Do Voting Problems Threaten Our Democracy

When things go awry at the voting booth, as they have several times in this hectic primary season, much of the blame often falls on ill-trained poll workers who are paid a pittance.

And there have been some head-scratching moments: While folks in Washington were waiting hours to vote under record turnout Feb. 12, poll workers hid electronic voting machines because they didn't like the touch-screen devices. On Super Tuesday in Chicago, poll workers passed out pens meant for e-voting machines. When those instruments made no mark on paper ballots, election workers said they were full of invisible ink, an explanation that was upheld by onsite precinct judges.

While some of these snafus defy logic, many can be pinned on poor training, experts say. We're running the most important part of our democracy on the backs of untrained, poorly paid volunteers," said Lloyd Leonard, who has helped research poll worker issues for the League of Women Voters. "It's not their fault. Funding is not a priority. They aren't paid much. They try real hard. We should all volunteer and help them out."

Some of the examples in this story are amusing, but the bottom line is that these things can threaten the very democracy, that our "voting rights" are supposed to insure. As a Nation we need to take these issues seriously, and make sure that they are addressed, so we do not have a replay of 2000, or 2004, when many voters "believe" that they did Not have their votes counted, and that the "choice" for who our President would be, was not correctly tabulated!!



voting

NEW 7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD

Well everyone the voting ended last night at 7 p.m. and the NEW 7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD ARE (Drum roll please!!)-

The Great Wall of China, Rome's Colosseum, India's Taj Mahal and three architectural marvels from Latin America were among the new seven wonders of the world chosen in a global poll released on Saturday.

Jordan's Petra was the seventh winner. Peru's Machu Picchu, Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer and Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid also made the cut.

About 100 million votes were cast by the Internet and cellphone text messages, said New7Wonders, the nonprofit organization that conducted the poll.
The seven beat out 14 other nominated landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, Easter Island in the Pacific, the Statue of Liberty, the Acropolis, Russia's Kremlin and Australia's Sydney Opera House.

The pyramids of Giza, the only surviving structures from the original seven wonders of the ancient world, were assured of retaining their status in addition to the new seven after indignant Egyptian officials said it was a disgrace they had to compete.

The Statue of Liberty and Australia's Sydney Opera House were near the bottom of the list from the start.

Also among the losing candidates were Cambodia's Angkor, Spain's Alhambra, Turkey's Hagia Sophia, Japan's Kiyomizu Temple, Russia's Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral, Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle, Britain's Stonehenge and Mali's Timbuktu.

The traditional seven wonders were concentrated in the Mediterranean and Middle East. That list was derived from lists of marvels compiled by ancient Greek observers, the best known being Antipater of Sidon, a writer in the 2nd century B.C.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Pharos lighthouse off Alexandria have all vanished.

Thanks to everyone who voted and maybe an American Icon will have better luck next time, if there is a next time!!

Last Week To Vote On NEW 7 Wonders

I am doing a repost of the 7 wonders story as we are running out of time to vote and possibly get one of America's wonders listed in this edition of the NEW 7 wonders!! Go to www.new7wonders.com and vote TODAY !!!!!!! COME on, the Statue of Liberty, the Hoover Dam , Mt. Rushmore, or even the Golden Gate Bridge have to be up there in the rankings as they are WONDERS!!

There is an excellent story at yahoo news today about an internet campaign to choose the “new” wonders of the world. It states that over 45 million people have already voted for the top seven out of twenty-one from which to choose.

I had never heard of this campaign but it sounds like fun and I am going to go vote as soon as I finish this post, and I encourage you to do the same. Even though it is a quick bit of fun, it is founded on serious events. Swiss filmmaker, curator, and traveler, Bernard Weber, begin this contest to raise global awareness of the world’s heritage after the destruction of the giant Buddha statues at Bamyan, Afghanistan, by the Taliban in 2001.

As of May 7, the top 10 were the Acropolis in Greece, the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza in Mexico, the Coliseum in Rome, the Eiffel tower in Paris, the Great Wall of China, the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu, Petra in Jordan, the statues on Easter Island, Britain's Stonehenge and the Taj Mahal in India.

The second tier of choices are the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia, the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Kiyomizu Temple in Japan, the Kremlin and Red Square, Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Germany, New York's Statue of Liberty, the statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooking Rio de Janeiro, Sydney Opera House and the ancient city of Timbuktu in Mali.

You would think that everyone would be onboard, but there are serious misgivings, by the Egyptians in particular, due to the “popularity” vote aspect instead of historical significance. There has been awarded “honorary” New 7 Wonders status given to the Pyramids so they will not be on the list to vote for as the Egyptians said there importance could not be put into question by such a publicity stunt contest. I think no matter what that this contest isn’t hurting anyone and if it brings awareness of the sites listed and to others not listed it can only be a good thing.

It was nice to see the Statue of Liberty as one of the choices, but I am sure that all of the sites listed are important as historical reference points. We receive too little history in school and I hope that school officials will read about this contest and get their children involved so they may appreciate our world history more then is currently the case.

I know that too a great many people history is boring and who needs to know about it, but I guess because I do like history I want others to enjoy it too. I think that we are better people when we know of how we got to this point in time. The other day in my rant on amnesty I let anger guide my words and was rightfully called on it by varsity blogger James Eaves-Johnson in his From Right 2 Left blog.
Part of being an American is knowing that we can be a great nation, but our past is full of pride, arrogance, atrocities, lots of blood, prejudice of other immigrants, races, religions, and cultures. We are in imperfect country that has on occasion risen above the evil of our past and did great good, such as defeating Nazi Germany and Japan, and championing the cause of freedom and democracy. We have had many failures as we saw with Vietnam, another war that should not have been fought, and we have done evil such helping Saddam remain in power when he was gassing his own people, because he was fighting our enemy Iran, and the contras in Nicaragua, etc. We need to be a little longer sighted when we decide to help or intervene, because invariably it sets in motion events that often turn around and bite us.

Anyway I think that anything that gets people thinking about history is good, so if you have a chance read the story and then perhaps you will want to vote as well. Thanks.
45 million vote for updated seven world wonder