When Modern Technology Meets Primitive Real World Physics

[MineralMan]

(Note: Political connection in last paragraph.)

We have several lamps in our home that turn on and off when you touch them. it's pretty cool. My bedside lamp even goes through three different light levels as you touch it on. It's pretty common technology these days.

There's one other lamp, though, that has a touch-switching feature that dims and brightens the light as you hold the touch. That lamp no longer works, though. The other day, my wife touched the lamp and gave it a zap of static electricity. It's that shocking time of year here. The lamp's circuitry did not like that zap and the lamp no longer works at all. I'm guessing it toasted some chip in the lamp.

Bummer. So, I went into the garage and got a lamp for her chairside table that uses an old-fashioned switch. Not as cool, but it works, even when zapped.

That tendency for modern technology to fail is one of the reasons I favor hand-marked paper ballots in elections. They can be read and tallied by machine, but can also be read and tallied the old-fashioned way by human beings, if necessary. They can also be manually recounted. I think all elections should use paper ballots, since computer technology is easily zapped.

[stopdiggin]

1. vote by mail

there is virtually no reason why we should still insist on cattle call functions (and logistics, limitations and inconvenience) - when I can perform this task with comfort and assurance from the safety of my own home.

[MineralMan]

4. Vote by mail is a great option, but there are a couple of cautionary

issues. For one, voting by mail requires the voter to do some things, like sign the security envelope. In some places, a witness is needed, also. Problems can arise when voters do not read the instructions carefully, and errors or omissions can cause a ballot to be rejected. At a physical polling place, such errors can be eliminated before the ballot is handed to the voter.

In states where absentee, early, drop box, and mail-in voting are available, but where states want to suppress the vote, the requirements can be made more complex to disqualify ballots of voters who do not fully understand voting requirements and who make mistakes.

[stopdiggin]

6. you make good points

but I'd have to say that any 'assistance' rendered the voter (instruction, errors, etc.) by in person - is greatly offset by the deterrence and inconvenience.

And - I think the voting restrictions imposed by our anti-democratic elements - is gong to be more or less a wash (across various platforms). i.e., they well attempt to make things as hard as possible on their target voters - tailoring those hurdles and requirements to the task at hand - regardless of the method of voting employed.

I really kind of think this might be a good place for an "independent commission" to study 'problems' and recommend best practices and solutions - serving to validate reforms (and reformers) and solutions at a state level. Of course this will be met with a chorus of, "can't wait for that" (with some justification). But, you have to start sometime - and I think the idea would also have the benefit of a fairly overwhelming amount of support from the public. Virtually everybody agrees that the system(s) we're running now are unwieldy, unfair and needing of address.

[Talitha]

2. K&R

[hunter]

3. Electronic bits can be flipped invisibly, by accident or by hostile agents.

Ordinary people, using their own eyes and common sense, can tell when hand marked paper ballots are being messed with.

With hand marked paper ballots it doesn't take computer scientists to protect the integrity of elections, just ordinary honest people to oversee the process. Hand marked paper ballots make elections a truly democratic process that any honest person can participate in, from the polling place to the final count.

[MineralMan]

5. Yes. All voting in Minnesota is on paper ballots that are

read and tallied by optical reader machines. After every election, random precincts conduct hand tallies to check the accuracy of the optical equipment. That has worked well to prevent monkeying with the optical reader tallies.

Minnesota handles elections quite well. Minnesotans know their votes will be accurately counted.