Uechi-Ryu.com

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArtic ... ived=False

If your too lazy to click the link like i usually am for other topics, check this ##### out.



KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has sued Missouri, a swing state won easily by President George W. Bush, for voting violations in the 2004 election, including registering more people to vote in some counties than their entire voting-age population.

The complaint, filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, said 29 Missouri counties and election jurisdictions had more people registered to vote than there actually were people of voting age living in those areas.

One Missouri county, for instance, showed voter registrations that amounted to more than 150 percent of the true voting-age population in that county.

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan acknowledged the voting irregularities in the 2004 federal election but said in a statement that the Justice Department's decision to file suit was costly and unjustified as the state was working to correct its voters rolls.

"Clearly, a problem exists. It defies common sense that we would have more registered voters than people of voting age in any Missouri county," said Carnahan. "The Secretary of State's office and the Department of Justice share the same goal of ensuring fair and accurate elections."

The lawsuit also alleges that some voters were removed from registration lists without notification, in violation of the law, while some ineligible voters were not removed.

Missouri was considered among a number of potential swing states in the 2004 election, but ended up with 53 percent voting for Bush and 46 percent going to challenger John Kerry.

I bet someone is mumbling that the election is over, and you should move on, just like you should have moved on after the Bush-Gore debacle. But (admitting that there's no evidence here that these errors cost Kerry the election) nothing frightens me more than a government taking voting power away from a population that's already so wimpily empowered to control its government at present. We choose the lesser of two evils, voting rates are pathetic, feel quite divorced from what's going on, and that's on a good day. And the move on crowd should recall that this wasn't our last election. Maybe we can get the next one right (clearly and fairly decided by the people in whatever direction) for the first time in a decade or so?