Any form of manipulation, overt or covert seems to be on the table today...sad...but true.

Of course that is what he is doing. He wants permanent Democrat RULE!!!

Well, that's certainly disturbing. That would concern me too. Is there a doubt at all in anyone's mind that what Obama is doing about illegals is to somehow have them vote?

Here in Texas, when you get your drivers license you are automatically registered to vote. This is exactly why I oppose giving drivers licenses to illegals!!!!

Bob,

Exactly, and the change to the senate removed state representation from the federal government creating Taxation without representation.

It was the disbanding of the voice of the Burgesses that caused the Boston Tea Party. Effectively the equivalent of removing appointed state representatives from congress and causing them to feel they were taxed without representation. Funny how it was met with major push back from the colonies, but 120 years later the same basic concept (to silence the state) is met with applause as it was advertised to eliminate big businesses influence over government.

The only way to eliminate bug businesses influence over government is to not pass laws which make is necessary for business to attempt to influence government.

Yes you hit a nerve with that one, does every time I think about it.

The electoral college system helps smaller states compete with NY, CA, IL, MA and other populace states. Otherwise the population centers would dictate to the rest of America. They almost do it now. We had a civil war over the same types of issues. Southern armies didn't fight for slavery, they fought against the federal government and northern industries.

If you remember your history, the senate used to be an appointive position, appointed by the state and representative was elected. I agree with you. I merely wanted to point out the problems of losing ballot integrity in systems like in Oregon and any other automatic registration proposal.

My point was not that this is wrong, bur rather that forced registration would expand both the amount spent on this activity and the effectiveness of this activity. My point was that forced registration to vote would not make money less of a factor as Obama suggested, but more of a factor. In part from this practice which would be worth spending far more money on.

To be clear, I personally do not care for the practice, but then I think that we should have to pass a basic citizenship test to be able to register to vote as well. The required testing would make this practice far less effective than it is today and cause campaigns to spend far less money on the practice.

It is a symptom of the problem that voting is a "right" rather than a "privilege" that is earned in some way. A move further towards the view of it being a right is a move in the wrong direction. It is in fact a privilege that many who use it today should not be qualified to exercise the privilege of the vote.

Oh great just one step closer to internet voting, and mandatory voting. Although we still have O-butthead in office, so voting is already majority ruled by the morons.

Oh, that's nothing...here, in Washington, a Republican gubernatorial candidate won the general election by a "slim" margin, prompting the Dumbocrats to call for a recount.
During the recount, the Republican won by an even slimmer majority and this gave the Liberals enough motivation to call for a third count.
Well, low and behold, the Republican lost the final recount by a slim margin, but even with a 2 out of 3 win, gave it to his opponent.
After a year's wrangling over the results, it was discovered that numerous votes were counted incorrectly, made by "dead" voters, or were mysteriously "found" during the recount. There was a great deal of noise made about "election reform", but the damage was already done and the entire incident was swept under the carpet.
Every day, I consider the possibility of moving to Idaho when I retire...

Nickursis, I'm going to steal that line from you and use it as many places as possible. Thanks.

Watching other countries elections over the years, and talking to people who actually lived there and had to flee for their lives, and listening to them explain how what we see here is a complete sham, and then watching foreign TV and seeing how they report our elections as complete shams, I am convinced that our elections are rigged, and the only way to not have them rigged is to have them fully open to the public, so everyone can see who everyone voted for, and be able to do independent audits.

Having mandatory voting is also a very good way to make sure we are getting a complete representation of everyone, not just the people that can get to the polls.

If everyone voted, we would see a very different country than we now have.

People complain that the laws are not what they want, but they don't vote, because they know the system is rigged.

When you look at marijuana laws and you see now what states are passing laws to legalize it, it is only because of heavy lobbying by big pharma and the politicians wanting that tax money.

It has nothing to do with what the people want.

Notice how almost all the states are pushing for edibles only, meaning big tabbacco is out of the running.

That is why they have not been lobbying, because they knew big pharma wanted this.

Once the money starts rolling in, they will move to make it easier to get.

I don't think they will have completely recreational use, at least not for another decade, but they will make it easy for people to get a medical card.

Many people don't trust that the govt is not going to use this data against them, so there is still going to be a large illegal business, which is why the drug cartels are not cutting off people's heads, yet.

The cartels are the ones that got the federal database of all controlled substance up and running.

Notice how there were no bugs in that system.

Now, they track the doctors, and scare the docs into not prescribing, to drive people back to the illegal drug trade.

It is easy to see the strings that connect all these things when you step back and look objectively at the events playing out.

Most people just don't look, they don't want to know, or they know and are scared.

Watch CitizenFour, if you have not seen that movie yet. It is very scary, and all true.

Makes everyone who sees it scared, and it should.

Nothing is private any more. You have no personal freedom, only what you are allowed to have, which is not freedom.

I have resigned myself to this, and I know I can't fight it. My days of being an idealist are over.

I am just trying to live out the rest of my days with my failing health in peace, and hope that the chaos around me does not suck me in.

bill, you just trade one problem for another. While we have seen that it is easy to rig a voting machine (there was a video last fall of a machine that rolled Democrat no matter what candidate was selected), the act of having to go to a poll means that only someone with a real reason will vote, not just pad the roles. When you reduce it down to just numbers, mail in ballots, or even the internet, the numbers just become an easy fix to manipulate to you own ends. Since most of us have NO trust in government at this time, any voting system is suspect, and the easier it is, the more likely to be corrupted.

Indeed! That is a basic tenant of most politics today, and is particularly effective in Oregon. Most facts are shot on sight to keep them an endangered species.

"IT" is that the Democrats have ruled Oregon for a considerable period, and have purchased power with the taxpayer dollar with PERS the public retirement system. The system is so generous, it is only 16.9 billion in the hole (if all eligible people live to actuarial age). Every one of those have a vested interest in keeping them there, since the Republicans have tried (unsuccessfully) to defuse it. They also wrapped in the public unions, and have bought the illegal immigrants with drivers licenses, even though a citizen has to provide a certified birth certificate and 2 other pieces of id to get one. This takes that a stage further and gives those with no citizenship the right to vote by automatically enrolling them through a purposely flawed system. They are sneaky, crafty liars. That's why the just recently re-elected Governor had to resign after the criminal heat got too much for his girlfriends raiding of public money. In return for no prosecution (they blame it on needing to reform the Ethics Panel for the next 2 years), they got an unelected Governor for the next 3 who then can run for re-election as an incumbent and glide back into office, as she will be much more careful to hide her criminal acts. It is almost as if Oregon is the Democratic Party laboratory for sneaky, underhanded, lying tricks that they then fleet up to the House and Senate. That is why the Obamanation is now pushing his "Mandatory Voting Idea" the same way. It will work in Oregon, it will work in the country.

I sent this to Best of. The Declaration Of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, who, as a Federalist, was much aligned to what the Democratic Party would like to think of itself, yet even he was committed to personal freedom (though he owned 650 slaves (approx) in his lifetime). A little hypocritical but then, that seems par for politicians even then. I am reading a fascinating History called "1812 The Navy's War" bt George C. Daughin (got it at Hamilton Books .com for 5.00) and it is richly detailed in a lot of the reasons why things today have turned out the way they did.

awesome xenok!

On first blush, it doesn't seem so bad to me. After all, getting a driver's license, in the first place, requires a person to know how to read and write. I know a number of "bottom feeders", in my community, who don't have licenses and aren't registered to vote. An action like this would make no difference, anyway.
The thing that worries me is the "party line" way this law was passed. That tells me, on its own, that something is rotten in Denmark. I just haven't figured out what IT is.

Yes, of course, you are right about all that. But never let facts get in the way of a good theory, as the Progressives say! : - )

Make it so!

Two people! Probably more like 4!

Exactly! There is a reason more states are switching to mail in ballots, early elections and other rigs, it is easier to determine the outcome. And they bought it with "It's to make it easier for you". Voting should be hard, should require effort or it becomes an exercise in futility.

Oh, it's easier than that. We had a County Commissioner here who lost the election in Nov by 150 votes, who, mysteriously, on recount, won by 12. Mail in ballots are a wonderful thing, for the incumbents With no oversight any election outcome can be predicted 100% of the time, which is just what they want, and will have..

Wait a minute! I live on the West side (Little town in the Coast Range, west of Salem), and there are Non Liberal Progressive humans here. Its Multnomah and Washington Counties that are the blame, they elect the govenator, and elected the last baboon, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that he was a lying criminal. I think that was just to get another 8 years of a Dem, maybe 12, since the first 3 may not count. But there are some counties here that vote 90% non-Democrat. Just the 2 Freeloader Counties and we have suggested they secede and form their own Imperial Empire we can ignore. But they won't, there are too many PERS addicts in them.

As much as you may dislike the idea of giving people rides to the polls, I know of no state that makes that practice illegal, nor should it be. How a person chooses to get to the polls is their business. Yes candidates use this practice to get out their vote. That's the reason for these phone banks, to identify a vote and then make certain that the voter gets to the polls. Every political outfit in the country targets voters this way. Millions are spent to do this. We do maintain certain freedoms and we have to be careful to protect our freedoms and not think that adding more laws will protect our rights. Overzealous protectors of freedom, if not careful, actually can diminish freedom.