How We Used To Vote

Mr. Slippery writes "Think hanging chads, illegal purges of the voter rolls, and insecure voting machines are bad? The New Yorker looks back at how we used to vote back in the good old days: 'A man carrying a musket rushed at him. Another threw a brick, knocking him off his feet. George Kyle picked himself up and ran. He never did cast his vote. Nor did his brother, who died of his wounds. The Democratic candidate for Congress, William Harrison, lost to the American Party's Henry Winter Davis. Three months later, when the House of Representatives convened hearings into the election, whose result Harrison contested, Davis's victory was upheld on the ground that any "man of ordinary courage" could have made his way to the polls.' Now I feel like a wuss for complaining about the lack of a voter-verified paper trail." The article notes the American penchant for trying to fix voting problems with technology — starting just after the Revolution. This country didn't use secret ballots, an idea imported from Australia, until quite late in the 19th century.

Comments

not the worst

[Brian Gordon]

in before scarlet letter, salem witch trials, etc

Re:2008 presidenta election

[tompaulco]

This is why I hope that the election is heavily weighted one side or the other. If it is close and has to be decided in the courts again, I do fear that people will start flinging the race card. Of course, I think that the race card DOES figure heavily in the election in that many black people are voting for Obama simply because he appears to be black, with no thought to his policies, which completely oppose the ideals that conservative Christian blacks believe. Not to mention the fact that Obama is really just a rich white dude in black skin. If he saw a homeless black (or white) guy walking down his street, I'd bet he'd draw the shades and peak out between the slats until the guy went away. No, Obama does not represent the black man. But his party knows that America is so politically correct that they would be afraid to be called racist by voting against a black man and they are playing to that big time.
There's some racist bigots on the white side too who will vote for McCain simply because he's white, but the most racist whites are usually poor, and Obama's got those guys drinking the kool-aid, too. Yeah, he's gonna take all the money from the guys earning 300k, I mean 250k, uh, 200k, that's right 150k, and give it all to the poor working man. Well, heck, suddenly race goes out the window, because now we're talking about money in the pocket.
As for me, I don't care about race. If the candidates switched skin colors and kept their same policies, I'd switch my vote in a heartbeat. Not that I'm swooning over the guy I'm voting for, I'm just sort of neutral toward him, but the other guy basically stands for everything I'm against. So I'm not voting FOR someone this election. I'm voting against someone who opposes my views.
Just to clarify, I'm voting for the guy whose momma was white.