Election Stories
By kenzie45230
@kenzie45230 (3560)
United States
November 4, 2008 1:44pm CST
Here in the Cincinnati area, there have been reports of scanning machines not working in many polling areas. The machines are spitting out the forms without recording the votes. Supposedly those ballots are being sent somewhere where they can be counted and recorded by hand.
It was also reported on our news last night that there could be hundreds of thousands of people voting in more than one place. Our neighbor, Kentucky, has a law that says that even after a person moves and registers elsewhere that they have to keep their names on the voter registration rolls for two Presidential campaigns. That opens up the ability for people to vote in more than one place. And there are some who admitted to doing just that. I imagine that Michigan must have some similar law, since I moved from there in 2003 and still get information from them, even though I informed the county of my move in writing.
Our news people also intereviewed one lady who decided that rather than voting in her new location (state), she chose to come back to Ohio to vote because her vote will count more in a swing state. You can't do that. You're supposed to vote where you live!
A few weeks ago, some college students admitted to being registered in more than one state. One guy actually lives in England and yet voted early in Ohio.
There was also a news report a few days ago about an elderly woman in a nursing home whose son was trying to get her vote invalidated. She had no idea who was running or who she ended up voting for, but some "helpful" people had come to the nursing home to make sure she and the other residends were able to vote.
Voter fraud is against the law and can be punished by jail and fines.
It has to make you wonder if the results of this election will have as much or more controversy as the elections in 2000 and 2004.
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On The View this morning, they commented about the touch screen voting in Florida. A while back, they mentioned that in early voting the elderly voters didn't get it. They weren't waiting for the screen to record their votes and were ending up voting wrong. My parents lived in FL when there was the chad problem. They admitted that they were confused.
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Just now on the news was a report of Black Panthers standing in uniforms outside one polling place in Philadelphia where some voters felt intimidated. One of the Black Panthers was removed by police because he had a night stick that he was waving around.
The news people were asked to leave by the polling people, but they checked with their legal department and found out they're allowed to be within ten feet of the polling area.
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What's going on where you live? Or what have you heard on the news?
4 responses
@jonesy123 (3948)
• United States
5 Nov 08
Nothing really. We ventured out after voting to enjoy the rest of the day. Upon our return there was a message on the answering machine informing us that there has been a problem with a voting machine in a district here, but it didn't mention where. We were provided a phone to call in case we had experienced problems with the voting machines.
I find it sad that we can't get it together to have a proper election with no fraud, intimidation, machine or counting problems. I know that in some parts of the world people are laughing about us, because we want to teach people about democracy, send observers to countries where elections are at risk of being tampered with, yet we can't get our own problems fixed. Kind of ironic, isn't it?
1 person likes this
@kenzie45230 (3560)
• United States
5 Nov 08
You're right, it is ironic. We probably need to come up with one good way to vote, rather than having each state or district decide.
@missybal (4490)
• United States
4 Nov 08
The one about the elderly I know about from my aunt who is a social worker in North Carolina... she knows elderly who were "helped" to vote for Obama who don't even know their own name.
I'm angry because of the thousands of Military members who will not have their absentee votes counted. They are the ones making the sacrifices for America and their votes should be counted and the fact they didn't receive them in time to fill them out and send them back is sickening.
I'm glad I live in a small community that voting was easy and quick. I went about one in the afternoon and my husband and I were in and out in 20 minutes tops. No one was talking about the ones running or who they were voting for. No one wearing anything that could tell you which way they were going to vote. You really couldn't tell who was voting what way. Which was very nice because my husband and I could vote without getting in any debate with anyone or feeling intimidated at all.
1 person likes this
@kenzie45230 (3560)
• United States
5 Nov 08
I heard that McCain has gone to the courts about those military votes that won't make it back in time. The ballots were supposed to be sent to them by Sept. 20 and weren't even printed yet. This happened before, and it's not right. From what I heard, the judge is going to decided what to do about the voted on November 10th. Not nice.
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
4 Nov 08
I was driving back from Miami today but I didn't hear about any major problems in Florida on the radio on the way home. We stopped to vote on our way home and were the only people voting at that time but there had been a crowd earlier...three people voting, two registering and five waiting in line. Dontcha just love small towns?
@kenzie45230 (3560)
• United States
5 Nov 08
I lived in a small town in FL during the election when Ross Perot was running. I remember that the lines were long, but that's because the poll workers had to visit with everyone and ask about kids, grandkids, petd, etc.
@EAStanley (2688)
• United States
4 Nov 08
Wow, those are all crazy stories. Luckily I live in a tiny town and don't have to deal with anything like that. :) I do think that this will be a crazy election, though. I am glad that I have voted and that I am back home now, for sure. Good luck to all of you myLot voters out there! :)
1 person likes this