Introductory Comments On Voting Problems
http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting-3.htm#pgfId-1416370
Chapter 8 — Voting Problems In The 2002 Elections
There is nothing like a few real life examples of American voting to make you want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over your head. Largely ignoring the extensively documented problems of the 2000 presidential election, I've picked a few examples from 2002.
For starters, the Arkansas Secretary of State pled guilty, http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting-80.htm#snippets , to taking bribes, evading taxes, and accepting kickbacks from what is now part of ES&S. Arkansas officials said the scheme involved...then-BRC employee Tom Eschberger...Eschberger got immunity from prosecution for his cooperation. Today, he's a top executive of Election Systems & Software, http://www.essvote.com/HTML/home.html .
There were the usual peccadilloes with electronic voting machines, which seem to repeat the same errors year-after-year as even known bugs aren't fixed. Of course, the problem is always with a faceless "technician," never the county clerk or, heaven forbid, the manufacturer bloated with the billions of taxpayer dollars being paid for these Game Boy voting machines.
The re-election of Jim Crow, http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting-79.htm#felons , and problems in addition to those above, are reviewed in five essays in this chapter.
Milwaukee was the site of an interesting exercise in democracy. Gore campaign volunteers were caught on video distributing packs of cigarettes to homeless people after they'd been given rides to the polling places. Maybe Gore is getting his tobacco allotment back after all. The local district attorney is already conducting a criminal investigation as a result.Tip of the iceberg! Our Governor Jim Doyle (WEAC-WI) had staffers go to nursing homes, adult care facilities, etc., so they could play bingo with the patients (Down's Syndrome, Alzheimers -- it just didn't matter!). The patients won shiny, cheap baubles. Baubles with a string attached: they had to vote for Governor shiny, cheap "Diamond" Jim. See, wasn't that easy?
Well, this next one was caught in time (Nov. 1, 2004). It isn't really "voter fraud," more like hi-jinx by spirited, fun-loving KIDS, silly! All they did is sneak into a secured parking lot *snicker* and slash a few dozen tires *giggle* so that the vehicles couldn't be used the next day to transport REPUBLICANS to vote. *chortle*
The problem here was that these "kids" ranged in age from 20 to 35. The problem here was that these "kids" were, for the most part, offspring of local Dimocrat elected officials.
The problem here is that I still haven't read of any prosecution of these "kids." Maybe they printed something and I missed it. (No, YOU check Sandy Burglar's pants for the documentation.)
Did I mention the purchasing done by the Teachers' Union (WEAC)? They bought themselves a shiny, cheap Governor.
Well, 2000 was just practice. Peanuts! Gov. "Bingo" Jim has been (or been having his staff) negotiate with Indian tribes. Never mind that it was supposed to be overseen by a state board that does that. But no! Millions of dollars were at stake. So much money that they have to go to the East Coast tribes to contribute to the DNC so that the money can be sent back to Wisconsin. So much money that the jackass DA in Texas should be ashamed for making such a big to-do over Tom Delay.
I could go on, but I won't....
*sigh*