Voting...A crap shoot?

Bullypulpit

Senior Member
Jan 7, 2004
5,849
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Columbus, OH
Unless things have changed drastically since the June 13, 2004 NYT editorial <a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/opinion/13SUN1.html?ei=5007&en=40e4afe91f2a555f&ex=1402459200&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=print&position=>"Gambling on Voting"</a> was published, and all indications are that they haven't, I'll be voting by absentee ballot.

There needs to be a national regulatory standard for all electronic voting systems that is at least as robust as Nevada's regulatory standards for electronic gaming systems.

The <a href=http://gaming.nv.gov/index.htm>Nevada State Gaming Commission</a> has access to all gambling software, and this software is being contiuously spot-checked against copies of the software kept by the Commission. Incidentally, it is illegal for casinos to use any software not on file with the Commission. Gambling machines must be resistant to electrostatic shocks as high as 20,000 volts, and they must be physically tamper resistant. Any attempt to physically tamper with the machines locks the machine which must be manually reset after it has been shown to be operating properly. It has been demonstrated, repeatedly, that current electronic voting systems can be physically hacked, with no trace of the hack ever being made apparent.

The Nevada state facility which certifies gaming machines is taxpayer funded with fees charged by the facility going into the atates general fund. It also keeps manufacturers of electronic gaming equipmetn at arms length and is open to public inquiry. Contrast this with federal labs which certify voting machines. These facilities are profit making operations which <b>get chosen by and paid for by the manufacturers of electronic voting systems</b>. Can you say "Conflict of interest...", I knew you could. Neither we nor our elected officials have any way of knowing just what the proceedures for testing these voting machines are and the labs which do the testing are not open to inquiries into them.

In the event of a probelem with an electronic gambling machine, Nevada casinos must immediately contact the Gaming Control Board, which has investigators available 7/24. THe machine is than opened and inspected. A voter has a problem with their vote, they can call their local board of elections, which may, or may not, investigate the matter.

Despite their protestations that their equipment is the best available, the claims of the manufacturers of electronic voting systems fall far short of those claims. The sad fact is that someone placing a bet at the sleaziest ganbling hell in Vegas has far greater protections and regulatory mechanisms in place than any voter in America. Don't we deserve better?
 
Relax, Bully:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37152

Barack Obama, the shining future of the Democrat Party, has deemed it politically expedient (today) to declare that everything is on the up and up. So, everything is on the up and up. Election fraud is no longer an issue.

Of course, we're talking about the Democrat Party here. Tomorrow, it might again become politically expedient to scream "stolen elections!" - in which case, today never happened.

Do try to keep up, won't you?
 
Relax, Bully:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37152

Barack Obama, the shining future of the Democrat Party, has deemed it politically expedient (today) to declare that everything is on the up and up. So, everything is on the up and up. Election fraud is no longer an issue.

Of course, we're talking about the Democrat Party here. Tomorrow, it might again become politically expedient to scream "stolen elections!" - in which case, today never happened.

Do try to keep up, won't you?

Bully must really hate it when he doesn't get the daily memo with all the party talking points.
 
Gooooooooood Grief.....
First it was hanging chads..
Now it's the electronic machines....



Of course we know, we have some credible information from Robert Kennedy Jr. that one of the election's.....WAS STOLEN. It was those diabolical electronic machines, they got a mind of it's own, and decided that it wanted President Bush in office(as the twilight zone music plays softly in the background).....:poke:




:gang1:
 
Bully must really hate it when he doesn't get the daily memo with all the party talking points.

Ha ha - and, with this bunch, it's absolutely VITAL that you get the memo! When the only fixed, immutable truth is expediency, a fellow could get whiplash just trying to remain correct from day to day.
 
Sorry to disappoint y'all, but being able to think and reason for myself, I don't rely on talking points. I'll leave to y'all to parrot Bill O'Really's talking points. :)
 
I'm with Bully on this one, in principle at least. When I voted yesterday, I was adked if I wanted to try the new touch-screen voting. I'm not comfortable enough with the audit trail on those things to be sure that my vote will be counted correctly.

The problem with absentee voting in my state, however, is twofold: first, absentee ballots are supposed to be done in pencil(!), so there's no guarantee that my vote won't be (quite literally) erased, and absentee votes may or may not all get counted, as was so brilliantly demonstrated by King County election officials in the 2004 gubenatorial race, in which absentee ballots were alternately lost and found during the "recounts."

So I vote at the polls, with a paper ballot.
 
Electronic voting will be the end of democracy as we know it.
There is no reason at all we can't use an all paper system. Who cares if it takes longer to count, results will be more believable.
 
Sorry to disappoint y'all, but being able to think and reason for myself, I don't rely on talking points. I'll leave to y'all to parrot Bill O'Really's talking points. :)

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH. You dont rely on talking points?! Thats a good one. all you do is chant the Bush is evil mantra all day long. Thats a good one. you really crack me up sometimes.
 
I'm with Bully on this one, in principle at least. When I voted yesterday, I was adked if I wanted to try the new touch-screen voting. I'm not comfortable enough with the audit trail on those things to be sure that my vote will be counted correctly.

The problem with absentee voting in my state, however, is twofold: first, absentee ballots are supposed to be done in pencil(!), so there's no guarantee that my vote won't be (quite literally) erased, and absentee votes may or may not all get counted, as was so brilliantly demonstrated by King County election officials in the 2004 gubenatorial race, in which absentee ballots were alternately lost and found during the "recounts."

So I vote at the polls, with a paper ballot.

And I think all votes should be paper ballots, in ink, with ID presented. :thup:
 
Works for me. One vote, one person. Hey, I'm from Chicago, the dead vote at least twice. ;)



dead-vote.jpg




:gang1:
 
And I think all votes should be paper ballots, in ink, with ID presented. :thup:

I agree 100%. It's just that I'm unable to resist the irony of, "Voter fraud is a non-issue - today. This is the Expedient Mantra for today. As with all Expedient Mantras, please remain prepared to chant - with equal fervor - the precise opposite tomorrow, should Expediency so dictate - loudly accusing anyone who points out the discrepancy, of course, of hate crimes. All hail Expediency!"

George Orwell was nothing less than a prophet.
 

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