There have been MANY times I've gone into the voting booth to realize I didn't like any of the folks on the ballot, and I refuse to vote for someone that I don't know their stand.
I'm just lucky here in central Kentucky, I guess; the local papers always print sample ballots some time before the election, so I'm assured the chance to make sure I am not put in this situation.
There is a program called Ident-a-Kid (and there are probably others as well) that issues a identification card with a child's photo, fingerprints and vital statistics so that that information is readily available to give to police should the child be lost or abducted.
Schools and police departments hold Ident-a-Kid events to which parents can take their children to have the ID card made.
In order to find out who voted for who in a previous election they'd need ballot papers, counterfoils and electoral registers.
You don't have to know how an individual would vote, just how a precinct or neighborhood would. These statistics are published in local papers shortly after each election.
the people actually drawing the boundries are career civil servants and there is no public record of political party membership
In the US, unlike in many other countries, a public record of political party membership appears as soon as an individual registers to vote (although one can be, as I am, registered as an independent). I am not convinced, however, that not having ever declared for a party means that one has no allegiance to a party.
The thing is, the Democrats may never get the chance. The whole point of redistricting is to reassign power. Redistricting NOW, between normal cycles, is a blatant power grab, and it will permanently upset the balance in the states going through it. The parties currently in power are setting it up so that they cannot lose power again.
This would be true if the politicians doing the redistricting were reinforcing their own positions. They are not, though. If control of the state legislature changes -- the probability of which redistricting will not significantly affect -- the new majority party can redraw the Congressional map in its own image.
I think, however, that redistricting plans should be subject to a public statewide referendum (perhaps even requiring a supermajority for passage).
Actually I suppose Aragon could use Denethor's Palantir...
Unfortunately, Denethor's Palantir was at Minas Tirith, while Aragorn's use of Saruman's Palantir decided just which way he was going to take to get to -- where? -- Minas Tirith.
So Jackson will probably have Arwen gallop up to Aragorn and tell him that Galadriel saw in her mirror what Aragorn was supposed to see in the Palantir.
Could you please implement a hash with our social secuirty number and a digital pin-number which would typed in when voting? Then we can go back after the election and verify online that the vote was counted as we cast it. The pin wouldn't be known by anybody but the individual voter so our privacy would still be secure.
Are you sure about that? If someone wished to purchase your vote, would he not simply say, "Here, use this PIN when you vote", and then check your vote himself before giving you the money or breaking your kneecaps?
My personal cynic is asking me if we can we just forgo the electronic voting and vote with a pencil and paper or a stand-up voting booth, I'm certainly going to inquire about it if (when) the new voting methods hit my town.
But these methods aren't new -- we've been using touchscreen voting machines here in my corner of Kentucky for nearly 20 years.
Because there isn't even a standard for voting when it's done without software. Wnen Iraq votes, you can bet there will be inspectors to ensure that it all runs as smoothly as possible with the minimum of cheating. Why shouldn't something like that be applied domesticly as well?
Although it should perhaps be federal law, I doubt very much that any state lacks the sort of law we have here in Kentucky requiring that the workers at each polling station be drawn equally from the two parties that received the most votes in the previous election.
The problem is, there are in fact examples of government programs and agencies working and working well. Our, poor, terribly innefficient government programs are responsible for creating the world's best military.
Ah, but isn't this made easier by the fact that government programs are responsible for the rest of the world's militaries, too?
By the way, did you US guys know that you won against Japan in the World Cup Rugby?
Of course we do. It wasn't quite the 69-27 pasting we gave them back in May, though. It's too bad Hercus couldn't have slotted that conversion against Fiji, or we'd have had an outside chance at the quarters. Now that would have been something else.
The same problems that could occur with touch-screen voting could occur with scantron... any digital technology can be tampered with.
With the scantron ballot, however, you can always do a hand recount -- or you can recount the ballots electronically with an independently-programmed scanner.
Bill Cosby once said, "That's like if someone throws you a left hook, you lean into it."
So he did. He also said that he, figuratively speaking, leaned away from the left hook and, as a result, ended up "going down the highway thirty miles an hour sideways".
*somebody* has to accompany Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas through the Paths of the Dead
And most of the impact of the journey will be lost if PJ has chosen to send his ubiquitous elven band to perform this task, because, as Legolas assures us, human shades hold no fear for an Elf.
Uh...in the books, Frodo was a coward (hey, he takes after his father!).
Rubbish. Pick up the books again and read how he behaved in the barrow, on Weathertop, at the ford, and at Amon Hen. If that's cowardice, the world still awaits its first act of bravery. Courage, you may recall, is not the inability to feel fear, but the ability to carry on in spite of it.
As Rudyard Kipling so aptly phrased it in _Stalky_&_Co_, "It seems -- and who so astonished as they? -- that they had held back material facts; were guilty both of_suppressio_veri_ and _suggestio_falsi_ (well-known gods against whom they often offended); further, that they were malignant in their dispositions, untrustworthy in their characters, pernicious and revolutionary in their influences, abandoned to the devils of wilfulness, pride, and a most intolerable conceit."
It has been prooven that the punch card system in use all over your great country dosent work.
Actually, we've been using EVMs in the backwaters of Kentucky at least since the first time I voted here, 17 years ago.
Not only do the mechanics of US elections not work, but the theroy of US presidental elections - the electorial colage - would be laughable if it diddnt effect the rest of the world so much.
The Electoral College weights the votes of the US's member states so that the smaller states' voices are not drowned out by those of the larger states. The EU, at least, thinks that the theory behind this is not all that ridiculous, because the votes of the members of the Council of the European Union are weighted in the same way.
It does have scheduled recording, which makes it more similar to something I first used close to 20 years ago: a radio (shortwave, in my case) hooked up to the audio-in on a VCR.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm just lucky here in central Kentucky, I guess; the local papers always print sample ballots some time before the election, so I'm assured the chance to make sure I am not put in this situation.
There is a program called Ident-a-Kid (and there are probably others as well) that issues a identification card with a child's photo, fingerprints and vital statistics so that that information is readily available to give to police should the child be lost or abducted.
Schools and police departments hold Ident-a-Kid events to which parents can take their children to have the ID card made.
You don't have to know how an individual would vote, just how a precinct or neighborhood would. These statistics are published in local papers shortly after each election.
In the US, unlike in many other countries, a public record of political party membership appears as soon as an individual registers to vote (although one can be, as I am, registered as an independent). I am not convinced, however, that not having ever declared for a party means that one has no allegiance to a party.
It may well be impossible in some real circumstances to achieve both compact districts and districts that do not violate the Voting Rights Act.
Hmmm. So how about we
Presto -- instant Athenian democracy.
This would be true if the politicians doing the redistricting were reinforcing their own positions. They are not, though. If control of the state legislature changes -- the probability of which redistricting will not significantly affect -- the new majority party can redraw the Congressional map in its own image.
I think, however, that redistricting plans should be subject to a public statewide referendum (perhaps even requiring a supermajority for passage).
Is there any particular reason that you believe
that you can't be intimidated unless you know
who's doing the intimidation?
I wouldn't be surprised if it was Socrates; after all,
you've pretty much just described Golden Age Greek
city state life.
Unfortunately, Denethor's Palantir was at Minas Tirith, while Aragorn's use of Saruman's Palantir decided just which way he was going to take to get to -- where? -- Minas Tirith.
So Jackson will probably have Arwen gallop up to Aragorn and tell him that Galadriel saw in her mirror what Aragorn was supposed to see in the Palantir.
They don't have to take pages from Uncle Joe's book. The Congressional Record suffices, as in "I request permission to revise and extend my comments."
Are you sure about that? If someone wished to purchase your vote, would he not simply say, "Here, use this PIN when you vote", and then check your vote himself before giving you the money or breaking your kneecaps?
But these methods aren't new -- we've been using touchscreen voting machines here in my corner of Kentucky for nearly 20 years.
Although it should perhaps be federal law, I doubt very much that any state lacks the sort of law we have here in Kentucky requiring that the workers at each polling station be drawn equally from the two parties that received the most votes in the previous election.
Ah, but isn't this made easier by the fact that government programs are responsible for the rest of the world's militaries, too?
Of course we do. It wasn't quite the 69-27 pasting we gave them back in May, though. It's too bad Hercus couldn't have slotted that conversion against Fiji, or we'd have had an outside chance at the quarters. Now that would have been something else.
With the scantron ballot, however, you can always do a hand recount -- or you can recount the ballots electronically with an independently-programmed scanner.
So he did. He also said that he, figuratively speaking, leaned away from the left hook and, as a result, ended up "going down the highway thirty miles an hour sideways".
I believe the wisecrack goes, "Q: How is Australia different from milk? A: After 200 years, milk would have developed a culture."
And most of the impact of the journey will be lost if PJ has chosen to send his ubiquitous elven band to perform this task, because, as Legolas assures us, human shades hold no fear for an Elf.
Rubbish. Pick up the books again and read how he behaved in the barrow, on Weathertop, at the ford, and at Amon Hen. If that's cowardice, the world still awaits its first act of bravery. Courage, you may recall, is not the inability to feel fear, but the ability to carry on in spite of it.
As Rudyard Kipling so aptly phrased it in _Stalky_&_Co_, "It seems -- and who so astonished as they? -- that they had held back material facts; were guilty both of_suppressio_veri_ and _suggestio_falsi_ (well-known gods against whom they often offended); further, that they were malignant in their dispositions, untrustworthy in their characters, pernicious and revolutionary in their influences, abandoned to the devils of wilfulness, pride, and a most intolerable conceit."
Where do you draw the line?
What if the owners and officers of a company have never made any political contributions, but are all registered to vote as members of the same party?
What if none of them have ever indicated in any way that they support one party or the other, but they all always vote the same straight ticket?
As Alistair MacLean put it in _When_Eight_Bells_Toll_, "Well might they say, why stinks the goat on yonder hill, who seems to dote on chlorophyll?"
It does have scheduled recording, which makes it more similar to something I first used close to 20 years ago: a radio (shortwave, in my case) hooked up to the audio-in on a VCR.