SCOTUS to review Voting Rights Act

[BostonPirate]

There need to be federal standards, but the states need to be integral. Voter tampering is difficult because our voter registration volunteers nationwide, are the truest of true believers in the vote. We are talking about precinct workers.

It's hard to get a cheat past them. If you federalize the process too much you interfere with their local mandates.

It's better that we decide what does NOT work, federally, and make adjustments. Things as simple as having a certain amount of polling places per capita, and tie it to their federal highway funding.

We need to think in the most basic of terms here. All we really need to stop at this point, after watching this election, is slowing a precinct vote or making people less inclined to vote, by having long lines.

It's a basic fix, and it requires no federal expenditure. States want to be in control of their elections? Have enough polling stations or pave your own streets. IT will end in one cycle. Voting lines would be a thing of the past.

 

[Kulindahr]

Aw poor Jack. Are you against weed too, boo boo?

No Christian should be against 'weed':

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good…

-- Genesis 1:29, 31

 

[Kulindahr]

There need to be federal standards, but the states need to be integral. Voter tampering is difficult because our voter registration volunteers nationwide, are the truest of true believers in the vote. We are talking about precinct workers.

It's hard to get a cheat past them. If you federalize the process too much you interfere with their local mandates.

It's better that we decide what does NOT work, federally, and make adjustments. Things as simple as having a certain amount of polling places per capita, and tie it to their federal highway funding.

We need to think in the most basic of terms here. All we really need to stop at this point, after watching this election, is slowing a precinct vote or making people less inclined to vote, by having long lines.

It's a basic fix, and it requires no federal expenditure. States want to be in control of their elections? Have enough polling stations or pave your own streets. IT will end in one cycle. Voting lines would be a thing of the past.

Exactly -- a new Voting Rights Act should set minimum standards, and let the states figure out how to implement them.


edit: or instead of highway funds, tie it to the balance of funds -- any state that doesn't comply gets federal funds to it cut so that it only gets back what it put in

 

[BostonPirate]

Hallelluyah brother. I will throw into that contribution bowl!

 

[JayHawk]

So having flat feet would be an exemption?

I read that quickly and thought you said flat fee..... then re-read my post wondering what on earth.......

SO yeah for most services flat feet is a killer... so are so many other things. you know those huge hoops kids put int heir ears called gauges? Well after they are removed if I can see daylight through your ear you are not qualified.

The ManMed or Manual of Medicine is hundreds of pages long and details every aspect of the body. There are dis-qualifiers for every part...

 

[JayHawk]

Exactly -- a new Voting Rights Act should set minimum standards, and let the states figure out how to implement them.


edit: or instead of highway funds, tie it to the balance of funds -- any state that doesn't comply gets federal funds to it cut so that it only gets back what it put in

So then only the red states will have to comply since blue states typically get back less than they put in????

Hallelluyah brother. I will throw into that contribution bowl!

The bowl is over here..... no lower....there it is... now keep contributing


I agree and that was all I meant ... the fed ought to require specific number of polling stations by both distance and numbers of voters. you know so the town of 12 has a station and the town of 12000 has 10 stations....


I am also quite fond of the Australian idea that you be fined for failure to vote. You would see the tone and content of elections change over night if the politicians had to appeal to a vast majority of America instead of their own faithful plus a few more.

 

[Stardreamer]

And this Congress won't do anything worthwhile.



Yes it's been the issue -- the party in power always draws the maps in their favor, regardless of any semblance of common sense.

The task should be given to mathematicians who value elegance in solutions over any political position, to find the solution that keeps the length of boundaries to a minimum while equalizing the populations within those boundaries.

Exactly, it should not be that difficult to computerize that process to take the politicos completely out of it.

 

[JayHawk]

That would be ultimately giving it to mathematicians.... 0's and 1's only know 0's and 1's.....

Oh wait didn't the mathematical analysis the republican ORCA program made come to the conclusion that Romney would win?


Dammmmmit. So politicians can influence mathematics for political gain.

 

[Kulindahr]

That would be ultimately giving it to mathematicians.... 0's and 1's only know 0's and 1's.....

Oh wait didn't the mathematical analysis the republican ORCA program made come to the conclusion that Romney would win?


Dammmmmit. So politicians can influence mathematics for political gain.

Only when they hire and pay the mathematicians. Statisticians are flexible anyway, and prone to playing with the data to get a result that pleases the customer. Straight mathematicians like to get the most elegant result, and don't really care what anyone thinks about the result.

 

[JayHawk]

I get that but finding chaste virgins on the polticial landscape is not humanly possible in my humble opinion...

 

[frankfrank]

QUESTION: What happened to the ONE MILLION "poll watchers" that the Republicans were supposedly getting out into the precincts, to "assure" that the voting went smoothly and properly?

That was another reason why I was expecting the Republicans to steal the Presidency this year - by having so, so very many operatives out there, manning every possible polling station which may lean Democratic - and "look threatening" and do other things (within the law) to intimidate or scare away voters.

Surprisingly I heard nothing at all about these hordes of "poll watchers" after November 5 (before the election).

 

[Kulindahr]

I get that but finding chaste virgins on the polticial landscape is not humanly possible in my humble opinion...

How many mathematicians have you known? Out of the half dozen I've known, not a one would put politics above the best solution to a mathematical problem/question.

 

[JayHawk]

How many mathematicians have you known? Out of the half dozen I've known, not a one would put politics above the best solution to a mathematical problem/question.

Quite a few based on the Nuclear Energy portion of my job. It attracts math geeks. Money changes 99.99999 point 99999% of people. Bottom line.

 

[Kulindahr]

Quite a few based on the Nuclear Energy portion of my job. It attracts math geeks. Money changes 99.99999 point 99999% of people. Bottom line.

1. Huh? They get their salaries from their universities. They could be paid a couple of thousand for doing the districting. Where's money going to come in to change them?

2. Do you expect me to believe that the nuc geeks change their results to make the politicians happy?

 

[Jack Springer]

Is it possible that 59 districts in Philly had zero Romney votes last Thursday?

It doesn't seem possible. I guess it could. But very hard to believe.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/2...voting_wards__Mitt_Romney_got_zero_votes.html

 

[Kulindahr]

Is it possible that 59 districts in Philly had zero Romney votes last Thursday?

It doesn't seem possible. I guess it could. But very hard to believe.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/2...voting_wards__Mitt_Romney_got_zero_votes.html

Given the information in the article, it's not too surprising. I know we have precincts that come up pure Republican with monotonous regularity.

 

[JayHawk]

1. Huh? They get their salaries from their universities. They could be paid a couple of thousand for doing the districting. Where's money going to come in to change them?

2. Do you expect me to believe that the nuc geeks change their results to make the politicians happy?

Yes ... please see Three Mile Island... but that isnt the point. The point was you asking me if I knew math geeks.

All I am saying is a process that affects elections and therefore power will always be open to manipulation. have no doubt. Regardless of the education the people trusted with the process receive. it will not be those people that make the process ethical it will be the process.

 

[Kulindahr]

Yes ... please see Three Mile Island... but that isnt the point. The point was you asking me if I knew math geeks.

All I am saying is a process that affects elections and therefore power will always be open to manipulation. have no doubt. Regardless of the education the people trusted with the process receive. it will not be those people that make the process ethical it will be the process.

At Three Mile Island their jobs were on the line. No professor's job is going to be on the line for doing the math for redistricting. And if you're worried that somehow it could be, then use five teams and throw out the outliers -- though if they're doing it mathematically, all the results should match.

 

[JB3]

???

You seem to think that changing who (or actually what in this case) is actually (in the sense of printers or draftsmen) drawing a map is going to change something.

THAT HAS NEVER BEEN THE ISSUE AND IT WILL NEVER BE A SOLUTION!

Its always been the issue, and it always WILL be the issue until partisans are forbidden from affecting the drawing of electoral maps. No one has the balls to actually fix it, because each side uses it to their benefit when they're in power.

 

[JB3]

That would be ultimately giving it to mathematicians.... 0's and 1's only know 0's and 1's.....

Oh wait didn't the mathematical analysis the republican ORCA program made come to the conclusion that Romney would win?


Dammmmmit. So politicians can influence mathematics for political gain.

Several states already use programs and formulas to determine their maps during redistricting. And wouldn't you know, in those states there are never complaints about the maps benefiting certain parties, and the equity of the maps is never questioned.

Seems to me that if some states already do it without issue, its about damn time the rest of us do it too. And its about damn time the Federal government instructs the states to do so.