Yes the vote over the internet thing is crap. The security is pathetic. I work in the industry, I should know, our standards are horrible and not something I want to have used to determin the outcome of important races.
It seems typical to me that this is being pushed by the Pentagon, because the Bush squad is going all out to make sure the kind of voters they want to see are represented (in this case assuming soldiers would vote Republican). I wonder if there is some kind of cabal working on this in a state of high secrecy (controlled by Grand Moff Cheney, I'd imagine)? The Republican were also the ones pushing for all ballot counting devices become electronic, which sent tons of money to the companies designing them ... and gives the Republicans special knowledge to cook the books? I can't imagine how the so-called paper trail (the voters get a record of how they voted?) would ever be useful in the forms I've heard described.
But subtle changes can also be done in a very low tech, yet effective, fashion. The Florida Republican Secretary of State purged many legal voters names from the polls because they were similar to those of convicted felons (and the black vote is considered to be Democratic). How could these people possibly challenge their removal from the voting lists effectively the day of the election? "Sorry, check back tomorrow." The success that this tiny change had in the outcome of a national election must surely have energized the Rs, for now we see they've gone to mid-census gerrymandering to encourage that more Republicans are elected to Congress. It's truly incredible, and as a citizen my only hope is that the courts will clean things up ... but their pace is too slow and they're not doing a good job. I'm so frustrated. It's an ugly time to live here.
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timeasmymeasure
can't we all just pretend it works?
Date: 2004-01-22 11:35 am (UTC)It seems typical to me that this is being pushed by the Pentagon, because the Bush squad is going all out to make sure the kind of voters they want to see are represented (in this case assuming soldiers would vote Republican). I wonder if there is some kind of cabal working on this in a state of high secrecy (controlled by Grand Moff Cheney, I'd imagine)? The Republican were also the ones pushing for all ballot counting devices become electronic, which sent tons of money to the companies designing them ... and gives the Republicans special knowledge to cook the books? I can't imagine how the so-called paper trail (the voters get a record of how they voted?) would ever be useful in the forms I've heard described.
But subtle changes can also be done in a very low tech, yet effective, fashion. The Florida Republican Secretary of State purged many legal voters names from the polls because they were similar to those of convicted felons (and the black vote is considered to be Democratic). How could these people possibly challenge their removal from the voting lists effectively the day of the election? "Sorry, check back tomorrow." The success that this tiny change had in the outcome of a national election must surely have energized the Rs, for now we see they've gone to mid-census gerrymandering to encourage that more Republicans are elected to Congress. It's truly incredible, and as a citizen my only hope is that the courts will clean things up ... but their pace is too slow and they're not doing a good job. I'm so frustrated. It's an ugly time to live here.