Where are we on reform right now?

[smartvoter]

I am wondering where we all think we are in obtaining genuine reform to restore integrity to the system.

How do you view where we're at?

(please kick after you vote so we can get a decent sample)

Optional:
Vent about what's in the way or what we could do better when you kick...

[MissWaverly]

1. It's coming, I can smell it

Listen Bush is now at 43% approval ratings, the MSM is trumpeting the DeLay scandal and the judges are not happy with recent inroads of Congress and Bush into the Schiavo case, I believe that this will jumpstart pending election litigation, I think that it has finally been brought home to Judges that the Judicial Branch can be overwhelmed as well with neocons who care little for the constitution or our legal code.

[smartvoter]

2. Very interesting observation. I like it and hope you're right. nt

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. I certainly hope you are right.

[smartvoter]

3. kick for late-nighters

[kster]

4. On target !

If you send one e-mail,or 10,000 e-mail's, if you write one letter or ten thousand letters or if you make one call or ten thousand calls never stop doing what you are doing, for the cause.

We are wearing them out,my guess 2 to 4 months Kerry (the front man)comes out swinging,Edwards (the man behind the scenes)comes out swinging harder,the Democratic party, a good part of the Republican party and the people fall in behind them and all hell breaks loose.

Not sure of the ending of this story,but I think election problems for 2006 will be fixed from e-voting to the tabulators, with the seal of approvals from both sides. Keep up the good work, cause if you never quit, you can never loose. NGU
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WHATS IN THE WAY...... Negativity threads on the DU about other sites or people that are working on our cause.Warn me about the person or site,then get on with it. I'll make my own decision about that.I'm here for 2004 Election Results and Discussion .

[HomerRamone]

5. not entirely out of the question

what's in the way: Repulsivecons who'd get kicked out of office if it were possible

[smartvoter]

7. Ha! Simple truth. nt

[garybeck]

8. it depends on your definition of "reform"

Reform can mean many things.

It can mean legislation only. In that case we are dead in the water on national legislation. None will ever make it to a vote, and even if they do, none of the bills will fix the problem because they only require a paper trail that will never be counted (as opposed to a paper ballot).

State Legislation? Hard to say, but I'm less hopeful than I was.

If by reform you mean the broader definition of anything that will fix the system, including litigation, it's possible.

If you include citizen action like the VR divestment campaing under your definition of "reform" then I'm cautiously hopeful that it could bring about some changes.

Gary

[smartvoter]

11. Only one matters: Ensuring fair & accurate voting across the nation.

[Bill Bored]

9. I think we have lost momentum of late.

In Nov/Dec, even the Republicans among us were posting about the possibility of fraud and the need for reforms. I think a lot of folks moved on after the inauguration. This is a big mistake.

The Repubs are already running their '06 campaign a la Schiavo and whatever else they can dream up between now and then. I'm sure it's been planned already.

Most legislation is either stalled or inadequate to secure the e-voting process. More states are getting ready to buy paperless DREs, and even with voter-verified paper, we are a long way from any mandatory manual random auditing on a national scale.

There have been no full Judiciary Committee hearings about Ohio, or even Wisconsin and I'm not sure what else can be done in Congress at this point.

The Ohio paper ballots are probably getting moldy by now and we don't hear much about Kerry's efforts or even the Glibs' or Arnebeck's. There is either something brewing behind the scenes or they got nothin'!

The divestiture for Democracy seems like a good idea, but why haven't I heard about it on Air America yet?

If we are not able to rely on government to fix this, then efforts such as boycotts, etc. may be more effective.

The FL recounts also seem to have stalled, and WTF is Bev Harris up to?

There needs to be at least bi-partisan oversight of all pre-election machine configuration (which should never be completely outsourced to vendors) to make sure the stuff that's downloaded to the Touch Screens and Op Scans e.g., from GEMS, is correct and not favoring any candidate over another, not switching names on the ballots, etc. which are only too easy to arrange by exploiting existing features of the software. This profound weakness and temptation built into the system has been very much under-reported. Why?

Stories like Clint Curtis' are intriguing but where will they ultimately lead? The real stealing of the vote may be much more banal and insidious, using features already available in the software.

While the absolute accuracy of the exit polls can be hotly debated, with no help at all from their designers, the question of why these polls were apparently more accurate in some states than in others has not been explored adequately, IMHO.

Other than that we're doin' great!

Question: is DU still "the place to be" for all this stuff, or do we have to join some other forums?

[smartvoter]

10. I think the momentum here at DU has definitely diminished on this issue.

Even in numbers of participants. This is not an issue that warrants throwing in the towel. Without resolution to these problems, everything else we do is pointless.

[Al-CIAda]

12. Exactly.

This should be the most important issue, but people have become distracted by the latest fuckface outrage (which is to mean a DAILY occurance of LIES and deciet).


...but those battles need to be faught as well...our troops are spread thin, but we MUST persist and press on!

[kster]

13. The DU has only just begun

they have more of a variety of talent here than most other sites put together,Keep the faith, I for one will not throw in the towel, because I have faith in US. Keep pushing forward, the momentum is ours. Don't be a girlyman/woman "FIGHT". NGU