Kenneth Blackwell Quotes

The monitors indicated that it was a credible election, I think, in an overall sense, it apparently is a free and fair election, so it's a real milestone and one of the things we can take some little confidence in.

We have a system that allows us to manage a free and fair election, free of fraud, free of intimidation, and that's what we delivered on election day, and we're very very proud of it.

The Voter Expansion Project's mission is clear: Ensure that every eligible citizen can register, every registered voter can vote, and every vote is accurately counted.

But I was amazed at how organized the Palestinian election authority was, how competent they were in setting up their polling places and the poll workers they had.

In any election, it's important that the public perceive that the election is held fairly.

Organising free and fair elections is more important than the result itself.

The only reason we won this election is that money does not vote. You do!

Responsibility for overseeing the implementation of election law typically resides with partisan officials, many with public stakes in the election outcome.

I expect that after the election and the results that the international community will understand which was the framework of this process and under which law we have done this process.

The only poll obviously that matters is the last one, the one that's counted after all the votes are cast.

Elections are rarely perfect.

Votes in federal elections are cast and counted in a highly decentralized and variable fashion, with no uniform ballots and few national standards.

Elections should be prepared as well as possible and raise as little doubt as possible

At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper — no amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly palliate the overwhelming importance of that point.

I am very confident that in 2008, people's votes will count. I don't think they did in 2004. I think in 2008, they will.

People lose sight that the counties run the elections.

We know that greater participation in our democracy will make our government more responsible and make elected officials more representative of the people we serve. Making that participation easier while improving the integrity and security of our elections is something we should all be able to support.

You can protect the integrity of elections without stopping anyone from voting.

If we really mean that people's votes are to be counted, the timelines ought to exist around what it takes to count every vote.

As the state's chief elections officer, it is my job to make sure that only eligible voters vote, but also that every eligible voter has the opportunity to vote.

Voter confidence depends on the clean elections.

Whether or not your candidate wins, the crucial importance is the integrity of our voting system. You have to engage in the process in order to change it.

Without the persistence of voters in America getting up to every election, democracy will not flourish.

If people want to take the time to vote, they should be able to, and their vote should be counted.

Voting in this country has essentially been relegated to a very fledging group of election officials, who receive no training and operate on shoestring budgets on one hand, and political consultants whose job is to get their candidates elected on the other. And when you have that kind of scenario, it's really hard to describe yourself as a vibrant democracy. It's an embarrassment.