tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17631113.post115912213947602720..comments2023-10-17T02:48:47.712-08:00Comments on The Ester Republic: Don Young casts the right voteDeirdre Helfferichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07176487150966377070noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17631113.post-1159205706369708372006-09-25T09:35:00.000-08:002006-09-25T09:35:00.000-08:00I do too: a passport. And it costs money and about...I do too: a passport. And it costs money and about 6 weeks. The made poll taxes illegal for good reason. However, while whether one is a citizen is a significant issue in the voting process (aliens can vote in local elections in certain places in the country, by the way), it is not the most urgent issue in terms of problems in our voting process. Florida's illegal voter purges was a big one. <BR/><BR/>My point is simply that it's not like we have flocks of foreigners voting in our elections. The biggest problems we've got right now are a) throwing away of valid votes (been happening for a long time all over the country); b) prevention of voting by legitimate voters (Florida, Ohio); c) blatant corruption and conflict of interest by election officials (think Blackwell); and d) pretty clear indications of poor security, unverifiability, overcounting, undercounting, and election fraud in connection with electronic voting machines. And these voting machines were put in supposedly to Help America Vote -- but there's been some serious issues arising from their use.<BR/><BR/>These are urgent and serious problems that need to be addressed posthaste. Noncitizens voting is a nonissue; it's far more likely that citizens will be deprived of their chance to vote because they won't be able to afford the money to shell out for a passport or whatever, or because they can't leave work or get all the paperwork done in time. Eventually I suppose everyone (except the really poor) will have their proof of citizenship papers, and we'll be all hunky-dory. But in the meantime, it's a convenient way to disenfranchise a segment of the voting population. 2008 should be okay, since it merely requires photo ID by then. Proof of citizenship isn't required until 2010. <BR/><BR/>Still, what's throwing our elections isn't the alien voting bloc, it's the electronic voting fraud.Deirdre Helfferichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07176487150966377070noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17631113.post-1159157835516587782006-09-24T20:17:00.000-08:002006-09-24T20:17:00.000-08:00actually, I do. not hard to get, and, frankly, it...actually, I do. not hard to get, and, frankly, it really is the most significant issue with our electoral process. oh, yeah, Florida. Forgot them.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02317597809710979689noreply@blogger.com