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MasterJaguar01 -> RE: I suspected this but never saw any evidence... Until NOW! (9/24/2017 7:29:45 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: MercTech
Thoughts on proposed changes to voting law...
1. The electoral college is designed to prevent a tyranny of high populous states. It does its job.
2. A federal election commission would only have jurisdiction over federal elections. Waste of hot air.
3. Registration to vote is a STATE issue and varies between states. It is no more in the purview of the federal government than what you are allowed to eat for breakfast.
4. Picture ID is already readily available to citizens. There is already a federal ID card if you care to use it. It's called a "Passport Card" and is the only identification certified by the federal government. Check an I-9 form to see what the federal government considers appropriate ID.
5. Making a post office a place to register to vote makes a federal entity responsible for a state issue. The State and not the national government determines the requirements to register to vote in that state. There are federal guidelines on what constitutes proper requirements on voter registration but it is State law that codifies it. Currently there are to places commonly used; County Clerk's Office (same place you get a marriage license, register a change in deed for a land sale, get a business license, etc.) and at the Department of Motor Vehicles where you can register to vote at the same time as you renew a driver's license.
6. How about a postcard being automatically mailed to a voter's address of record if that voter hasn't voted in three elections and dropping them from the voting rolls is they do not respond? That would be a good way to clear out the inactive voting rolls and make it harder to vote the graveyard. Check your local voting registration, you are required to contact voting registration offices if you move. (argument averted)
7. As outlined; it totally abrogates the concept of "secret ballot". Whether a person voted is a matter of public record. Who they voted for is not and protected under law. Voting statistics are by precinct, ward, or whatever your state government calls it and not by zip code which is a routing aid for the USPS and not a geographical designation.
8. Define "early voting"! Are you talking about paying to have the polls open earlier in the day so people can vote before work? Are you talking about allowing mail in ballots before the election day? Regional terms don't compute to every polity. If you are talking mail in ballots; that is called "absentee balloting" in most places and is already in place. The military is big on helping you get an absentee ballot for your home of record. If opening the polls early on election day; by the same time do you mean East Coast polls would have to open at 3am to be concurrent with 6am poll openings on the west coast? A bit silly to ignore time zone differences don't you think?
9. Again, the post office is a federal entity. Poll workers are temporary state employees and not authorized to be working in a federal office. <grin> No, it has to be a state and local function to pick and staff the polling locations. Schools and churchs seem to be good choices and I know the church down the street likes the rental fee paid by the state to use their fellowship hall for the polls on the occasional Tuesday.
10. The final step to casting a ballot is to review and certify you have cast the ballot correctly. Changing it after that certification, in addition to saying you are stupid, is saying you falsified a legal document. There comes a time to decide and not waffle.
Finally, the Electoral College has nothing to do with gerrymandering. Someone needs to look up "gerrymander".
1. The EC has many intentions and functions. One of them was a compromise at the Constitutional Convention to give less populous (of free male people)
(and BTW more populous of slaves (see 3/5 rule)) a greater voting power then they would get if there were strictly a one-person, one-vote system. In that respect, it does its job. I would argue, that purpose, is vastly obsolete at this point. But that is a discussion for another thread.
2. If the EC were gone, a useful FEC would be critical.
3. Yes, it is the purview of the states. Hence the problems we have now
4. Picture ID is not as readily available as you think, and is cost prohibitive for some. Plus the requirements differ from state to state (See #3)
5. See #3
6. On the right track.... But things get lost in the mail. People are on vacation, etc. Better for someone to come in during a multi-month window at their own leisure.
7. It does nothing of the sort. All ID's of the voters are masked, and given a cryptic voter ID
8. Early voting (30+days before tally day), by WWW, or at a drop-box (like we have here on the island), or on a computer in a library or Post Office
9. See #3
10. You misunderstand. Not changing your vote. Rather, correcting how your vote is recorded. Once you vote, you get a receipt, of how your vote is recorded. You can also at ANY time, query the votes by any parameter imaginable (and knowable by the system), to continue to verify that your vote is recorded correctly. You can (and should) even do so after the results are tallied to ensure that your vote has continued to be recorded correctly. (Hence nullifying hacking :))
OK... I will explain how the EC has EVERYTHING to do with Gerrymandering.
Someone look up gerrymander? I just did.
Straight at the top of Google, a definition:
manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class.
Among many other things... That is PRECISELY the effect of what the EC does. In this case, the electoral constituencies are the states. Granted, it doesn't literally manipulate the boundaries of the states. (Although that was already built-in when the EC was implemented.) However, the effect is identical. It dilutes the vote of the minority (and since most states are winner-take-all, it completely disenfranchises them) so as to favor one party.. Ask the Republicans in the Central and Eastern part of my state. Ask the Democrats in Atlanta, GA, or Austin, TX... Just a few of thousands of examples. Ask Republicans in California for that matter!
The EC is one enormous gerrymander (regardless of its stated intentions).
Of course it goes farther than that in its corruption. Fodder for another thread.
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