VoterMarch

May 20, 2001 10:32 PM

VoterMarch organized marches on Washington DC and San Francisco on Saturday, May 19. Their mission is to restore democracy in the US by fixing the election system, among other things. These issues, including coverage of the march itself, are rather horrendously underreported in the media. This site is a great resource for filling the gaps in coverage of the major media channels.
posted by caveday (6 comments total)

I was at the protest in DC and there were several thousand people, unfortunately not enough to get major coverage, but certainly not unimportant. There were lots of people driving by shouting their supports, honking horns. If there weren't an awful lot of people who feel this way, I wouldn't have posted it... this is just a group of patriotic Americans doing their best to save the country they love... there was no violence at the march, everyone was on best behavior. Getting involved and showing up at events like this is probably the best way to get the message through to the government that you aren't over it and won't accept the blatant criminal activity that went on in last fall's election.

I might add that this really has nothing to do with Bush's policies. It's that he doesn't legitimately hold the office of president... it's the fact that he doesn't give a damn if he was legitimately elected or not. It goes beyond partisan politics. Many people in this group are rather angry at the recent behavior (or lack thereof) of Al Gore and the rest of the Democratic party. The system is corrupt and the only way to fix it is for the citizens to take back their own country.
posted by caveday at 10:54 PM on May 20, 2001

the funny thing is that by "fixing" anything we will make our democracy weaker. the current system is the best in the world, stop complaining.
posted by wantwit at 12:23 AM on May 21, 2001

Might I remind everybody that the United States is not and never has been a democracy. We are a representative republic. We elect people to make our decisions. And for those who think that this is just a Republican whining, they stated this fact on "The West Wing" about two months ago.
posted by TacoConsumer at 6:49 AM on May 21, 2001

wantwit: the funny thing is that by "fixing" anything we will make our democracy weaker. the current system is the best in the world, stop complaining.

I'm curious how fixing voter irregularities would make the democracy weaker.

The goal here is to tell the government the people want funding for enforcement of laws, that even today, are not being enforced. When you have people who are marked 'criminal' who aren't and can't vote, it is not right. When you have a disparaging number of minority voters who are declined to vote, through a system of loopholes and bad machinery. When you have votes going to the wrong people because the little stick didn't punch out the little hole next to the number of the right person, its even more disturbing.

Whether you think George W Bush or Al Gore would have won the fact of the matter is, is that many, many people did not get to vote. I personally know more people that I count on my fingers and toes that were not able to vote when they went to their polling place. They were disinfranchised voters. But nobody cared, because they weren't in a hotbed state.

The other thing people want to go to is a true representative democracy, which means one vote for one person. That would involve eliminating the electoral college. This is something that has been discussed over and over again, not this year, but in years past.

Florida has already approved a law to replace their equipment and overhaul how they do business in voting, we just need the rest of the nation to do the same. Florida wasn't the only state with problems, just the only one in the spotlight.

(by the by, I don't like the scanning system either. I would think there should be touch screens with pictures and such, to make it even easier. it would be expensive, though)
posted by benjh at 7:21 AM on May 21, 2001

the electoral college has got to go.
posted by neuroshred at 7:53 AM on May 21, 2001