General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhoa. That's one shitty Third-World hell-hole of a country.
There's this foreign country.
You wouldn't believe the bullshit they are trying to sell as "democratic elections" to the international community.
- People purged from the voter-rolls. Nobody knows why, nobody knows how, nobody knows who's responsible, nobody knows how to undo that in time before the election. And of course nobody will get arrested for this, even though it falsified the outcome of the election.
- In polling-stations all over the country votes disappear, surplus votes show up, vote-tallies do not match the number of votes cast... And of course nobody will get arrested for this, even though it falsified the outcome of the election.
- The election is conducted via voting-machines that are well-documented to be out-dated and error-prone. And easily hackable. And the company that makes those machines has close ties to a political party. And of course nobody will get arrested for this, even though it falsified the outcome of the election.
(One guy who documented this had an "accident". His plane crashed into a mountainside. What a mysterious coincidence.)
- The country has dozens of different quality-standards what a proper election should be like, depending on where they are held and which political party happens to be in charge there.
- The country has extremely lenient laws on campaign-donations, to the point where bribery becomes almost legal. And even if there are violations of campaign-finance-laws, the regulatory body responsible for upholding these laws has already publicly stated that they don't have the money, time and personnel to punish the offenders.
- Whole populations are having their votes preemptively rendered meaningless. Whoever they vote for or whether they vote at all: Their votes will have absolutely no influence on the actual result. And this manipulation is considered absolutely normal over there and is entirely legal.
The US should immediately issue a condemnation of these undemocratic practices and spearhead an international movement to shame that country and punish it with sanctions until the rights of its populace are restored.
liberal N proud
(60,334 posts)AFASDFASDFAFASDFGAfsdunlessyouunderstandthepoliticalsystemandvotinginprimariesafasdfasdfasdfasdfasdf
villager
(26,001 posts)I remember the types of folks who had them on their cars.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)suffer.
frylock
(34,825 posts)ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)...it's favoring their candidate.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Yea... the 120,000 voters dropped from Brooklyn since November certainly favored him. Not enough though, I guess.
I admit... rolling around in the mud and slinging allegations is fun-- it does make us look irrational though-- but the fun is more important than supporting our candidates.
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)those 120,000 favored Bernie? It still hasn't been explained to me how it was divined - 6 months ago - which buildings and blocks would vote for Bernie so got screwed.
liberal N proud
(60,334 posts)Here is why we support it:
Democratic Primary is the process of the Democratic Party selecting its candidates
It is the process of the party, not the state, selecting its candidates for the General Election.
The party could just hold a convention without giving the larger population of "The Democratic Party" a vote.
If you want to vote in the Democratic Party Primary, you should have joined the party by registering as a Democrat by the deadline, and according to the RULES which were set out long before this contest date was set.
If BS can't win, cheat!
Unbelievable how the BS campaign is trying to corrupt this election process because so many of them were too busy on-line to register properly.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)not the state. Stop using my machines...
frylock
(34,825 posts)WDIM
(1,662 posts)Remove the corrupt leaders of this country and give democracy back to the people where the votes are really counted and the M$M propaganda machine doesnt decide the winner.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)in Latin America or South America or any country with a left-of-center government.
ronnie624
(5,764 posts)The problem is systemic. The mechanism that enables quid pro quo, has to be eliminated.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)Although bribery isn't almost legal- it's totally legal
Thespian2
(2,741 posts)do not allow honest elections...this country is not a democracy any more...just as the oligarchs planned for and got...welcome to the modern gulag...
alarimer
(16,245 posts)And it is the only way some candidates can actually win.
Voting restrictions are entirely a partisan thing. Republican states are busy trying to exclude people through onerous ID requirements (notice these mostly happened after the Supreme lifted the "pre-certification" requirements on the states that still needed it). But Democrats also excel at gerrymandering, in states where they are in charge. This has created any number of "safe" districts where incumbents (no matter how terrible) almost always win. It's one of the reason we have such difficulty getting true progressives into Congress. The system is designed to protect the establishment candidates of all stripes.
And both parties are guilty of dirty tricks at the precinct level.
Response to DetlefK (Original post)
felix_numinous This message was self-deleted by its author.
Progressive dog
(6,904 posts)Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)run them pretty well. NY, which just voted, has some of the country's worst election protocols and incredibly low voter participation, they don't use electronic voting machines but they have a host of other issues.
The key is to focus on your own State and make better elections. No voting machines in my State. Very high turnout. What we do, NY could do, Texas could do but those States have no movement to reform and outsiders can't do it for them. Federal government is limited Constitutionally as to how they can dictate election processes to the States. It's about your State. And it sounds like your State sucks.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)They passed.
Kinda like Florida 2000 never happened.
Kinda like Ohion 2004 never happened.
A more cynical observer might suspect that the Party leadeship doesn't give a shit about our voting rights or fair elections.