The most recent 20 comments posted to Electrolite by Brian Hess:

...the guy with the ... trucker hat and nothing other than instinct for who he trusts cancels the vote of the politics junkie....

And perhaps that is just as it should be. Your assumption appears to be that the political junkie is better-qualified (more worthy?) to cast a vote. I believe that's far from self-evident.

It's hard to understand...that someone who doesn’t even understand the issues can amble on down to the local elementary school and wipe out your vote....

Why is that so hard to understand? Really, what kind of elitist political ideology is it that says because you (the general "you," not "you" specifically) know the campaign manager's name your vote should carry more weight than the ambler in the trucker hat?

Hypothetically, suppose Mr. Trucker Hat has personal experience with Mr. Approved Candidate. Maybe Gov. Candidate was personally responsible for some back room double-dealing that never made it into the press, but it cost Mr. Hat's friends their jobs. A lot of jobs. So Mr. Hat may not know who's happening inside the Beltway, but he sure knows why he's not voting for Gov. Candidate.

But we'll stand in line at the polls and sneer down our Starbucks at Mr. Hat because he appears to be an ill-informed lout who's bound to cancel our more highly-qualified vote.

Is that it?

Perhaps we should make votes from people in non-ironic trucker hats worth only three-fifths those of "educated" voters?

Adam Kalsey has been talking about this problem lately as well; some of his info might prove helpful to you:

http://kalsey.com/2003/09/spam_begets_spam/

http://kalsey.com/2003/09/distributed_comment_spam_prevention/

http://kalsey.com/2003/10/spam_and_vandals_part_2/

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