Comments on The Iron Yuppie: BBC NEWS | New Florida vote scandal feared

This is a great point Rob. The problem is that it'...

2004-10-30T13:33:00.000-07:00

This is a great point Rob. The problem is that it's impossible to have a single way of verifying voters without biasing it against one side or the other unless you did it everywhere simultaneously. The problem with the story above is that they chose to do the checking only in areas that were primarily democratic which has the effect of slowing those (and only those) elections down. That's terrible.

As to your point about voting, I totally agree. In fact, I would LOVE to see an open voting system, done via cell phone calls, or Internet or paper or anything. And nothing says that it should be one voting day only, why not voting month? I saw a very interesting discussion about Internet and other voting technology recently here with a technology that is open, totally transparent and totally auditable. With something like this in place, you could obviate the need for registration altogether. You simply have everyone vote and verify everyone on the backend before the results are reported.

I think the point of the article is that the Repub...

2004-10-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

I think the point of the article is that the Republicans intend to challenge voters who they believe DON'T have the right to vote, based on the fact that the mail was returned.

The no-no here is only the fact that race is the factor. If you could prove that you're only targeting districts that typically went to the Democrats (regardless of race), then it seems to be a legal tactic.

Really, I think both Republicans and Democrats should be doing this hand-in-hand to ensure the fairness of the election, as long as the intent is not to disrupt fair voters. The fact that the mail got returned SHOULD preempt someone from voting.

I think the only way any of this crap is going to be settled is by admitting that we live in a union of states, and that voting processes should be standardized across states. Step 1) Say where your primary residence is. Step 2) Cast your vote anywhere. Step 3) Election officials route your vote into the right district "basket."