Chapter 10

I agree with the dissent on Bush v. Gore. I think the recount on the votes in the state of Florida, should be left up to the state of Florida. It should have never gone higher up than the Florida Supreme court. I feel as if there were any question as to the fairness and accuracy of the voting machines themselves, regardless of deadlines, a recount should be done for the sake of fairness in the most important election to the most important and powerful office in the United States.

I believe the ability to raise money is very important to winning an election. If people don't know who you are, they won't want to vote for you. The people won't know who you are unless you have the money and means to get your message and campaign promises across, and become a household name. Although it may be unfair, and good candidates are not always able to run due to lack of funding, unfortunately money is an essential element to a successful campaign. An example of this happened in the county that I live in this year. It was the race for the Roane County sheriff's office, where the incumbent was favored to win, not on the basis that he was the best man for the job, but because the other candidate, simply did not have the money to win. Now in my opinion, this is not to say that either man was more or less qualified than the other, this is not the point I am trying to make. The particular issue with this race had nothing to do with qualifications, or how good one or the other would be as sheriff of Roane County, it had everything to do with money, and which one had more to campaign with. Should anything be done about this? No, not in my opinion. While someone may lack funding, unfortunately it takes money to get your name out there.

I feel a lack of voter turnout can be contributed to lack of interest, and it takes a strong interest in something to get the average American to take time out of their busy day to wait in line at the voting booths. This lack of interest could be a variety of things; they have little faith in all candidates, and do not care to vote for any of them, they don't feel as if their vote makes a difference, and so on. I think there are things to be done to fix this problem, and i think they are being done. Celebrities are jumping on board, and reminding people of the sacrifices others made so we could simply have the right, and encouraging a new generation of voters to get out there and make a difference. Also, if voting could be more convenient, it would increase voter turnout, but I fear that would lead to more voting fraud.


Blogs I commented on:
-Katelyn Dozier
-Robert Devaney
-Robert Johnson