Whoa! So, what, exactly, IS an election meltdown?

[IndyOp]

VotersUnite.org -> What, exactly, IS an election meltdown?

The saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." But what if it IS broke, and those who could fix it say that it ain't?

Paul DeGregorio, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission; Doug Lewis of the Election Center; Doug Chapin of electionline.org; Dan Tokaji, Ohio State law professor; California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson and other secretaries of state tell us that the feared "meltdown" just didn't happen on November 7, 2006.

They agree that the election went "better than expected," "relatively smoothly," with "isolated problems", "just a few glitches," "minor issues," "no major problems."

So, with multi-hundreds of news reports of election problems across the country — a fraction of the problems that actually occurred — you have to wonder what a meltdown would have to look like.

What if malfunctions of untested registration software in a major city — say, Denver — forced tens of thousands of voters to wait in line for hours and thousands to leave without voting? Would the election still be "smooth"?

What if voting machines failed at thousands of polling places in over half the states, and the problems caused such severe delays in eight states that the voting hours were extended? Is that "just a few glitches"? (By the way, HAVA says that if voting hours are extended, voters must cast PROVISIONAL ballots after the usual closing time. And, of course, HAVA says you have to allow voters to cast provisional ballots - it doesn't say you have to count them).

What if voting machines of every brand switched people's votes or lost their votes in states from Florida to Pennsylvania to Illinois to Texas to Kentucky to South Carolina to Maryland to Georgia to Virginia to ... "No major problems?"

What if dozens of people reported that their votes for one Congressional race disappeared from the touch screen, and the election director refused to take the machines out of service, and the results showed that 13% of the voters (18,000) hadn't registered a vote in that race? And what if the margin of victory was 368 votes, and there was no way to audit the results? A "minor" problem?

What if polling places all across the largest state in the nation, as well as other states, ran out of paper ballots and the voting machines didn't work? Are these "isolated problems"?

What if lots of electronic ballot boxes (memory cards) were missing in a major city, and only 23 had been found after an extensive search, and the election director said she loses them all the time and normally no one pays any attention, but this time four local races hung in the balance? Is this "smooth" to the people whose ballots were lost in Indianapolis?

And then ... what if partisan control of the United States Senate depended on one race in one state, where the reported margin of victory was three-tenths of a percent, and a recount was impossible because there was no way to recover voter intent from the electronic tallies? In what world is this "better than expected"?

In the 2006 general election, voters were given the wrong ballots and told the wrong polling place. They stood in line for hours waiting for equipment to be fixed or more ballots to arrive. They watched their votes disappear on the screen, or flip to another candidate, or even go up in smoke — literally, when an e-voting machine short-circuited.

If the Chairman of the Election Assistance Commission, Secretaries of State, and other influential names in election administration continue calling these dysfunctional election occurrences "normal glitches," when will the system get fixed?

[TayTay]

1. Contact Dianne Feinstein with this

She is the new Chairwoman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. What do they have jurisdiction over? Well, according to their web site:

(D) Credentials and qualifications of Members of the Senate, contested elections, and acceptance of incompatible offices.

(E) Federal elections generally, including the election of the President, Vice President, and Members of the Congress.

http://rules.senate.gov/purpose/

HAVA came out of this committee, btw, and they would do any hearings on the Senate side on amending Federal Election law.

I know that Chris Dodd (D-CT) is ranking on this, but he will be Chair of another Committee in the new Senate and Rules will be chaired by Sen. Feinstein.

[robinlynne]

3. oh no, Feinstein of all people....wish it were Boxer!!!!

[In Truth We Trust]

7. K&R.. Hand Counted Paper Ballots NOW!!!

[Melissa G]

2. Excellent post , Indy! K&R!

[prodigal_green]

4. I think the untold story of this election

is how MASSIVE the Democratic victory was.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

6. In the face of black box voting and MSM propaganda, it was massive

So much was made of the 1994 Contract with/on America takeover by the republicans, but they had hate radio on their side.

They also had the manufactured Clinton scandals paid for by Richard Mellon Scaife through his sponsorship of the American Spectator.

The MSM reported every mention of these scandals as breaking news instead of looking at the sources and evaluating their credibility. Every one of these horrible scandals reported during the first two years of the Clinton administration turned out to be BS.

That was the background of the great republican win of 1994.

We won in spite of incredible right wing bias in most broadcast media.

[Wrinkle_In_Time]

11. Yes. If the real votes were really counted...

... there would have been an even greater Democratic majority. Despite all their best (worst) efforts, the will of the people was able to shine through.

But that's OK, it was enough... this time.

Never again. It's broken, please fix it.

[yellerpup]

5. Very important story.

K&R! :kick: Just because we won this election doesn't mean we can relax on election fraud issues. We have to stay on it for 2008!

[mhatrw]

8. Kick. n/t

[Fly by night]

9. What if TN voters had to wait in line SIX FUCKING HOURS to vote...

... in Nashville and what if we found three different illegal vote-switching software programs on the Memphis Deibold central vote tabulator ... and our State Election Coordinator's response (the only state official sitting on the Election Center's Board of Directors) was "nothing to see here, just move along."?

[Blue State Blues]

10. Every vote is sacred

(to misquote Monty Python's Meaning of Life) and there is no acceptable level of "glitches" and "minor errors" if it interferes with the voter's right to cast the ballot AND have it counted as intended.

K&R