I want my Butterfly Ballot back!

[JackLuis]

You could depend upon the butterfly ballot’s technology to fairly transport the will of the people to the Government. No matter what they say about, “Vote by Internet” and touch screens machines and transfer chips, the electro-mechanical process of counting the ballots is a lot more difficult to manipulate. That is the foundation of our form of government, an honest election.

But the Butterfly has flown it seems and now we are in treacherous terrain, between the games that can be played by software, and the substitution of data, in the transfer of accumulator chips, how can anyone seriously believe our elections are honest?

The Ballot machine business is a complete failure, largely because the need they served was not in the interest of the people. The industry was supported by people who knew that honest elections were not in their best interest. So now we have a vast number of different kinds of machines each with their own vulnerabilities scattered across our nation as a festering reminder that we have lost the will to protest.

But, I do protest. I want a Ballot I can believe in, not some fancy system that gives us the results fast, because they were preordained! The Butterfly ballot had served the country well and made it difficult to fix elections. So what if it takes a few days to tabulate the results. And if the machine can not read because of “hanging or dimpled chad,” then it’s not a vote. The error rate in reading is low enough to be insignificant.

The Butterfly Ballot requires fewer resources, witness the amount of paper our Visual Scan ballots require, while they offer very little confidentiality, negating my right to a secret ballot!

So than you very much but, I want my Butterfly Ballot Back!

 

[Weird Harold]

Luddite!

 

[JackLuis]

Luddite!

Actually technoligist.

 

[Weird Harold]

Actually technoligist.

Whatever.

I voted on a diebold touchscreen with a printer attached. It took me half the time the old butterfly punch-card holder style machines did and the paper-trail is in plain text that any literate person or halfway competent text scanner can read.

 

[R. Richard]

You could depend upon the butterfly ballot’s technology to fairly transport the will of the people to the Government. No matter what they say about, “Vote by Internet” and touch screens machines and transfer chips, the electro-mechanical process of counting the ballots is a lot more difficult to manipulate. That is the foundation of our form of government, an honest election.

But the Butterfly has flown it seems and now we are in treacherous terrain, between the games that can be played by software, and the substitution of data, in the transfer of accumulator chips, how can anyone seriously believe our elections are honest?

I would deny your initial statement. Several states failed to send ballots, butterfly or otherwise, to our Armed Forces units stationed overseas, in time for the military personnel to vote. Said failure is a violation of law, although no penalty is specified.

Is an election in which large numbers of military personnel are denied the right to vote fair? No way in hell!

 

[JackLuis]

I would deny your initial statement. Several states failed to send ballots, butterfly or otherwise, to our Armed Forces units stationed overseas, in time for the military personnel to vote. Said failure is a violation of law, although no penalty is specified.

Is an election in which large numbers of military personnel are denied the right to vote fair? No way in hell!

Rest assured, the Military is on a very thin string, but I'm surprised the Repub's didn't follow this as it would be a boon for them. Maybe they just forgot there is a war on?