I think it is very pathetic though that we can not even run elections in this country with out it being a major turmoil.

One of the things that sickens me to no end though is both parties sending misinformation about elections in the form of flyers and mailings being sent to misinform voters as to what day to actually vote and where to vote. That is flat out bullshit. If your candidate is the best person for the job then he or she will win. Let the opposition vote and when your candidate wins wouldn�t you rather know they won even against the best efforts of the opposing candidate rather than through trickery and deceit.

I firmly believe that each vote counts regardless if who or what you are voting for. Everyone who is legally allowed to vote should vote even if the issue passes or not and whether the candidate wins or losses. The end result may not be what you want but what matters that you can freely go and say I think this and here is my vote to say what I think about that. That�s why the misinformation crap pisses me off so much. Each vote should be counted regardless.

Then related to votes being counted that Ohio didn�t close some polls until 1 am, yet both Republican Senators from Ohio were calling for Ohio�s Electoral votes to be declared to the Bush column before those polling places closed. Please Senators how can you really call an election when you still have polls open? The message this sends is that you don�t care if the people vote. Let them vote and let the votes be counted before you decide to declare your Party Candidate the winner. Now make sure you read this correctly if you are a GOP person. I said let those at the polls vote and close before you declare a winner, not that Ohio is the Florida of this election.

However, watching the election process this year is too baffling. There are as many ways to vote in this country as there are words in Inupiaq for snow. Punch cards, pencil ballots, rocks in a box, touch screens, etc. Then with early voting, absentee ballots and provisional ballots, voter registration guide cut offs. Everything is different in each state.

I think that seeing one debacle after another concerning the election process in two national elections with regular voting, absentee ballots and the registration failures everywhere. We as a country need take a more serious stand on election reform. In my voting district the officials here took the 2000 election foibles to heart and changed the system. Unfortunately a lot of the rest of the country did not learn from the problems of the past. I assumed that because my district was being proactive that many others were as well. I was wrong.

Now with all the problems in this years election regarding votes would it make a difference in the out come I�m not sure. However the message is that if a single voter is denied their voice it�s as big a problem if 100,000 people are denied. We need real election reforms; we need real political and governmental reform but one problem at a time.

So rather than just complain I will propose changes:

There needs to be Federal Election standards passed and they need to be adopted by all 50 states. The states have had it left up to them and can not seem to get it right so rather than continue on to another national election or even another local election with problems we need to be proactive in making sure that it doesn�t happen again. So in each election every voter gets a fair and equal chance to vote whether it�s for dog catcher or President.

Voting should be the same in done the same way in every polling place across the country. That said and the election being done with as far as the people out there voting � The polls closing with people still in line says something or should say something to the voting district that maybe there is a problem. Then there were reports of some voting precincts running out of ballots. That is ludicrous every precinct has a known number of registered voters one would think you should have one ballot for everyone who is registered and a few extra in case someone makes a mistake up their ballot. That is just common sense.

The Election Day should be longer. We are now a society that operates 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Many of our Citizens have to work the non-typical 9 to 5 work day. And many people have hours long commute to and from work so even if the polls open at 6 am and close at 7 pm there are still those who can not make it to vote. So open the polls for 24 hours on Election Day. Workers should not have to take personal time off to go and vote.

How many voters from either party walked away when polling places broke down, or ran out of ballots or lines were just so long that they couldn�t wait that long before needing to go to work or back to work or pick up children or something or other that needed immediate attention and couldn�t make it back to the polling place.

Perhaps to make the polls run more smoothly getting more volunteers for the polling places would be helpful. One way to do that would be to give a tax credit for polling place volunteers. These people give their time to be fair and impartial but far too few people do this. So give them a tax deduction for it and a form to be filled with their taxes just like you attach the W-2, give the volunteers an EV-1 form to send right on with the 1040 whatever version of that you are using. Then there would be more than enough volunteers to help the polls maybe ran a little more smoothly.

The Press or Fourth Estate needs to garnered and reeled in because both parties are making claims that the media unfairly influences election results by reporting exit poll results or claiming that this state or that state has gone to one candidate or the other. So there needs to be a ban the coverage of election results until every polling place in every district and in every precinct closes including in Hawaii. I�m not saying censorship you can speculate on the results once all the polls are closed all you want just not until then.

The counting of all votes needs to be held on the same day but not Election Day. If absentee ballots, provisional ballots and other non-election day ballots are not counted until after Election Day then why do the votes cast on Election Day need to be officially registered and made public that day? If the Electors of the Electoral College do not actually declare the Election until December 13th and the results are not officially recorded until December 22 then what is the hurry to have everything counted on the first Tuesday in November?

Count all the ballots on the same day in all 50 states. Make the announcements in an official manner so that coverage can be clear and accurate. Elections results in the past you know before phones and computers were not were not known for weeks. The process shouldn�t be unnecessarily prolonged but it should be done fairly, effectively and accurately.

There is the issue of the Electoral College. With the Electoral College any candidate from any party can campaign only win by one vote in 11 states and win the presidency. This is a problem. Every election draws in a smaller and smaller focus area to so called �battle ground� states. These so called �battle ground� states all have 20 or more Electoral votes not 3 or 5. With the population shift if could be come possible to win an election with even few states as the population of this country continues to migrate from rural area into the major urban areas of the country. Is it even effective any longer? Remember this is a system set up when only male property owners were the only ones legally allowed to vote. That meant that a very large number of the population didn�t even get to vote. So if the standards of when this system was created were still in place today and you don�t own the land you live on today you wouldn�t have been allowed to vote. Then less than 100 years ago women weren�t even allowed to vote... So there is room for change and improve on how we vote for our leaders.

This year too we are trying to help have elections in Afghanistan and preparing to help hold elections in Iraq. Those are good ideas but if we can�t even run our own elections how can we be expected to help others set up and run elections. Maybe we need to get this right here before we try to show the rest of the world set up and run free elections.

Now if your candidate losses the election. Well that is the way it is except it and move on with life. That doesn�t mean lie down and say well FUCK STICKS now we have four more years with this person in office. Write letters to congressmen start petitions, exercises your constitutional rights a little bit. You know the first amendment people it�s not just about speech and whether or not to put the commandments in the schools or not. It�s the right of peaceful assembly, it�s the right to petition and it�s having free and unrestricted access to your leaders. That�s just the first amendment. There are also things called due process and equal protection and states rights and an assortment of all kinds of things in there including civil liberties which are your protections against government interference. Well at least they are there now. Whether you voted for them or not they are the leaders in OUR government. So if you want something to have change in the world you have to work to try to change it ELECTIONS are not the only times you have a voice.

Pick up a pen and write to your congressmen and senators. I�ve written to congressmen and senators before when I�m dissatisfied with things and will to do it again. I�m not sure that it does help but at least they knew someone said something different. So if you aren�t happy with the leaders and what they stand for it doesn�t mean you still can�t have changes go to rallies, petition for change and even listen to candidates with whom you disagree so that you know what you are up against. Or sit back and complain and do nothing. Well that�s it I�m back off my soap box and I�ll put it away for awhile.

November invisible army mission is coming soon; I have to get some work done now, have a great day and even better tomorrow and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,

Current Invisible Army Mission: October 2004
Write me: Don, PO Box 4425, Roanoke, VA 24015