VOTING ALERT!!
California Pollworkers Told to Withhold Information from Voters
By mandate of the California Secretary of State, you have the legal right to request a paper ballot if you are concerned about the reliability of electronic voting machines. They must provide these ballots.
However, pollworkers in Santa Clara County -- that's San Jose, and the place where a goodly number of you out there in LJ land live -- are being unstructed specifically not to mention this to voters, and to provide paper ballots only upon specific request.
The rights you save could be your own!
By mandate of the California Secretary of State, you have the legal right to request a paper ballot if you are concerned about the reliability of electronic voting machines. They must provide these ballots.
However, pollworkers in Santa Clara County -- that's San Jose, and the place where a goodly number of you out there in LJ land live -- are being unstructed specifically not to mention this to voters, and to provide paper ballots only upon specific request.
The rights you save could be your own!
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For some reason I this keeps getting bogged down in partisanship, and I don't know why. All we want is a way to go back and check on things if there was some sort of problem, no matter what the source.
Personally, I'm a fan of a human readable printout from the voting station to go along with the live data, that can be optically scanned should the need arise. So that there is a paper backup should there be some sort of failure. There is a paper trail for that bag of groceries you bought, why not for your vote?
Thoroughness is not paranoia.
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Not to mention that people can't even use ATMs properly and they expect them to do touch screen voting...
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While I think the interface to most voting systems is actually pretty clear, I've never ceased to be amazed at how some folks' minds seem to switch off when you put a computerized device in front of them- even very, very smart people. That's one reason I like the system we have where I live- mark a ballot with a special marker (special mostly in that it can sit around all day with the cap off and still mark properly) then feed it into the computer reader. You feed it in yourself, and it stays in a locked container inside the machine once read. So no computer interface to confuse, and all the benefits of computer tallying- with the guaranteed ability to perform a genuine paper hand recount if necessary.
Still, I think the 2000 elections showed that there are forces out there with less than honorable intentions... Imagine what they could do with access to the computer.
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JOSHUA: "WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?"
-- WarGames
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The sheer amount of skullduggery these people will stoop to to retain power is amazing...
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But, dear gods, the hue and cry I hear over that horrid, wicked ambulance chaser, John Edwards...
But that's another rant for another day.
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The organization is www.electionprotectionvolunteer.org.
-- ArchTeryx