Robin Baneth puts 1000 bucks on the voting line

[donsu]

http://www.buzzflash.com/mailbag/04/12/mai04341.html

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Subject: Wheel of VOTER Challenge 2004: SAVE THE MACHINES, SAVE THE VOTING MACHINES!

My Fellow 'Americans:'

I will send a $1,000 cashier's check to the first election official, politician, statistician, professor, broadcast journalist, blogger, editor, vote machine manufacturer, programmer, anyone who can convince me of the superiority of non-paper trail voting to paper-trail voting. I challenge you, READER; You, Keith Olbermann; YOU my right-wing brother in Utah; YOU, Jim Baker, YOU, Tom DeLay; YOU, David Corn; YOU, Bill O'Reilly; YOU, Katherine Blackwell. You and you and you and YOU. Knock this battery off my shoulder. Don't worry, I have overdraft protection.

Please explain to me why no paper-trail machines are superior to paper balloting? No matter how this gets spun, you know what ... we are still talking about the fallibility and tinkerability and FINANCIAL COST of machines. Why was vote tabulation not the major issue in the 60s, 70s, etc. that it is today? We have gone backwards, prehistoric even. A single machine error can turn an election, can a single paper balloting error do this? Maybe dead people voting can, but it takes work. The solution seems obvious so I am putting my money where my fool heart is. My stomach is in knots and I cannot sleep. My reasons are two-fold: 1) I WANT to give you my money so I can feel good about this election, and 2) Republicans seem to understand this over wimpy liberal therapy sessions.

I have ZERO confidence in this last election. I am not the only one. I am digging in my family history to prove I have Ukrainian blood. Damn, those people make me proud. Prove I should trust OUR system. This reminds me of the Sparks song "Everybody's Stupid (that's for sure)." Bring it on. I will keep you all posted on the winner, especially if it is me. Oh yeah, paper costs less than these machines that need to be replaced, leased, maintained, sodomized. Do discuss cost in your argument.

Machines have failed miserably in the election arena. Period. I will debate you and I will win.

Now I just finished reading today's More on the 'Stolen Election' by David Corn (CBS and The Nation 12/1) and here is my final position on this whole ordeal:

Canada (the country with no voting controversy) votes with paper ballots and they find out their results two hours after the polls close. We use machines and we get Corn's patronizing article and Blackwell's stonewalling. On and on and on. I now see Palm Beach, Florida now creatively proposes to stretch out the whole process as a cheaper solution to fixing the machine situation we are supposedly all so heavily invested in:

Florida election officials propose change in voting (AP/news14)

Isn't this called early voting? Wow, creative geniuses they are. Idiots. Here's an idea, let's get rid of most of the machines and all Warren County, Ohio and Palm Beach County, Florida election officials while we are at it. What are the drawbacks? NONE. Unless I lose my challenge. I will keep you posted.

One way to go: Everyone should use a standard serialized paper ballot (I like felt tip pen filling in line, put them in a clear acrylic lock box, and they can be op-scanned at the end of the night by bi-partisan officials (one of each) at the same location. There, I don't hate all machines when used in the proper context. I actually programmed them to score student multiple-choice tests when I was a teaching assistant at North Carolina State University. 200 at a time no less. Straight into DBASE. Remember DBASE?

Would a paper trail kill anyone? This honor system no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt. 57,000 reports to the GAO? Tossed out poll tapes in Volusia County, Florida? This same county registered -16,022 (that's right, negative) votes for Gore. A media lockout in Warren County, Ohio? THESE ARE FACTS. NOT CONJECTURE, FACTS. Forget that every irregularity favors one candidate over another, I won't get into the stats and strange mathematical anomalies that just seem to muddy a picture that is very clear to me. If you win I will fax all our congresspeople to "SAVE THE MACHINES" with your arguments.

Please stop defending the insanity. I defy anyone to justify that no paper trail is better than a paper trail. Did you know Diebold makes ATMs? You know, those ATMS that print receipts?

I'm right on this and if anyone gives me the reverse challenge I will take your money and send it to Bev Harris at www.blackboxvoting.org. She deserves it.

Robin Baneth
Raleigh, NC
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