Kansas is a hotbed for democracy?

Believe it or not, Kansas’ 2004 congressional elections were among the five most democratic in the nation, according to a report by the nonpartisan FairVote organization. But that doesn’t mean that our elections were close — three of the four weren’t. Rather, it’s that the rest of the country’s elections were so uncompetitive.
Nationwide, only five incumbents lost to challengers, and only 10 of 435 races were won by margins of 5 percent or less.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

4 Comments

  1. James Robbins
    Posted July 31, 2005 at 8:42 am | Permalink

    There are no competitive elections in this country, regardless of which state you are discussing. Even at the Eagle they don’t treat all candidates equally. I’m proud of the Eagle for running my letter admonishing them for their bias in coverage of candidates. However the coverage didn’t change during the election last fall. Maybe in 2006.

  2. Hammer
    Posted July 31, 2005 at 9:47 am | Permalink

    And as we move toward more voting via machine that leaves no paper trail, is easily hacked, and manufactured by people who by their own admission will do “anything” to deliver the office to their chosen candidate, it will only get worse.

  3. Anon
    Posted July 31, 2005 at 11:04 am | Permalink

    Voting is not done in November. It’s held bhind closed doors of major companies.

  4. Joe Williams
    Posted July 31, 2005 at 11:24 am | Permalink

    Basically 95% of all seats, either Federal, State, or Local office are safe.

    A lot has to do with name recongition, money, and politics. But with less than half the voting population participating, and even half the people who do vote do not in a primary elections.

    There is no secret dealings with corporations or some conspriacy of hacked electronic voting machines. We have them here in Sedgwick County, have you ever recieved a paper reciept?

    Basically it just that politics is that good. They solidify districts during redistricting to help create the safe seats. Also with a large portion of the population not informed or interested in politics and democratic elections, it just makes it that much easier for the cadidates to keep those seats.

    The only thing that unseats an incumbant is a good scandal.