US electoral registration: Subject to grave errors

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Published time: March 09, 2012 06:29
Edited time: March 09, 2012 13:41

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Election, Human rights, Marina Dzhashi, Marina Portnaya, Politics, USA

With Americans heading to the polls in 2012, determined to take part in homespun democracy, millions of votes may end up rejected or thrown away when election night comes – all because of the specific voting registration system.

The US is always quick to criticize the election process in other countries, as it has been since the presidential election in Russia last week.

But in a few months America will have to elect a new national leader using a 19th-century, paper-based voter registration system that has previously left the nation’s electoral rolls plagued by errors and inaccuracies.

According to David Becker, the Director of Election Initiatives for the Pew Center on the States, “About 2.2 million votes were lost in 2008 due to voter registration problems.”

A new Pew report on America’s “inaccurate, costly and inefficient voting system” also found 1.8 million deceased individuals listed as eligible US voters. Plus nearly 3 million citizens are registered in more than one state.

“We found roughly 24 million records that are no longer up-to-date, mostly because people have moved. In some cases because people have died,” David Becker says.

“We found 51 million eligible voters who aren’t on the rolls – that is one in four eligible citizens in the United States,” he adds.

Vladimir Kremlev, RT

For example New York state voting problems during the 2010 midterm elections resulted in a reported 60,000 votes being tossed out uncounted. Officials say the misuse of new electronic, optical-scan machines was to blame. This threatens the integrity of America’s free and fair elections.

“We should assume that every citizen that is eligible to vote, can vote. And if there’s some problem on Election Day, there should be some way that they can correct [it], so that they are not told ‘I don’t see you on the book’,” Lawrence Norden from Brennan Center for Justice in New York maintains.

“Even if you are a citizen, even if you are 18 – your vote is not going to count,” he said

Back in December, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the same thing following Russia’s parliamentary election.

“The Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve the right to have their voices heard and their votes counted,” Hillary Clinton declared, while President Barack Obama correctly noted “It all starts with you.”

For the US, the burning issue is not whether the voting system should be upgraded to 21st-century standards, but how fast and which technological innovations should be used.

In Canada, unlike in the US, the voting system is up-to-date. And it is not only more reliable and quick to track the voting process, it is also many times cheaper. The registration process in Canada costs the budget 35 cents each vote, whereas in the American state of Oregon, for one, the price tag is 12 times that amount.

And come November 2012, American citizens will be counting on US leaders to stand by their words.

Comments (20)

teddyformusic 10.03.2012 01:41

CON wrote in #4
Like almost everything they say or do, the US practices something completely different. Bu t of course it doesn't matter anyway as the system is rigged by big money. Corporations own the electoral system, even to the extent they're considered, 'a person'. If anyone still thinks the US voting process is OK after the 2000 election, then how can there be any confidence in it.. over-all it is really not JUST the voting or "democracy" in America that seems to be part of the cultural characteristic - that can be recognized as "american" promoted BY americans themselves ("democracy", "choice," "liberty" , "justice" etc) that turns out to be far LESS than advertised. this is the american "orwellian" system of calling a thing what it is NOT -- or even its opposite, which, in my observation from living here for a long time, is what I can only describe as a HABIT of thinking. examples: americans are VERY creative in finding phrases to promote something that is the opposite or is not TRUE :

in the corporate world of america: "worker ENHANCEMENT" really means -- making workers work harder, longer, for less pay.
"profe ssional conduct in the workplace" means NEVER to question AUTHORITY..."team spirit" means SMILING and being POLITE while swallowing exploitative Labor practices ordered by the bosses and showing you are HAPPY in being a glorified slave. the same as George Bush naming POLLUTING as "BLUE SKIES INITIATIVE"....or Bush and Obama practicing TORTURE as "enhanced interrogation"...or WARS for resource extraction everywhere as "defending freedom and american interests" ...or "leadership" really means American Imperial Supremacy without challenge.
no other country OR culture seems to be SO ADEPT at this -- what George Orwell called "The Corruption of Language". of course it also started with "Civilizing the Native Savages" when taking the land of the Indians with exterminating them.

Undo

Peter Jennings 10.03.2012 00:10

The whole world already knows to expect another phoney election between snake-oil salesmen.

The process has already started with Ron Paul being swindled out of recent victories.

Undo

teddyformusic 09.03.2012 23:45

Tommy (unregistered) wrote in #10
The system is actually flawed, hard to inderstand why this hasn't been fix since it has been on the agenda for atleast 15 years... the american "electoral" system is NOT fixed because it was Designed to BE FIXED for the purpose of the powerful (white majority, really, based on the anglo-saxon Imperial-based "social order" eventually defining itself as "america" ) .

withi n that context, America DEFINES itself and everything about it as a society expressing the "white man's burden" of "civilizing society , civilizing the world, civilizing humanity according to that definition. and according to that definition -- EVERYTHING ELSE is "alien" -- "threatening" , FIT for subjugation ONLY and SHOULD be obedient to this definition which of course includes :
Capitalis m, the obsessions with "property" (ALSO "fixed" to turn ALL property - be it PUBLIC commons , or even SMALL private "properties" - such as one's house, education, efforts, -- SUBJUGATED to the ULTIMATE "private property" of the Corporation and ITS shareholders -- what Einstein called :"the moneyed class and the private few") .
Elections in the USA are the "theatre" for the people to DELUDE themselves into thinking they have "choice" and "freedom" ...as members of a society that is the "most prosperous" but in reality are nothing more than glorified SLAVES. americans -- deep down, KNOW this to be true, but PART of the American SELF_mythology is to BELIEVE in its OWN society's Myth of "freedom". ...and equally -- "we have MORE freedoms than OTHERS"...even if it's an ILLUSION.

Undo

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