Thinking Back To The 2004 Election: The Concept of "Wasting Your Vote"

This afternoon I began thinking back to a conversation I had with a friend of mine a few weeks ago. I don't recall exactly how the conversation started. Most likely it was with some quip about "trimming the Bush" (my regretting his getting voted in for a second term and him not being impeached for criminal acts and whatnot) and lamenting his reelection. Now this friend in question is a National Guard recruiter and is a man I genuinely respect. I readily admit if I were going to be conned into military service, it'd take him to do it.

Anyway, he asked me who I voted for. I informed him that I voted for one of the independent candidates, Michael Badenarick (I'm sure I horribly butchered his name, but I will look it up and correct it soon), to which he responded"So, you wasted your vote?" I glanced at him, gave my usual arrogant grin and retorted "No, I voted for the man who I knew could do the job right." And I still stand by that decision.

But one thing I still think about in the back of our head is, when it really comes down to it, we both wasted our vote. And think about it for a second. To a certain extent, you likely did as well.

Consider for a moment what happened nationwide since the election debacle back in 2000. After all the hanging-chad bull, it was decided by the wisdom of our overlords that the wisest thing to do to prevent vote fraud and confusion was to place electronic voting machines all across the country. Personally, I would have just... oh, I don't know, put people with common sense and not criminal records and penchants for corruption in charge of voting, but that's neither here nor there. But if you voted on one of these machines like I did, and I am sure that my friend also did, then you also "wasted your vote."

It has been proven time and again since these devices were instated that they are easy to hack and manipulate. And then when you throw in that there are reputed computer criminals in high positions of these electronic voting machine companies, and also take into account that many of these companies have key political officials either directly owning or as key investors, the whole thing stinks to high-heaven of corruption. And before you say anything else, yes, all this can be proven.

But what can we do about this? Well, if you're paranoid to the extent that I am, we obviously can't just "vote the machines out" because if the system reaelly is just that corrupt, we cannot believe that the people really counting the votes will not rig things to ensure that these devices will not be removed. It will take more than that. I'm not calling for violence or riots in the streets. All that does is cause traffic jams, and the last thing you want is me mad behind the wheel. Or mad in general, but that's a story for another day. What it is going to take is a mass outcry to all your representatives at the state and national levels that you don't want these corrupt and infinitely fallible devices in place, and that they all need to be removed and scrapped. This needs to be done on such a scale that even the corrupt and biased mainstream media has no choice to accurately report the movement and ensure that America once again has a secure vote.