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Topic: US Election enquiry a farce? (Read 6082 times)

US Election enquiry a farce?

The ongoing thing about the stuff that the Russian government interfered with the American general election is getting to the very farcical state of almost frenzy.  No proof even after all this time and creating all sorts of situations with individuals that for the sensibles amongst us who live elsewhere look immature and ludicrous. If you talk to a Russian or even a passing chat right away the nutjobs who pas for politicians on the Hill go the usual childish bananas. Even recently when Presidents trump and Putin were on a break and had a friendly passing encounter the immatures on the political and press world go daft. It is so childish some of the stuff that goes on.

What makes it worse it is all coming from a country that has for generations interfered in other countries it didn't like or would kow-tow. Even find excuses for military involvement and here t is accusing someone else? That added hypocrisy has become standard practice and the media over there are not much better either. For the more sensible brain thinkers over the pond it ust create long sighs and an effort not to shake heads.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #1 –
It is now getting even more utterly immature and stupidly ludicrous. For goodness sake no proof regarding the election and more blocking of Russia. Instead of a bunch of rich corporate juvenile mindsets should try and have real sensible politicians and system. No proof and going through a farce and considering the history of interfering across the world a damn nerve.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #2 –
Now Russia has done what the USA did to it in cutting American staff at their Moscow embassy and getting them out of other buildings. Not everyone in Europe is happy with what nutjobland is doing on no basis.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #3 –
Quote from: rjhowie – on
Now Russia has done what the USA did
Now Russia has done what it always does? Well, if none end up dead I guess there's a difference from the norm.

Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #4 –
You know fine well what I mean so why try to insult yourself by being a smart pants?! You threw out actually a lot less Russians on no proof of election fraud at all. So the Russians rightly did the same back reducing your embassy lot to the same number. Interestingly though you had a damn sight more in Russia than they had in your daft place. You are making such a damn fool of yourselves "punishing" with no proof at all even after all this time. But every time one watches yanks being interviewed on the streets the power of the media and mind control political head bangers is obvious. For a country also that damn well interferes everywhere only adds to the crazy picture. I do live in the hope that a routine kind of democracy might one day take foot over there and the mind controllers reduced.  :hat:
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/elj.2020.0666
Note that Oregon repeats as the state where it is easiest to vote. Mississippi had been ranked 50th in 2016, and now moves up marginally to 47th place. Texas takes over the 50th spot, representing the state with the most restrictive electoral climate. In particular, Texas has an in-person voter registration deadline 30 days prior to Election Day, has reduced the number of polling stations in some parts of the state by more than 50 percent, and has the most restrictive pre-registration law in the country. States that make voting less costly, like Oregon and Washington, have mail-in voting but also automatic voter registration processes. Other considerations that states with lower COVI values have in common include same day voter registration at the polling station, a significant number of early voting days and laws that make voting more convenient such as paid time off from work to vote.
Table 1 in the article is insightful, listing considerations regarding cost of voting. The aspects there include
- registration drive restrictions (apparently meaning how difficult it is for civil rights initiatives to help people to register to vote),
- automatic voter registration,
- voter ID requirements.



Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #6 –
Gerrymandering Is Bad for Cities. Here’s How to Fix It.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYvycBCfHwo

CityNerd is of course not fixing anything here. He just gerrymanders based on his own preferences. Here are some hallmarks of gerrymandering that he retains:
- Presupposing urban versus rural political divide and making it central to redistricting
- Assuming that two parties are forever and that the districting must reflect it
- Aiming to capture a given political alignment within every district

Here's how to really fix gerrymandering. First, make no assumptions about the political preferences of the population in a given place and do not use it as a basis of anything. Second, make no assumptions about the party structure in the country. In fact, to encourage proper multi-party democracy with a shifting political landscape, introduce proportional elections in each district. Third, stop re-districting. Simply let the administrative county borders serve as districts.

Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #7 –
Quote from: ersi – on
Third, stop re-districting. Simply let the administrative county borders serve as districts.
In the Benelux voting districts are a manner of practicality. A voting district is primarily if not entirely about where you go to vote, so it should strive to be neither too far away for its voters nor serve too many people, which would cause lines. In practice that means a guideline of about a thousand per district but I don't think there are minima or maxima. In practical terms, a village with 1600 inhabitants isn't going to add a second voting district just because it's a little past the 1000 voter guideline. Voting districts are logical subdivisions of municipalities.

In the United States, because of their hilariously bad first past the post system, it's important that districts have populations as equal as possible. The problem would disappear entirely if voting were simply proportional.

Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #8 –
Quote from: Frenzie – on
A voting district [...] should strive to be neither too far away for its voters nor serve too many people, which would cause lines.
What does it matter if a voting district serves too many people? It probably does in some federal system, but in a unitary multi-party parliamentary democracy politicians don't serve the people of their respective voting districts anyway. The candidates select their voting districts based on wherever they have the greatest chance of collecting most votes - the number of votes serves the party.

Of course, legally the candidates are allowed to run only in the district of their primary residence, but they have some form of residence in all districts and they select whichever is most opportune to make primary for next elections. It admittedly is a form of gerrymandering again (and in USA it goes on in addition to redistricting), but at least it's entirely the political candidate's job to go through these motions, instead of for the voter to wonder what kind of district he is going to wake up this time around. Isn't this residence lottery happening in Benelux?

Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #9 –
Quote from: ersi – on
What does it matter if a voting district serves too many people? It probably does in some federal system, but in a unitary multi-party parliamentary democracy politicians don't serve the people of their respective voting districts anyway. The candidates select their voting districts based on wherever they have the greatest chance of collecting most votes - the number of votes serves the party.
A "voting district" is the organism that organizes the physical act of voting and all that entails. There are no geographical restrictions in which candidates you can vote for.

It matters because surely you remember the gigantic voting lines in America? They shouldn't serve too many people because otherwise that would happen. In that case you need more districts. Hence the guideline of about a thousand voters per district.

Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #10 –
Quote from: Frenzie – on
A "voting district" is the organism that organizes the physical act of voting and all that entails. There are no geographical restrictions in which candidates you can vote for.

It matters because surely you remember the gigantic voting lines in America?
I see. So in your neighbourhood there's just one voting station per voting district? Not so here. Every voting district has as many voting stations/locations as needed to serve the voters who can be expected show up in person on the election day in that district. And as such there's no re-districting to accommodate population movements, but there can be re-scheduling of voting locations. Normally, every (public) school house and "culture house" is a voting location and some more places if need be.

Anyway, given the shape and size of American voting districts, you didn't think that those districts in America have just one voting station/location, did you?

Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #11 –
I said that "In the Benelux voting districts are a manner of practicality" because fairness is a given.[1] I was hardly talking about the US in explaining how things work here.  :irked:

But it's obvious something about either their guidelines or their implementation is grossly deficient compared to ours because if they had enough polling stations they wouldn't have lines going for blocks and blocks. Atlanta for example infamously has over 8000 per polling station. I believe the districts themselves contain a few hundred thousand voters.
1 Compared to the United States, in any case, through the wonders of representative representation.↵

Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #12 –
Only black+poor areas have too few polling stations. It should be well known by now that in America the overpopulated polling stations are part of the overall disenfranchisement plan. Did you know that in Georgia it is illegal to distribute water to people in queue?

I say it should be well known because famous gerrymandering itself points to the peculiar American political principle: Politicians choose their voters, not vice versa. In harmony with this principle, Trump has ramped up the gerrymandering wars and is going to stifle mail-in ballots in precisely targeted ZIP codes that are known for voting Democrat. His own province of residence, Florida, will have no changes when it comes to mail-in voting, because they reliably vote Republican. Moreover, Trump himself always votes by mail.

Other topics raised by Trump in the name of good old voter disenfranchisement are voter registration and identification, known to affect precisely black+poor areas again. Trump is right now federalising voter lists, putting voter eligibility checking under his own control - and he of course will check only voters from undesirable ZIP codes.  Historical methods of voter disenfranchisement include literacy tests and poll tax.
Quote from: Frenzie – on
...the wonders of representative representation.
By the way, the wonders are such that Americans have no clue what it means to have a representative representation. In discussions among Americans that I have seen, they come up with all sorts of ideas to make the "system" representative, but they consistently build it around the assumption of a two-party system and they never for love of God touch the role of the president. They never address the most acute problem they have right now - unchecked presidency - and it never occurs to them to introduce proportional elections. 

Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #13 –
Quote from: ersi – on
Did you know that in Georgia it is illegal to distribute water to people in queue?

I don't think I did, but then again there are so many things along those lines it's hard to keep track.

I believe it remains the UK that has the record for least representative government ever (in what we consider a proper democracy) in the sense of which party people voted for compared to which is actually in power, but of course that'd be a deeply flawed way of looking at it because how else are people going to vote in a two-party system anyway.

Curiously, Omtzigt wanted to reform the Dutch system to be more like the Swedish system, even if it's transparently worse in how representational it is. Larger parties tend to like less representational systems because it would increase their amount of seats.
 

Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Reply #14 –
Topical: In Texas, Tarrant County’s November elections will have 92 fewer places to cast ballots
Quote from: https://fortworthreport.org/2026/09/01/advocates-demand-increased-voting-access-as-tarrant-county-considers-cutting-polling-sites/
Tarrant County commissioners voted 3-2 Tuesday to approve a list of polling sites for the November elections that included 92 fewer sites than the 2022 midterms. [...] Commissioners voted along party lines...
And why?
Quote from: https://fortworthreport.org/2026/09/01/advocates-demand-increased-voting-access-as-tarrant-county-considers-cutting-polling-sites/
Historically a Republican stronghold, Tarrant County has shown occasional signs of trending purple as voters narrowly supported Democratic candidates at the top of the statewide ballot in recent elections. Democratic Sen. Taylor Rehmet’s landslide victory in the northern half of Tarrant County in a special election in January, followed by unusually high voter turnout in the March primaries, spurred Democrats’ hopes of victory in November.