You do understand what just happened in Ohio, right?

(or is happening, whichever)

The results just go to prove that the 2004 election was stolen. Let me put it like this: Ohio voters reacted like a beaten wife. Instead of doing the behavior that resulted in the beating, they just cowered in the corner and were quiet. They felt as if thier vote did not count, so why bother? IF the election had NOT been stolen, at least most of the people who came out for the 2004 election would have come out for this one. It seems from incidental reports, that many Ohioans just stayed home because they felt it did not matter if they voted.
A crappy attempt at a silver lining, but the point IS there.I am afraid this is symptomatic of what will continue to happen throughout the country if we DO not reform the election system.

VOTER VERIFIED PAPER BALLOTS!!
DROWN DIEBOLD!! in the Boston Harbor.

that is the final question

a thing to aspire to....
Tricky business, this.

how long until we all collectively go, WE'VE HAD IT!

with every ticking of the clock. Time comes for a Tea Party, me hearties!

Whether an email campaign or whatever, I will do it.
I can't march or anything due to disability, but I do send emails with some frequency.

9/11/01!!

go girl!!

i am right with ya!!

fly

we have, hell we were there on AOL, remember those boards?

This wasn't a presidential election, where the cries of 'sour grapes' are relevant, or where a full investigation into the voting process would mean not having a President take office in a timely manner.

THIS is the thin edge of that particularly nasty NATIONAL wedge -- and if it ain't fixed by this time next year, we're right back where we started.

Put the pressure on the Dems NOW!

I worked the polls in Columbus tonight. After the phenominal turnout of Nov the trnout went crashing in my precinct, which is HEAVY Dem, from almost 1000 voters to 182. This electin was 285.

We had a 65/35 split for the issues 2-5. I thought it would be closer to the election ratio of 850/120 Kerry/Bush.

I take just a little umbrage with your depiction of the once great buckeye state...

Three things..

First, The people who put the election reform issues together did not do their homework and line up and solid political support before te process started, while the process was underway and after the initiative was placed on the ballot. They mistakenly thought that everyone would flock to their cause simply because it was the right cause...

Second, who ever wrote the issues, needs to go back to law school... they were convoluted, un readable by common people and vague in their delivery... The key to understand this is that neither Blackwell or the Attorney General or any one in the general assembly questioned the initiative because they knew it would be defeated... Something written that is not understandable by the masses leaves the definition up to other sources... In other words, the backers of reform put their idea out there with no ability to explain or convince people that what they were doing was right...

Third, this is an off year election with no statewide candidates on the ballot... the interest level was very low out side of a couple of contested mayoral campaigns in a few cities scattered about Ohio... People were not going to turn out to vote yes or no for something they didn't understand...


So to sum it up, a complicated issue was presented to an indifferent population without the ability or the means for the people behind that issue to simply explain why anyome should vote for reform...

BTW, I voted for and supported the issues...

can you give us a URL for the initiatives and how they were voted on? thanks

You have to look at Blackwell's pudgy, ugly face...

http://www.sos.state.oh.us/Results/RaceSummary.aspx

seeing as how I don't live in Ohio. Just thought it might be pertinent, but your explination makes just as much sense. However, I still think the 2004 results sure didn't HELP make an indifferent poputlation care any more about it, knowhatimean?
Probably a bit of both.

And almost everyone here seems to know it...

Especially the way things have turned out....

I give you that, but there is more to the story...

If I didn't care, I wouldn't have posted what I did...

People who voted for Bush feel let down and have become disillusioned by politics altogether.

Don't get me wrong- I've been convinced the 2004 elections were rigged since the exit polls started turning up magically "inaccurate". But I don't see a real connection between low voter turnout and election fraud.

there was no fight for their rights then, no fight for their votes to be counted...so why bother.

That's going to continue until they are convinced that their votes WILL BE COUNTED and that they do matter.