[ale] WAY OT: RE: [ale] Is there any way to stop this travesty? -- NO, of course not!

[Charles Marcus]

I added the OT prefix - should have done so three posts back, sorry...

> From: rhiannen <rhia at atlantacon.org>
> Sent: Friday, August 23, 2002 3:21 PM
>
>> huh?  Exactly how is open ballot voting (everyone being
>> able to see who voted for whom, and when) *worse* than
>> secret ballot voting in this respect??

> Easy.  If you've been told that "Very Dire Things" may
> "accidently" happen to you or your loved ones if your
> vote a certain way, are you going to want to have your
> vote registered publically for everyone to see if you
> decided to vote differently? Don't think that could ever
> happen?

I think it is highly unlikely, and just FUD spread by the people who have
been working so hard toward organized votescamming.  Besides:

a) There is plenty of vote fraud going on now with the secret ballot crap,
and

b) there is always an alternate solution to problems like this...

How about, when you vote, if you were threatened in such a manner, you
record the threat, *and who made it, and all the relevant circumstances*, at
the same time.

Then, if the threat is made good on, the cops know just where to start
looking.

We have got to get over this ridiculous fear of what 'might' happen.  What
happened to the good old pioneering spirit?

> Why are there so many international oversight
> committees watching elections around the world?
> One of the most abusive uses of corrupt power is
> to threaten by any means necessary to hold and
> maintain that power.

Yes, and all of this is happening in countries that are using secret
ballots.

> So America hasn't gotten that bad - YET.  Take
> away the right to cast a ballot in secret & the
> door is wide open for precisely that abuse.

I not only disagree, I submit to you that the opposite is true.  Is it
possible there might be some scummy little petty tyrants that try to do
this?  Yes.  But I guarantee, *especially* in this day and age, that all it
would take is a few web sites that posted this kind of information for all
to see (who is threatening who and where), and these grubby little parasites
will crawl back under the rocks they crawled out from.

Of course, *no* solution will every be perfect.  I just prefer being open
and above-board, than hiding in the dark, but thats just me.  :)

Charles


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