Time and time again, it has been the same story. Primary elections long expected to produce record turnouts quickly ground to a halt by malfunctioning machines and a lack of ballots. Every national election, politicians express outrage only to have the same cycle repeated. New Yorkers are saying that they are facing the same barriers to voting from long lines to broken machines.
There are reports of “hundreds of thousands” of problems and a call for an audit to deal with the gross mismanagement. This has been one of the most anticipated elections in New York history and yet there are systemic failures being reported across the state, but particularly in New York City.
Voters in Brooklyn are outraged by what they say is the delays and incompetence of the polling places. That is a disgrace for the De Blasio administration and the election officials. Putting on elections is a basic as it gets in terms of minimal governmental services. On top of that, there are reports that Republican voters arrived to vote in places like Harlem and were told that they did not have Republican ballots.
In the meantime, some 27 percent of voters will not be able to vote in New York because of its restrictions.
Then there is the vanishing of thousands of voters (though officials insist that the disappearance is due to their general failure to keep update voting records).
The problem is that after such incompetence, no one is usually held accountable. In the meantime, officials use their own poor performance to secure more money for the next election, which seems to follow the very same cycle.
I use to question the integrity and honesty of our government. Now both of the 2 major political parties should come under this scrutiny. There are other people running for president.
PAUL is a typical far-rightwing zealot who can’t bring himself to be the least bit bothered by the knowledge that a Chief Justice SCOTUS was a racist vote suppressor who should have been disbarred and investigated for his activities as a foot soldier for the nut-job wing of the Republican party. Your kind is way past its “use by” date.
The public is no longer amused by the 18th century views you seem to be infatuated with.
Have another day.
bill – I know you are going to find this amazing, however I am not the least hurt by your diatribe. I have dealt with people a lot worse than you and I am still here and they aren’t. I do think Earl Warren should have been impeached if that makes you feel better.
PAUL
I BELIEVE Rehnquist, and I hope that you agree that he SHOULD have been thrown out…and arrested.
bill – I agree that Pena is a twit and cannot handle his own business. Since he was following the law there is no reason for him to be arrested.
PAUL
Obviously, running away from the issue of right-wing (late) Supreme William Rehnquist’s admission that he used his position as a poll watcher to do everything he could to prevent minorities from exercising their right to vote – is
(understandably) embarrassing to you as a fellow traveler.
Your response is pathetically weak and dishonest.
bill – the law cut both ways. The Democrats had could and did have poll watchers. Actually, a poll watcher named Pena (later an ineffectual state senator) got some muscle and had Renquist thrown out is his precinct (according to his account). So a Democratic poll watcher gets a hit man to take out the Republican poll watcher. You can not make this stuff up.
Anything that limits legitimate voting puts the lie to our so called democracy.
Maybe we should invade ourselves and force democracy down our own throats at bayonet point?
Seriously, though, making voting day a national holiday, with standard hours, standard methods, and standard counts should be a no-brainer. Why do we make participating in our own ‘democracy’ so difficult?
Could it be that the status quo likes it just fine that way?
No wonder we have one of the lowest voter turn outs for a developed nation in the world! No wonder idealism and hope quickly turn into cynicism and apathy. Power does not give up power willingly. We serfs are supposed to be content with our crumbs. The only sane candidate actively speaking out about how broken our system is gets almost no media coverage, while the ‘party’ apparatchik continually puts their thumbs on the scale for the “Goldman Sacks” candidate, all but ensuring her ‘inevitable’ coronation.
And the beat goes on, the beat goes on……
It wouldn’t surprise me if Arizona had a voter suppression statute.
You seem to have a problem coming to grips with Requenst’s ADMISSION that he was trying to prevent minorities from voting. It was obviously an early attempt on his part to earn his bona fides as a genuine
right-winger – of your variety.
Arizona’s statute cut both ways.
PAUL S.
Rehnquist admitted that what he was doing as a so-called poll watcher was to find a reason to deny minorities
the right to vote.
I don’t a lecture on poll watchers, thank you. Got anything in defense of what Rehnquist admitted he was doing?
bill mcwilliams – Renquist was following state law. You seem to have a problem with that.
Whatever works to reduce the number of votes helps right-wing candidates aka Establishment candidates.
Former Supreme Rehnquinst began his career as a right-wing foot soldier, in Arizona as a Poll Watcher aka
voter suppression specialist.
There is still only one political party in this country: The Property Party. It has two wings. Democrats and
Republicans.
bill mcwilliams – both parties in Arizona, or all parties on the ballot are allowed poll watchers. Their job is to make sure only registered voters in that precinct vote (that has changed now) and that the person is actually who they say they are. They still have them.