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How To Lose An Election
smooth wombat writes "CNN has posted a story to their site about electronic votes from Miami-Dade County's first widespread use of touchscreen voting machines that were lost due to a computer crash.: 'The malfunction was made public after the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, a citizen's group, requested all data from the 2002 gubernatorial primary between Democratic candidates Janet Reno and Bill McBride.' Other groups are challenging a state rule preventing counties that use the machines from conducting manual recounts from them." Reader fatwater adds a link to the New York Times' coverage.
This upcoming election is going to be a mess. Of course GWB will steal it, and after much to-do, he will be re-anointed. Just the way they used to do it is South America. Soon, he will even start wearing a military uniform.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
The corruption and coercion come BEFORE the voter has made their vote.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
George H.W. Bush, George W Bush. Jeb Bush,
Neil Bush.
Or has the Bush name become synonymous with "unreliable" and "untrustworthy"
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Fuck this "vote selling" fear argument.
If only 1% of the voters sell their votes,
that's STILL better than losing 100% of the
votes, or the 100% loss in trust and faith
in the system because independent verificaton
is not possible.
Look, if vote selling is such a moral evil,
why don't we use TRADITIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT
means to combat it. Sting operations,
old fashioned police work, stiff laws,
etc. We won't catch everyone, but it can
be managed and controlled.
The trade-off is far, far better. A little
graft from the few that get away with selling
their vote vs. the complete blind faith in
corporations that write shoddy code running
in WinCE devices....
I am always amazed at the "vote selling" argument against receipts. It seems only CS majors really believe this argument has any value. It's like they think perfection is the only standard for a new voting system.
Right now, our punch-card and scantron elections are not perfect. If we switch to digital kiosks, we won't have perfection because of vote selling, and likely some software crashes. The question is: which is imperfect system is better? At least with computer voting, you eliminate the subjective hanging chad recount problem. If you also add in receipts and an audit trail, you have the potential for a much better system. (And yes, you also have a few vote selling cases that the cops have to bust. What else is new?)
Because it's only the evil Republicans that would ever want to rig an election. Though rigging elections is just a small step after they've rigged peoples minds to just be party fanboys.
Rampant Ninja related crimes these days...Whitehouse is not the exception
We can't complain about dictators when it was the CIA that put most of those dictators into power in the first place.
Since people are complaining that idiots need their votes counted, let us do it the same way they do it in THIRD WORLD countries.
Print the damn picture of the candidate right there on the Freaking Ballot. Take a big fat sharpie, and have them put an X on the picture.
Then the stupid idiots who cannot read, write or follow simple instructions can vote for the democrats all day long and not cry "Disenfranchised voter".
My question is this, why are all the problem with voting found in Miami-Dade? What the hell is wrong with all the idiots there?
My next question is this, why would anyone vote the same way some idiot, who cannot read, or follow directions vote? Just tell me who you are voting for, so I can make sure I don't vote for them.
How about we REINSTITUTE Literacy requirements to vote? NO it isn't racist, white people can't read either.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Chile, Iran (under the Shah), Guatamala, Laos, Haiti (several times), Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Zaire, Brazil, Indonesia, Greece, Bolivia, Uraguay, Cambodia (which led to Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge), Angola, El Salvador, Honduras... all had dictators installed by the CIA... all of which has been proven with US Government documents gotten through the Freedom Of Information act. You didn't do too well in history class, huh?
And the Republicans were the ones who wrote this into law.
Draw your own conclusions.
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
Your country is corrupt. I'm sorry to say it, but it is. It is no longer the shining beacon of incorruptible democracy it once was. After its prodigious economic growth, all subsequent governments have done is to continue the status quo where the US is king, through little escapades like the crushing of Socialism/Communism, kicking the shit out of smaller countries for economic reasons and many other happy fun little things which are all designed to keep America at the top and everyone else at the bottom. The permanent members of the Security Council are more or less only there for token reasons right now. The world revolves around the US, and any number of countries could collapse if the US removed economic support and financial aid from them. before all the "RAH RAH RAH AMERICA RULES" crowd pipe up, look at the big picture. Both your major parties are the same. Your president is hated-reviled even-worldwide because he acts like a jackass. Your country is overreacting to one terrorist incident, which, in my eyes, your government deserved for its relentless campaign of the bombing, napalming and slaughtering of innocent civilian people to get its way, and your civil liberties, which the government and the people love to crow about, are being systematically removed from you. Government is in the pockets of the corporations: GE, Microsoft, Exxon et al all practically own all of the parties. Open your fucking eyes up. I know I may be preaching to the choir here on Slashdot (the /. populace generally have a fairly left wing bent anyway) but just look at what is around you and what is happening to your country.
:)
:)
My call to you is this. Do something about your government. Don't just vote Democrat, that will do nothing in the long run: vote Green or, if you wish, Libertarian. Heck, vote Communist! Go hog wild! Get involved in the political protest. Turn up at the White House lawn with a picket and protest. Mail your senators and congresscritters. Get active. Do something and end the US-inflicted nightmare that has descended on the world over the last century. Please. At least do it for the children, who you all seem to love making rash political decisions for
As for my politics, I am a very left wing Liberal Democrat in the UK. May as well say that to appease all the people who will probably cry "UNAMERICAN BITCH COMMUNIST SLUTWHORE"
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
Pretty soon, GWB will have killed more Americans (by sending them to their deaths in Iraq) than Al-Queda.
Go ahead: one little -1 won't affect my Karma.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.