NYTimes and 'Experts' Finally Notice: 'It is Impossible to Say How Many Votes Were Not Counted That

[kster]

Snip....After six years of technological research, more than $4 billion spent by Washington on new machinery and a widespread overhaul of the nation’s voting system, this month’s midterm election revealed that the country is still far from able to ensure that every vote counts.

Tens of thousands of voters, scattered across more than 25 states, encountered serious problems at the polls, including failures in sophisticated new voting machines and confusion over new identification rules, according to interviews with election experts and officials.

SNIP....In many places, the difficulties led to shortages of substitute paper ballots and long lines that caused many voters to leave without casting ballots.


SNIP...."If the success of an election is to be measured according to whether each voter’s voice is heard, then we would have to conclude that this past election was not entirely a success," said Doug Chapin, director of Electionline.org, a nonpartisan election group that plans to release a report Wednesday with a state-by-state assessment of voting. "In places where the margin of victory was bigger than the margin of error, we looked away from the problems, but in 2008 we might not have that luxury."

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3846

[bleever]

1. "Impossible" to say how many votes were counted, and

how many not counted.

Meanwhile, if I've gotten some yellow potatoes at the supermarket, they can look that up, charge me correctly every single time, and give me a receipt.

The New York Times is acknowledging the broken system.

Democracy doesn't exist, for the time being.

How does that sit with America?

[kster]

2. How do we get some people to understand that

"Democracy doesn't exist" in the USA, some may want to convince themselves that it exist, but as long as we allow the votes to be counted in secret THERE IS NO DEMOCRACY PERIOD

[aquart]

3. Uh, no. they do not charge you correctly every single time.

You are clearly not checking your receipts carefully enough.

[BlueEyedSon]

6. Right, but in theory at least, you can detect the discrepancy

The grocery receipt is auditable, unlike US elections

[EFerrari]

4. I love it:

". . .this month’s midterm election revealed that the country is still far from able to ensure that every vote counts."

In other news, cats shed and the NYTs master egregious understatement.

[Raster]

7. Isn't it absolutely amazing that the company that makes secure, accurate

bank ATM machines can't get voting machines right?

What I find even more amazing is that one political party--the Rethuglicans--based their entire electoral strategy on how many votes they could lose, dissuade or cheat. Instead of working to get the vote out, they worked to inhibit the vote.

[driver8]

8. What is even more amazing is that the American people put up

with this shit.

We can't even run an election in the U.S., how in the hell can we expect to spread "democracy" throughout the middle east?

There is a Diebold ATM machine in the supermarket I shop at -- everytime I walk past it I want to smash the shit out of it!

[enough]

5. k&r