The USA is currently unable to democratically elect a presidential candidate!
Voting has already begun in places like Virginia, and other states are still trying to register voters, yet we are just getting ready to have our first debate on Friday between McCain and Obama. I turn your attention to this recent article:
High Turnout, New Procedures May Mean an Election Day Mess
By Mary Pat Flaherty
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 18, 2008; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/17/AR2008091703663_pf.html
This is not about voter fatigue! This is a democratic crisis! This year will mark one of the highest voter turn-outs our country has had in a long time. For many years, we have quibbled about the lack of interest in voters. This year we have interest and cannot provide a uniform, unchallenged, fair way to vote. For too long state’s rights have hampered our vote, because the states provide for our election process in such different ways. Political parties in caucus states go unchallenged as private clubs because those states do not want to pay for the cost of voting. Other states, with primaries, have widely disparate rules.
In January, 239,000 people in Iowa decided the fate of the Democratic candidates. That was up from the 2004 record turnout of 124,000. Second tier presidential candidates were effectively eliminated then. As an example of the number of people this represents, my location in the Fairfield/Suisun CA area, totaled around 136,000 a the last census in 2000.. My point is this; the total population of Iowa is 2,988,046. Therefore, in this bastion of voter awareness, this voting record was still only 8% of the population who voted.
In California, where turnout of 9 million registered voters in all parties, was the highest since 1980, at 55.7%, the total population is estimated at 36,553,215. So about 25% of the population voted.
A record primary for California
More than 9 million voters cast ballots in the Feb. 5 presidential contest. Turnout rate was highest since ‘80.
March 18, 2008 in print edition B-3
[….Before the election, many analysts predicted that about half of Californians would vote by mail.
But the secretary of state’s office said a slightly lower percentage, almost 42%, cast mail-in ballots. The percentage may have been diminished by the flood of voters who showed up at precincts, forming long lines and, in some areas, forcing elections officials to scramble for extra ballots.
Elections officials in California’s counties have spent the weeks since the Feb. 5 contest tallying damaged and provisional ballots, including tens of thousands cast in Los Angeles County, where a confusing ballot design contributed to difficulties counting the vote….]
Disregarding for the moment the arguments over caucuses, both of these states have been thought of as having strong voter systems. However, NEITHER ONE could begin to handle full registered voter, much less, full population participation. We no longer have a way to process the number of potential votes our country could garner in an open election. Even with the absentee ballots, it is clear, they are not truly counted, because they take too long to count. Therefore, our system is gamed and dysfunctional. This will not do. We must take a new national approach to our voting system.
I Own My Vote, PUMAPac, The Denver Group, Just Say No Deal
Grab and Keel 
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