US Presidential Candidates

PeterZ wrote:That's right. We need a recount and thorough review on all the close states for both sides. Voter fraud with illegals is not the biggest problem. Voter rolls with dead people and people registered in multiple precincts is much worse.

I am all for recounting all those close states. IThe Dems want to destroy the legitimacy of the Trump administration, fine. Let's have a complete review of the entires election including the voter rolls of all states at the precinct level. I believe SCOTUS gave that authority to the Feds with Gore v Bush under the equal protection clause.

Because of the waythe US maintains voter rolls (periodic rather than continuous updates, and without centralizatiom AFAIK), dead people and people listed in multiple precints is inevitable (for that matter, early voting means you can cast a legitimate vote yet be dead on election day ).

Eyal wrote:

PeterZ wrote:That's right. We need a recount and thorough review on all the close states for both sides. Voter fraud with illegals is not the biggest problem. Voter rolls with dead people and people registered in multiple precincts is much worse.

I am all for recounting all those close states. IThe Dems want to destroy the legitimacy of the Trump administration, fine. Let's have a complete review of the entires election including the voter rolls of all states at the precinct level. I believe SCOTUS gave that authority to the Feds with Gore v Bush under the equal protection clause.

Because of the waythe US maintains voter rolls (periodic rather than continuous updates, and without centralizatiom AFAIK), dead people and people listed in multiple precints is inevitable (for that matter, early voting means you can cast a legitimate vote yet be dead on election day ).

Totally agree. Yet, the local political parties that these .... inefficiencies.... benefit do not want to change the corrupted system. The only way to force changes is to expose the extent of the problems. Periodic review and cleansing of the rolls and re-registration for everyone is a good place to start.

PeterZ wrote:
Totally agree. Yet, the local political parties that these .... inefficiencies.... benefit do not want to change the corrupted system. The only way to force changes is to expose the extent of the problems. Periodic review and cleansing of the rolls and re-registration for everyone is a good place to start.

No, it´s a horrible bad place to start. Well, unless you WANT to guarantee republican landslide wins of course. Because their voters tend to be the ones that have an easy time registering.

Seriously, just make a single centralised agency/authority/whatever and have them keep track of people without all that stupid registration stuff, because making unable/unwilling/etc to register is probably THE biggest way of rigging elections in USA.

You forget that the US is the one developed country that minimises federal control and coordination. Crazy but a fact.

Tenshinai wrote:

PeterZ wrote:
Totally agree. Yet, the local political parties that these .... inefficiencies.... benefit do not want to change the corrupted system. The only way to force changes is to expose the extent of the problems. Periodic review and cleansing of the rolls and re-registration for everyone is a good place to start.

No, it´s a horrible bad place to start. Well, unless you WANT to guarantee republican landslide wins of course. Because their voters tend to be the ones that have an easy time registering.

Seriously, just make a single centralised agency/authority/whatever and have them keep track of people without all that stupid registration stuff, because making unable/unwilling/etc to register is probably THE biggest way of rigging elections in USA.

Daryl wrote:You forget that the US is the one developed country that minimises federal control and coordination. Crazy but a fact.

Nope, not forgetting. Just considering the way they do it to be exceptionally stupid.

One of the problems with non-citizens voting is with motor-voter registration. In some jurisdictions people register to vote at the same time they get their driver's license. The problem with that is you don't need to be a citizen to get a license. Some bored dmv clerks just hand voter registration forms out without asking the individual if they are a citizen. Some of those people then vote not realizing they are committing a crime. They believe that since a government official gave them the form that they are allowed to vote. Remember by definition 50% of the population is below average intelligence. No one really knows how big of a problem it is. In most states the problem is with legal immigrants. However a few states (California for example) also issue driver's licenses to illegals. I do know that my middle schooler came home talking about how some of her classmate's parents had voted for HRC and were unhappy that Trump won since they were illegally here. I'm hoping that middle schoolers accidentally confused support vs vote or these kids parents are in serious trouble is they get caught.

Tenshinai sometimes I think your intellectual idiot. Smart as tack but dumb as a rock. Here in Houston, they were using dead people voting and people that had not voted in the past couple of elections. When Paul Bennencourt came in as Harris County Tax Assessor/Collector. The problem was so bad that he purged the voter roles and required everyone to register and did a signature validation. This resulted in Texas adopting the policy of having an ID to vote. Even though this has continually been challenged in the Courts by the Obama Admin. Second, we had groups like Acorn registering people that were never voting but were voting through absentee ballots. These groups that were registering people to vote, they were falsifying the info. Now, I wonder why they were falsifying the info?
Perhaps these groups were interested in registering people to vote or were they interested in creating a list for certain individuals to commit voter fraud?

Is it very hard to register to vote? No! We need an ID to open a bank account, to work...etc..etc...etc...to vote Now!

Tenshinai wrote:

PeterZ wrote:
Totally agree. Yet, the local political parties that these .... inefficiencies.... benefit do not want to change the corrupted system. The only way to force changes is to expose the extent of the problems. Periodic review and cleansing of the rolls and re-registration for everyone is a good place to start.

No, it´s a horrible bad place to start. Well, unless you WANT to guarantee republican landslide wins of course. Because their voters tend to be the ones that have an easy time registering.

Seriously, just make a single centralised agency/authority/whatever and have them keep track of people without all that stupid registration stuff, because making unable/unwilling/etc to register is probably THE biggest way of rigging elections in USA.

SMR,
The point is that it shouldn't be "here in Houston". In a federal election there should be uniform national laws, that are centrally administered. Not hard, virtually every developed country does it without any difficult. Our states then opt to use the same rolls adjusted for different areas, and existing staff. There have been several reviews into potential voter fraud (always instituted by the conservatives) and virtually none has been found.
I would go as far as to say that the US became the dominant economic and military power due to rich resources and a dynamic population, but unless you get yourselves sorted into a modern unified nation you will become yesterday's heroes.

Thank you, Daryl. Your progressive POV has confirmed to me that the US and those that voted for Brexit are on the riight path. We here in the US, Houston included, revel in regional autonomy and eschew as much as possible federal authority. After all, when regional governments get it wrong, only a few suffer and the rest of the country learns a lesson. When the Feds eff up, everyone suffers. Obamacare anyone?

Yup, go, Great Britain, and reclaim your sovereignty from Brussels, while we in the US attempt to reclaim some modicum of authority back from the Feds. The wailing of proggies just affirms we are doing something right.

Daryl wrote:SMR,
The point is that it shouldn't be "here in Houston". In a federal election there should be uniform national laws, that are centrally administered. Not hard, virtually every developed country does it without any difficult. Our states then opt to use the same rolls adjusted for different areas, and existing staff. There have been several reviews into potential voter fraud (always instituted by the conservatives) and virtually none has been found.
I would go as far as to say that the US became the dominant economic and military power due to rich resources and a dynamic population, but unless you get yourselves sorted into a modern unified nation you will become yesterday's heroes.

PeterZ wrote:Yup, go, Great Britain, and reclaim your sovereignty from Brussels, while we in the US attempt to reclaim some modicum of authority back from the Feds. The wailing of proggies just affirms we are doing something right.

Could you do a quick check and see how many Zeppelins you can see? Or any of the accepted indicators of being in an alternate universe, because it's pretty clear you're posting from somewhere that isn't in line with the world the rest of us live in.

Because, I hate to tell you this, but in this universe (declared by consensus to be the real one), Brexit is a pretty amazing train crash happening in slow motion, with the people who are nominally in charge of pulling it off having a bunch of really strange misconceptions about how the whole process will work and what their bargaining power in the coming talks will be.

Meanwhile, your attempts at "reclaiming a modicum of authority" have resulted in the election of someone who is on track to break pretty much every promise he made during the campaign before even taking office, who is an unabashed authoritarian with little to no understanding of the limits of his office and a predilection for lying and using theater to distract from his personal failings.

Congratulations on your new-found freedom, PeterZ. Hope you remember to be thankful when you find that Medicare was something you actually needed.