--- Election in Austria

[hollodero]

(12-07-2016, 09:07 PM)Dill Wrote: Yes we have registration, and voter fraud is not a problem--though election fraud may be sometimes.

When my family votes, our names are there on a list and we sign the list to get our ballots.

Voter IDs sound great--until you realize how many elderly don't have them, and sometimes don't have birth certificates, though they have been voting in the same place for 70 years.  In some southern states as many as 200,000 voters fall into this category.

As far as cost goes, the state of Minnesota would have to pay some 11 million bucks to give everyone a "free" id, but they have never had any incidents of actual voter fraud since 2000.  So it's not clear why that would be cost effective.

Honestly... Minnesota should spend those 11 million bucks (if it's really that expensive). And be it just to create more confidence in the process. Be it that just the "voter fraud" claims diminish.
Plus, I think there's nothing wrong with assuring fraud isn't possible (out of respect for the voting process) - and I think there's nothing wrong with providing citizens in need with a valid Photo ID (which might be quite useful in a lot of other circumstances than just voting).
Guess that would be my stance here. "Hand out" IDs for people who can't afford them (although I still can't quite wrap my head around that, apart from the occasional grandmother... who also should get her birth certificate or at least some photo ID. But obviously it's a thing. But how can they live without any ID? Banks? Police encounters? I don't... ok I just am not American).

(12-07-2016, 09:07 PM)Dill Wrote: Some want it though, because of rumors of THOUSANDS of illegal immigrants swarming our polls to vote Democrat. Ha ha, imagine some rural polling station in Austria at which a half-dozen very Arabic-looking types suddenly appear ready to vote bearing IDs for "Herr Bayrhammer" and "Frau Schmidt" etc. and can't read German.

We would not be talking about "voter fraud" and ids at all in the US, except that Republicans have figured out it could shave of a percentage of votes in certain (black) urban and rural districts. They also like to purge lists of "dead" voters just before elections too. Those "mistakenly" on such lists then don't have time to clear up the error.

I do of course know that the Trump claims are BS. Then again, a part of me just wonders how a system can be in place where fraud indeed is possible, albeit very seldom. No political colour here, just... "objectively", well, it seems a bit strange.
And that your parties use all kinds of dirty tricks is no surprise. When there's gerrymandering, there's other gruesome stuff too.
(And I do believe the Republicans are the more guilty party, although that's actually not my point).

(12-07-2016, 10:03 PM)Dill Wrote: Actually, I think your government is simpler now than under the Hapsburgs when you had dual parliaments with Hungary and all the translation problems.  You had a final arbiter, though. I guess that was simpler.

Oh yeah, I remember, that was awful. And didn't really work too well, honestly.
Stupid people speaking other languages...

(12-07-2016, 10:03 PM)Dill Wrote: I see van der Bellen is trying to heal the rift, calling everyone to come out of the "trenches" and such, but the reader commentaries in Die Presse sound a lot like the American response to Trump, with people saying he's not my president and others telling them to get over it now.

Actually... I was surprised about the comments at die Presse too... very Hofer-friendly folk there.
Die Presse is, I admit as much, a "quality newspaper", always leaning conservative (nothing wrong with that). I personally read "Standard", the second quality newspaper, that attracts a far more left audience. Hardly any Hofer friends there.
(Of course most folks are on neither of these sites. If you ever heard about "Kronen Zeitung" or "Heute" or "Österreich" - the boulevard - you know what I mean. If you don't: They are all awful and most people just read those.)

(12-07-2016, 10:03 PM)Dill Wrote: Hofer and Strache are preparing for the next vote, which includes repackaging the party to look less extreme outside Austria. Hofer says he's got an invitation from Washington. Is he just talking I wonder?

Oh no, there even was a delegation of the freeedom party, high ranking officials, at Trump tower at election night. They even "almost saw Trump"... :) Security reasons alone prevented that. :)
And it's not surprising. I can assure you without proof that they were VERY interested in the whole Trump campaign.
And Trump, as far as I know, did indeed meet our fine and awesome butterfly Strache. So further meetings are very much possible (if Trump is willing to meet them). They would do all kinds of stuff to talk to him, I'm certain. Good thing, they probably just need to publicly praise him.

(12-07-2016, 10:03 PM)Dill Wrote: I see that many of you are embarrassed by these guys--like we are by our president elect. But at least Hofer is not Austria's face to the world--yet.

What is going on in the world that similar sorts of conflict seem to appear spontaneously in different places? US, UK, Austria--where else now are Trump-style insurgencies emerging?

I devoted a whole thread to that topic. It's amazing, isn't it? Also France with Le Pen, Germany with AfD... well probably everywhere some miniature Trumps try their luck. Right-wing populists, alt-rights (I take that one because it's shorter), it's always the same pattern.
How comes? - Not sure either. I believe it's the Internet and the fact almost everyone got it now. In former times, it was way easier for politics to control the news, to control the media, therefore to control people's hearts and minds, at least here. Now everyone can find some sources that confirms what he always suspected... e.g. immigrants are felons and the own government puts their faith above those of their own citizens (it's crazy how many people believe every refugee gets a free IPhone from the state...) or whatever wacky or fearful or stupid thing they feel is true.
Right-wing (I don't want to reduce it to that, but still) is supposed to bring out the worst in people and feed on that. The hatred, the envy, the fear, the egoism. Whilst in former times messages were more optimistic (albeit because more influenced by government) and brought out more positive things in people. Work hard, be nice, be a good citizen, ask what you can do for your country and whatever. There were down sides, of course. But well. I don't know either, I'm clueless and babbling. Need to go to bed now. :)