Why Are You So Upset?

[BeFree]

About these new VCM: Vote Counting Machines

The new-fangled voting machines are the best thing going. Counting the votes has always been the messiest part of democracy, and now that mess has been fixed by the VCM: Vote Counting Machines.

Never before have so few been able to count so many votes. Never before have so many computer illiterates been able to literally use the privately owned systems to make the penultimate decisions of just who will have the penultimate power.

We should be rejoicing, like those poor election officials do, ya know, those poor people who were over burdened with having to track all our votes. Their job is so much easier now, no wonder they love the VCM. It's all so much cleaner and less messy.

Why, mere seconds is all it takes for the vote to be tabulated. No more prying eyes looking over the shoulders of the counters. The VCM is protected from prying human eyes.

The systems we have now are expensive and we all know expensive is good. And look at who furnished the money for these machines: Congress. We all know congress knows all and sees all and is most interested in making democracy the best money can buy.

So settle down and accept what congress has done for us, as the same ones keep getting elected, somehow, someway, no matter how badly they screw-up. Its all for your own good, so they say.

The last thing we need to do is go back to hand counting your vote. And the powers that be intend to keep it that way. Right?

[EFerrari]

1. Last night, Tavis Smiley had a guy on with all kinds of great ideas

(and a book) on how to make our elections more fair.

All his models were computer based.

And, no, the question was never raised.

:crazy:

[truedelphi]

3. See my post under yours...

The machines have got it all covered!

Really they do!

[truedelphi]

2. Right before 2004 Election, someone asked me my feelings about that new

Voting equipment.

And I pointed out that although it was only mid-October, the new machines could have the results of the November election by the end of the week!

Why would we bother with any other method!

[BeFree]

4. That's the spirit!

We want it all, and we want it now!

The crap of waiting around a few days to figure out just who won what is over. Now we can know what happened before it even happens.

Ain't technology great? Why, it's gotten us where we are today.

[truedelphi]

5. So true. Although people like me tend to be

Where we were yesterday.

But it's a process. One I am hoping all of us will soon achieve!

[Warpy]

6. I know a lot of New Mexicans who are embarrassed it took us

nine whole days to get the Super Tuesday results in.

I find it a source of real pride. We have 100% paper ballots. We use OptiScan ballots in the general election, but they're still capable of being spot checked by hand, so any fraud built into the counters will be caught quickly.

DREs robbed 17,000+ of us of our votes in 2004 by erasing them from the general election while retaining them in the local elections for judges.

Never again. We got 100% paper ballots in this state and we will keep them.

I don't care how long it takes us to count them.

[BeFree]

7. Like we see from NYC

When the prying eyes are allowed to double check the vote counts, the shit hit the fan. Now it seems Obama actually did get some votes in Harlem. Whodathunkit?

See? The PTB had it all under control but since humans got a look at the numbers it all went to hell.

[Igel]

8. "The prying eyes" ...

you mean the BOE doing the canvassing of the voting machines as required by law, as done after every election, to determine the *official* results?

They're not just allowed. They're required. And their looking isn't something extraordinary; it's something they do in the weeks following every election.

And the "shit hitting the fan" is either going to be the poll workers who misreported the numbers, or the clerks who misentered the numbers reported by the poll workers in the database on Super Tuesday. The poll workers are usually recruited from the community, in case you're wondering ... and sometimes they're just plain incompetent.