What if ......... the polls were rigged and the votes were right?

[Stinky The Clown]

[Bonobo]

1. Either way, people not trusting their votes to count in a Democracy is a bad, bad thing. nt

[The Magistrate]

2. No One, Sir, But A Tiny Splinter, has Any Such Doubt

Nor is there the slightest reason for such hysteria.

[Bonobo]

4. Do you believe there was no voter fraud in 2000 and 2004.

What about caging? It has been well demonstrated that this took place.

[The Magistrate]

5. Apples And Oranges, Sir

Nothing even remotely resembling an argument....

[Bonobo]

6. If you believe there was voter fraud, why are you so confident that everyone's vote counts?

[The Magistrate]

7. Again, Sir, The Line You Attempt Demonstrates Nothing

That a number of people have entered banks with intention to rib them does not say anything about the intent of the next person to enter one.

You have to demonstrate some grounds for the suspicion beyond a predisposition to the view, and a dislike for the result. Simply rabbitting on about two earlier national elections is grossly insufficient as a case.

[Bonobo]

8. Your claim that 99.9% of Americans are confident about the electoral system is spurious.

There are a great many things wrong with our electoral system and the vote rigging in its various forms is just one of the myriad issues.

I merely suggest that in a Democracy it is quite bad when people begin to lose their confidence in their ability to affect the outcome.

Still disagree?

[The Magistrate]

9. Only A Vanishingly Small Number Of People, Sir

Amuse themselves tonight by imagining the outcome of the New Hampshire Democratic Party primary is the result of fraud.

That is the point under discussion here.

[Bonobo]

10. Agreed. I was discussing the larger issue. Goodnight.

[RiverStone]

13. Although there may be a point in between...

Outright fraud and hysteria.

There has been plenty of anecdotal evidence which suggests Hillary gets a disproportionate amount of media coverage. I can assure you, every major network ran Hillary's misty eyed emotional moment repeatedly yesterday.

Barack was expected to lose NH by a large margin for most of the past 6 months; it has only been in the past few days that Hillary became the underdog per her 3rd place finish in Iowa.

I don't think there is some vast collusion going on to rig the polls, yet I also sense there is much to how, who, and when the media spins the message. Someone in a control room, or CEO penthouse, makes those decisions. The tail does wag the dog - at least sometimes.

Obama falling short by only 2-3% could have also been a very big surprise (and story) in NH - but it was not spun that way.

There are shades of grey Sir.


peace~:)

[Bright Eyes]

11. I guess I'd be the splinter then.

I've been saying it for awhile, and tonight only confirms my fears; nothing can be trusted. Not the media, the polls, even the votes.

Diebold is a thorn in the side of Democracy(granted, this thread isn't about Diebold, but I think it's relevant.) When I go to vote (this will be my first election, having just turned 18), I'll have this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that my vote is worthless if a private company is allowed sole access.

Democracy fails when the people have no trust in the process. I don't know about the rest of DU, but I'm having a hard time trusting anything or anyone these days.

[The Magistrate]

12. The Private Companies Are A Blight, Sir, No Question

There is great potential for harm from them.

But fraud is nothing new, by a long sight. Among the items on my bookshelves are the textbooks for a university political science course taken in the 1920s, and the surveys of frauds and sharp practices contained make very interesting reading, particularly those detailing the magics wrought regularly with hand-counted paper ballots....

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. Why would the polls be rigged only for Obama and not McCain?

McCain was expected to win and did. Obama was expected to win and didn't. WHY? Only Democratic polls were skewed?

[lonestarnot]

14. Well it looks to me like we would still have the same outcome.

[bbgrunt]

15. I'm to the point that I think it is entirely possible that

what you suggest is a possibility.

Tonight made me feel like I was watching a grand passion play to control the population through carefully selected surprises and anomolies. How convenient that it also energized the emotional connection to HRC and got her out of the role of inevitable winner and target. Wasn't Rove offering advice to her not long ago?