We are not ready for the November election. Eight years after the Florida debacle, 6 years after the Help America Vote Act was passed and the Election Assistance Commission established, 4 years after massive disenfranchisement in Ohio, and 2 years after the pattern of systematic voter suppression continued, the potential for another election nightmare is rearing its ugly head. Polling places are not prepared for a heavy turnout. Our voting machines still use less security then most video game systems. Voter rolls are being manipulated.
Need proof? Just look at the report from the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and the National Campaign for Fair Elections that demonstrates, based on information gathered during this year’s primary elections, that our state and county and local election systems are unprepared for a heavy turnout. Or read newspaper reports like the one from Newsday that states nonchalantly that thousands of voters could be turned away from the polls due to inconsistent voter records. Or the article in the N.Y. Times that sets up massive voter suppression and disenfranchisement by blaming voters for not filling in their voter registration forms properly.
And then there's your gut. You're feeling the potential for trouble in November right in there - somewhere between Dennis Kucinich's ignored Articles of Impeachment and that inevitable pre-emptive strike on Iran - and you know that with each passing day we get closer to our precious vote being denied, lost or altered.
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