Monday, July 04, 2005

 

Voting options

OK, so a few weeks ago, the city council held open hearings on how voting will be done in the future in the place where I live. The options are, keep it as it is, voting in person at polling places with a provision for absentee ballots by mail, or as an alternative, vote by mail only, with polling places available to collect the mail ballots which would be late if mailed. I attended the city council meeting. I got up and was one of the few who were able to speak directly to the city council (Side note: since I live in an unincorporared area of the county, why was it the city council had jurisdiction over those of us in the unincorporated area?) Anyway, I spoke in favor of keeping the in-person vote option with at the same time providing a mail-in option as it was before. Later, I found out by mail, of course, that the county was shifting to a mail-in vote. In other counties int he state of Washington, they changed the rules to require picture ID at the polling place. Say what? I provided that when I reistered, why do I have to provide it AGAIN when you already have my registration record in front of you? Why do I have to PROVE I am a registered voter? In the book with my registration nformation, I sign when I have voted, so it is not possible for another person to fake being me to cast an illegal ballot. Where's the beef? Worst case, I neglect to vote (I have never missed voting to date) and someone fakes being me and casts a vote in my name, one vote, and I wonder, where is the harm in that? I may have voted that way myself! It isn't like there are multiple votes in my name, as because of the way sign in's have to be dome, at most only one vote in my name could be fraudulent. I vote by mail with an absentee ballot. I have ever since I was first able to do so since I was in the Navy and was stationed away from home, hence an absentee ballot. I was deprived of my right to vote several times as I was deployed overseas and a fast attack submarine is usually deployed for 90 days at a time, which means it is possible my ballot was sitting there while I was out to sea with no way to mail it before the deadline date, so there were times when I missed getting in my ballot. That is the price I paid for YOUR freedom to elect officials of government. I'm all for a popular vote regardless of any party affiliation. Vote for the person you feel is best suited for the job, President included, get rid of the electoral college. If we did not have an electoral college, we would not have the popular vote in opposition to the person elected to office. Electoral college votes were supposed to prevent the majority from oppressing the minority, but when the popular vote and the electoral vote disagree, the majority is loses. How can it be fair that the majority loses when selecting a person for a political office? Yet, it happened! Your boy Dubya is a case on point. Dubya lacked the majority of the popular vote, and because of a conservative Chief Justice of the Supreme court, was elected by a minority when the Supreme Court halted the recount in Florida! Dubya was "selected" by the Supreme Court and not "elected" by the majority of the popular vote! Think about it. It's time for me to go down to the waterfront and watch the 4th of July fireworks and be thankful I live in this country.

Posted by: Rowlfe - at: 7/04/2005 08:33:00 PM

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