BBV - Florida as the next Florida - NYT op ed

[harmonyguy]

"Four years after Florida made a mockery of American elections, there is every reason to believe it could happen again."
snip

"When a Times editorial writer dropped in on one Palm Beach precinct where there were reports of malfunctioning machines, county officials called the police to remove him."
snip

"Given its history, Florida should be a leader in requiring paper trails"
snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/opinion/14SUN1.html?ex=1079845200&en=a5b0a984ac23dd37&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

HG
It's paper BALLOTS not paper trails.
Paper trails are what you drag behind you (stuck to your shoe) after you leave the washroom.

[Eric J in MN]

1. I agree with most of that editorial, and I want

I agree with most of that editorial, and I want electoronic voting-machines to be required to print paper-ballots, but it would be better to stop using them altogether.

Suppose an election day, an electronic voting-machine DOES have a printer, but a voter isn't given a chance to vote in the Presidential race because the machine considers that voter finished before he really is (like in Georgia where some people only got to vote on the state-flag when they wanted to vote in the Presidentail primary.)

There is no procedure for dealing with such a situation.

On the other hand, with optical scan ballots, if a person is handed the wrong voting-packet to use with the opical scan ballot, he can ask for another one.

[Jane Austin]

3. Optical Scan Ballots

We got to use optical scan ballots this year in our new precinct and I just love them.

Talk about something that ain't broke!

[harmonyguy]

6. Optical scan ain't all it's cracked up to be either !

The optical scan process has its share of problems too!
Everything from people not understanding what writing utensil to use (pen? pencil? grease marker?), to improperly printed ballots, to recounts being done by feeding them through the scanner again.

Scanning of paper ballots is certainly preferable to paperless voting, but recounts MUST be done by hand, rather than by rescanning. Just because the machine reads the ballot the same way twice doesn't mean that the machine read the ballot right the first time.

HG ;-)

[Jane Austin]

7. Question

What do you think is the best method?

[Andy_Stephenson]

5. I am so glad to see you finally calling it a paper ballot.

THANK YOU! :)

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Thanks for posting this, harmonyguy, and thanks to the NYT --

[Dirty Hippie]

4. Glenda Hood a Jeb Bush Appointee

keeps saying we don't need a paper trail. She's got to deliver Florida to GW in November.

[SoCalDem]

8. All that's needed is PAPER..and a marking pen

Every state should have a primary.. The primary would be where the referendum (if any)..and the "other issues & propositions" are voted on.. For the general elections is should be ONLY the people running for office..
The typical complaint I heard was that they needed to go electronic, because all the other stuff made the ballots too long..

What could be easier..

president...choose one

senator...choose one

congressperson...choose one

state assembly.. choose (how ever many are allowed)

The propositions are so complicated and worded so disingenuously that most people don't even know that sometimes a "NO" vote is actually a vote to pass the issue and vice versa..


On November ? of any given election year, people want to vote for president, senate etc..


or they could have a special election for the propositions.. They can have special elections for lots more frivolous reasons..


A paper ballot is easy to count..and precincts just need to make sure there are enough people on election day to count them..

We managed it for hundreds of years..

If a precinct is too big..then break it up.. what's the problem??

A 5th grader could manage an election if they did it right..

You add up all the names of people who signed in to vote, you run the ballots through a counter to verify that you have an equal amount, and then you just tally the damned votes..