Voters Worry President Will Be Illegitimate Winner, Poll Shows

[cal04]

Almost half of registered voters are very or somewhat concerned that vote fraud and problems counting ballots will mean the winner of the Nov. 2 U.S. presidential election won't be legitimate, a Time magazine poll found. Fifteen percent of 1,059 registered voters surveyed Oct. 19- 21 said they are ``very worried'' the election won't produce the legitimate winner, and 33 percent are ``somewhat worried.'' Sixty percent are very or somewhat worried officials in other parts of the country will try to manipulate the vote counts. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Fifty-six percent said the U.S. Constitution should be changed to do away with the Electoral College and award the presidency to the candidate who wins the popular vote. The tally in the Electoral College now determines who wins. These votes are apportioned among the states based on congressional representation.

Sixty-five percent said the election's outcome will make a ``great deal of difference'' to the well being of the U.S. over the next four years, and 70 percent said it would have a ``major negative impact'' on the country if their candidate loses.

By a margin of 47 percent to 41 percent, voters said the country has become more divided over the past four years, and 57 percent said the media deserve ``a lot'' of the blame. Forty- seven percent said Bush deserves a lot of the blame and 27 percent blame Congress.


http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aSivm3zJzLtU&refer=top_world_news

[SilasSoule]

1. A Kerry landslide will put an end to those worries.

[Sinnerman]

6. I Agree......... Why isn't Kerry up by at least 10 Points???

We have so much momentum ..... We have been nailing bush on every issue since July 2003, But as of today it's a dead heat. The Math don't ad up??? Kerry should literally be up 8-to 10 points

[Hello_Kitty]

8. I think he is up by that much

We're just not seeing it in the polls.

[harpo]

22. media won't tell you that...they want it to be close...helps their ad $$$

[The Zanti Regent]

31. Your MILLIONAIRE PRESSTITUTES like Tweety got to pay for their mansions

Tweety Matthews just bought a 4.5 million $ mansion next to Tiny Tim Russert. They need those tax cuts to make their mortgage payments.

[SoCalDem]

32. I hope they paid cash for it..

Kerry may just set some "NEW RULES"!!!.. If Tweety had to host a real political show, would he be able to?? Would guests show up, if they had to do more than duel with witty soundbytes??

The screaming head shows might just go away.. The public may have outgrown them:)

[Born Free]

20. Tie it up in court

The bush coward and his band of cut throats have been doing everything they can to make it appear the race is close, that way they can take it to court and tie it up for years. These dirty rotten scoundrels will stop at nothing to retain power, and unfortunately the kind hearted democrats will give them the benefit of doubt. Meanwhile Americans ask when will democrats ever learn to fight for America....they question how the democrats can save America if they are not willing to fight for control...

[GOTV]

33. Good Question

Although I'm not exactly a democrat, I've been working towards removing Bush from office all year.

It started by getting a group of friends together who were disgusted with Bush. They weren't hard to find, we'd been all emailing each other about Bush for months. We put together some plans and created some literature and a month later I was the only one still active.

Not that the anti-Bush emails stopped. They were still all into forwarding the latest Bush attack on America. But when I'd invite them to some meeting, action or protest they were all silent.

People like to bitch more than they like to work.

Eventually I started to respond to each anti-Bush email with a list of activities they could join me in. I would encourage them not to get mad, get active.

Eventually the anti-Bush emails stopped. Or, more likely, I stopped being included in bush bashing email threads.

Your post reminds me of a question I keep asking myself: How bad does a president have to be before some people will stop bitching and start working.

[aquart]

2. If the popular vote is illegitimate, how will that help?

Sometimes I don't know what people use for brains.

How can the popular vote be legitimate and the electoral vote false?

It's like a truth table set up in logic questions.

The electoral college actually makes vote fraud easier to pinpoint. We knew Florida was off immediately. We knew where the problem was.

All our votes pouring into one huge pool would make fraud a piece of cake.

[louis-t]

13. Pundits now saying shrub wants popular vote even if

he loses electoral vote! The rationale is: they can weaken Kerry in his first few months of presidency as happened to shrub in 2000. Such patriots, these pubs! Let's make our country weaker for political purposes. Sickening.

[aquart]

16. Has someone told him yet that he is NOT popular?

Or are they too scared?

[Anakin Skywalker]

37. Shrub Sucks.

Shrub is hated even by non-Dems. He is losing support steadily every day.

[truthisfreedom]

24. that argument could be reversed, but nothing we've complained about has

weakened our out-of-control government in any way.

[kskiska]

35. In 2000 * thought he'd get the popular vote

and Gore the Electoral. They planned to contest that, legally, and with a huge media campaign via TV/talk radio to win public support.

[BrendaStarr]

3. Then hits the mixed boards with outrage over the 35,000 ballots in Ohio

Make a big stink out in the mixed boards and maybe something will happen.

[JackieO]

4. I was one of the 1,059 polled

:hangover:

[bleedingheart]

5. I know a republican that is hoping that if Kerry wins it is a landslide

for this very reason....she doesn't want to see what happened last time.

[Gman]

7. Kerry could win fully and legitimately

and the GOP would spin his win as fraudulent and never consider him the real president. Expect this to happen. Consider it retalliation over the valid fact that Bush stole 2000 and we continued to talk about it when we were not allowed and supposed to. They do not forget grudges. For example, the Clinton impeachment was retalliation for Nixon being banished.

[Hello_Kitty]

9. We just have to work hard to un-spin whatever they spin

They won't consider him a legitimate president anyway.

[aquart]

17. They're already saying 3 out of 4 new registrations are false.

I heard it this morning.

[Eloriel]

14. They're already spinning it -- along with tales of Dem vote fraud

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2528061&mesg_id=2528061&page=

[Gman]

15. I believe the tales of Dem vote fraud are intended to set the stage for

lawsuits they intend to file 11/2 and beyond. They likely do not expect to win and this is likely how they intend to hold onto power. There is always a method to their madness.

[debatepro]

10. Why isn't Kerry up by at least 10 Points???

because that would be bad for ratings and could have an impact on our turnout.

[Amigust]

11. Vote tallies can be changed at county level

[Gin]

12. it's all about keeping the public engaged....if it's Kerry in a landslide.

they will have to make up some other stuff to pass as news.....without viewers...they are unemployed....it's boils down to CYOA!

[fujiyama]

18. 47%

believe Bush deserves blame. That is Kerry's FLOOR right there. It is very unlikely Kerry will get less than 47%. Does that mean the the other 53% don't believe Bush is responsible? Nope, it means quite a few are undecided in that lot.

Kerry will win atleast 50% of the vote.

[nodehopper]

19. the current president IS ILLEGITIMATE and NOW they are worried?

man, the cognitive disconnect of the American public never let your down.

[grace0418]

23. LOL!

Well, I would be LOL if that wasn't so depressingly true.

[struggle4progress]

21. Repubs stole the 2000 election. There's every reason to worry ...

... that the Bush Crime family intends to continue stealing office.

[depakid]

25. The media is the problem

and tht's where people's anger will be directed if Bush steals the election again.

[Dem2theMax]

26. 'Voters Worry President Will Be Illegitimate Winner' - He already IS!

Idiotic people. :crazy: (THEM, not you people here.) :)

[symbolman]

27. I say WHEN Kerry wins

fuck'em - call them a bunch of SORELOSERMEN

Bwahahahahahaha!

sorry, but that would feel SO good - That and being able to use the word PRESIDENT again.

[IndianaGreen]

28. We should have done away with Electoral College after the 2000 fiasco

Unfortunately for the American people, both major parties have their own ulterior motives for keeping this undemocratic anachronism that our slave owning Founding Fathers left us as legacy.

As it is, it is quite probable that we will continue to see the winner of the Electoral College vote to be the loser of the popular vote, as it was in 2000 and 1992, thus further undermining what little confidence some people still have that this country can be kept together.

The majority will continue to be held to the tyranny of the minority!

An alternative to a Constitutional Amendment would be to change State law to allow the proportional allocation of a state's Electoral vote based on the popular vote, in a scheme somewhat similar to what Colorado is proposing this year. Once again, both major parties will oppose such an expression of popular will. The Democrats will oppose any scheme that will dilute their winner-take-all in Blue states such as California and New York, while the Republicans will oppose the same in Red states such as Texas and Indiana. The people are once again the losers in this game of bipartisan electoral feudalism!

[SoCalDem]

29. Is it any wonder?? By the time the campaign is over

BOTH candidates have been thoroughly TRASHED...

The media sees to it that there MUST be a pro to every con... Someone must always be RIGHT..therefore the "other guy" HAS to be wrong..

Each side comes to HATE the other.. WHOEVER wins will be suspect..

Clinton's victory and the repubes' reaction to it, set the stage for the upcoming "unpleasantness".:(

[Skittles]

30. GEE - I WONDER WHAT IT WOULD FEEL LIKE

TO HAVE AN ILLEGITIMATE PRESIDENT. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

[otohara]

34. One Can Only Imagine

the horror....

[Zerex71]

36. I'd like to know exactly what the conservative dinosaurs are

worried about it Kerry wins. But then again, have you ever heard or seen these people? They have this faith in Bush like he's some sort of shaman. We're talking the dumbest 50% of the population here.