Sound Politics Public Blog: Voter Registration is still a mess

August 17, 2006

Voter Registration is still a mess

I just logged onto the voter registration list provided by Sound Politics and in a few short minutes found felons, people with advanced dementia, people who have not lived in the state for 20 years - and these are just my in-laws!

When is the state going to finally take voter registration seriously? If I, a rank amateur sleuth can find these mistakes, then how many are really still out there? Unbelievable.

Posted by dukeofwainright at August 17, 2006 04:00 PM | Email This

Comments

1. I LOL'd on this. Thanks for the humor, and for calling attention to a still-serious problem that we all are concerned about. could you try and bring it to the attention of KCE?

Posted by: Michele on August 17, 2006 04:14 PM

2. I'm not amused. Not even a little bit. This post is inexcusable. It sounds like nothing more than a cheap in-law joke. If someone wants to level an accusation of illegal voters, they should present the facts, backed up by documentation. And if you want to call a registration improper, please be very certain what you're talking about. For example, advanced dementia, as tragic a condition and problematic for voting as it might be, does not automatically disqualify anybody from voting. You need a judge's ruling of incompetence. If someone who has been lawfully disenfranchised is still registered to vote, then show us some facts, or don't waste our time.

The person who posted this has also been posting vicious and unsubstantiated slurs against other people in the comments of the main page.

My inclination is to remove this post and also to ban the poster. Would anybody care to argue why I shouldn't?

Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on August 17, 2006 04:36 PM

3. Stefan,

I am not posting anything that cannot be substantied. However, I do not believe this is the proper forum to list names of people, who truly are on this list, and truly should not be. I am sorry if you took offense at my remark about advanced dementia - it was insensative of me. However, in this unfortunate case it is true. And like the case from last year where a gentleman was voting for his dead wife, I too wonder if that is happening in this case.

Posted by: the duke on August 17, 2006 04:57 PM

4. Oh stefan, one other thing I was kidding about the in laws - it was a cheap joke - but funny. Actually I love my in laws, I even love my ex in laws - I wanted to keep them in the divorce. True story.

Posted by: the duke on August 17, 2006 05:16 PM

5. Delete it, and a lot of other comments too. Especially the one's where there are multiple comments from the same IP with different names that try to set up a mock discussion to paint SP commenters in a bad light.

To me this is Broken Window theory. It left unchecked, it will fester and encourage trolls to subtly or not so subtly hijack comment threads and destroy the value of the Public Blog.

Posted by: Jeff B. on August 17, 2006 06:02 PM

6. The gong has just rung. The Gong Show is over, I hope, on these paid hacks.

Posted by: swatter on August 18, 2006 06:55 AM