NewsTrust - Election Reform - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

The real reason Obama is not making much progress

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Johann Hari - Nov. 20 (Opinion) - So far, Obama has tried to co-opt the corporations into his agenda by ensuring they will profit from any changes, but this inevitably waters down the proposals, often to the point of uselessness. The Cap and Trade legislation before Congress, for example, will barely limit carbon emissions at all because it has been gutted to please the polluters.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average - 10 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Tom Coburn picks on political science

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Daniel W. Drezner - Oct. 08 (Comment) - OK, dear readers, I want you to close your eyes and imagine a world in which your entire knowledge of political behavior emanated only from CNN, pollsters, pundits, historians, candidates, and political parties.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Trial of John Roberts

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Jeffrey Rosen - Sep. 13 (Opinion) - A campaign finance case in the Supreme Court could tell us if Chief Justice Roberts will be remembered as the next John Marshall or Earl Warren.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

A Threat to Fair Elections

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Sep. 08 (Editorial) - The Supreme Court has upheld the limitations on corporate campaign expenditures in the past. If they open the floodgates now, corporations will have a huge say in who wins federal elections.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Why do we allow the US to act like a failed state on climate change

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By George Monbiot - Jun. 26 (Opinion) - There are mind-boggling concessions to the biofuels industry, including a promise not to investigate its wider environmental impacts. There's a provision to allow industry to use 2bn tonnes of carbon offsets a year, which include highly unstable carbon sinks like crop residues left in the soil (another concession won by the powerful farm lobby). These offsets are so generous that if all of them are used, US industry will have to make no carbon cuts at all until 2026.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

No Country for Close Calls

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Nate Silver, Andrew Gelman - Apr. 18 (Opinion) - Contests as close as these — not to mention Florida’s electoral adventures in 2000 — have led to an impression that the margin between Democrats and Republicans is pretty narrow. That is why when Barack Obama defeated John McCain by 7.3 points last November, historically a fairly average margin, the victory was widely hailed as a landslide.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Voting technology facts fight conspiracy theories

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Examiner.com - By Jan Tyler - Mar. 13 (Opinion) - Election technology should be studied by unbiased scientists, whose voter registrations shoud be disclosed. Instead of reverting to paper ballot systems, legislators and officials should focus on finding modern technology to administer elections. Otherwise, our elections will be vulnerable, not to imaginary techological glitches, but to human nature.

NewsTrust Rating: 1.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Voter ID: $1.5 million spent on 30 indictments?

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Austin American-Statesman - By CHuck Lindell - Mar. 10 (Opinion) - Opponents: Attorney General Greg Abbott has spent $1.5 million investigating election fraud, finding very little. The cost is closer to $690,000 to prosecute 30 election code cases since 2006 — a number that will grow because seven cases are still pending, according to figures from Abbott’s office.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Restore voting rights to ex-felons

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Gil Kerlikowske, John Lovick - Feb. 13 (Opinion) - Good law enforcement involves not only preventing and solving crimes but also helping those who have been released from prison return to society as law-abiding citizens.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

For senate, Caroline or Carolyn?

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Nicholas D. Kristof - Dec. 17 (Opinion) - Caroline Kennedy strikes me as a very impressive woman with all the right priorities, such as education. But I also find it unseemly and undemocratic that she seems to have vaulted to the top of the Senate list by virtue of who her dad was. Seeing which way the wind is blowing, Rupert Murdoch’s NY Post has already endorsed her. Isn’t that sexist? Isn’t that the kind of system we rebelled against in 1776?

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Voter Registration Should Be Automatic

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Hartford Courant - By Robyn Blumner - Nov. 23 (Opinion) - The problems arose because our old system of state-by-state registration rules — some of which appear designed for a mail system via pony express — is outmoded and frankly retains vestiges of our racist past. We need to follow the lead of at least 24 other countries and adopt a system of automatic and permanent voter registration.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Go slow on early voting

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - Nov. 03 (Editorial) - Despite its many advantages, early voting has caused a few caution flags to be raised. For one, the opportunity for such votes to be lost, ignored, or altered is increased. While such slip-ups or fraud may not change an election, even the appearance of it is a danger. On Election Day, there are far more poll watchers to keep things honest.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Success of Early Voting - NYTimes.com

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Oct. 29 (Editorial) - But the truth is that early voting actually makes it harder for the forces of disenfranchisement to stop eligible voters from casting ballots. If election officials try to require voters to present ID when it is not required by law, early voting gives voters a chance to simply return the next day. Dirty tricks are also harder to pull off. If political operatives want to jam get-out-the-vote telephone lines, as they did on Election Day in New Hampshire in 2002, it would be harder to do if people voted over two weeks. Early voting also reduces the burden on election systems that are often stretched near to the breaking point.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Vote Grab: Voter purge could swing result to McCain

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Peter Tatchell - Oct. 28 (Opinion) - In the first few days of early voting in Florida, 5,000 voters have already been rejected, mostly because of typos and bureaucratic blunders in the spelling of their names. Non-match discrepancies could result in hundreds of thousands of US citizens - perhaps millions - losing their right to vote. Even those who are allowed to remain on the register may be required to vote using a provisional ballot, which may or may not be counted.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Do electronic voting machines really fail one out of five times?

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Nina Shen Rastogi - Oct. 27 (Opinion) - The complaint asserts that 10 percent to 20 percent of the direct-recording electronic voting machines used in Pennsylvania are likely to fail on Nov. 4. The machines will be used in 34 percent of counties around the United States. Are they really so bad that they fail one out of five times?

NewsTrust Rating: 3.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Every vote may not count on election day

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Keene Sentinel - By David A. Love - Oct. 25 (Opinion) - “The incidence of election fraud is minimal across the 50 states and rarely affects election outcomes,” notes a report by the nonprofit group Demos entitled “Securing the Vote.” “The disenfranchisement of voters through antiquated voting systems, system error, and improper management of registration databases, as occurred in Florida in the 2000 election, is a far bigger problem than traditional forms of election fraud.”

NewsTrust Rating: 3.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Big donors believe in change

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Amy Goodman - Oct. 24 (Opinion) - Access to the public airwaves for political candidates should be free. Says Buzenberg: "Every local television station I have been to, I say, 'How do you do in election years?' They say, 'We buy new cameras, new sets.' It is a huge benefit to them. The commercial broadcasters are cleaning up this year like never before, and you'll never hear them questioning the system that allows so much money to come back to them." Is public financing of campaigns dead?

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

How to Rig an Election, the 2008 Edition

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Esquire - By John H. Richardson - Oct. 22 (Opinion) - In Michigan, they tried to block the votes of people who had lost their homes to foreclosure. In Montana, they challenged some six thousand voters for filing change-of-address forms. According to The New York Times, nine states have broken the law by using Social Security data to purge registration lists. CBS found voter purges under way in 19 states. In Ohio, Republicans are fighting a bitter legal battle to challenge 660,000 new voters. There's a new voter ID law in Indiana. Pima County, Arizona now requires birth certificates at the polls.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Sorry, I Can’t Find Your Name

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Oct. 22 (Editorial) - Before Mississippi’s March presidential primary, one county election official improperly removed more than 8,000 voters from the eligible-voter rolls, including a Republican Congressional candidate. Fortunately, the secretary of state’s office learned of the purge in time and restored the voters.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Voter Registration Databases and Purges -- Part I

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By Kim Zetter - Oct. 21 (Opinion) - I also wanted to discuss a separate issue involving purges of existing voters from registration lists, which is affecting thousands of long-time voters in states across the country who may be surprised when they arrive at polls in November to find that their name has been inexplicably stricken from their state's voter roll.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Acorn Story

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Oct. 16 (Editorial) - In Wednesday night’s debate, John McCain warned that a group called Acorn is “on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history” and “may be destroying the fabric of democracy.” Viewers may have been wondering what Mr. McCain was talking about. So were we

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Johann Hari: Barack beware... they're out to get you

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Johann Hari - Sep. 29 (Opinion) - In five weeks, I hope to look back on this column with a wry chuckle at my paranoia. If the system works, Barack Obama will take the White House. The two issues John McCain is most closely associated with - invading Iraq, and deregulating the economy - have produced history-snatching catastrophes in the eyes of 80 per cent of Americans. In the first debate, McCain revealed he had nothing to say except more of the same: aggression abroad, market fundamentalist ideology at home. So why am I worried?

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Another vote fiasco in . . . guess where

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Miami Herald - Sep. 07 (Editorial) - The 2000 election fiasco was a horror story that no one in Florida, or the rest of the country, wishes to relive. Unfortunately, it could happen again this year. Once more, anxious eyes are riveted on Palm Beach County, home of the most chronically inept ballot-counting process in the annals of modern democracy. The latest farce began with a countywide election held on Aug. 26.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Resurrecting E-voting

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

ZDNet - By Paul Murphy - Aug. 28 (Opinion) - As I noted yesterday, an expert dragged into court to testify and asked point blank whether it is theoretically possible that a voting process built around voting machines running local applications could be corrupted has to say Yes - and that reality, no matter what caveats you put on it, dooms the current client-server architecture for e-voting.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

No One Should Have to Stand in Line for 10 Hours to Vote

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Adam Cohen - Aug. 25 (Opinion) - Everyone complains that young people don't vote, but consider the experience of students at Kenyon College in Ohio in the 2004 election. Officials in Knox County, Ohio, provided just two voting machines for the school's 1,300 voters. Some students waited in line for 10 hours, and the last bleary-eyed voter did not cast a ballot until nearly 4 a.m.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer