Legislation to mandate paper ballots

29 Mar
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Does anyone remember that old Cold War story about NASA investing millions developing a pen that could write in zero-gravity conditions?  The Soviets solved the problem by using a pencil. 

I’m not clear on whether this is a myth, but our current electoral technology woes certainly hold an air of familiarity.  All this money and time invested in a decidedly partisan enterprise to develop machines that are untrustworthy, inaccurate, and insecure.  All so we can spend the foreseeable future arguing over how to fix them. 

But lo - among the quarreling crowd is heard a childlike voice imploring “what’s wrong with paper ballots?” 

Yeah, right.  Next thing you know we’ll be using wadded up balls of tissue instead of the three sea shells.

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mary ska (not verified)Thu, 2007-03-29 16:31

Re: Legislation to mandate paper ballots

well living in FL we will not be mandating paper ballots funny three separate college groups came in to count those dang ballots with the infamous hanging chads and all found that there was no question that Bush won but it was published on the back pages of our newspapers and when they counted the military votes that were mailed in well it was a slam dunk but we still hear about the infamous chads.
wide awake and dreaming (not verified)Thu, 2007-03-29 19:22

Re: Legislation to mandate paper ballots

"The study showed that if the two limited recounts had not been short-circuited -- the first by Florida county and state election officials and the second by the U.S. Supreme Court -- Bush would have held his lead over Gore, with margins ranging from 225 to 493 votes, depending on the standard. But the study also found that whether dimples are counted or amore restrictive standard is used, a statewide tally favored Gore by 60 to 171 votes." Doesn't sound like much of a slam dunk to me. And if it were, why involve the Supreme Court in a state court matter to stop the recounts? Why did Bush make a legal challenge against a "slam dunk" that favored him? I never understood why Republicans had to lie in order to advance their agenda.
Jay DaverthThu, 2007-03-29 22:20

Re: Legislation to mandate paper ballots

Thanks for the clip wide awake. I was planning to look that up myself. I should probably keep those numbers written down somewhere for whenever someone tries to pull the GOP spin out on the mythical "slam dunk".

Peace - Cheryl Article II, Section 4 (not verified)Thu, 2007-03-29 16:46

Re: Legislation to mandate paper ballots

well, you can have paper ballots without chads. i say go back to basics. it's already been proven that the computers can easily be manipulated and have been. give me a pen and paper any day.
Cynic (not verified)Thu, 2007-03-29 17:05

Re: Legislation to mandate paper ballots

"Slam dunk," you say, hmmm...where have we heard that before?