This is not the way to start the day

What follows is done quickly and almost completely off the top of my head. It may be disjointed and rambling. But I'm pissed and have to get this out of my head right now. Caveat lector.

This is the first thing that has me pissed:

It has been said any number of times but it merits repeating: If the US were a "third world" nation, we would condemn our election system as a travesty.

It is a disgrace. An utter, shameful, disgrace. And this doesn't have a damn thing to do with who you want to win or whether you are content with two parties (I'm not) or urge support of third, fourth, fifth parties to keep the ideas flowing (I do). It has nothing to do with pulling the lever or filling in the oval or whatever for Barack Obama or Cynthia McKinney or Ralph Nader or, hell, Bob Barr.

Having to stand in line for five, six, even eight hours in order to vote is unacceptable. More than merely unacceptable: It is a threat to the very concept of the vote. Again, this has nothing to do with being capitalist or socialist, blue or red or Green. It has to do with having a functioning republic.

By 11pm last night, the Election Protection Coalition, the folks behind the voter protection hotline 1-866-OUR-VOTE, had already recorded over 12,500 complaints from voters about "roadblocks" to voting.

The reports from the voter hotline testify to the administrative errors that riddle the voting process. At a briefing this morning, Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights, a coalition partner, said the hotline was receiving calls about issues with absentee ballots, registration backlogs, and wrongly calibrated voting machines.

Other reports involved people being illegally denied provisional ballots.

What's the answer to this? For one thing, a standardized registration process that does not impose unfair burdens on the poor and elderly. For another, get more goddam machines! Obviously there is more to it that that, but "get more machines" is such an obvious and direct response that I can only wonder why it doesn't seem to get implemented.

Actually, I don't wonder, not entirely, because there is another dynamic involved here: voter suppression. Some people figure it is to their selfish benefit - or, for some others, a reflection of their own inflated sense of their social importance - to limit the right to vote and the ability of people to act on that right. And here I have to be honest and say that this is an area where one of the major political parties - the GOPpers, who think they do better with smaller turnouts - is far more guilty than the other - the Dimcrats, who think they do better with bigger turnouts.

In fact, the GOPpers have turned voter suppression into a standard campaign tactic, every bit as routine as TV ads and mailed flyers. "Caging" of voters, challenging eligibility based on "discrepancies" between voting records and other official documents ("discrepancies" which can amount to a typo or one document including a middle initial and another one not), suits such as those filed over ACORN, trying to have voter registration forms tossed, even pushing for bogus "voter fraud" prosecutions (which was a main element of the now-forgotten scandal surrounding the firing of US attorneys who refused to fall in line).

(I'll note in passing here because you likely know already that ACORN may have been somewhat sloppy in its administrative procedures, but it did nothing wrong: Most of the invalid registrations uncovered were found so quickly because ACORN, which was required by law in most states to turn in all registration forms it collected, flagged questionable registrations as "suspicious." That is, they were found quickly because ACORN pointed them out.)

And beyond that, there are the simple dirty tricks and again we can safely ascribe them to one side because only one side thinks it benefits from such efforts. There were the threatening letters to students darkly hinting that they could lose student aid if they voted where they live at school rather than at home. The circulars, particularly in black neighborhoods but with some also appearing on college campuses, saying that if you had any outstanding warrants (or even traffic tickets) you would be arrested when you went to vote. The phone calls in Florida, pretending to be from the state elections board, telling people they could vote by phone. The flyers in Virginia and the calls in Pennsylvania telling people that because of expected high turnout, Republicans are voting on November 4 and Democrats are voting on November 5.

And that last shows the worst of it, the very worst because of the response it got from officials, and this is the second thing that got me pissed:

[Virginia s]tate elections officials have identified the person responsible for a phony election flier that told Republicans to vote on Tuesday and Democrats to vote a day later.

State Board of Elections Secretary Nancy Rodrigues said Monday the flier bearing the Virginia seal and the elections board logo was a joke that got out of control. The flier was distributed early last week across Hampton Roads. State police confirmed it also was distributed by e-mail.

State officials declined to name the person who created the flier or a second person who began distributing it.

While distribution of false information to voters is a misdemeanor, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller says no charges would be filed.

The Election Protection Coalition has reports of the same message going out in robocalls in Virginia as well.

So let's see: A conscious effort to suppress voter turnout, a deliberate attempt to trick people into losing their right to vote in this election, an effort that involved at least two people, that was distributed by flyer, by phone, and by email. A crime. Officials know who did it - and toss it off as a "joke."

The same year that ACORN has been turned into some hideous boogeyman for daring to register new voters, the same year that multiple suits have been filed, searching for ways to disenfranchise millions of voters, the same year that state governments have looked to do the same, that very same year officials know who deliberately tried to deceive voters - and it's a "joke." No charges. No nuthin'.

We are so screwed. And will continue to be until cases are actually prosecuted, until there are actual consequences for trying to deny people the right to vote whether through fraud, trickery, or supposedly legal shenanigans. The chances of that right now are slim - because enough people with enough power like things the way they are.