Opression of the Masses

I was just listening to a self-righteous rant on the radio where a indignant voice was telling the world about how "rich Republicans" were putting non-functioning voting machines in poor districts, and that this is how evil people who clearly don't represent the people like the Satan incarnate currently in the White House.

Now, I agree that that that are big problems with voting machines in some districts.

The question really should start with who put the bad machines in poor districts.

My experience is that it is the people who are in control of the district that have the most control over which machines are in the district. I do agree that political parties are notorious for pulling shenanigans on the public. It is up to the voters to make sure their votes are being counted correctly.

As such, It seems to me that if there are broken voting machines in a Democratic majority district, the most likely cause of that problem is the political majority of the district -- the Democrats. Conversely, if there are well working machines in Republican districts, it is probably because the people in that district worked quite deligently to make sure every vote gets counted.

My experience tells me that the primary factor in the quality of a vote is the deligence of the people within that district.

If the talking head is correct, and there are more broken voting machines in Democratic majority districts than in Republican voting districts. The cause of this problem is more likely due to the Democrats than to the Republicans.

The conclusion of the talking head, of course, was that Republicans are putting broken voting machines in the districts that they don't control, and that the solution to the problems was to make a tax that would force rich Republicans to start putting working voting machines in the districts that they don't control.

This conclusion was even more puzzling. If the problem is that Republicans are somehow putting broken voting machines in Democratic majority districts, then the proper solution would be for the district to take over the decisions of what machines are in their district.

Personally, I think the primary reason that people in poor districts have a harder time getting the vote counted correctly is because the corrupt political machine in their district is not interested in their vote.

The existance of districts that do not correctly count the vote is quite troubling. Unfortunately the primary agent in getting the vote counted correctly is the people within the district. Yes, there should be watchdog efforts directed at these districts. Ultimately, the responsibility of making sure the vote is counted correctly is the people within a district.

If the problem is that evil Republicans are putting broken voting machines in Democratic controlled districts, the solution isn't to demand new machines from the Repulicans. Repuplicans have already proven that they are evil and corrupt (ne-est-ce-pas?). How could you trust that the new machines work? If the problem is that Republicans are putting broken machines in Democratic Districts, then the solution is for the Democrats to put working machines in their district.