Absentee Ballots Go Missing in Florida 205
RonnyJ writes "The BBC is reporting that 58,000 ballot papers have gone missing in Broward County, Florida. A police investigation has 'not uncovered any sign of criminal wrongdoing', however, the US postal service has said it is highly unlikely for 58,000 pieces of mail to just disappear. In 2000, Broward County gave Al Gore his biggest margin among Florida counties, winning 67% of the votes there."
missing huh (Score:4, Funny)
Re:missing huh (Score:2, Funny)
You're close. They're in Iraqi hands. But they were not stolen, you send them there to bring democracy
Re:missing huh (Score:3, Funny)
Re:missing huh (Score:3, Funny)
Just a Precaution . . . (Score:4, Interesting)
Seriously, though, I'd like to see a break out of voting irregularities by county nation wide. That is, count the number of bona fide complaints such as missing ballots, dropped voters, etc. and post the results by county. Why by county? Because, in a majority of states the counties run the election. To what purpose? Well, once you have such irregularities mapped, then you can see which party (Dems. or Reps.) is more prone to these problems.
What do you want to bet... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Just a Precaution . . . (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Just a Precaution . . . (Score:2, Interesting)
This gets at what I think is the real issue:
The real problem in Florida in 2000 was huge rates of ballot spoilage in overwhelmingly Democratic, mostly black counties run by overwhelmingly Democratic, mostly black politicians. (Due to a combination of outdated equipment, inexperienced voters and plain incompetence.) _That_ is the problem that needed to be solved, but due to a combina
Re:Just a Precaution . . . (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Just a Precaution . . . (Score:2)
But to do this (and to do what you are doing) proves the OP's point. People are much quicker to point out how the other guys is worse / your guy is better, than address the actual structural problems with the system..
Re:Just a Precaution . . . (Score:2)
If we had a truly free media, we wouldn't have people that just say fuck-all who have nothing concrete to back it up.
Correct score with the Troll, BTW.. but don't eat me, there will be someone along shortly to flame you that is bigger and tastier.
correlation fallacy (Score:2)
Prima facie, it would prove nothing.
One can argue that the controlling party is responsible, if the disenfranchised voters are mostly of the other party.
OTOH, one can argue that one (or a few) individual(s) of the NON-controlling party is responsible, if THEIR foes are the disenfranchised.
OTOOH, one can argue that EITHER side was responsible for doing a
The trouble with the American Political Process (Score:4, Insightful)
The serious point is that it debases the whole debate: look at the explosives question for example. A serious error may have been made, in the inadequate securing of high explosives placed under seal by the IAEE. Kerry immediately accuses Bush of failure to correctly secure them. But the information isn't at all clear cut, the explosives may in fact have already been moved, there are conflicting reports. From the initial hasty accusations, you have Bush aides furiously spinning a defense based on lies, then suddenly Kerry aides furiously spinning a defense of their candidates position. Somewhere in all the kerfluffle, the truth is lost, people become apathetic, and an important issue is trivialised, made "old news" and drops off the radar.
The fact is, candidates nowadays are so eager not to miss an opportunity to win a few points that the "news hysteria" near to election reaches fever pitch.
America needs a publicly funded TV and Newspaper source dedicated to impartiality like we have the Guardian and the BBC. The Guardian recently had an outreach program to get UK readers to help educate voters about how the world percieves America, to give them some perspective that is missing from their weekly digest. Unfortunately the campaign was DDOS and filibustered out of existence by republicans spinning a "foreign interference" false call to arms, but while it was ongoing I felt it did useful work and contributed myself. I hope I get an answer!
Re:The trouble with the American Political Process (Score:5, Interesting)
2. On your random change of topic. You'd think in a war to find and secure Weapons of Mass destruction (and between Rice, Cheney, and Bush all scaring up the specter of a "mushroom cloud" I think I'm not being too petty in holding them to that) that one of the directives would be to secure and destroy the componants. And according to the US army unit commander the facility was locked down when they were there on April 10th. They left it as is, as they weren't ordered to do anything with it. The Iraqi's noted it had been looted some months later.
3. Public Funding. It's called PBS. Frontline is a great show. The problem is, there's not enough conflict and it doesn't move fast enough. When you work a 60 hour week and commute an hour each way 6 days a week, you get your news in little bites before you collapse from fatigue, and fill in the rest with talk radio, and chatter at work. The republicans have figured out how to make politics salacious, entertaining, and clipped in to short segments for people who are busy in a way people sitting in an airconditioned office aren't, and they own the stations to distribute it.
As for what you think of us. And I don't mean to be rude, hell if you're lost in Seattle, I'll give you directions as exhaustive as you need, or if the circumstances merit it, probably a lift, but we only care what the world thinks of us in so far as image has a certain utility. Beyond that, we realize we're fascinating and all, but can't you tend to your own damn garden? What might be difficult for you to appreciate, even with as much as I strongly disagree with so much my president has done, I know what fucking team I play for. And if the image war can't be won, fuck it, black hats all around. What you should really concern yourselves with is the Democrats who don't care that the war was wrong beyond it being an internal problem that we should solve. When it comes to US foriegn policy in the middle east, to quote Denis Leary, two words: Nuclear Fucking Weapons.
I'm a upper middle class white guy living in *Seattle*, don't think I can't make my peace with genocide. The last time it came up really wasn't *that* long ago.
Re:The trouble with the American Political Process (Score:2)
Discrepency Found in Explosives Amounts [go.com]
Russia tied to Iraq's missing arms [washingtontimes.com]
Just helping you keep on top of things.
Re:The trouble with the American Political Process (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The trouble with the American Political Process (Score:2)
Re:The trouble with the American Political Process (Score:3, Informative)
dedicated to impartiality like we have the Guardian and the BBC
The BBC is certainly supposed to be impartial (though its right-wing detractors claim that BBC stands for Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation...!), but the Guardian - and I say this as a former long-time reader - is an unashamedly left-of-centre paper. Until recently it openly supported the Labour Party, only switching allegiance to the Liberal Democrats a few days ago because it regards the Labour Government as too right-wing.
Not intending
Re:The trouble with the American Political Process (Score:2)
You don't look at the party choices that are out there, categorize them one dimensionally from left to right and then see where the center is.
You should as a requirement ignore party lines. In fact I'm with Ralph Nader I think the whole political party system is B.S. and should be scrapped.
Re:The trouble with the American Political Process (Score:2)
Aye, fair point. I've got a lot of time for Guardian Media Group; I've gone off the Guardian itself though (disagreed with some of their policies...), but I agree that the hands-off approach of the board makes a refreshing change from the <ahem> more Australian </ahem> style of media ownership ;)
Re:The trouble with the American Political Process (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The trouble with the American Political Process (Score:4, Informative)
Didn't the Guardian call for the assassination of the United States' President?
Nope! A writer in the Guardian jokingly asked where John Wilkes Booth was when we needed him. I seriously doubt the Guardian editorial team want Bush assassinated. I mean, I'd be happy if he wasn't President but I appreciate the instability an assassination would cause.
The Guardian, by the way, isn't a tabloid, but it does have a tabloid section ("G2") which has lighter, often humerous stories and articles (I'm presuming that this is where the comment you refer to was made). Neither the main section nor G2 tend to be read by people who'd take the John Wilkes Booth comment seriously; Guardian readers write letters to the editor, they don't take up arms against foreign heads-of-state - they're much to lower-upper-middle-class for that ;)
Re:The trouble with the American Political Process (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree on your other point of needing an independant news service, but what would be the point? The news services that exist already should be independant and unbiased, so already you're dealing with an addition to a flawed system.
The problem is not with lack of media reporting, it's with people wh
may not matter (Score:2)
Chances of that are slim, though.
And either way, if I was one of those 58,000 people, I'd be pretty livid right now. And more so if the other canditate was elected in that county.
T.
Re:may not matter (Score:2)
its a crock of shit and i hope people take the law into their own hands about it. no one else will fix it for them.
democratic dictatorships (Score:4, Informative)
Something the east could have done well to learn - and with Putin wanting to make direct appointments - maybe they have now?
Sam
Re:democratic dictatorships (Score:2)
How do you loose 58,000 absentee ballots???
Oh well.. i would be happy to give the benefit of the doubt - if it wasn't for that 2000 election BS
Re:democratic dictatorships (Score:5, Insightful)
But this is hardly anything new. If you've been paying attention in previous US elections, you'll have noticed many cases like this. Thus, in the 2000 election here in Boston, there was a news story of the discovery of 20,000 "missing" ballots in one precinct. Similar stories pop up all over. The attitude of the people running the election is basically "Oops; sorry about that." It's hard to avoid the impression of "Well, we were caught, so we'll have to count that batch."
The obvious question is "How many others are never discovered?" Hard to tell. But when I read about blocks of thousands of ballots that were somehow "misplaced", it's hard to avoid the obvious suspicion. Is it really true that only 50% or 60% of the people actually vote? Or are 30% to 40% of the ballots "lost" and never counted?
In Florida, they seem to be openly thumbing their noses at the voters by having so many ballots disappear. It's like they don't even need to pretend any more. They know that the worst that can happen is that they'll have to "discover" and count a few of the votes. But nobody will ever be punished for such things.
Re:democratic dictatorships (Score:3, Informative)
Re:democratic dictatorships (Score:2)
But there's a way to get back, just vote for your favorite third party candidate. If your state is projected to have a wide margin between Bush and Kerry, you only waste y
Mail hoarding does happen (Score:2, Interesting)
Having heard this kind of thing before, I managed to fish out a couple references from the newsgroups:
1 [google.com] and 2 [google.com].
Anyway, our county clerk is strongly partisian and has pulled questionably legal stunts before, so I have planned to vote in person to reduce the chances of voting fraud.
Re:Mail hoarding does happen (Score:2)
I think it's VERY likely that the USPS lost the stuff. I recently sent a priority mail package to my brother and it took over 3 weeks to travel 300 miles. Every single day, I get random mail that was delivered to the wrong address. Some of the addresses are even for different zip codes!!! This is not mail carrier dependant - we've had over a dozen different mail carriers over the pa
Inexcusable... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't care if the votes are mostly for Democrats or Republicans - no partisans on either side should ever be able to get away with this sort of thing (assuming the votes were intentionally 'misplaced').
I plan to vote for Badnarik this year, mainly because I live in Georgia, a state Bush is pretty much guaranteed to win. If it looked close, I'd be voting for Bush. If there were no Libertarian candidate on the ballot here, I'd vote for Bush. Given that it's a certainty that either Bush or Kerry will win the Presidency, I'd rather have Bush - though the choice between the two of them is akin to the choice between having a root canal without anesthesia and having my toenails pulled out with pliers. Even though one could say I'm rooting for Bush, I want him to win fair and square, not through cheating.
If it looked close, I'd be voting for Bush. (Score:3, Interesting)
Forget for the moment how much you may dislike Kerry, even pretend that he is the WORST person in the entire world. For the purposes of this election, he is STILL a more Libertarian choice than Bush.
Bush, with the current Congress, is *effective*. They are pushing an agenda, including their view of religion, and are effective at doing so. If Kerry were to win, he would have to work with a hostile House, if not Senate, too. There isn't much he can
Re:If it looked close, I'd be voting for Bush. (Score:2)
You made a good point in your post, and indeed I had not fully considered that approach previously, though I had touched on it a time or two. I voted for Bush in 2000 when he w
If only Bush hadn't (Score:2, Insightful)
My response... Ain't gonna happen, at least not until the neocons start losing elections for the Republicans, and make it HURT.
So I still say, the combination of a President Kerry and a Republican Congress is more conservative than Bush with that same Congress.
I'll also add that if you want to reform the Republican party, and get the neocons (and their religious throat-shoving) out,
Re:If it looked close, I'd be voting for Bush. (Score:2)
Re:direct control of our troops (Score:2)
Re:direct control of our troops (Score:2, Insightful)
My opinion on terrorism goes like this...
Pretend terrorists are a hornet's nest. (particularly poisonous, even lethally poisonous hornets)
Bush is out there yelling, "I'll protect you!" and in one hand he sprays a can of insecticide at the hornets flying around. With the other hand, he's got a stick and is poking at the nest stirring the hornets up
Re:If it looked close, I'd be voting for Bush. (Score:2)
Of course, like the grandparent poster, I'm in a state that has totally committed to a candidate (California, in my case, so
Re:If it looked close, I'd be voting for Bush. (Score:2)
You hit the nail right square on the head. Many are the times that I've lamented the hostile takeover of the Republican Party by the religious right. Often have I railed against the assumption by the United States of the role of Global Police.
I'm a big
Re:If it looked close, I'd be voting for Bush. (Score:2)
Disclaimer: I am not voting for Bush or Kerry
You ignore in your post (like everyone always does) the third branch of Gevernment. Kerry is far more likely to appoint people who will legislate from the bench than Bush is..
Re:If it looked close, I'd be voting for Bush. (Score:2, Insightful)
You forget confirmation by the Senate. Kerry won't be able to put in a left-wing wingnut, because the Senate won't let him. So far the large minority of Democrats in the Senate has kept the farthest right justices out of the system, too. The wild-card here is the "Nuke Option" as reported in Slashdot, a while back.
Then we have to take up the very term, "legislate from the bench." Strange how when the justices agree
Re:If it looked close, I'd be voting for Bush. (Score:2)
Really? can you find an example of *me* doing this? Im serious where has a judge done something and *I* have said yea I agree so its ok they made up a new law.
Again, a Bush Presidency with our Congress will likely produce
Re:Inexcusable... (Score:2)
Based on what data? The polling data seems to be not only poorly reported, but in many cases the samples are poorly-selected (e.g., ignoring cellphone users, etc.).
I sincerely hope that you're correct in your assumption about the spread between the two candidates in your area, but honestly... can you afford to be wrong?
Re:Inexcusable... (Score:2)
I watch www.electoral-vote.com, which reports that Bush is currently ahead 57% to 40% - a comfortable lead. While it's possible that the cellphone-only people are statistically significant in numbers, they aren't likely to be numerous enough to overcome a 17% advantage in a state with a population of 8.5 million.
Re:Inexcusable... (Score:2)
Hmm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hmm (Score:2)
Re:Hmm (Score:2)
Re:Hmm (Score:2)
Re:Hmm (Score:2)
Your attitude is one of someone who has memorized (or at the very least read) enough scripture to get everything totally wrong..
More of the same (Score:3)
When will this nonsense end? Remember the days where it didn't matter so much who was president? I mean sure, you liked one guy better than the other, but if you lost it wasn't the end of the world. I long for those days. When politics existed, but in general everything just worked. But now through combination of media and other factors everything is about ten times worse. I just want to go back to the days when I don't have to worry about government so much. I'm a computer programmer, I want to spend my time thinking about software and gizmos and things without worrying about people dying, lying, cheating, stealing and taking away civil liberties. So let's do our best to get back to those days.
Oh, and anyone who wants to make a joke about those days not ever existing, I present to you the 90's when the internet and technology was more important that politics. And that's just example 1.
When did those days exist? (Score:4, Insightful)
The days when Lincoln was accused of having sired bastards?
The days when, who was it, Adams?, was accused of procuring women for the Russian Tsar?
The days when fist fights were breaking out on the floor of Congress?
The days when candidates were being accused of insanity? Senility? Stupidity?
American elections have always been nasty.
Re:When did those days exist? (Score:3, Funny)
I'd like to see a return to these days. It sure would make C-SPAN more interesting.
Re:When did those days exist? (Score:2)
The Banana Republic of Florida. (Score:4, Interesting)
Just keep in mind (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't forget (Score:2)
More often than not the money comes from lobbyists/corporates. So out of a large number of Republicans and Democrats, the corporates can just pick the few Democrats AND Republicans that will do what they want. So it doesn't matter as much to them which side wins - as long as it's their candidate who wins.
It's like a magician giving you a hand of cards to pick from. The car
Huh? (Score:2)
Irving Schlossberg strikes again? (Score:3, Interesting)
Link to story on ABC's site [go.com]
How does the BBC know the ballots are gone? (Score:2)
Certainly there are a lot of people complaining, so presumably some number have not been delivered. But how do we know that that's true of all of them? It's quite possible that the vast majority simply have not been returned yet and this is just another trick to cast doubt on the election process.
Absence of motive != evidence of truth. (Score:2)
Oh, out of curiousity: Are you actually claiming that no one in Europe cares if Bush is re-elected?
International Observers (Score:2)
-l
* in the historical sense of the phrase.
Re:For your edification... (Score:2)
-l
Re:Dude, you are awesome. Never change. (Score:2)
Re:For your edification... (Score:2)
-l
[nt] s/through/threw/ (Score:2)
Could it be (Score:2)
Looks like they're resending the ballots (Score:2)
Right here [yahoo.com]
Electronic voting is the answer (Score:3, Insightful)
Without this type of validation, a ballot can be lost and nobody knows. Electronic voting gives us the possibility of implementing truly modern methods for eliminating this problem. Granted, it could be done on paper too -- but nobody wants to reform the paper system.
EXACTLY!!! (Score:2)
I won't believe that I live in a representative democracy until I can verify that my vote was counted.
Re:Electronic voting is the answer (Score:2)
The paper trail isn't meant for the voter, it's meant for the board of elections. The machines need to print a backup paper version of the ballot in addition to the electronic version. The voter needs to see this paper backup before giving it to the people handling the election to double check that it is correct.
It's too easy to tamper with electronic votes and not have anyone notice.
Re:Electronic voting is the answer (Score:2)
Okay, this one seriously needs a reply. In a good paper-based voting system, the steps will be (more or less) the following:
Mechanical Voting (Score:2)
I am in a county that had been using mechanical voting machines prior to the electronic machines. Tell me how we had any form of paper trail whith them. Also, you can always do a write in vote and submit it on PAPER. If you don't like the electronic machines do that instead.
The problem... (Score:3, Insightful)
Four years ago, every American learned that there are problems with how votes are tallied in the United States.
We have had four years to come up with a replacement.
In four years, the powers-that-be *have not come up with an acceptable replacement*.
*That* is the problem - there are huge problems remaining with the voting system in America (in addition to the huge problems that have been put into place with some of the replacement system put into place since 2000).
Both Democrats and Republicans have begun planning for the legal battle that will ensue after the November election. What they will not tell you is that not only is it their fault (meaning both parties) that there are still problems, but that they have a vested interest in making sure the problems are not fixed.
It seems that the two parties would rather the election be decided in the courts after the election than by the actual voters.
Re:Slashdot description is intentionally misleadin (Score:4, Informative)
Noplace in the article does it even suggest what you claim.
Remember that the ballots need to be postmarked by election day. Delays in their delivery is basically the same as denying them of their vote.
And you're right, there is no way the post office would lose that many letters. Which leads me to this next article quote: "Meanwhile, the US postal service inspectorate said it was highly unlikely that 58,000 pieces of mail had just disappeared. A spokesman said inspectors were trying to establish whether the ballots were ever delivered to the postal service."
So there is a possibility that the 58,000 "missing" ballots never even made it to the post office in the first place, so they are investigating that. If this proves to be the case, someone's in a lot of trouble. If there is proof that all 60k ballots were delivered to the post office, then there will have to be more investigation as to how they didn't get to their destination. (And someone will STILL be in a lot of trouble, because the post office isn't prone to simply "misplacing" letters by the tens of thousands...)
=Smidge=
Re:Slashdot description is intentionally misleadin (Score:2)
Just out of curiosity, how does anyone know how many have been delivered? Granted, my absentee ballot is from California, but there did not seem to be any reciept confrimation or anything. I hate to be skeptical, but perhaps the 2,000 number comes from how many completed absentee ballots have made i
Re:Slashdot description is intentionally misleadin (Score:2)
It's quite clear that it's not a case of 2000 ballots being received back by the election office. It's a case of only 2000 people who asked for a ballot actually getting one. If you received your ballot and sent it back, you wouldn't be calling the officials about it because you'ld think everything was hunky-dory. But if
Re:Slashdot description is intentionally misleadin (Score:2)
Well, I did RTFA and I don't doubt that there are people who have not gotten their ballots. The article never says where the 2,000 number comes from. Are these completed ballots or did the election officials call all 60,000 people and ask if they received their ballots or have 58,000 people independently phoned in com
and if *you* had read the article (Score:2)
Re:Slashdot description is intentionally misleadin (Score:3, Insightful)
Here Here let's not bother questioning what were fed by politicians etc. and we should all stop looking at independent news and believe only those who show partisanship to our favourite party.
shame on whoever posted this story for highlighting a possible election problem it's not as if it's important.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE- MOVE ALONG (Score:2)
From the article:
Re:NOTHING TO SEE HERE- MOVE ALONG (Score:2)
A day after acknowledging that up to 58,000 absentee ballots have not reached the voters who requested them, Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes decided to mail new ones.
Hmm. Sounds like they never got there to me.
I also liked how you highlighted the part about finding no criminal wrongdoing. Did I ever say anything to suggest there was? No, I didn't. In fact, the original BBC article said the same thing. Bu
digitect is changing the story and he's trolling. (Score:5, Insightful)
From the article: "Some 60,000 absentee ballots were despatched by authorities in Broward County, north of Miami, this month. However, only 2,000 of them have been delivered."
Delivered, not returned. Note the HUGE FREAKING DIFFERENCE. Why do you lie? What's in it for you? Especially such an obvious and easy to see through lie, since everyone can see in the FIRST PARAGRAPH that what you posted is blatantly untrue?
digitect>>There is no way the post office is going to loose 58,000 pieces of individually mailed letters, all which happen to be ballots.
Yeah, which means someone else probably did it. Now, lets see... who has a vested interest in and history of suppressing votes in florida... rrr.... reee.... repuh.... republi.... republicaaa... (note: the completion of this word is left as an excersize to anyone with at least one functioning brain cell).
digitect>> This is yet another case of Slashdot maliciously pumping false headlines and summaries to generate controversy (and thereby, hits) again.
Dude, you changed the wording of the story, then you attack slashdot for reporting something false. I think that digitect is clearly trolling.
digitect>>Would everybody please stop reading "Politics:" topics so we can get back to Nerd stuff please?
Oh, yeah, I'm going to turn my back on politics on the eve of debatably the most important election ever, because you don't like the light reality casts on a certain state or party. Don't like the truth? Try honesty. It's better than booze or church, and it's 100% compatible with reality!
Re:digitect is changing the story and he's trollin (Score:2)
Those of us with at least one functioning brain cell still subscribe to the idea that there should probably be some form of proof before we go pinning the blame on any one person or person(s). So far
Re:digitect is changing the story and he's trollin (Score:2)
It doesn't need to be a "massive conspiracy". 58,000 ballots could be misaddressed purposely with a few keystrokes, or a few mailbins could be left in a storage room. Easy enough if it all happens at the source. As for no one "finding out"... there's an article on BBC. Clearly someone did find out. We're into *duh* territory here.
>>2) Error on behalf of election board or post office.
Re:digitect is changing the story and he's trollin (Score:2)
No. What has been "found out" is that 58,000 ballots are missing. What has not been "found out" is the reason for the missing ballots. However, you seem to be another of the type of person who prefers to just jump right to a conclusion without one iota of evidence present to support it.
Which the post office themself says is highly unlikely.
Highly unlikely but not impossible. I m
Re:digitect is changing the story and he's trollin (Score:2)
Let's see. Who has the capability to snarf up a bunch of ballots. The County Election Supervisor? In case you were wondering, her name is Brenda C. Snipes. Oddly enough, she's a Democrat.
Who else coul
Re:digitect is changing the story and he's trollin (Score:2)
Anyone who has access to the materials. You don't have to be the boss to have access.
>>Who else could do it? One of her employess, perhaps. Not sure how that could actually happen, since it is unlikely that the Eelection Supervisor's office would hand 58,000 envelopes to their gopher and say "drop these at the Post Office on your way home, will you?".
Yeah, I'm sure that they don't use employees to move the ballots... probably ma
Re:digitect is changing the story and he's trollin (Score:3, Insightful)
Can't handle that division stuff to well, can you? 5.8 ballots per pound is more correct. that's about 2.75 ounces per ballot, for those who can handle the math. About three times as heavy as a First Class Stamp will move through the
Re:digitect is changing the story and he's trollin (Score:2)
Hanlon's Razor [c2.com]
Re:Slashdot description is intentionally misleadin (Score:2)
This story isn't even listed in the main section on the default homepage, so to see it there, you need to specifically alter your profile to see all Politics stories.
So, my advice is, if you don't want to read Politics topics, don't view the section :)
Re:overloards (Score:2, Funny)
That's about the only kind of ballet I'd ever want to attend. But then, I don't suppose I'd actually be present, so...
Umm...
*my head asplode*
I have mod points (Score:2)
Re:And who runs the county's election? (Score:2)
Charles Rangel, an African-American Democrat, introduced a bill in the house to reinstate the draft to prove a point: Rich white guys are sending the poorest among us off to war.
According to this [ijoa.org] study, conducted by navy recruitment officers, the two main factors for entry into a volunteer military are low family income and veterans in the family. If you figure that most veterans were
Re:And who runs the county's election? (Score:2)
If you're actually worried about a draft, though, you might want to check out Kerry's plan for ma
Re:And who runs the county's election? (Score:2)
Re:And who runs the county's election? (Score:2)
Sorry, poopsie, but it was the county clerk who had to make the decisions on the votes too. The Secretary of State in Florida had no control over how that was done. That's one reason the three different counties had three different standards.
For a complete explanation, I refer you back to the draft thread, but the short explanation is that a draft won't help get more troops that could be used: being a soldier, even an infantry grunt, is a skilled job that takes more than a year of training.
Re:And who runs the county's election? (Score:2)
What do you think? Karl Rove's Mind Control Rays are making the Democrats do these things?