In my district in New Hampshire, this morning, voting went smoothly. I am proud to say there was no stalling or pickiness about a missing middle initial or such, and in fact there existed an air of conviviality. The main hold up was the street traffic but once we were able to park, we found the Londonderry High School Gym had separate tables with signs that divided alphabetically into about 9 groups which meant there might one or two people ahead of you once you got into the voting area.
We used paper ballots where a voter could choose candidates from different parties, as opposed to the all or nothing system from previous years. As I was edging towards the end of the line to drop my ballot into a locked slotted bin, one woman beckoned at me to get in front of her, saying that we are all in this today. The woman behind her smiled at me.
A man stood patiently holding the door for three women. When he dropped his keys without noticing, another man picked them up and handed them to him.
This is not to say that New Hampshire hasn’t had their share of misconduct. In 2002 there were plots generated from high above to keep Democrats from getting to the polls, as in the Get-out-the-vote effort that Democrats made to shuttle their constituency to the voting booth, with such proof as convicted felon, Allen Raymond, whose own book, How to Rig an Election details his strategy in another one of the RNC's scheme to suppress oppositional vote, see
Quote from CommonDreams.org
- Twenty-two phone calls were exchanged between New Hampshire Republican officials and the White House Office of Political Affairs from 11:20 a.m. on Election Day 2002 to 2:17 a.m. the next morning, the day during which the phone jamming occurred.
- The Republican National Committee paid over $2.5 million in legal fees resulting from criminal charges filed against defendant Tobin.
- John Durkin (counsel for the Republican criminal defendants) was told by a DOJ prosecutor that all decisions in this case had to be approved by the Attorney General himself, a highly unusual requirement which blocked all progress on the case and delayed the conviction of James Tobin, Regional Political Director for the National Republican Party, until after the 2004 Presidential election.
In the John Stewart show, author of How to Rig an election, Allen Raymond said last week that he simply had a bunch of people calling the Get-Out-The-Vote lines over and over again.
It amazes me that the Right has had so many incidents of voter suppression—happening now as you read this, yet they have the temerity to raise the hue and cry over ACORN, an organization which reported to authorities the dishonest registers who were committing voter registration fraud, and ACORN suddenly found themselves being investigated by the FBI and villainized by the GOP.
I realize that Democrats are not without sin. A friend of mine—whom I consider one of those unremittingly disgruntled pro-Clintonites—sent me a disturbing video taken during the Texas Caucuses where Obamans conducted their own Caucus fraud by telling Clinton supports that it was over and they could go home, among other things. I couldn’t find the video but there is plenty of information such as this link http://www.lynettelong.com/... of evidence of wrongdoing.
Regardless of all this, I have supported Obama early on. One, because of his ability to inspire and aspire us, crossing many demographics, to reach for a higher level—something that has been denied to us for a long time. But mostly at the onset because I found it very difficult to get enthused over the Clinton’s moderate democrat position, and they being back in the White House with the possibility of TMI (too much information) on their dirty laundry. And, as the race progressed, I also very much disliked her pointing out a flag pin she was wearing to proclaim herself more patriotic than Obama, or "misspeaking" on the Bullets over Bosnia speech, and finally shoring up her more-ready-than-thou-for-leadership claim by exaggerating her foreign policy experience see FactCheck.com analysis at http://www.factcheck.org/...
Nevertheless, regardless of what must have been for her a great disappointment, she certainly came through when it was time to tow the party line. While pundits tripped over themselves to over-analyze her every gesture looking for less than true support for Obama, I thank her for her ability to once again rise up like the phoenix and demonstrate a certain greatness. If she does good work in the coming years, and runs again--hopefully sticking more closely to the facts, I will certainly vote for her. After all, I am an American, and we are a people ready to forgive and forget, and grant others a second, third, and fourth chance.