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Feedback ForumSend us your opinions, reactions, and ideas about "Will The 2008 Vote Be Fair?"Submissions for this question are no longer being accepted. Previously submitted comments appear below. Comments may have been edited for content or space. Poster: Susan Kaltenbach Comment: I enjoyed your presentation of the challenges which election officials face. However, as an election offical in Michigan I did not agree with your reference to problems in Michigan with the Automark handicap machine. That machine is only a ballot marker, not a tabulator. If it is not working a voter can still ask two election workers from different parties to help them vote on a ballot which will be counted. The optical scan machines which all of Michigan uses for tabulating votes are very accurate and the actual ballots are our paper trail. Poster: Bill Wilson Comment: I'm highly disturbed that your articles and features couch this travesty in terms of controversy. What utter crap. There is a systematic and widespread destruction of the vote and you mealy-mouthed news agencies have become a mere shadow of your former self and also part of that procedure. The drunk is literally sitting in the driver seat in front of the decimated family van of the body politic asking for you to hand them another bottle from the floor of the vehicle and you quibble about whether it is beer or whiskey. Sick! E.R. Murrow wouldn't have stood for a single instant of the steady stream of crap coming in the lead-up or aftermath of the 2000 'electshun' yet PBS's dumbing down has been a 100% success! Brought to you by Chevron no less! Under the rubric of 'fairness'. To whom? Poster: William K. Smith Comment: I am 62 years old and open to any political view honestly expressed. How will political views honestly expressed be possible when the hijacking of our elections has been completed? One or two more elections like the last two and we'll be done for. Poster: S. Ken Brown Comment: Thank you for your show. I am gratified that our current administration's moves to stifle NPR were not universally successful. You are the only news source on TV that exhibits high journalistic standards. Manipulating elections should come as no surprise but nevertheless invoke popular outrage. I pray for wiser leadership. Poster: stevec Comment: You know what? It really doesn't matter any more. The major media people never give candidates other than the so-called "frontrunners" any time to speak their piece anyway! People like R. Paul or Kucinich, who really care about the real potential voters. They (the media) are too concerned about the money trail, their ratings and blah blah blah! I refuse to even vote for any of the losers that will be running in November. Poster: Edith Groner Comment: Thank you for your program on voting suppression in past and the next election with your guest. I am very worried about fraud in the next election for president and feel that the past elections were stolen by Republican Party insiders like Karl Rove. Fixing the voting machines and switching votes and totals to win the election in 2001, 2004, and 2006, is a subject you should continue to cover for the rest of 2008 with Greg Palast and other experts. Poster: Tamara Warcken Comment: Your episode with David Becker regarding the fairness of the 2008 election just underscored many of the concerns and fears that I have. More people need to be aware of these issues, and I thank you for bringing these concerns and problems to air. I will be sending the link to this episode to as many people as I can. Poster: Dorothea Cappadona Comment: No, the vote, as it has been since the 2000 elections, will not be fair. Once again, there is a distinct possibility that someone will be anointed president who did not, in fact, receive the majority of the votes cast by the people. DRE machines cannot be trusted to be programmed fairly. Without open source codes and local maintenance of machines, the DREs will be programmed to select a candidate. Without a mandated paper trail, and fair system for recounts mandated, we will never again be able to elect a president via the DRE system. Poster: D.S. Payne Comment: No, the 2008 election will not be fair. Voters will continue to be disenfranchised -- even as they cast a legitimate vote. Thank you for another excellent attempt at educating the spoiled and pampered American. Poster: Robert S. Anderson Comment: Thanks PBS. It is beyond me as how the American people can just let all our freedoms be taken away by a few without being outraged. I intend to purchase the DVD and share it with as many people as I can and hope that others will purchase copies for their own education. Top of the Morning to You PBS. Poster: Edward Frost Comment: Your story was very interesting, but I did not see anything about how some states have passed laws that completely disenfranchise anyone convicted of a felony. People convicted of a crime spend time in prison, and then return to their families, jobs, and responsibilities. They are still U.S. citizens who pay taxes, and are therefore protected by the same Constitution as all U.S. citizens. Why are they not allowed to vote? This is a large population, and I was surprised that the phenomenon was not included in the report. Granted that the disenfranchisement is done openly and legally (these laws have been challenged in the appellate courts), but it does seem strange that some state governments see something beneficial to society by denying a class of citizens the right to vote. Poster: Tom Comment: I understand that in the interest of maintaining one view you can't tell the whole story about voter ID laws, but why not actually talk about the laws as written? Indiana allows exemptions for voters presenting an ID. Indiana has allowances for those 65 or older who were never issued a birth certificate to obtain an ID. Indiana has ways of getting free state IDs. Absentee voters do not need a voter ID. Those who can not or will not present a voter ID can cast a provisional ballot and have 10 days to show an ID or that they qualify for an exemption. Poster: REX HARRIS Comment: Thanks for protecting America with this unbiased view on our 2008 vote. I applaud this conscientious effort. Poster: M. Neilsen Comment: When will PBS be fair in their presentation of the facts instead of just presenting one side of the voting fairness issue? It is not fair for hard-working, honest Americans to have their vote count the same as an illegal alien. Poster: Camellia Comment: I was terribly shocked to learn about voter blocking and voter caging, terms I had never heard of before. I stumbled upon your show and was glad I did. Why is it that I have to learn about this from PBS? Are the major network news programs simply refusing to enlighten the general public about this situation? At the end of this program we are urged as registered voters to be aware of the manipulation of our vote. Since most American people get their news from the major networks I urge PBS to be proactive and to work with other stations to get the word out to the American people so they can take the necessary steps in order to protect their vote. If people are not aware this is happening how can they stop it? Mr. Brancaccio, I hope to see you on every network station, cable station and every bloody talk show out there. I feel what you had to say on your show was of paramount importance to the American people and to the future of this country. Poster: James Comment: Thank you very much for covering the issue of democracy, an issue that trumps all others, an issue that should never be an issue but chillingly is. Poster: Watching N. Disbelief Comment: This was one of the most biased shows I have ever seen on public television. I love the way you guys put on David Becker -- a hack for People for the American Way, a very liberal organization -- and present it all as if this guy had no bias against the Bush administration or Republicans in general. Amazingly, you guys even let him churn out his unsubstantiated voter suppression stories as if they were fact without even asking him for evidence, documentation or even a shred of anything that was verifiable. I can't believe you guys even let him bring up the 2000 Florida election and the Supreme Court ruling as if the election was given to Bush by the court when you, Becker and everybody who ever looked into it knows that all the Supreme Court decided was that the Florida courts could not delay certification of the vote count in Florida without a better argument or reason. Instead you let Becker spew his jargon hinting at the left-wing mantra about the Supreme Court giving Bush the election. If you guys were even remotely interested in presenting a fair and impartial program you would have at least presented a speaker with an opposing viewpoint. Instead you chose to air this left-wing semi anti-Bush hit piece as if it were some sort of patriotic save-the-democracy documentary. What a disgrace! Don't count on getting any donation from me or anyone like me who sees this show for what it really is: A left-wing propaganda-filled fantasy story. Poster: John T. Eynon Hm3 Ret. Comment: No, I don't believe our system of elections are honest or good for America. I have never voted nor intend to, I'll just leave it to the young,naive dreamers & the senile. Poster: Pam Vellutini Comment: I live in Oregon and we have vote by mail. It seems to work well and gives you about 10 days to cast your vote. If you don't receive a ballot, you have time to question why and get one before the deadline. Poster: Michael Marietti Comment: I watched the latest segment of NOW just a few minutes ago (11/30-2007) on our PBS station out of Tempe, Arizona (Channel 8), and it left me with some questions that were unanswered by the presentation of some alleged voter discrepancies. First of all, does Mr. Becker feel that everyone who merely breathes air, and walks and talks, and happens to live in the United States of America should be able to vote, or does he agree that they must first be a legalized citizen of this country in order to vote? Secondly, I agree that any alleged voting registration irregularities should be fully investigated. However, if this was going on sometime before, why didn't Mr. Becker take some actions a long time ago? It appears he may be more interested in being featured as some kind of hero, or is he genuinely passionate about his quest for voter justice? Nevertheless, while your program had a definite liberal slant, I still enjoyed it very much, as I usually do. Good evening folks. NorthWoodsEagle@msn.com Poster: Phergie Comment: I have voted at the same poll for 48 years. When the registrar asks for an ID I said that everyone at the poll knows me by name. No question as to who I am. The officials said that didn't matter, I still needed a photo ID. I put on a disguise and went to the license branch and had an ID made with the phony picture. Returned to the poll and handed the ID to the official and was allowed to vote. They never looked at the obvious fake ID. So much for the need to have a photo ID. The law is only to keep people from the poll! Poster: Sammy Mabry Comment: The NOW program with David Becker on voting was biased and unfair. There was no opposing view. Public broadcasting should show both views. Tax money should not be used in such a manner. Poster: C. Kiddoo Comment: Thank you for airing this episode and covering these important topics. The public really needs to be aware of this information. I wish the commercial media would cover this story better! But I'm very glad you are doing so, and I'll express my gratitude by contributing to my PBS station. Poster: Katherine Smith Comment: After watch the show on voter supression, I wonder how much concern there is for voter fraud caused by illegal aliens who have been given drivers' licenses in 8 states. Motor voter registration in these states enables non-citizens the right to vote illegally. Who is looking into this possible voter fraud? Poster: Joyce Lee Comment: I am outraged! I don't believe the last election was fair or many elections previous. All balots should be written in fourth grade grammar , so we are not mislead by lawyer jargon we don't understand. We are losing our democracy as we try go to war to teach democracy to other countries. We need an emergency bill to vote this election using a paper trail. Please let me know what I can do. Thank you, David Becker, for your honest opinion, I know you are right. Poster: Maureen June Wiencek Comment: Immigrant from London, U.K. and citizen since 1971. Distinctly believe last 2 general elections were 'fixed' in favor of Bush administration. How can one feel things have changed for the 2008 Election? One citizen, one vote is a thing of the past. Poster: Jody from York, PA Comment: I was shocked to learn that my experience of being denied the right to vote is shared by enough other voters to warrant a TV special. I am a moderate Democrat from a conservative Republican-dominated county and have not had my vote counted the last three times I attempted to vote. I thought I was being discriminated against because I have multiple sclerosis, but it seems to be another part of the Republicans to force their agenda on America. Poster: John McDonell Comment: Sir, I am neither Democrat or Republican. But I do take very strong exception with your slanted, liberal and contrived interview on who can and cannot vote. The liberals have made and are making every attempt to make 20 million illegals eligible to vote. Poster: Flip Comment: We all have heard that using electronic voting machines that produce a paper trail is the way to guarantee a fair, non-tampered-with election. Nothing could be further from the truth! From a programming standpoint, it's easy to print the name of the candidate the voter actually voted for while internally incrementing the vote count of any candidate on the ballot. As long as voting machine companies such as Diebold are permitted to keep the software that runs the machines proprietary (i.e., SECRET), fair and accurate elections can NEVER be guaranteed. The software that runs the machines and tallies the votes must be open to impartial scrutiny by individuals outside of the manufacturer! Poster: Kathryn Comment: NOW is one of my all-time favorite shows. Short, to the point, timely, smart. I love it. This business with election fraud/tampering/engineering is really scary. But it's hardly news. I wonder why there hasn't been a more of a backlash against all sorts of electronic voting issues. In many, many countries, including the U.K., they use a paper ballot. Workers sort paper ballots. At least two checkers per ballot. Why can't we have that? Just because this is the 21st century, it doesn't mean that everything has to be computerized. Sometimes the old-fashioned way is the best way. Poster: Tom Chitwood Comment: Voter fraud is reason enough to require photo ID to vote. Try to cash a check without an ID and you will not be able to. If your vote is important to you, you will have an ID when you go to the polls. Poster: Jerry Cooley Comment: I was disappointed in your recent pandering infomercial for Democrats, implying that wanting to prevent voting fraud is actually intentional disenfranchisement. I'm unfamiliar with NOW, but if this show is meant to be objective journalism, it fails miserably. I was considering a donation to PBS to support the children's programming, but I cannot consider supporting an entity the broadcasts such bald-faced, unchallenged propaganda. Poster: Bonnie Comment: This program is reprehensible! Where is any fairness? What about the frauds within the Clinton administration? The words like 'stolen' are so highly unfair. When people register to vote and use addresses that do not exist, of course they should not vote! People voting without identifying themselves as American citizens, NO! I work hard to be a good citizen, I register and give a correct address and expect to vote. It is not fair for illegal aliens to vote or people to register vote in several places by fraud. I think it is fair to check to see if these addresses really exist. How could anyone think that that procedure is unfair? I cannot believe that PBS promotes such unfair programs, where was there no balance whatsoever!! I am completely disillusioned that PBS is even trying to be fair and unbiased. Poster: Joe Konopka Comment: When I see scripted interview questions and answers as was done during the interview with voting rights lawyer David Becker, I know I'm right to not financially support PBS. This guy was allowed to tell the audience that voter identification laws should be invalidated because some people might be inconvenienced by getting an ID. Yet, there was no dissenting voice telling the audience how insane this premise is. He'd rather have voter fraud rather than than have these people do what every other citizen does. I'd ask you to put both sides of an issue up for discussion, but clearly liberals can't argue their position because they'd lose in a fair contest. |
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