MaiLuk Posted October 20, 2004 Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 >And in Belgium, voting is compulsary < So all the people who have no interest and no knowledge of the issues just go and close their eyes and take a wild guess? This could skew election results, with leaders getting elected by chance and laws passed the same way. Of course the same type people in america can vote, tho they do it voluntarily. But since it is not compulsory, alot of the people who have no interest/knowledge stay home and this reduces the effect of randomness in the election. Every election about 50% of eligible voters in the US don't. Bush says Iraqis right to vote is worth fighting and killing and american lives. Kind of ironic. I like irony, makes me want to drink and fight and then vote (or not) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaiLuk Posted October 20, 2004 Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 America had Milton Berle tho he went on to be a movie star. Maybe he was a star first then clown. Art Carney was a clown once wasn't he? That O'reilly guy is looking sort of like a clown at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted October 20, 2004 Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 Mailuk, Strange post of yours with weird conclusions. Being required to vote also brings politics closer to the people, we have about 10-12 parties here, where 3-5 really count, and to form a government you need a coalition of 2 or even 3 to have a majority. And it works too. All voters here are politically aware, something that is clearly lacking in the US as only half of all people do vote. Here only about 3 to 7 % of all voters vote 'blanco', but they do vote. It certainly gives a CORRECT reflection of what the people want, opposed to only 50 % of voters, no ? On top of that, you have about 2 weeks to go and vote, here its always on a sunday, from 8 AM till 2 PM, results are known from 4-5 PM on, all is counted by midnight. 1 day. To each his democracy.... BB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaiLuk Posted October 20, 2004 Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 >It was with dread that I found the Absentee Ballot < I have mine also but haven't opened it. I live in Florida. There was a story last week how west palm (where the recount started in 2000) had put their new touch screen voting system online for a test run then the whole system crashed. Hope they figure it out soon. The retirees over there will have a hell of a time with the computer voting anyway. No worries because the system has no mechanism for determining if an error occurred when each individual votes so no way to recount. Absentee ballot may be the best method of voting to make sure the vote gets counted. Then again I might not open it. Hmmm... heard some precincts were throwing democrat ballots in the garbage. And a republican elections supervisor in another florida county removed thousands of democrats from the voter rolls. The inadvertant error was discovered and fixed just in time. How many votes did George win by last election? I think it came down to 527 votes in Florida. Don't worry I'll keep my eye out for any funny business this time. :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaiLuk Posted October 20, 2004 Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 >On top of that, you have about 2 weeks to go and vote< So that is where Florida got the idea. Under a new law voting in Florida has already commenced. They are trying to avoid a repeat of the last fiasco. >To each his democracy< Let me tell you about democracy in the good old USA. One of the big complaints of the democrats in Florida last time was that the african voters in north Florida who always vote for democrats were disenfranchised because they could not figure out the punch card system nor the touch screen system (each county in florida chooses its own system). The fact is that the dems were probably right. As for the punch card system, alot of the ballots were thrown away (as required by law) and not counted because people did things like vote for Al Gore AND George Bush. I'm talking about thousands of ballots. Interveiws established that people intended to vote for Gore, why they also punched a hole for bush is a mystery. And you know about the problems the people in west palm had. As you can see the people who WANT to vote sometimes have a tough time of it. Large segments of people in the US live in remote areas like the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas or in the far north on Lake Winnibigoshish in Minnesota. There are a few people who think it is their god given right to not vote. If a federal elections staffer showed up in the Ozarks and told them they were introuble for not voting, the staffer might end up with buck shot in his ass. In the view of a small segment of the US population the US government is a pro-communist godless racial leveler that is the offspring of Satan. Their hatred of the US gov't exceeds the hatred that al quaida has for us. Some even think the US gov was the architect of 9-11. If they don't want to vote so be it. Then there is the fact that millions and millions of people are simply ignorant about the candidates and issues. This is not surprising. A trillion dollars a year in tax is collected from all over the US (thru the use of coercion and long prison sentences of course : and it all passes through the hands of a very small group in Washington DC. They decide how to spend the whole bag of dosh. These elected guys are not financial geniuses, some are even a little stupid. But they have the absolute authority to spend it all. The US annual budget is so astronomically huge that even the most ardent intellectual observers are not able to get a handle on what is happening. There are a hundred thousand lobbyists representing 10 times as many business interests. They are in washington DC wining and dining and contributing funds to campaigns and unlimited funds to the favorite charities of the wives of the DC crowd and buying influence in a thousand other ways. Nobody has a clue why a million (or a billion) was spent one way and not the other. But it is spent, sometimes on a food aid program, sometimes on a 100 billion dollar contract for the purchase of a new line of fighter jets from a lucky defense contractor to make sure evil airforces of the world cannot out dog fight us. Whether 50% or 100% vote will not effect much of anything. And don't forget that the US has a two party system that effectively blocks all other parties. Hence in the USA where 50% of the people oppose the war in Iraq, we get to choose between Bush who is pro-war and Kerry who is... pro-war. Its a brilliant system, the best ever devised according to some We see it as our mission to make sure the whole world becomes democratic. So sit back relax and watch the election show, and then wait for the US style of democracy to soon be spread to a country near you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentors Posted October 20, 2004 Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 zanemay, do you know the old music band Crosby Still Nash and Young? So, David Crosby and Graham Nash have not only a new Album (Crosby&Nash)out - they are official candidates for the US-Election. So, maybe you like to vote for this two guys! http://crosbynash.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaiLuk Posted October 21, 2004 Report Share Posted October 21, 2004 The lawyers may decide whose vote will count and therefore the election. Kerry has already announced his legal dream team will be filing lawsuits where the count is close. The republicans are doing the same thing. The presidency will not be decided until well after Nov 2nd. Are we witnessing the birth of a new trait of american democracy? -------------------------- US looks set for a sequel to the 2000 vote debacle DEJA VU: The Democrats and the Republicans are arming themselves with legal teams and other groups to scrutinize the US' leaky polling practices AFP , WASHINGTON Tuesday, Oct 19, 2004,Page 1 The Democratic and Republican parties have warned that it could take weeks to decide the Nov. 2 election and have hired rival armies of attorneys and observers for the battle. With US President George W. Bush and Democratic Senator John Kerry running neck-and-neck in opinion polls, both camps fear a repeat of the 2000 election debacle in Florida. Kerry said on Sunday that he had put together a legal "dream team" to protect voter rights. "If it is a close election in any one state, it may be days or weeks before we know who the actual winner is," warned Tom Josefiak, general counsel for President Bush's campaign. In Florida four years ago, a controversy erupted over punch-card ballots that often failed to clearly show which candidate's name was punched out. The confusion left the US without a clear election winner for 36 days until the Supreme Court, in a controversial 5 to 4 decision, halted a recount of Florida ballots. Bush beat vice president Al Gore by 537 votes and the Florida result secured the presidency. There are growing fears that the winner between Bush and Kerry will also not be announced on election night. Project Vote, a non-partisan organization, predicts a litany of lawsuits, notably regarding "provisional" ballots that allow people who are not sure whether they are registered to cast a vote, leaving authorities with the task of deciding whether the vote should be counted. Legal challenges could be filed against the accuracy of electronic voting machines that do not provide papers that could be used for a possible recount. The Republican and Democratic parties will deploy tens of thousands of observers to monitor the election across the country and discourage attempts by both camps to intimidate voters. On Sunday, Kerry said at an African American Baptist church in Ohio that he had put together a "voter protection dream team" of top lawyers to forestall vote fraud and disenfranchisement. "Let me just make clear to you, we are not going to let this be a repeat of 2000, we are not going to see a million African Americans deprived of their votes in America," he said. Lawsuits contesting ballots, voter registration and voting machines have already been filed. Elliot Mincberg, legal director of People for the American Way Foundation, said the early law-suits may help avoid post-poll challenges. [Yeah right] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jxxxl Posted October 21, 2004 Report Share Posted October 21, 2004 "All voters here are politically aware, something that is clearly lacking in the US as only half of all people do vote." And you are accusing someone of a strange post with wierd conslusions? What you worte is just, well, bullshit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted October 21, 2004 Report Share Posted October 21, 2004 did you read the post above yours ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jxxxl Posted October 21, 2004 Report Share Posted October 21, 2004 Indeed I did Einstein. What's your point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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