We Must Reject Faith Based Voting
Those private vote-switching, election-stealing electronic voting machines are at it again. Early in the day, Cynthia McKinney supporters began registering complaints that when they tried to register their vote for McKinney in Georgia’s primary election today, it registered a vote for her opponent. Just like in the Ohio election, the vote hopping with Diebold machines always goes for the conservative candidate: push for Kerry – votes hops to Bush.
Or, if you voted for McKinney it hopped to Hank Johnson or John Coyne. Thankfully McKinney had her team of lawyers on the spot taking affidavits from voters who swore the machines switched their votes to one of her opponents. With a majority of counties in Ohio using Diebold electronic machines, other problems present in Georgia’a primary today are bound to plague the Buckeye State in the fall.
For example, complaints were lodged against Diebold’s electronic pollbooks. Election staff were not properly trained to access the voter registration database. Also, complaints came in about machines breaking down in the middle of the voting process and machines malfunctioning.
As I prepare to sign off, McKinney is barely ahead of Hank Johnson by a little over 500 votes with 53% of the precincts reporting. Our democracy must be transparent. We must reject this bizarre, faith-based voting. Let’s pray for McKinney’s victory, and equally important, for a real democratic system based on hand counted paper ballots.
How can Kenneth Blackwell be allowed to destabilize Ohio Politics with immpunity? I don’t want to hear the canard that he has the power. He doesn’t unless he gets it from the people. If he is thinks the people support him and his antics he is deceiving himself and the people of Ohio. If he is acting on his own arrogant self assertive power trip then he is in violation of his oath of office and should resign. No Ken, there is no room for compromise here, so please pull your own plug. We are tired of you and your games.
Remember the Maxwell Smart,(Old 60’s Sitcom) Control and Chaos?
It was funny but somehow the Chaos factor is today the reality of politics here in Ohio and the Nation and the Neocon power trip has made it so.
http://tinyurl.com/h8jwp
Party rules
The Ohio State Lantern Editorial Board
Issue date: 7/18/06 Section: Opinion
What does it take to secure an independent slot on Ohio’s ballot?
First, you must convince eeryone that you will have no impact on the race whatsoever.
That is what Robert Fitrakis did.
On Election Day, Fitrakis was a Republican. He voted in the Republican primary. The day before, as required by law, he filed as an independent candidate for governor. Now he is a gubernatorial candidate right up there with Ted Strickland and Ken Blackwell.
No one challenged Fitrakis’ candidacy.
Charles R. Morrison II also, on Election Day, was a Republican. He voted in the Republican primary. The day before, he filed as an independent candidate for the U.S. congressional seat held by Republican Deborah Pryce and contested by Democratic Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy.
Now he is just a voter like you or us.
He was thrown off the ballot by Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell for his close ties to the Republican Party which violated, Blackwell said, his claim to be an independent.
Are his ties closer than Fitrakis’? Not demonstrably so.
But, there’s a catch.
Morrison is a conservative businessman who could well impact the congressional race. Not that he would win, mind you. But he is a right-winger who could take votes away from the conservative leader but sometimes-moderate Pryce. He kept the competition to a minimum and allowed Pryce to run as a moderate while painting Kilroy as a liberal.
Pryce’s job is a lot easier without Morrison calling her the liberal.
Fitrakis, on the other hand, isn’t expected to draw enough votes from either Strickland or Blackwell to worry either one of them so there was no objection to his getting into the race.
Ironically, back in 1984 when Blackwell had last voted as a Democrat and wanted into the Republican primary race for a Cincinnati congressional district, now Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown (then Brown was the Ohio Secretary of State) allowed Blackwell to run.
We do not believe that who is allowed into a race and who is thrown out should be done in such a willy-nilly fashion.
How many years, months or days must pass before a candidate is free to change allegiances and run under another party’s moniker?
Parties change everyday. New parties emerge everyday.
Rules for running as or becoming a member should not.
I am a life long democrat, however in the primary election, I switched to republican, and voted for Petro, hoping to defeat Blackwell. Many of my friends did the same thing. At least we had a game plan.
It’s time we stop being stuck on stupid. The Dem’s sold us out in the 2004 election. They didn’t care then, when our votes were suppressed, and they certainly don’t care now. We are a dispensable community in their eye sight. That’s why voter suppression only happened in the Black communities, around the nation. It’s out fault, because we DON’T FIGHT BACK. WE DON’T RAISE ENOUGH HELL.
Blackwell, messed with the machines, removed machines, and threw the election to Bush. Soliders, kids, are dying for what? Those that live are mentally strung out, and the others are crippled or half burned to death. The others have uranium poisoning, and their kids are being born with horrible cancers and birth defects.
Bush admitted there are no weapons of mass destruction. Then why are our kids being killed in this war? Why aren’t the soliders given the proper armor? Bush said there are 100,000 casualties, that’s the same figures he gave in 2004. WAKE UP AMERICA. What are you willing to stand for?
Now Blackwell is intending on counting his own votes for Governor, and you are doing nothing to protest this. WHY? What will the country be like in the next 10 years. Our freedom is being taken away and still you do nothing. What about writing letters to your senators and congressmen voicing your concerns about what is going on in the state of Ohio?
Do something differently, or the results will always remain the same.