Well, maybe YOU shouldn't be, but that guy next to you? Or that woman over there by the door? Yeah, they maybe should be concerned. What if *you* are that woman by the door? What if you are the guy sitting next to the person reading this post? Well, you might want to be concerned about your vote counting. Or, I should say "you should be concerned about your vote being counted".
See, not everyone will be immediately impacted by this. Plenty of folks will actually have their vote counted. However, many won't.
It turns out that a few different states are going through voter purges. This is basically when the state's election officials decide that they should "reduce voter fraud" by trimming down the voter rolls (the list of voters in that state). The thing is, there isn't a federally standardized way of doing this. As a result, some state officials seem to be using questionable tactics to remove people.
Now, I'm not advocating that there should be a federally sanctioned way to do this, but maybe a federal oversight committee might be a good idea, to make sure this process isn't being abused.
Back in 2004, according to journalist Greg Palast (his site: http://gregpalast.com/ ), Republicans would send registered mail letters to low-income areas in certain states asking for registered voters to confirm their addresses. If they never heard back from these people, their names were challenged and many were removed.
This means that anyone who doesn't take the time to sign for registered mail, or sees the Republican party return address and blows it off, or is serving overseas, or is on vacation, or whatever, could have had their vote challenged.
Now, it's happening again--right now, in fact. CBSNews.com is reporting (here: http://www.cbsnews.com/…0682.shtml ) on a new study from the non-partisan public policy and law institute, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law: "calls the nationwide process "chaotic," "shrouded in secrecy", "riddled with inaccuracies", "prone to error" and "vulnerable to manipulation."
"What's wrong with the process is it's happening in secret. It's happening with no accountability," Michael Waldman, the center's executive director, told CBS News."
Isn't that nice? Check out my blog for more on this issue or just stay tuned for more posts on election system concerns.
The video attached to this post is a trailer for a documentary I helped with called "Stealing America". Learn more about it at StealingAmericaTheMovie.org
Mobile post sent by thepete using Utterli. See, not everyone will be immediately impacted by this. Plenty of folks will actually have their vote counted. However, many won't.
It turns out that a few different states are going through voter purges. This is basically when the state's election officials decide that they should "reduce voter fraud" by trimming down the voter rolls (the list of voters in that state). The thing is, there isn't a federally standardized way of doing this. As a result, some state officials seem to be using questionable tactics to remove people.
Now, I'm not advocating that there should be a federally sanctioned way to do this, but maybe a federal oversight committee might be a good idea, to make sure this process isn't being abused.
Back in 2004, according to journalist Greg Palast (his site: http://gregpalast.com/ ), Republicans would send registered mail letters to low-income areas in certain states asking for registered voters to confirm their addresses. If they never heard back from these people, their names were challenged and many were removed.
This means that anyone who doesn't take the time to sign for registered mail, or sees the Republican party return address and blows it off, or is serving overseas, or is on vacation, or whatever, could have had their vote challenged.
Now, it's happening again--right now, in fact. CBSNews.com is reporting (here: http://www.cbsnews.com/…0682.shtml ) on a new study from the non-partisan public policy and law institute, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law: "calls the nationwide process "chaotic," "shrouded in secrecy", "riddled with inaccuracies", "prone to error" and "vulnerable to manipulation."
"What's wrong with the process is it's happening in secret. It's happening with no accountability," Michael Waldman, the center's executive director, told CBS News."
Isn't that nice? Check out my blog for more on this issue or just stay tuned for more posts on election system concerns.
The video attached to this post is a trailer for a documentary I helped with called "Stealing America". Learn more about it at StealingAmericaTheMovie.org
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