Posted on 10/27/2004 2:02:51 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Bad guy, this Bush.
How bad? Pick up one of the cards being passed out last week at Emory University.
"Bush . . . will keep executing OUR juveniles & will appoint the next 4 Supreme justices. Bush will keep minimum wage @ $5.15/hr. Kerry will raise it to $7.00/hr. Bush would not meet with the Urban League Black Caucus — or the NAACP, Kerry met with them all."
On the reverse, the message directs voters to four DeKalb County early voting locations, before concluding: "Hands that once picked cotton can now pick public officials. This is the event of the DECADE!!! VOTE or DIE."
In the realm of hyperbole, where young Democrats are admonished to "VOTE or DIE," it is the most modest of understatement to declare this presidential election as no more than the "Event of the DECADE." It can surely be hyped as the "Event of our LIFETIME," if not the "Event of the CENTURY!".
The exclamation point is a no-cost way of hyping the hype. Three exclamation points is the punctuation equivalent of the street-corner scream. Four is the incoherent babble of a political lunatic. Keep this handy reference for future elections.
So this is where's it's come — deceit, conspiracy and propaganda all merged in paranoia — to produce what may turn out to be the most corrupt national election of the DECADE!!!, if not our lifetime. Both parties will have thousands of lawyers and poll watchers spread across the country.
When the stakes are vote-or-die high, and the means for fraudulent voting are readily available, corruption is virtually guaranteed. What's a little dishonest voting when the alternative is so ominous?
Democrats have seen election laws requiring anything beyond the most rudimentary of voting registration requirements as an obstacle to winning elections. Their ideal would be early voting and same-day registration of any warm body over 18. That would make it possible to harvest voters far more efficiently by, for example, running buses to elderly high-rises or to collection areas in advance of Election Day.
Voting is another of those areas where liberals and conservatives disagree. Consistent with the liberal view that individuals should be free to behave as irresponsibly as they choose, while government is obligated to find a way to serve them, Democrats seek to build a registration voting system that allows individuals to be completely passive. On Election Day, the van will come by and hand out the slate, and all the individual is expected to do is react to fright and vote accordingly.
The first major legislation that set the stage for future corruption was the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, the so-called motor voter law that went into effect in January 1995. It requires states to provide voter registration through welfare and disability agencies, at driver's license offices and through the mail.
Georgia's rush to electronic voting was spurred by the need to harvest votes that were presumed to be heavily Democratic. In the last presidential race, 94,681 ballots were improperly cast. The percentage of uncounted votes here, 3.5 percent, was higher than in Florida's 2.9 percent.
A study by a University of Georgia professor, Mary Meyer, revealed the problem was people, not equipment. The strongest predictor of uncounted votes was poverty. Whatever the voting method — optical scan, punch-card or the old-fashioned lever voting machines — poorer counties had more spoiled ballots and affluent counties the least, with a few exceptions.
After this election is over, Congress and state legislatures should make elimination of voter fraud a major push. Require photo identification and perfect the centralized Social Security number data base to eliminate duplication and falsity.
This should be the last election the nation conducts where the losing side has reason to blame voter fraud.
• Jim Wooten is the associate editorial page editor. His column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Bump!
Of course, democrats would oppose IDs at the polls. Gee... wonder why.
Hillary Clinton opposes photo IDs and the Electoral College.
Bump!!
The consumer always pays.
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