What if your vote actually did count, and you had a paper trail.

[Aaria]

In Texas they lost a warehouse full of voting machines to a fire. No surprise should come that arson was suspected and that the machines were for the more democratic leaning districts. So, what do ya do to make sure your vote gets cast plus you don't have to mess with the lines at the few polling places where they have machines. Call and get your absentee voters ballot. It may be the only district that you can actually see what the people are really voting for, not what the machine says.
This is not for their district alone, everyone should call and get their absentee ballot. Think of it, no line, a paper trail, you get a couple of days to fill it out and you don't have to skip work. I'm surprised the Repukes haven't thought of this. And after the election of Greene in SC this is a no brainer, since the mail in ballots were the complete opposite of the machine count. We need start a national campaign to get everyone using the ballots and skip the f'n machines all together. Remember what Stalin said about voting.

[lonestarnot]

1. And what of the optical scanners that count the ballots?

[Aaria]

7. Thats a good reason for a tea party, all the machines goin in the drink.

[csziggy]

10. No election method is reliable unless there is a way to audit

The machines and their software. And unless the people running the election are trustworthy.

Here in Leon County, Florida, we have used paper ballots counted by optical scanners since the mid 80s. I trust that they are counted correctly because - and ONLY because - I trust the Supervisor of Elections for our county, Ion Sancho. Mr. Sancho has worked to make sure elections are honest since he got into office here. He's done such a good job of trying to make sure the machines are not hackable, the manufacturers of voting machines at one point refused to sell him new equipment, and then backed a movement to get him impeached. The voters of Leon County let Governor Jeb Bush and our state legislators know in no uncertain terms that this would not be acceptable to us.

When Ion Sancho decides to retire or if he is ever defeated in an election, I will no longer trust our elections.

[flyarm]

2. The vote by mail has been extremely popular in Fla since 2000.

But that is not a guarantee of anything..a supervisor of elections in my district lost absentee ballots in 2004 under a desk in her office! They were only found after the election results were certified! So they were not counted.

[Mika]

4. Absentee ballots counted only if the election is within projected margins absentees could affect.

There are many millions of absentee ballots uncounted every election.

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[flyarm]

5. ours in Fla have been marketed as Vote by mail..and early vote. eom

[Aaria]

6. need to show some proff of that.

[EFerrari]

8. Yep. It's like that all over the country. n/t

[Mika]

3. Like Cuba

Paper ballots. Counted in public. Over 90% eligible voters participate.


Residents of the Nuevo Vedado neighboorhood attend a meeting during municipal
elections in Havana, Sept. 11, 2007. Cuba’s communist system is built in part on
these block-by-block gatherings, where anyone 16 and over can nominate neighbors
and vote on candidates for local government. (AP Photo/Prensa Latina)


Candidate posters


A man leaves a voting cabinet at a polling station
during Cuba's municipal elections in Havana


Two young Pioneers stand next to a ballot box at a polling
station during Cuba's municipal elections in Havana


A woman casts her ballot at a polling station during
Cuba's municipal elections in Havana


Local residents line up early Sunday before casting
their vote at a polling station during Cuba's municipal
elections in Havana



I was in Cuba during an entire election season.

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[EFerrari]

9. Unless the paper is a ballot, it's only worth the paper it's printed on. n/t