WHOA! ~ another stunt by Govenor Jan? ~ ~ Sooz

Outrage Builds As Arizona Continues To Count Votes
November 11, 2012
By Deborah Montesano

Nearly a third of votes cast in Arizona remained uncounted the day after the election. Most of them were probably cast by Latinos, organized and newly registered by multiple civil rights groups in the state to combat candidates like the notorious Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio.

On Thursday, the Secretary of State, Ken Bennett, announced the figures: 631,274 early and provisional ballots remained uncounted out of a total of 1.8 million votes. At least 350,000 of them are from Maricopa County (Phoenix metropolitan area), where Joe Arpaio has already claimed victory. Activist Randy Parraz, president of Citizens for a Better Arizona, told the Huffington Post, “We’re not conceding anything until every vote is counted. They’re just going to act like, ‘Oh, the election’s over, Arpaio wins.’ Hell no.”

Three Congressional races also remain in limbo. Although Democrat Rich Carmona originally conceded the Senate seat to Jeff Flake on election night, he changed his mind after hearing the unprecedented number of uncounted votes. On Friday, he sent this message to supporters: “We will take every necessary step to make sure all of our supporters’ ballots are counted.” Two U.S. House races are also too close to call until the remainder of the votes are tallied.

Protestors from a coalition of rights groups are maintaining a continuous presence outside of the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center. In a letter to the county recorder, Helen Purcell, the American Civil Liberties wrote that the “public confidence in the voting process” was at risk.

The situation has attracted attention all across the nation. Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid weighed in, issuing a statement of his concern: “All of the votes in Arizona must be counted promptly, accurately and equally. The uncounted votes in Maricopa County alone represent a major portion of the total votes cast in Arizona on Tuesday.” He also pointed out that this problem occurs just as the Supreme Court is ready to consider whether the voter protections in 1965′s Voter Rights Act should be scaled back. Specifically, the justices are being asked to rule that the part that prevents states from disenfranchising minorities is no longer relevant.

While Secretary of State Bennett tried to attribute the record-setting proportion of uncounted ballots to redistricting, the civil rights groups smell voter suppression. After all, Maricopa County gave out incorrect voting information to Latinos before the election, Jeff Flake’s senatorial campaign spread misinformation about polling places in robocalls and, in 2008, the ACLU called Pima County (Tucson metropolitan area) tops in the country for voter suppression because officials threw out 18% of the provisional ballots cast.

So hold up on the congratulations for Arpaio, Flake, and a number of other office seekers in the state. Arizona’s got a problem. Perhaps the new Congress would like to take up election reform in order to find a solution.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/11/11/outrage-builds-as-arizona-continues-to-count-votes/

How can the greatest democracy in the world have so many problems with counting votes in so many states?

Anderson Cooper interviewed someone yesterday who is seeking to have the federal government handle all elections. Not the states. Not the counties. Not the cities. The federal government.

We also need to abolish the electoral college system and the use of delegates. That might have been a good way to handle things back in the 18th Century when most people were uneducated, but it has no place in our modern world.

We need to completely overhaul our election process and the way we tally votes.

Arizona is a national disgrace ~ ~ "live links" to more/corroborating info in original, accessible via the end link ~ Sooz

Heard in Arizona: #CountEveryVote
By Laura Conaway - Sat Nov 10, 2012 12:30 PM EST


If you're not in Arizona, you could easily miss the story of what's happening there this week: More than 630,00 votes left to count after Tuesday's election, more than 172,000 of them provisional ballots, and many of those believed to have been cast by newly registered Latino voters who experienced some kind of hitch at the polls. Voters who used a provisional ballot face a deadline of Wednesday to return to their county elections offices and present ID that shows they voted rightfully.

Enough votes remain uncounted to swing several races in Arizona, including three for Congress and some where candidates have conceded or declared victory. At the far end of the spectrum, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's apparent re-election falls within the range of votes still not counted. Much closer is the race for Congresswoman Gabby Giffords old seat, now divided by a few hundred votes.


As of Friday afternoon, Arizona has gotten the pile of ballots down to 524,633, including the 172,196 provisional ballots. Activists in Greater Phoenix, in Maricopa County, have been protesting at the county elections bureau. They say they will stay there until the counting is done. While they wait for the world to find their story, they're telling it themselves. I've included a video, above, from a Youtube account known as PresentePac (associated with these folks?) and another, after the jump, from Chandra Narcia at the protests.


@Presente and @VotoLatino are tweeting the story. Active hashtags for it seem to be #Maricopa, #Marico, #CountMyVote and #CountEveryVote. The Arizona Secretary of State's office has been posting updates on the counting in the late afternoons.


@KellenWilson tweeted this yesterday from a candlelight vigil at the Maricopa County clerk's office.



http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/10/15073336-heard-in-arizona-counteveryvote?lite

How can the greatest democracy in the world have so many problems with counting votes in so many states?

Because it isn't the "greatest democracy in the world".

But it is. There's never been a democracy that has had more of an influence in the world than the United States. Also, when the United States broke away from the British crown, it led the way to the modern democracies the wold has today.

A nonsense claim that's grounded in exactly the same mindset as that of the evangelicals and is the result of exactly the same type of propaganda otherwise "the greatest democracy in the world wouldn't have so many problems with counting votes in so many states".
I quite understand that you wouldn't see it any more than the evangelicals don't see it.

For what it's worth the most influencial "democracy" in history is, arguably, that of ancient Greece.