VOTING & THE BLAME GAME

How does a governor whose approval ratings have never been over 50% while in office wins a second term and is re-elected?  That is exactly what happened in the State of Florida, on November 4^th, 2014.  Rick Scott should have lost the election by a landslide.  Although I share in the anger of such a notion, I find it even more disturbing when others begin attacking those who voted in support of Governor Rick Scott. 

Don’t be mad at your neighbors and family for whom they voted for; be mad at the system that is widely corrupt. 

Rick Scott spent his evening on the day of the elections in Escambia County, of all places.  It’s the night of the elections; wouldn’t you rather be at home or in Tallahassee (the Capital City of Florida) to await the results? Why would you spend your evening in small town Northwest Florida?  Was he here to grease some palms to ensure he won this close race?  What’s to keep the supervisor of elections, for any county or the state, from switching up the count?  Then there’s the software used to tally up the count statewide – how do we know it’s working correctly?

When you consider the year 2000, when Jeb Bush was Governor, and his brother G.W. miraculously won the presidential election, based on the controversial Florida hanging chad, you begin to see a pattern of sophisticated voter fraud within our State’s boarders. 

On August 28, 2014, the Gainesville Sun reported glitches in the software that uploads election results for Alachua County’s primary to the Supervisor of Elections web site.  The software vendor had to reset the system.  Reset the system?  I wonder how many votes were lost.

In addition, a problem with phone lines kept poll workers from sending that areas results electronically.  Pam Carpenter (Supervisor of Elections) said they had checked the each of the phone lines before the elections, “So something had gone wrong in the meantime.” 

On the same day, Putman County’s phone lines went down, and poll workers had to actually drive the results to Supervisor of Elections, Charles Overturf’s office.  “Things that make you go hmmmm.”

On November 4^th, Charlie Crist, Rick Scott’s opponent requested that Broward County extended polling hours due to one location being off line for over an hour and a half, as well as confusion among voters as to which polling place to vote at.  But only the current Governor can officially approve voting hours, which would be Rick Scott.  Consequently, Crist’s request was denied.

So you see, there are many hands in the pot, so to speak; from poll workers to software manufactures, to the candidates themselves.  There are a hundred ways to illegally tip an election to one side or the other.  Don’t allow the powers to be divide us by pointing the finger at the common voter.  Instead direct your anger at those who will stop at nothing to be in power.

THE BATTLE OF ATHENS

August 1 – 2, 1946

Tennessee, USA

The Battles of Athens was an armed revolt that gained national attention.  Attempting to end the control of an entrenched political machine, World War II veterans used force to ensure that on the day of local elections in 1946 every vote “was counted as cast.”  After local authorities locked themselves and the ballot boxes in the jail, veterans suspicious of foul play gathered weapons and ammunition and exchanged fire. The besieged authorities surrendered.  At a meeting in the courthouse, and interim government was set up, followed by the election of the veteran’s slate.