Was Your Vote Counted?

I agree with "cmonson" on both posts. Not only do our elected officials feel they no longer have to abide by the promises they made during the election process, but when in office they pass legislation that protects the government (them) from being prosecuted for the things they do against the people's interest (us). None of these laws are made public before they are passed. Some examples of the injustice are: the laws that protect the government (them) from being sued by the people (us) when they do not follow their own rules and regulations, thus causing harm to the people they serve; the laws that protect the government (them) from being sued for medical malpractice in military hospitals. Like "cmonson" said on their post, "God help us."

CAMPAIGN 2008
Was Your Vote Counted?
An expert assesses how different technologies worked at the polls
By Katie Paul | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Feb 5, 2008 | Updated: 7:52 p.m. ET Feb 5, 2008
I am an observer and I will restrain from the voting process but I have a right to comment on the gizmos that we have and what I have seen.
The Caucasus. Immensely valued by myself. I never knew that you could tear the candidate in the classrooms of the school or undress him in the church, metaphor; the population had to be trained how the voting receives one and kicks out the other. I loved this. Romney gone the phrase is did he retire, abscond, refuse to go further, wanted to stay home shrank form the money, it just not click. May be the phrase is he wants to quit when the quitting is good. Now rather then later. Back to the gadgets. The RIRO and GGO come to my mind. There was no hick up. Windows, Vista, Apple, Microsun, UNIX, all doors worked well. Now the news states Hillary is short of funds. In this case the huge donors (this is not allowed in UK) will have to cough up more. Will they not. Or the machines will be biased. Oh before I close, the Katrina victims still are looking for the houses and Mr. Bush wants more cash for the terrorist he carets. I mean he injects more and the TV shows the children are coming up to earn the pay form the Taliban.

I thank you
Firozali A Mulla MBA PhD
P.O.Box 6044
Dar-Es-Salaam
Tanzania
East Africa

The US Congress and Senate are in shambles. There is no question that their main concern is re-election and themselves, not the United States, and not statesmanship. True of both sides of the aisle. The promises made mean nothing. One senator on CNBC yesterday said the "earmarks" are not done in the House or Senate, but by beaurocrats in committees and in the same breath said that to restrict them was to silent the will of the people. He clarified that "will of the people" remark saying that was what the members of the House and Senate were doing. Our own congressman says that the way he does earmarks is correct, but the others are wrong! Nope. I am for ZERO earmarks. It may have started as well-intentioned, but the way our tax money is used as blackmail or bribery now is a disgrace.

The President needs line item vetoes. If we need to change something by Amendment, then let's do it.
This business of adding a few billion here and there to necessary legislation is adding up to real money.

They pass laws that affect every one of us, but never them. Were you outraged at our elected officials telling the FBI that even with the Federal Court orders, they had no right ot enter the chambers of House and Senate to look for criminal evidence of a congressman accepting a bribe? Theirs is the only sanctuary in the country? Why do we tolerate this?
It is enough to break one's heart. When we consider what costs have been paid to give us such a great country, and to see it sold off and chipped away by those who want to seek power and/or money without regard for the laws they pass, and no way to pay for them, it makes one realize we are fast becoming a second or third rate culture.

The voting in California continues to amaze me. The Supervisor of Elections in San Francisco says no problem for anyone living in the area. Not a citizen, no proof of residency, no problem. And they think we have a problem in Florida? Other states also require no ID in order to vote. What is wrong with us? Too many with the power of pen and the tubes,radio and tv, and too many with no clue. God save us.

I live in a state that uses really old technology -- the caucus.

I went to the Blaine County, Idaho Democratic caucus last night. We had about a 90-minute window to arrive at a single location for our entire county and cast our votes.

Ballots were readily available to anyone who asked for them. I didn't notice any controls that would have limited how many ballots I got or how many times I voted.

I found myself wondering how people who couldn't be there during that 90-minute period because of family, work, physical, or transportation limitations might have a voice in Idaho's Democratic nominating process.

This morning I did a quick survey on the Super Tuesday national results. I was curious about the results spreads between the Democratic candidates in caucus and primary states. I eliminated Arkansas and Illinois to not skew my survey with either Sen. Clinton's or Sen. Obama's home states. I then found that in primary states the average spread between the two senators' results was 13% and in caucus states it was 42%. I can't help but think that the enormous differences in those spreads has something to do with access to the process.

I think it's time to do away with caucuses. Give everyone who wants to participate in their party's nominating process access through absentee ballots and precinct polling places that are open all day and close to home. And sure, check ID, to help prevent overly enthusiastic voters from voting early and often.

Katie Paul apparently has not heard of the exhaustive studies conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU which debunks the whole threat of voter fraud. It should be quite evident that requirements for voter ID - Indiana requires a driver's license or a passport - discourage people who do not have such ID's from voting. It's simply a thinly-disguised version of the Poll Tax, which is forbidden by our constitution. I imagine that 50 years ago Ms. Paul would claim that she doesn't have any evidence that the poll tax or literacy test prevented people form voting. In addition, election officials, often party apparatchiks, can easily waive ID requirements for some voters and enforce them for others - much the way literacy tests were used in the deepSouth.

Furthermore, Common Cause has recently unveiled a study that the voting machines in many states could be easily hacked , and with no paper trail, there is no proof of tampering. Furthermore, elections in many states are under the control of partisan apparatchiks - which simply reinforces Joseph Stalin's statement that that you can have all the elections you want, as long as I get to count the votes. Ms. Paul's expertise proves only one thing - that Republicans can only survive if they rig elections, and each year Karl Rove and Company think of new ways to rig elections. And imagine, we're supposed to be a role model of democracy for the Middle East! Garbage,.

My fiancé and I attempted to cast our provision ballots at Precinct 162 at the Community Church of the Foothills in Tucson, AZ today and we were turned away at the polls. We just moved into the precinct and we were told that as long as we presented our voter identification cards, driver???s licenses and any other official identification or correspondence with our current address indicating that we lived in the precinct, we could cast our provision ballots.
The poll worker was so old, confused, disoriented and slow; it was excruciating to watch her try to articulate to voters what they needed to do, or what form they needed to fill out in order to proceed through the provisional process. This extremely feebleminded poll worker fumbled and bumbled her way through the paperwork at a snail???s pace, complaining as she ???helped??? voters.
Finally, when it was our turn, she verbally berated us for not making the necessary changes to our registration that would have preempted the need to cast provisional ballots. I tried to explain that we just moved, even though it was really none of her business or her place to comment. She tried to discourage us by acting confused and disoriented regarding the procedures of provisional ballot casting. She finally told me that I needed to go to back to my old precinct to vote because it was too much trouble to direct me on how to fill out the provisional ballot. At that point in time, I wasn???t able to take the time to fact check or drive across town to the old precinct.
I was incensed. I had taken off time from work, driven 30 miles roundtrip and I wasn???t even allowed to exercise my basic right as a US Citizen ??? as cliché as that sounds. To add insult to injury, I???ve been donating my money, time and energy to volunteering for one of the candidate???s campaigns and I didn???t even get to vote for them today.
My basic concern regarding today???s experience is not so much about getting unfairly turned away from the polls (although I find this disgraceful), but more about the competence and ability of the poll workers, especially the very elderly. While waiting at length, only to be turned away, I saw the familiar sights of retirees working the polling places. Many of them were working efficiently and competently, checking-in voters and directing people to where they needed to go. However, a few older folks like the woman who sent me and my fiancé packing, were not so capable; their lines were longer, their contact with people wasn???t as pleasant, and frankly, these oldsters were clearly inept. This experience confirmed that along with our obviously antiquated and dated electoral system and polling place procedures, many of our poll workers are not qualified, nor are they equipped to properly handle modern-day interaction and socialization. The relics that are plaguing the polls are not so much the voting machines, but the some of the poll workers themselves.

This United States media and their black balling of DR Ron Paul is and will be the greatest injustice I have ever witnessed. I am ashamed of our media and what they have done to this nation as a whole, by leading the ignorant masses to follow after the Hillary and McCain in the destruction of America. The only hope we as American's have at this point in history is Dr. Paul. He is a honest American who beleive's in the Constitution of the United States, whom as President would bring it back to that great document that we all take for granted. He by doing that would alone improve the quality of life in these United States, as well as make the rest of this world Respect us again, and not Fear us for our radical outlook on foriegn policy which by the way is unconstitutional. This truly is a shame, I predict that by 2012 we as a people will be resorted to standing in bread lines, our military will be depleted, and we will be as other third world countrys for our monetary system will be too far gone. Thank's to the Media and the ignorant voting masses for they will be the blame for the destruction of the greatest nation on earth. What a shame !!! Dr; Paul, to you Sir, I say this please know that there really is critical thinking, non politically correct, constitution Loving people out there, however, we were outnumbered by the ignorant and a corrupt media. Don't give up the fight Sir, for neither will we.

I was at the Democratic caucus in Kansas....they had it scheduled for a small church. They said they expected 100 people to show up...2,000 came. So, we had to leave the church and stand out in the cold, freezing rain, then icy snow FOR 2 HOURS! Then they tried to count people by a raise of hands...well, they were counting when not everyone was there yet, because some people were still signing in. Some people weren't counted, some were counted twice, anyone off the street could have walked up and been counted, even a registered Republican. Oh, and the checking in part...they asked your name then put an X on your hand with a sharpie....helllooo? I could have saved myself the time in line and marked an X on my own hand. Oh, but wait, what for? No one actually looked for the X. Totally screwed up. Hopefully next time Kansas will cough up the money to hold a primary election.

Total Ron Paul blackout by this military/corporate controlled media abomination.
I suppose Dr. Paul's message is too much of a threat to the machines status quo.
Disgraceful nation we've become to allow such info consolidation.into the hands of a few..
Do you actually believe the voting machines /counters are legitamite?
Woe unto our formerly great country.
when will the sheeple wake up?

I am a Georgia voter. And I noticed that when my ID was checked it wasn't checked against a voter list but just taken as is.And I was allowed to fill out my own balloting information. Which was not verified against my ID. I could have put someone else's name after My Id was verified. And I could have gone to another polling place a done the same thing with someone elses's or my own ID.

Total media blackout of Ron Paul.
You would think he dropped out.,,, I wonder why?
Hmmmmm.
Perhaps his message is too much of a threat to the corporate/military medias status quo?
End all occupation abroad , abolish the private Federal Reserve bank etc

KMBC in Kansas City reported, as an aside no less, that so many people turned out that they were told to simply write their name, address, and vote in a list on a tablet of paper. I'm sorry, but is this an approved voting method? I find it really suspicious that Obama has something like 75% of the Kansas Vote while just across the state line in Missouri Clinton is leading by almost 10 points. Is this the next border war?

I think the new photo ID requirement is better for us voters in the United States because it helps to eliminate fraud/ identity theft/ false votes. Also, I hope the new technology works out because it will be faster and more efficient when tallying up the ballots.

I think the new photo ID requirement is better for us voters in the United States because it helps to eliminate fraud/ identity theft/ false votes. Also, I hope the new technology works out because it will be faster and more efficient when tallying up the ballots.

I am so sick of constant emails from the Obama camp I emailed a question and from then on got daily requests for money and help even though he said in a speech he did not like to ask for money.
Today, nearly half the nation will have the chance to join you in saying that we are tired of business-as-usual in Washington, we are hungry for change, and we are ready to believe again.
Twenty-two states across the country are holding their primaries and caucuses, and you can help Get Out The Vote in these crucial contests.
Use our online calling tool to reach out to fellow supporters. Encourage them to send a message that America is ready for a new kind of leadership and a new kind of politics.
Make calls using our online calling tool today:
http://my.barackobama.com/feb5calls
You can make a big impact -- the more calls you make, the more people will take part in their state's primary or caucus.
Thanks for everything you've done,
Barack
----------Original Message---------
From: Barack Obama
Subject: Make a call
Tomorrow, 22 states across the country are holding Democratic caucuses and primaries.
You can help Get Out The Vote in these crucial contests by calling fellow supporters from your own home.
Use our online calling tool and make a difference today:
http://my.barackobama.com/feb5calls
When Michelle and I talked about my running for president, one of the core goals we both had for this campaign was to leave the political process better off than we found it.
You have challenged conventional thinking and built a grassroots movement for change that is sweeping this country.
I have no doubt that the election tomorrow will be close, but you can help ensure that as many people as possible participate.
Make calls using our online calling tool and help Get Out The Vote:
http://my.barackobama.com/feb5calls
I believe that this movement for change can do more than just win an election. Together, we can transform this country.
Thank you for being part of this,
Barack

This after trying to block his emails and telling him to stop emailing me, my vote cannot be nagged and even if I had thought about voting for him he has so turned me off with the constant harrasment by email. I do fell that it is set up for Obama to win and that is a loss for this country.

the parties run the whole process and they already know who they want to win and anyone else will not get a fair shake. the press has their favorites and will release favorible results to try to influence those stupid enought to wan to say i voted for a winner and can be swayed by thinking someone s winning somewere else. the voting public is one of the stupidest critters ther ever was.Try voting for someone who will protect and defend america instead of the power brokers and watch you vote get ost.

Michelle Shafer,
It appeares you work for an electronic voting machine company. If this is true, may I suggest you do something to make the world a better place? Slice your own throat for the benefit of all mankind. Do this for the sake of free elections.