Democracy in Action

I'm a frequent reader of The Huffingpost, and I'm a little dismayed at the number of headlines on there today that have to deal with voter fraud, intimidation, and malfuctioning machines. You would think that elections would be untouchable -- they are, after all, the cornerstone of our democracy. You vote and that vote counts for something. At least in theory that's how it's supposed to work.

Reading all the headlines about 'robo-calls' made to voters to discourage them from voting, makes me ill. Reading all the headlines about malfunctioning machines makes me depressed. There was even an article about someone getting throttled by a poll worker. A POLL WORKER, people!

What have we come to that the majority of us read these headlines and there's no sense of outrage? Why isn't everyone out in the streets protesting about machines that mess-up frequently and are easily hackable? Why aren't people rioting because these machines don't leave a paper trail and the election can so easily be stolen? And why aren't people demanding that we use paper ballots until we get this technology right? Come on! Paper ballots show the lowest margin of error. It's really hard to mess up checking a box.

And lest you think to yourself, "but AJ, the huffpo is a liberal news blog." Yes, that is true. However, they have a good number of articles detailing both sides of the fence. Go check it out for some scaring reading.