Scott,
I nonconcur with certain of your views.
Re: There should be close federal oversight with the operation of voting machines...
Whoa! I hope you take some time to think this through. As we both know, the Federal Government is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Corporate World today. "The little guy doesn't have a friend in Washington", as Arthur Leavitt put it when leaving the SEC. Subsequent shenanigans by Harvey Pitt as head of the SEC proved Leavitt to be prescient.
What really needs to happen is to have an NGO monitor the elections. The League of Women Voters comes to mind as, as do a few other organizations, such as the Carter team that monitors dicey elections in third world nations. A status the U.S. is rapidly approaching. Trusting the Federal Government to run a fair election would be the height of folly, especially in this day and age when all three branches of the government work for grasping and greed-driven corporate CEOs. This crowd is not exactly interested in what is best for the nation as a whole.
Re: ...This country loves to pride itself on being 'a working democracy'...Yet, I'm not so sure that's the case...
Well now, there we do agree.
Re: Right now the potential for manipulation is huge -- it may even increase with these new electronic machines...IMHO, CONgress should act on this ASAP.
There is a reform bill that is trapped in a House committee for lack of adequate sponsorship. It was mentioned by Thom Hartmann this morning, but I failed to note the sponsoring Congressman, who was someone I hadn't heard of before. Basically the bill, as was described, would require an auditable paper trail for the new black box voting devices. This ought to be obvious, but it isn't part of the current law. I can understand why this would be threatening to a Senator like Chuck Hagel, who won an 83% majority in some black precincts in Omaha in his stunning victory last November. If that isn't enough of a red flag, consider that Hagel has a financial interest in the company that counted that vote. Nuf sed. |
