Don't count on a truly democratic election in the US

[54anickel]

http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/story/0,4567,106084,00.html


(LOS ANGELES) AS THE general election process begins in the United States, it is useful to consider whether the world's only superpower, so eager to impose democracy on Iraq, should first reform its own troubled electoral institutions.

The first event in that process - Tuesday's unexpected results in the Iowa caucuses to choose a Democratic presidential candidate - provided modest excitement. Yet the US media's suggestion that the people had spoken in a powerful display of democracy was not just exaggerated, but untrue.

The Iowa caucuses, a leftover from the 18th century in which nobody actually votes, are so complicated they are impossible to describe. Volunteer organisers needed calculators to configure the delegate ratios as registered Democrats stood in groups under notices naming their choice among the five candidates (three did not bother to compete).

These good Iowans, who braved temperatures of minus 17C and sacrificed their evening for the meetings, were double the participants in 2000, the media trumpeted. Unmentioned was that even this year, the total was a measly 15 per cent of the mid-Western state's registered Democrats - a meaningless number for any guide to the eventual nominee.

more...

[liberalnurse]

1. I can understand the low turnout.

By the behavior of the democratic candidates choosing *bush-rove tactics and dirty doings in Iowa along with the media leading American's with tabloid-yellow journalism stories to push up ratings are leading reasons folks become disenfranchised.

I'm really not surprise but I am disappointed in our campaign democrats. They were spineless, miserable failures in Washington and are rovian throughout the campaign.....

Some here say...get use to it...its not new..Well, these tactics are not a sign that the democrats had learned any positive lessons during the 2000 Election as they only copied the republican code of politics.

We are what we eat.

[hot2trot]

2. Voting machines

There has to be a paper trail or we are screwed.

[cryofan]

3. Surprise! The Winner was the husband of one of the world's richest people!

What a coincidence!