Non political political statement

S Ebels

That's right boys and girls, today is election day and I want to take a minute right here to encourage......no....exhort.........no.........demand! that you get out to your local polling place and cast a ballot for who you believe best represents truth, justice and the American way. And all that other good stuff we love here in this country.

Lot's of polling places have new government mandated equipment that is unfamiliar to the workers and in a lot of cases, from what I hear, is not functioning totally as it should. Please be patient with the workers and give yourself enough time so you aren't rushed. Just do it!

That being said................if you don't get out and exercise your right to vote, no further whining will be tolerated!! If I find out you haven't voted, I'll send Sheriff Murph to track you down, strip you nekked and beat you with a piece of PAP until your cheeks are bright red and you can't sit for a week!

From your friendly, local township clerk :)

Have a pleasant day

Steve

bovide_4

well said

with humor and class.

Unknown

Uh, don't be patient. Get mad that we are being forced to use machines with no paper trail, no way of confirming votes, with a totally closed operating system, and yell at your representative to INSIST that voting machines be run on OPEN standards with PAPER TRAILS!!!

Seriously, these things as they are currently built represent a serious threat to democracy.

Joannie_11

Went Well Here

We still have easy-to-use paper ballots where I am, and it went nice and smoothly, and people were smiling.

I hope you all vote.

It's important.

jp_2

did the old,

machines have a paper trail? I don;t recall myself. go in there, pull some levels and you voted.

if people can make fake money, surely a paper ballot is not that hard. there sure is NO system that can be 100% fool proof.

Unknown

Yes, you had physical ballots, counted by representatives from both parties.

Foolproof? of course not. But these can be tampered with without anyone ever knowing, and could with much greater ease be used to perpetrate large scale (and nearly undetectable) fraud.

There is a whole lot on the web about all the ways these things fall short. Do some googling and you'll see.

Singh_2

I'd vote for you Rob !

Right on, brother. Hopefully my town will never get those .
Pre-loaded memory cards is what scares me about electronic voting.

P.S. The documentary Hacking Democracy is on tonight at 6:30 on HBO
watch it !!!

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jp_2

the web!!!!

OH BOY NRT!!!!

I think we all know about the WEB, how many times do we see/hear about those 5/8" to 7/8" suspended tube radiants, one past/joist run systems that are sold on the web?
lotta horse poop out there in computerland.

I really do not recall a paper ballot with the old level operated machines.

lets not forget the florida vote, how many times where the ballots counted by hand, how many different numbers they came up with? they were counting paper ballots!!!

anyway lets get back to heating systems, more fun to talk about and we can prove thing on paper.

Unknown

?

What, you can't find news on the web?
Here, I'll help.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/30/elec04.election.worries/
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060913-7735.html

Get started with that. If you need more help, google is your friend.

jp_2

CNN

yep, I watched a lot of CNN during katrina, watched enough to see contradictions, missinformation, little apology for wrong information, slanted stories.......poor reporting.....

early on I saw a clip of all the school buses under water, never saw that clip again, wonder why? even though most other film clips I saw numberous times.....never saw those buses underwater? makes ya think?

I lost a ton of respect for CNN after, they MAKE the news, not report it.

ScottMP

Hey JP

I guess old Rob dosn't know the history of Chicago elections.

Nothing is perfect but at least we don't have to have purple thumbs.

Not that theres anything wrong with it !

I voted.

I don't ever remember pulling a lever. Guess's I'm not at old as I thought.

Scott

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jp_2

politics and religion

are about the same in belief structure. lets get back to heating!!!!we can prove each other wrong on paper and we can all learn sonething in the process.

Unknown

What is political about being concerned about a closed system of electronic voting machines that have been PROVEN to be easily tamperable?

This isn't democratic or republican, red or blue. It's just bad technology. They can do this right, they just aren't right now. I guess you can shrug it off if you like. Personally, I'd like to not have to trust two or three companies to execute their systems flawlessly with no oversight, when my democracy is at stake. I'd vastly prefer some transparency and some recourse should something go wrong.

We can do better. That is all.

jackchips_2

Right after

that we can watch the video of how man faked the moon landing.

Then watch how we blew up our own towers on 9-11.

Just proves what a great Country this is. We can even prove all voting is a fraud.

Actually it were true and someone could prove it and I could be kicked out of office. Working for some people really su--s but they deserve the same representation.

GET OUT AND VOTE.

Jack

Ps. to Scott,

We had those machines and they were great. you pulled an arm when inside which closed the curtain, then voted by lever. When done the arm opened the curtain and counted the vote.

I was a poll worker for many years and went in to count when they closed. We were given tear off sheets and the tally had to balance with the tellers count and the book checking in you.

It was a great system but Florida put an end to it.

Singh_2

you forgot about

The Rodney King video
and The JFK assasination video.They never happened, it's all a conspiracy man.
(and in case you can't tell, I'm being a wiseass)

Serious, as a citizen, I feel it is MY duty, not my right to care about what is going on, to ask questions, to seek information , from ALL angles and ALL sources, to formulate my own opinions and ideas, before I vote or not, or for whom I want to vote for or even on what machine I vote on. AND THAT IS WHAT MAKES THIS A GREAT COUNTRY.And speaking of which, If voting is free and fair (which I hope it is) should not all machines be standard and the tallying methods be standard? Throughout the whole country? Should we have held an election to vote on the machines, and not just accept some thing shiny with a touch screen, oooh , aaah look ma, it's got lights. (wiseass again)

I voted today , I was #299 , I guess a thousand of my neighbors must be convicted felons.....or don't care.... and that's what makes this a great country???

P.S. I voted on that lever machine today, works well still.

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Mark Hunt

Lever voting machines


I just got back from voting and we are still using those old machines.

Pull the lever, curtain closes, click more levers, pull the first lever back the curtain opens and your votes are recorded.

I was number 430 of the 748 registered voters in my district.

Mark H

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Jeff Lawrence_25

748?

What time of day was that?

Mark Hunt

There are only


748 registered voters in my district, I just found this out when I was voting about a half hour ago.

Now you may think that I live on Walton Mountain but I do not. I was amazed at how few registered voters there are here. My district has thousands of people living in it but only 748 registered to vote.

The folks at the polling place were extatic at the turn out!!! "We're well over 50%!!" one exclaimed.

Be still my heart!

Mark H (Apparently living at the end of the world)

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Jim Bennett

748?

How did you know what number you were? Did you ask or is there a counter visible on the machine?

Jim

jp_2

290 at 7.20am

i was 290 at 7.20am, wish i would have asked how many in my district?

ALH_4

Paper

Wont be long and we'll be in the 20th century here in Montana. I voted by paper ballot, and they were still getting confused as I was standing there waiting to hand them my completed ballot.

At least I walked right in and voted. Two years ago I waited 2 hours in line to vote. It's funny, everyone gets so excited about the separation of church and state, but I voted at the Assembly of God Activity Center today. Go figure.

-Andrew

Mark Hunt

The folks at the polling place


keep count on the number of people voting and I heard her say that I was number 430. That is when the whole discussion of voter turn out got going among the pollsters and another voter asked how many there were registered in our district. They answered 748.

Every district knows how many regsistered voters they have. If all 748 registered voters show up at the polling place tonight, the pollsters will know that number 749 is probably up to no good. Or....they have Alzheimers.

Mark H



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Robert O'Brien

Not to be unpatriotic,but when the choices are limited to 2 does it really matter?

brucewo1b

Steve It Depends

and I'll get back with an answer, ok.

Brad White_142

Voted at 5:10 PM

Heavy turnout but the line moved quickly. I was NOT asked for ID and was waved off when I insisted on showing it.

My name was not on the main voting list but on a "provisional" list- and I was a Deputy Registrar of Voters in Boston, former head of the GOP in Boston and have never missed an election??

Then Harold Kelland showed up to vote. Harold was an old-time Republican, WWII vet, lived in the same house since it was built in 1927. I knew Harold personally and would often drive him to the polls and VA hospital appointments.

Did I use the past tense? Yes I did. Harold Kelland died in 1998 but today looked like a man in his 20's. I challenged him and they did nothing, allowed him to vote and I could "file a protest".

Report from Boston where the Dead Vote. In alphabetical order.

Over and Out.

John R. Hall

Got there at 7:40 a.m.

I was number 54 and I hope I get elected as the write-in representative.

Perry_2

Here in Wisconsin

I have moved arround a lot. For the last 15 years everyplace that I have voted (at least 5 different localities all over) has used the same system.

A paper ballot that you mark (complete the "Arrow"). The paper ballot is then inserted by the voter into an electonic scanner/counter - which rejects invalid ballots on the spot.

Its a great system. I remember years ago when the scanner failed at a poling station. Everyone just put their ballot into a locked ballot box designed to hold the ballots (in the event of scanner failure)- and the local news covered the transfer of the ballot box to another poling station after the polls were closed - and the counting of the ballots by another scanner. It was fast. It is simple.

Recounts are fast as well.

Is anything more electronic than that needed.

Same system is still in use today. I marked my ballot wisely, inserted it into the scanner, and waited for the light to flash and the scanner to "ping."

My vote counted. Did yours?

Perry

Perry_2

The lever machines have a paper record

Many do not know this, but the lever machines have a paper record. Their is a roll of paper in the back - and after you select your canidates - one of the things it does when you pull the lever is punch holes in that paper - with the position of the holes specifying which canidate you voted for. This way, if a voting machine breaks down during the day - they can recover the number of votes for which canidate up to the failure.

I used lever machines long ago.

Perry

Guy_6

I'm in

I stopped in at the polls myself today, on my way home from work. It was easy, and very worthwhile.
While there, one question did cross my mind: Has anyone's vote ever been swayed by someone holding a sign and waving?

S Ebels

You should Brad

File a protest that is. Stuff like that is rampant in some areas downstate here in Michigan. The city of Detroit was caught mailing absentee ballots to folks that were long dead, moved or never existed during the primary. They had a list that they worked from every election and the thing is most of those ballots were being voted and returned by someone. The procedure is supposed to be that a voter request an application to vote, which is then sent or deliverd by the local official. When the app is returned, the official is supposed to compare it to the list of active registered voters and THEN mail a ballot. Some of the clerks down there seemed to have their own agenda and were selectively mailing ballots to the "right" people some of whom, as I said, were long gone.

Brad White_9

Absolutely will, Steve.

I was also in line with a family who moved here recently, in the past six months, from some Central American country....none could possibly have been citizens. But they voted anyway. We even ran out of English language ballots in some precincts. No checks nor balances. ANYONE could vote. Laws were broken no doubt, just ignored even when pointed out.

Yes, I will file a protest for what it is worth. No one cares anymore. But I am a Notary Public here in MA and have subpeona power by that...

Christian Egli_2

You're an amazing guy Brad,

You're what we need, here a few years back, my polling station got swamped by union goons who heckled people and fought (in a fist fight) with some of the poll workers about the books and paper work, tearing them apart.

We have signs at 100 ft outside the voting location that should stop the campaigners, not those goons, they where covered head to toe in badges leaving no hint about what they wanted. Some places, you really can't trust what comes out of this process.

I voted my way, but...

Unknown

which office did Dan H

Which office did Dan Holohan get elected into?