A Vote For Accountability, Indeed!

Yes, it is a very good article...just don't delve too far into the comments unless you want to see partisan hackery posing as debate.

Though, I do think Emily Messner missed an important detail. The voting fraud is not limited to any particular machine. The Die Bold machines are NOT the problem, though they are obviously part of the problem. Wisconsin does not use those machines, and we have a paper trail, and voting fraud was still a problem that to this day was never fully addressed. Those few who were participating and were tried and found guilty, got slaps on the wrist. Nor is voting fraud limited to favoring only one party; the voting fraud in Wisconsin was in favor of Democrats.

And it does have a negative effect on people's mentality towards voting, which is already bad enough. Why vote if the voting process is corrupt? Why vote if had no real, eligible voter voted at all, a Democrat would still win? These are questions that have been posed to me, and I have no ready answer for them. I'm sure the same questions are in the mind of more than a few people who feel Republicans have cheated to win elections.

Yet, it's people who do the cheating. People accuse the party big-wigs, but it's the little people down at the bottom of the hill who are actually cheating and it really makes you wonder why. What could they possibly gain when both parties are so corrupt?

Stephanie, voter fraud in a federal election should be a federal crime, investigated, and prosecuted by the DOJ. And the penalty for defrauding 300 million people of their democracy? How about 10 years in prison, $250,000 fine, and no time off for good behavior.

That would cut voter fraud down considerably, don't you think? But, if we want it to be dealt with, we the voters must demand it and withhold our votes from incumbents until we get a fair, accountable, and transparent voting system in place.

With elections as close as those in year 2000 and 2004, every vote counts.

That's why voter fraud is a serious issue.

We now have illegal aliens voting in our elections, and politicians are forcing states to accommodate illegal aliens.

Republicans want cheap labor, and Democrats want votes, and the American citizens get the bill, and disenfranchised.

Incumbent politicians are running the nation into the ground.

Corrupt incumbent politicians carry the water for their vastly rich and powerful puppeteers.

• Our government is FOR SALE. 83% of all $2.4 billion in federal campaign donations in 2000 were from a mere 1% of the U.S. population. What does that tell you? How can the remaining 99% of the population compete with that? 90% of all elections are won by the candidate that spends them most money. Corruption in government is increasing. Too many bought-and-paid-for politicians are controlled by big-money-donors (corporations). Pork-barrel, graft, corporate welfare, and money in politics is rampant. Incumbents (who always outnumber newcomers) refuse many badly-needed, common-sense reforms.
• Incumbent politicians refuse campaign finance reform, and many common-sense, no-brainer reforms that might reduce their power or the security of their cu$hy, coveted seats of abused power
• Incumbent politicians refuse to reform the unfair tax system (they like it just they way they have perverted it; who do you think gains most from all those loop holes and deductions)
• Goverment abuses the eminent domain laws so that corporations can legally plunder peoples' homes and properties (and supported by the Supreme Court); perversion of the laws to do the very thing they were supposed to prevent
• Incumbent politicians are above the law. Our presidents abuse the presidential pardon, which guarantees immunity for crooked politicians, like the 140 felons pardoned by Bill Clinton (many who even pled guilty)
• Government is replacing (stealing) surpluses from Social Security with worthless government bonds (it's a ponzi-scheme). #12.8 trillion of Social Security debt is not included with the $8.4 trillion of National Debt. Talk about cookin' the books.
• Incumbent politicians continuously promise (e.g. "read my lips") things it can not make good on (i.e. prescription drug plan, Medicare and looming shortages in the tens of trillions), and selfish Americans have grown too dependent and lazy, and a disgusting sense of entitlement.
• Government continues to grow and grow ever larger to nightmare proporation (do we need all of this?)
• Incumbent politicians pass tax cuts that benefit the rich mostly, when the corrupt tax system already unfairly benefits those that can abuse it and all the loop holes the most; also, remember, there have been record level corporate profits;
• The federal government is forcing net losses of over $70 billion per year onto American citizens due to illegal aliens. That does not even include the untold cost of crime, disease, and 2.3 million displaced American workers.
• Public education is declining in quality and increasing in cost due to mismanagement, too many administrators, not enough teachers, and forcing schools to accommodate millions of illegal aliens
• Governmnet thinks we can immigrate our way out of our problems, but using an under-paid, under-class; Republicans want cheap labor, and Democrats want votes; Institutionalized illegal immigration is a prime example of outsourcing.
• Irresponsible incumbent politicians fuel the petty partisan warfare to distract and fool voters; just today I got a letter from Senator Bill Frist telling me to "fight back against the Democrats and elect Republicans or live with the consequences of a Democrat Majority in Congress". I am so sick and disgusted with incumbent politicians that fuel this type of petty partisan warfare. And, I used to be a Republican.
• 62% of Americans believe the nation is not moving in the right direction, but those Americans keep re-electing the same incumbent politicians that use and abuse them. Go figure.
• Our government started an unnecessary war, based on irresponsible (possibly criminally negligent) and flawed intelligence. That's a fact, but will anyone ever be held accountable for it? What about the thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis that have died because of a war that was based primarily on non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction. Sad indeed.
• Pandering incumbent politicians continually strive to increase dependency on government, and bribing voters with their own money
• Skyrocketing property taxes are driving some people from their homes. Another form of legal plunder.
• Our legal system is dysfunctional and corrupt, where some are above the law (like Rep (LA) William J. Jefferson (hiding $90K of bribes in his freezer), and the 140 felons pardoned by Clinton, etc., etc., etc.)
• Corporatism, corpocrisy and exploitation of other nations; trapping them in a cycle of debt (like ourselves); a form of oppression.
• Gerrymandering; dishonest and perpetual redrawing of district lines to shift votes
• Election fraud. When this gets too out of control (if it hasn't already), we will no longer have anything resembling a democracy. With elections as close as they have been (e.g. year 2000), every vote counts. So, why do we let illegal aliens vote in our elecitons?
• The main parties have created barriers to prevent third party and independent candidates from getting on election ballots, limiting candidates and our voting choices.
• Our health care crisis is a product of irresponsible government and greedy insurance corporations. Healthcare is increasingly unaffordable and unreliable because of those two middlemen. Healthcare solutions are needed, but that is unlikely as long as middlemen (government and insurance corporations) are plundering and gouging everyone.
• The government has no energy plan. Our energy vulnerability is a result of insufficient planning (actually, extremely irresponsible and lacking in vision) to implement alternate fuel and power sources; the government has failed miserably to encourage alternative energy sources (big oil corporations (puppeteers) influence politicians (puppets)); not to mention exacerbation of global warming and tensions in foreign oil-producing nations.
• Our government has alienated our allies. Not smart.
• Median incomes have been falling for 6 consecutive years while corporations have record high profits, while government perpetuates ever-present and destabilizing inflation, a fiscally irresponsible monetary system, printing too much money, and out-of-control government borrowing and spending.
• Government is allowing our infrastructures to deteriorate, which will cost more in the long run by not being properly maintained, not to mention being unsafe.
• Poor urban planning and urban sprawl and the lack of foresight to plan urban environments better has doomed Americans to 500 hours inside their vehicles per year (i.e. 41.7 hours per month); a massive waste of time and fuel, not to mention the frustration and impact on health.
• corrupt government, pork-barrel, waste, fraud, graft, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.

Think it can't get worse?
Think again.
We may have finally engineered our own demise.
If so, we only have ourselves to thank for it.
It will all go down the tubes while we all wallow in partisan warfare.

Election reform, and numerous other reforms are very unlikely until voters remember what it is they were supposed to be doing all along . . .

• Stop Repeat Offenders.
• Don't Re-Elect Them !

Sorry for the late reply, but yes, I do think harsher penalties are necessary for voting fraud. The investigations should be serious and should be intended to hold whoever participated accountable, taking the matter as high up the ladder as the evidence allows.