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Raznation 
Why surf when you can make waves!
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 7:49 am |
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Should the federal government control the voting process (voting days, number of polling places, and voter reg etc) when it comes to elections involving congress and the white house?
Discuss.
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Montecresto
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 7:53 am |
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There has to be oversight and control over it. Not that it doesn't need improvement currently, but I don't know if privatization of the system would do better.
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Killing one person is murder, killing a 100,000 is foreign policy
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Bateauxdriver
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 2:37 pm |
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I personally do not have the answer, but people standing in line for 8 hours is ridiculous.
I cast my ballot within 15 minutes on election day. There were 8 machines available for my semi rural district. There are huge urban districts that have less machines than that. A federal standard for polling capacity vs population may need to be set. Certainly a minimum number of early voting days would be preferable.
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| Post Number: 4
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High_Sierra_Fan
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 2:42 pm |
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Control? No, but have established national standards for access, enforced national standards? Absodamnlutely.
Those wait times were both an embarrassment and an offense to our nation.
Locals can screw up their dogcatcher elections all they want but NOT the United States Congress and President of the United States.
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High_Sierra_Fan
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 2:56 pm |
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e-voting like they have in "E-stonia"* might be the route to the future. Though aggressively promoting vote by mail would be a step in the right direction. Voting for their director of solid waste management they could still stand in lines for, of course.
* I heard they sometimes refer to themselves just that way being just that proud of their modernity.
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| Post Number: 7
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buddero
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 3:15 pm |
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Well, you bloody well better vote - AND for RR
http://www.ksdk.com/news....ice-say
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Reach out your hand, if your cup be empty
If your cup is full, may it be again
Journal and links to refugees, backpacking, travel in Asia, photos, honky-tonk angels, other beautiful things...
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| Post Number: 8
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High_Sierra_Fan
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 3:17 pm |
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"A Mesa man is in critical condition after his wife ran over him with her Jeep because she was upset he didn't vote in the presidential election and feared her family would suffer with President Obama's re-election, Gilbert police said Monday."
Wow, just wow.
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kyle2193
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 3:20 pm |
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Washington state is entirelly vote by mail.
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If I cannot swear in heaven I shall not stay there.
-Mark Twain
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| Post Number: 10
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ol-zeke
me in the Tetons
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 4:53 pm |
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Oregon is Vote by Mail, also.
Vote by mail is the easiest way to deal with long lines. All they need to do is get a signature from every voter so it can be compared to the one on the envelope the ballot is returned in. Then the long line or the wait for the count is over.
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Everything I know, I learned by doing it wrong at least twice.
The easiest way to ruin a Friday is to realize it is only Tuesday.
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| Post Number: 11
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gunslinger
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 5:17 pm |
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The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
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For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
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| Post Number: 14
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High_Sierra_Fan
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 7:27 pm |
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and provinces?
Article XI. Canada acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the united states, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this union: but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine states.
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JimInMD
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Posted on: Nov. 14 2012, 6:04 am |
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I don't agree with voting by mail being the exclusive means to cast your ballot. I know the condition that some of my mail arrives in and how late it sometimes arrives. I'd much rather have the option to just go to the polling station on election day.
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Checking out for a while, find me on FB.
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| Post Number: 17
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BillBab
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Posted on: Nov. 14 2012, 5:22 pm |
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We had vote by mail in Colorado...I miss it
But trusting our electoral process to the USPS does sound a little crazy
Of course some states are more screwed up than others
http://washingtonexaminer.com/week-la....qIWhUeO
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"Asking liberals where wages and prices come from is like asking six-year-olds where babies come from."
Thomas Sowell
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| Post Number: 19
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ol-zeke
me in the Tetons
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Posted on: Nov. 14 2012, 6:18 pm |
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There is an option in Oregon to drop off your ballot enclosed in the envelope at one of several drop sites. No need to trust the USPS if you don't want to.
We also have several weeks to vote, and if you do so early, you can check to see if they received your envelope. They keep a list of who has already cast their ballot, and it is available to campaigns so they stop calling people who have voted. Individual voters can check with the clerk's office to make sure their ballot was received, as well.
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Everything I know, I learned by doing it wrong at least twice.
The easiest way to ruin a Friday is to realize it is only Tuesday.
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| Post Number: 22
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High_Sierra_Fan
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Posted on: Nov. 14 2012, 9:09 pm |
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Wore those chads down to nubbins that's for sure.
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| Post Number: 23
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geophagous
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Posted on: Nov. 15 2012, 1:10 pm |
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Vote by mail is the way to go.
In Washington we are even easier than Oregon. In Oregon you have to have your ballot IN by 8pm on election day.
In WA you only have to have it POSTMARKED by election day. I got my ballot several weeks prior to election day so even if your mail arrives weeks late you can STILL have plenty of time to vote.
No lines at all and you can drop off in locations so no need to trust the postal service.
The only disadvantage is that it takes about a week for all the ballots to get counted, with fewer and fewer making it in the latter it is. So if you can wait a few days for the results you don't need to wait at all for the voting process.
This eliminates all issues with people not having time to vote, getting to polling places, waiting in lines. And for those who like it, it is also MUCH cheaper than voting in person!
A win for everyone!!!!
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| Post Number: 24
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ol-zeke
me in the Tetons
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Posted on: Nov. 15 2012, 1:22 pm |
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I like the deadline of 8 PM on Election Day. It allows all of the results to be known within a few hours of closing, with the exception of really tight races where those very last votes might make a difference.
Don't think I would like it to wait 3-4 days for the tally to be clear, as in Florida where it is 48 hours, I think.
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Everything I know, I learned by doing it wrong at least twice.
The easiest way to ruin a Friday is to realize it is only Tuesday.
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| Post Number: 25
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Chuck D
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Posted on: Nov. 15 2012, 1:38 pm |
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In Texas we had about 2 weeks of early voting, in the 15 largest counties about 70% of the votes were cast in this time period.
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Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
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| Post Number: 26
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geophagous
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Posted on: Nov. 15 2012, 3:57 pm |
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They are talking about possibly making a change in the WA law about when the votes need to be in by given how long it takes to get the votes counted.
But I would like to keep it this way. Does it REALLY matter if we wait a week to find out who won it if allows MORE people to vote? I procrastinate as bad as anyone, but I was still able to get the ballot into the mail a few days prior to election day ;)
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| Post Number: 27
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| Post Number: 28
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TehipiteTom
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Posted on: Nov. 15 2012, 4:24 pm |
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Rep. George Miller (one of the real good guys in Congress, IMO) is introducing a bill mandating (for Federal elections) a) 15 days of early voting and b) resources in every precinct to allow for no more than one hour wait times for voting. I don't know any other details (e.g., will there be funding?), but this seems like a good start.
Probably doomed in the GOP House, but still worth giving it a try.
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If tautologies are outlawed, only outlaws will use tautologies.
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| Post Number: 29
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orygawn
Sleeping Bag Man!
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Posted on: Nov. 15 2012, 5:35 pm |
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(ol-zeke @ Nov. 14 2012, 3:18 pm)
QUOTE There is an option in Oregon to drop off your ballot enclosed in the envelope at one of several drop sites. No need to trust the USPS if you don't want to.
We also have several weeks to vote, and if you do so early, you can check to see if they received your envelope. They keep a list of who has already cast their ballot, and it is available to campaigns so they stop calling people who have voted. Individual voters can check with the clerk's office to make sure their ballot was received, as well.
Yup. We avoided the USPS too, by going to a special dropbox. Voted a week early.
Didn't know you could check, too. Cool. I trust the system, so I probably wouldn't do that...but nice to know.
Every election, I scratch my head at these voting fiascos in other states. Voting by mail does take away that community/civic pride element of going to the polling place...but that is really just nostalgia. What's important is just getting it done.
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I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. -- Galileo
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| Post Number: 30
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Ecocentric
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Posted on: Nov. 16 2012, 8:44 am |
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As much as I hate them, I'm all for deadlines. After months of campaigning, I think that it is reasonable to expect an accurate count by a certain date. Long lines to vote should be criminal. A cut off date for mailed ballets should allow time for the votes to arrive, and a safe and reliable system of e-voting should resolve many issues.
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"Travel suggestions from strangers are like dancing lessons from God." -Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
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