I just did the strangest thing.

There you go.

It is, I think, kinda like I generally rejoin the Labor Party - membership to which I let lapse in those times when it is in power, cos it disgusts me - when the chips are down.


Or - you've got lazy.

Or - you don't like finding stuff in new places.

One of these.

All this time I thought Dys was a dyed-in-the-wool Republican.

I guess I'm not very good at reading people.

I don't think states should be allowed to register people in one party or another, and in fact, that party primaries ought by law to be required on the same day. No one should be allowed to force anyone else to declare an affiliation, and much of the voting regulation in the several states is a product of the determination of the two parties to retain a death-grip on electoral politics. When i registered here in Ohio, they didn't ask and i didn't tell--and that is how it should be.

You forgot your glasses again, Gus.

Yes - I SO do not understand that bit of the US system!

I agree. That's dirty.

I'll register you if you'll be a Democrat....<cursing>

I bet if dys stays home on election day, he'll vote anyway.

Did you hear about the guy who tried to sell his vote on ebay?

He was quite shocked when he was arrested. Seems he didn't know it was illegal to sell one's vote.

(bet he's a Republican)

Hmmm...a demanarchistocrat...

It is not a part of our system, Miss Cunning Coney--it is a product of the "two-pary" system, which is not founded in the constitution (there was really no concept of political parties then, just faction, which was justifiably seen to change as interest changes).

Much of the form and mechanism of election is at the discretion of the several states, and there is little interference of which the Federal government is capable. There may be no poll tax, and the Voting Rights act is inforced, and those two considerations have lead to the establishment of a Federal Election Commission. But exactly how elections are carried to the extent that they do not infringe voting rights is soley at the discretion of the states. In fact, the constitution has been amended to put certain restraints on this power, as in the election of Senators (originally chosen at the discretion of each state legislature, by the means they thought best--which is a product of the Senates function of equalizing the distribution of sovereignty among the states), and the prohibition of the poll tax. The sections of the constitution which regard the latitude of states in the matter of Senators and the election of the Vice President, as well as the continued power of the states to determine for themselves how Presidential Electors (accredited to the Electoral College) are too complex to post here.

The prohibition of the poll tax, however is not:

Amendment XIV:

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.


Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

And this amendment was only ratified as recently as January, 1964. I was appalled when i learned that Thatcher's government had imposed a poll tax, that they could impose a poll tax. I was somewhat relieved to know that this caused her government to fall. We still have lots of work to do here, as far as i'm concerned.

X, you are a very bad funny bunny . . .

Ears to ya...

LOL!