Is America Ready to Vote?

[kirby]

Is America Ready to Vote? State Preparations for Voting Machine Problems in 2008 asks what steps each state has put into place to insure against disenfranchisement in the event of election system failures. These might include broken machines, damaged voting system cartridges, software glitches, misprogrammed tally servers, and a range of other likely troubles.

Check out this report:

http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/is_america_ready_to_vote
http://www.brennancenter.org/page/-/publications/is.america.ready.to.vote.pdf

Six states received the best rankings (between "generally good" and "excellent") in all relevant categories: Alaska, California, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, and Oregon. Ten states received the worst rankings ("needs improvement" or "inadequate") in three of four categories: Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia

[4OBAMA64]

1. Voter reforms

Is America ready to vote? The assumption that wearing a campaign t-shirt can influence voter decision at the poll assumes that Americans are wishy washy coin flippers who haven't already made the decision by the time they get to the polls. I'm the voter that was turned away for wearing Obama t-shirt. Many states have struck that kind of legislation down as being unconstitutional. A distinction needs to be made between what campaigning is as an aggressive form of expression of freedom of speech, and merely wearing of personal t-shirt minding your own business at a poll. Just because 18 states still have an obsolete law on the books that qualify wearing a tshirt as campaigning and prohibit it within 100 feet of a polling site doesn't mean it's logical or just. Freedom of speech or expression if it is peaceful is a protected right under the constitution and should not stop at the polls,.. If anything voting is the backbone of American freedom of speech and that's where it should begin. I think the Supreme Court needs to address this. It should not be up to states rights to quelch constitutional rights of individuals. If the idea is that t-shirt should be banned because they might influence voter decision-making, and t-shirt bumper stickers and signs should be publicly prohibited for the first two weeks before a campaign.......... That is illogical and unconstitutional.

[unhappycamper]

2. Unfortunately, our Constitution has been subverted.

First Amendment rights - whatever 'The Man' wants it to be.

Fourth Amendment rights - *Co spys on everybody.

Sixth Amendment - sometimes operational.

Eighth Amendment - we torture.

Habeas Corpus - not operational for illegal combatants.

Posse Comitatus(sp?) - no longer applies.


BTW, welcome to DU. :hi: