Why the hell is any partisan ever allowed control of an election? It’s asinine.

We are promoting 3 themes/frames/memes to be included in any and all election reform efforts. They are intended to change people’s thinking about elections in general. (Not least of which, the real target, our own thinking on the left.)

God bless us on the left, but try as we might (and we do), we cannot (and never have been able to) teach/inform our way to success with the general public. There are just too many of our fellow Americans who have been trained to NOT WANT any more information.

Furthermore, our penchant for getting bogged down in process-tinkering battles with the anti-democratic opponents has not served us well. In fact, their side has come to rely on it.

Using these themes will help you break down resistance and more quickly change minds. (We’ve seen it happen. You will too.)

1st – An election is a survey, not a contest.

Just like the census, an election tries to measure an objective reality: the will of the electorate. There’s no reason (maybe cost) why we couldn’t conduct them in the same way, with bonded agents going door-to-door collecting private ballots from voters.

The point(of view) being made(changed) is that an election is about the voters (not votes – ever). Candidates, campaigns, Parties, officials, equipment manufacturers, are all nearly-irrelevant.

There is only one principle/interested-party/owner and that is the electorate as a whole. Unless (virtually) ALL the owners have full confidence in the process and results, the election is NOT VALID.

2nd – It’s the “ERRR,” stupid!

Count every vote! — ERRR!!! — Count every vote! — ERRR!!!

Forgive my stupid illustration, but see how easily we can be nudged away from our most powerful moral position and into their pre-gamed arena of discussing only vote-counts, ballots, chads, etc…

This is not simply a bolstering of the first meme (it may seem so, but only because your mind doesn’t need much changing). We must always speak of voters, and never votes, because unless we do, such things as suppression become “separate issues.” We can’t allow this.

Victims of poll-tax-lines and “missing” registrations are VOTERS. With the same right to be “surveyed” as everyone else.

3rd – Election manipulation is a capital crime.

(Ok, ok, stop screaming. The sentence can be commuted, all right?)

Yes, this seems extreme. Even a bit looney. But it gets your attention, right? That’s the power. That and the fact that it’s a simple, completely serious, moral proposal.

Election theft is far worse than cop-killing. Worse than 9/11 or any incident of terrorism. It is literally High Treason.

It undermines the only moral principle on which the nation was founded and continues (in theory) to rest — that gov’t power can only be derived from the consent of the governed.

So what’s so extreme? The truth is that we’ve been extremely lax in defending our most important of values. We need to be “born again” as Fundamentalist Americans engaged in “refounding” the nation.

That’s the way to curb this creeping fascism.

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I’ve asked the question “What’s wrong with Mamjoo’s analysis, or mine?” So far, I’ve gotten no other answer other than that people have affirmed that I’m mistaken somehow. Frankly, that’s not a good answer. You can call these people dubious sources, but until you show me something besides unsupported opinion, I’m not going to change my mind.

I believe people who ask the right questions, not people who are sure of their answers. Call it a prejudice, but it’s one I’ve grown fond of over the years.

P J Evans @ 2:08 pm (#100) – The link I provided says otherwise. The day before, he agreed with Kennedy. If he’s going back and forth he’s not looked at this carefully enough, I think. Follow the links from the links I provided.

It amazes me that left-leaning people are still arguing that there was no election fraud. How many Republican scandals have we had surface in the last year? How clear does it have to be that the party under Bush/Cheney/Rove could care less about law? Are we to believe that they would never, ever, manipulate voting laws? Come on. Farhad Manjoo’s crazy. I live in Boehner’s district. It’s red here, yet the energy around the Kerry campaign in 04 was palpable, and the lines at the polls were long. I was convinced that we had a shot; I’ve never seen such enthusiasm for any presidential candidate in my 18 years of living here, not even Republican ones. Like hell they didn’t steal the election. Like hell they won’t keep doing it until we make a huge stink about it.

Sorry to rant, but I know in my soul that Karl Rove called Blackwell and they stole the election. Hearing Bush won Ohio the next morning was like hearing my ex-husband lie to me–I’d know it was a lie but couldn’t prove it. That’s what we call cognitive dissonance, I guess.

With all due respect, you seem easily swayed by dubious sources when mountains evidence prove just the opposite.

Believe that they’re stealing elections, because it’s true, no matter how hard the mainstream spins it.