Saw an article the other day which rated electoral integrity among democracies. It said we ranked 47th out of the 47 democracies researched.
Lost the link so cannot provide specific attribution. This one is fairly similar :
http://www.fairvote.org/american_elections_ranked_worst_among_older_democracies_here_s_why
Predictably, a couple of taunting threads were posted speculating that after last night, there would be no accusations of all too common election shenanigans since Bernie won WI.
Such spuriously speculative accusations completely belie *the* greater truth.
That is ~ we just have atrociously compromised & insecure voting devices & procedures. For a country who prides itself on its exceptionalism & proclaims to spread democracy around the world, our elections undermine our credibility tremendously.
No one who is saddened by the chronic dearth of truly representative leadership & egregious dysfunctionality in our governance can really feel 100% confident that their vote matters.
Our system is terribly flawed. From the electoral college, to super delegates, to winner-take-all statewide delegates, every vote has a likelihood of dilution if not elimination or “spoilage”.
By now, most are aware of the purposeful contrivances of gerrymanderering, long lines, & prohibitive voter ID requirements.
Fewer are aware that the technology frantically adopted after the spectacle of butterfly ballots when HAVA was passed, & our voting apparatus was awarded to private interests and usurped from the public oversight. The optical scanners vote tallying software & touchscreens were quickly proven to be highly hackable. Now that they are more than a decade old, they are also degraded.
The only new wrinkle is the curious switching of party affiliation in closed primary states. Life long Democrats have been disenfranchised.
So puerile disparagement of the sincere scrutiny of vote totals is uninformed of the extraordinarily complex systems in place, that irretrievably thwart the intent of the voter.
We all desperately need an upgrade !!!
Just sayin’
DISCLAIMER: This is not posted to discourage voting in any way shape or form. To the contrary, the greater the turnout, the greater the likelihood of the will of the majority finding expression despite all the obstruction.
Here are some other links that address our sorry state of electoral matters.
http://ivn.us/2016/03/24/united-states-worst-elections-long-standing-democracy/
http://theconversation.com/american-elections-ranked-worst-among-western-democracies-heres-why-56485
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/02/26/shameful-american-democracy-ranks-45th-electoral-integrity.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/03/29/u-s-elections-ranked-worst-among-western-democracies-heres-why/
Oh & by the way the pre election & exit poll number crunchers are reporting that more than 10% of Bernie’s lead in WI just went “poof.” (a la Kerry’s lead in the swing states in ’04 & Obama's mega landslides)
“nam myoho renge kyo”