serious non-pedantic person knows what they are talking about already).
[We don't come from a planet. We come from a grid sector.]
"Documented cases of civilians killed by the US is up around 15,000. [iraqbodycount.net, etc]"
Exactly my point. This is nowhere near 100,000.
Sorry, but that's not entirely true. The numbers on IraqBodyCount.net are fully-backed media documented numbers about specific incidents with specific casualties. That means that, out of the thousands of civillians killed during the war in Iraq, we have hard and fast proof about that many, right now, with zero additional time spent gathering information.
The 100,000+ number is a reasonable guesss about the actual numbers of casualties, inclulding those who didn't specifically make the fscking international news.
Sheesh.
I don't know if a 6:1 ratio of casualties to media-reported specific casualties is correct, but it seems reasonable. It seems a whole lot more reasonable than a 1:1 ratio which is, I believe, what you're choosing to go with.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Don't forget that the State Fair is held in Wake County, which is predominantly democratic (and most of the visitors to the fair, especially on weekdays are from Raleigh and Durham. In fact, most large city centers in NC are democratic. The question is whether the increased population and turnout in the cities will offset that of the rural areas.
I think that the pollsters will be found to be off, but I think when the smoke clears, we'll still be a red state.
-Alex
The colors are not official party colors at all ( in terms of a party featuring just red or just blue), and generally signs, banners, bumper stickers, etc. for both parties feature some scheme of red, white, and blue.
If you go to the New York Times website, you can look at their rather interesting representation of the map, with dark red and blue for solidly Republican or Democratic states, light shades of those colors for states that are not sure bets for a party, but still noticeably lean one way or another, and yellow, for the five truly undecided "swing states."
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
When I went to vote this morning we had the Diebold system. This is Montclair, CA.
They handed me a smart card, and I put card in and made my selections.
When came to the end I went to select the "cast ballot" button it returned a message "Are you sure you want to proceed, you haven't made all the selections you are entitled to."
OK?? So I went back and double checked everything. I definatly had voted on everything there was to vote on. Spent about 10 Minutes in all checking and rechecking.
I had to hit the "Cast Ballot" to finish and return my card.
So when I finished I complain to the manager there, and they said it's seems to happen every so often, we don't know what's the reason.
They really didn't know anything about these system, or what they could do about errors or problems.
So I walked away wondering if some of my votes were just dropped or something.
I mean as a programmer this system really made me feel incredably unconfortable as to it's reliablity, accuracy and security.
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso
I'm sorry, I must be totally out of the loop here in Europe..
but when you register to vote you actually have to say where your vote will go?
or am I reading this wrong?
You don't HAVE to, but you CAN. And you're not saying where your vote is going (IE a person registered as a Republican is under no obligation to vote as a Replublican), it's just stating which party you're "affiliated" with.
It's totally optional.
flossie
Write now. Defend liberty
I worked as a legal volunteer for Election Protection / Ohio Voter Protection Coalition this morning in Dayton, OH; and voted later in south Dayton.
We had many complaints of challegers intimidating voters, directly interacting with and interrogating voters, requesting voters to give their name to the challenger, among other things. Most of the problems voters had were locating the right place to vote, or they registered and weren't on the list, or hadn't registered at all.
The challengers were intimidating even if they didn't say anything, and I fail to see the purpose they serve. First, they sit behind the poll workers with a list of names (which more than likely contained the names they tried to challenge before the election, in which case they are in direct violation of a federal order enjoining them from doing that.) Then, they just glare at voters and make them feel uncomfortable. This is especially true in areas were the population is overwhelming black. They serve no purpose, because if they do challenge someone, the poll judge asks a few questions of the voter and the voter is allowed to vote almost every time. The only reason they are there is to intimidate and discourage people from voting. (If you believe in your candidate, you should want everyone to vote, shouldn't you?)
There were a few other minor things, but most centered around inappropriate actions of challengers. Hopefully a few will be tossed out before the end of the day.
My voting experience had a few bumps as well. I was immediately asked for ID, which I respectfully refused, and had to find my own name in the roster, because the poll worker couldn't hear me apparently. Once that was done, I had to get in a second line, where they took my ballot, wrote down the number, then wrote my name and address as they were on a second roll. (I'm not sure what the point was in that). As I was waiting in line, a lady asked if her son who has frequent epileptic seizures could be allowed to vote instead of waiting in line, so as to not disrupt everyone, and make it easier for him. The lady refused, so I made it a point to inform the poll worker and the voter that if there is any kind of disability, they can request to have the worker bring the ballot out to them in their car or whatever, and vote there. There is no reason why having a disability should prevent you from voting.
That said, I've heard some great news regarding early exit polls; the number of new voters I ran into was incredible; people genuinely seem to actually care about voting and making sure their vote is counted. It was somewhat reassuring to see so many people be so determined to vote.
The more people that vote, especially among groups that tend to avoid the polls, the better it is for the candidate I support. From what I've seen, things are looking very good.
What?
You don't have to register as a party supporter - it's entirely optional. However, only parties with a sufficient number of registered voters are eligible to have their candidates on the ballot and get election funding. Also, being registered with a particular party may be necessary to vote for that party's candidates in the primaries (where they decide which candidate will actually run for that party in the main election). I used to register with a major party for the primaries, and then switch to one of the smaller parties that I like to support for the main election, but my state has gone to open primaries, so I no longer see any reason to ever register for a major party.
Basically, think of it as a pre-election vote of confidence in the party.
http://www.electoral-vote3.com/
through
http://www.electoral-vote8.com/