The Meat of the Matter

Recurring Nightmare

In 2000 the Florida voting debacle was truly a national nightmare, and people who still look at the current administration with a jaundiced eye because of it. Unfortunately, nothing substantial was done to reform our voting process. Sadly, it comes as no surprise that there are several instances of voter fraud bubbling up in the news. I started doing some internet searches and found so many instances where fraud is being alleged, that it was depressing. Very damn depressing. The burning question is this: did last election's fiasco cause undue scrutiny into this election? Is that why there are so voting cheaters being discovered? If that's the case, have there always been this much of a problem? If that's *not* the case, then why is there such a horrid problem now? I think Americans have been lulled into a state of complacency. We hear "voter fraud" and in our minds it is a low-brow, archaic practice like ballet-box stuffing that happens in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, or Nazi Germany. In today's U.S., however, the process of voting has become so damn complicated that in an election as close as the one we're about to have, tiny illegal and complex tweaks--potential hanging chads dotting the countryside--can have a scale-tipping effect on the outcome of this election. And it IS happening. If you do a search in any major online news organization for "vote AND fraud" you will find scores of issues all over the United States. Ironically, you will also find many articles coming out of Afghanistan--the democracy that we just "created." God bless America. What have we become? Whoever wins will be faced with the responsibility of vote reform: - Get rid of the Electoral College - Make registration easy, instant, and verifiable - Have the polls open and close at the same time nationwide Freedom and democracy are subject to entropy. We need to fight to keep them.