Monday - November 19, 2012

And Around Again

Oh God I am so sore today. We had the truck yesterday, so we moved most of the big stuff. Most of it. There’s always more, right? Got the sofas moved, got the dressers moved—I have decided that there is a special circle in Hell for the cheap bastard that designed my dresser, using drawer slides that do not let the drawers be removed. Son of a gun. You suck.—got a whole bunch of heavy stuff moved. And there is still more. Crivens.



So, what’s new in the world? Let’s take a quick look ...

Oh yeah, the more things change the more they stay the same: 

Wassamatta, isn’t there enough caffeine in their Tang or something?

Election officials missed a deadline Sunday to report results of a two-day recount in GOP Rep. Allen West’s race to remain in Congress, apparently sealing unofficial results giving the win to Democrat Patrick Murphy.

Though St. Lucie County did not meet a noon cutoff to finish processing 37,379 ballots cast early in the District 18 congressional election, it eventually released the results, which showed Murphy actually gaining votes in the recount. Regardless, under Florida law, previously submitted results favoring Murphy will be certified unless an emergency exemption is granted by the state.

“It puts an end to it as far as we’re concerned,” said Eric Johnson, a Murphy adviser. “It puts an end to it as far as the state’s concerned.”

I’m so sick of this nonsense. With all the billions the governments can spend on stupid programs, payoff bailouts for their buddies, grossly overpriced equipment for the military, $16 bran muffins for their breakfast conferences, etc., WHY CAN’T THEY EVER BUY QUALITY VOTING MACHINES FOR THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTUALLY FOOTING THE BILL?

Damnation. Lemmee tell ya, the machine we use in our district is awesome. The whole thing folds up into a box on wheels. It’s got a battery backup, one of the ones from the office security light things, in case the power goes out. The voting panel is at least 30” across if it isn’t 3 feet, so all the party lines and the positions and candidate’s names are in big bold 1” high type even I can read without my glasses on. Select your candidate, push the button, and that square lights up. When you’re all done, press the big yellow button to cast your ballot. The machine goes beep, and you’re done.

Sure, we have to sign in, and sign a numbered card which we hand over to the gatekeeper. And I think it would be a snap to rig a paper printer to it, the same one that they use in the grocery store, to print out a barcode copy of your ballot. Concerned whether your vote was cast properly? Take your printout - which has your ballot number on it only, and a barcode nobody can read for your privacy - and run it over an outside scanner station. Bing! And that gizmo, exactly like the price check scanner gizmo at the grocery store, tells you who you voted for. It’s that easy. To add validity to the process, I’d send out postcards to a hundred or so registered voters around the county, inviting them to bring the postcard, their ballot slip, and proper ID down to County, where they can enter their vote number into the computer once the votes are tabulated. Bing! Up comes your vote. It really can be this easy.

And counting the votes? That takes about one or two seconds for the entire county. We already have the process in place: At the end of the day, each zones workers report how many people voted, and that number is equal or greater than the total number of votes recorded by all the voting machines in that zone (district). Because you also have the right to not cast your ballot. Security we’ve already got: you can’t vote unless they find your name in the voter roll books, and someone is watching you sign in and compares your signature to the previous ones. And we could always easily add a check for voter ID at that point. Every district’s totals are displayed, and the county totals them up, and that’s how many votes cast and not cast. The election workers all drive down together, people from both parties plus an observer (and maybe an armed security guard too?), with the disks or chips or tapes or whatever the machines put their numbers on, and that goes into the main computer. And none of it gets lost, stolen, or mislaid. Ever. Mail in ballots are handled the same way, so I’d make sure a solid third of those “prove it” postcards went out to people who mailed in their ballots. Just to make sure.

I’m telling you. I’ve told you before. It’s my personal bugbear. The absolute basis of re-establishing trust in government is re-establishing trust in the voting process. (destroyed by Al Gore in 2000) Clean it up, clear out the deadwood, and put some serious God fearing immediate penalties in place for people who screw with the system, with penalties escalating from voter to polling station worker to county official to state officials. And I’m talking prison time and fines in the tens of thousands for the top dogs if the counts are off by as much as a single vote. Because it’s inexcusable given the state of technology and the bottomless sea of money that the governments have to spend. And it really is that easy.

Voter ID with photo. No registration within 60 days of the election. The whole nation has to re-register every 7 years. Make it a federal offense for ANY news outlet to report any polling numbers while ANY voting is still going on in the nation (which would kill the hallowed Election Night fillibuster, too bad). All mail in ballots must be postmarked a minimum of 2 weeks before the election. Every county keeps its rolls up to date, and employs at least one full time person who does nothing else except keep the rolls pure and accurate. Easy to use, stupid-proof voting machines like ours (Diebold makes ours). PUBLIC tabulation of the electronic vote totals, with optional barcode printouts for those who want them. Random folks invited to come down to county to check that the system is working properly. And free and easy public access to a vote checking terminal, one at each polling place that is NOT connected to anything and just reads the paper slip, and another at county that IS connected and pulls your vote up out of the computer ... maybe even your vote from years ago once the system has been in place for a bit. It really is that easy. And we could do it nationwide for the price of a few Obama Green Scam Initiatives, or for the price of a new boat for the Navy or a couple dozen grossly overpriced toys for the Air Force.

And we’d never have to read a bullshit story like this one about the screwballs in Florida again. Or hear about ballots being found days later in the back of somebody’s car. Or have to wonder if there were “irregularities” in some city in some state where 287% of the registered voters turned in votes. Or how somehow Romney beat absolutely interstellar odds and didn’t get one single vote - NOT ONE - in 57 counties in Illinois or whatever that was. Because that’s impossible, and is in itself proof that the voting was rigged. Or that the process was total bullshit, which is essentially the same thing.

Ok, screed over. Time for a quick shower and it’s back to packing and hauling for us. Oh fun. Oh my back.

Posted by Drew458     on 11/19/2012 at 09:51 AM   
Filed Under: • Computers and Cyberspace • Daily Life • Government •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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