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A Flawed US Election Reform Bill
H.R.811 sounds great: It's stated purpose is "to require a voter-verified permanent paper ballot." Unfortunately, it sounds like the details have some devils, as usual. From the Bev Harris article Is a flawed bill better than no bill?: "[T]he Holt Bill provides for a paper trail (toilet paper roll-style records affixed to DRE voting machines) in 2008, requires more durable ballots in 2010, and requires a complex set of audits. It also cements and further empowers a concentration of power over elections under the White House, gives explicit federal sanction to trade secrets in vote counting, mandates an expensive 'text conversion' device that does not yet exist which is not fully funded, and removes 'safe harbor' for states in a way that opens them up to unlimited, expensive, and destabilizing litigation." Update: 07/11 16:23 GMT by KD : Derek Slater writes "EFF's e-voting expert Matt Zimmerman recently published this article separating the myths about HR 811 from the facts, and countering many of the misleading and outright false claims being made about it."
Type "Wii" to much and you start producing words like "Biill".
I knew I was a PHP ubergeek when I found myself typing "mysql" automatically whenever I meant to type "myself" in e-mails (and I did it typing this sentence and had to correct it, I kid you not!).
biopowered.co.uk - catalytically cracking triglycerides for home automotive use since 2008. Just say no to big oil!
In other words, the US election system sucks because we don't just vote for a supreme overlord and be done with it?
Although, if there were a box on my ballot labeled, "I, for one, welcome our new robotic overlords," I'd probably check it.
So that's a vote registered to Diebold, right?
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
They tried that in Florida in 2000, the Democrats found it too confusing.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
I guess if they're going to quit pretending to count my vote, maybe I can quit pretending it matters, and I can stay home and wait for the results on teevee like every one else. What a time-saver!
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
> a voter-verified permanent paper ballot
yeah, but will it blend?
I reckon we should ask Hillary.
>[T]he Holt Bill provides for a paper trail (toilet paper roll-style records
How fitting. I think all federal documents should be thus produced.
1 in 4 Maine children in struggle with hunger.
I don't know about you, but my last ballot said:
Supreme Overload (check only ONE):
[ ] The Dark One
[ ] One Ring to Rule Them All...
[ ] The Lord of Mordor
[ ] Sauron, The Dark Lord
And I was really confused. So I just filled one in at random.
It's perhaps worth nothing that I live in Florida.
My blog
Is that like getting slashdotted?