Monday, January 21, 2008

Democrats Create 51st State To Vote In Primary

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With 22 delegates I might add. If I were a Democrat living in the US I would be pissed off right now.

AP:

This year, for the first time, US expatriates who are Democrats can cast their ballots on the Internet in a presidential primary for people living outside the US.

Democrats Abroad, an official branch of the party representing overseas voters, will hold its first global presidential preference primary from Feb. 5 to Feb. 12, with expats selecting the candidate of their choice by Internet as well as fax, mail and in person at polling places in more than 100 countries.

So far so good right? No problem with citizens being able to vote from abroad. While voting in the primary is new ... voting in the general election is not. I assure you, this will get very good real soon.

"The online system is incredibly secure: That was one of our biggest goals," said Lindsey Reynolds, executive director of Democrats Abroad. "And it does allow access to folks who ordinarily wouldn't get to participate."

Incredibly secure? Online? As a network admin I can attest that this is a near impossibility. However, my co-host decided to take it one step further and really test the "security" of the Dems online system.

She was able to register with the party using the information of a 14 year old, and the address and phone number of a restaurant in another country. So far she has been accepted into the program. I wouldn't call that secure at all.

We did this live on the air during our broadcast tonight. They still may ask for additional information before she is finally approved so I will keep you updated over the next few days.

Meanwhile, it gets better.

Members get a personal identification number from Everyone Counts, the San Diego-based company running the online election. They can then use the number to log in and cast their ballots.

Their votes will be represented at the August Democratic National Convention by 22 delegates, who according to party rules get half a vote each for a total of 11. That's more than US territories get, but fewer than the least populous states, Wyoming and Alaska, which get 18 delegate votes each.

That's the main issue with this program. By allowing 22 delegates representing around 6 million Americans outside of the US to participate in the national convention the Dems have effectively created a 51st state thats delegates will cast their votes at the national convention. That's a big problem, and completely unfair to other Democrat voters here in the US.

In the current atmosphere of our electoral process this could sway a whole election.

If you aren't familiar with politics ... delegates are the most important part of the primary process. They were selected to go to the national convention to choose which candidate will represent the party.

Rather than allow the expats votes to be counted with their home state's ... the Dems have created a previously nonexistent third party that will behave in every way as a 51st state. Thus, potentially tipping the scales in favor of one candidate over the others when that advantage has never existed before. With the hotly contested race the Dems have on their hands right now the 11 votes the 22 delegates get could be the difference.

In case you were wondering ... people can vote in the Dem primary from Iraq and Afghanistan. Given how easy it was for my co-host to sign up for the program with false information, how can we be sure some unsavory people won't screw with our elections from other countries?

For those of you worried about globalism ... this figurative 51st state will represent the rest of the world. It doesn't get more globalist than that.

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