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Voting in New York Sucks

Posted by libhom Tuesday, September 14, 2010

I don't often talk about voting rights issues in this blog because there is so much other stuff going on, and it can get depressing. Mark Crispin Miller does an excellent job of discussing voting rights issues in his blog. He was one of the most vocal and effective voices in exposing the thefts of the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.

However, I just voted with the new system, and it adds new problems to the old one. It uses optical scanners. It could be worse. We could be stuck with touch screen voting which is completely unreliable and unverifiable. However, it is just as easy to hack the optical scanner machines, so their counts are not particularly trustworthy. The optical scanner system at least results in paper ballots that could be hand counted. However, detecting fraud is not easy, and I don't know how difficult it is to get a hand recount.

There can be fraud in hand counted paper ballots too, but it is much more difficult to pull off, and hand recounts can catch some of it. Besides, we have been in a period of joblessness that has lasted over a decade. People need work. Hand counted paper ballots are the method of choice if you want the most reliable and trustworthy elections.

As if that isn't bad enough, there is another problem with voting that has nothing to do with the methods and machines. It has to do with write in voting. If a candidate in the primary doesn't have an opponent who managed to get on the ballot, there is no election at all, which means you can't write in anybody. Primaries where there is only one candidate are the ones where one would generally like to write somebody in the most.

This time, I would have loved to vote against rightist Phonycrats like Andrew Cuomo, Chuck Schumer, and my local congresscritter. Yet, I didn't have the opportunity. I'll have to wait for the general election and vote Green in those races. But, there is something deeply offensive to democracy that you can't vote for the candidate of your choice.

Hand counted paper ballots appear to be banned by federal law, when they should be absolutely mandatory...no exceptions. Write in voting should be available for all elective offices...no exceptions. Our democracy had flaws before the voting machines which have made matters much worse.



  1. GDAEman Says:
  2. Yes. There IS the issue of the candidate choices. Don't ya get the feeling we're heading toward a revolution? Everything is broken and connected, so the only real fixes involve fixing everything.

    Only half-measures are being taken at best, and we're so deep in the hole that full-measures might actually push us over the brink.

    The nation is divided and the extreme right is.... giving me the willies... how 'bout you?

    Then there are the other Americans, believing the evening news and blaming themselves for making bad financial choices, as if that explains the economic predicament.

    Meanwhile, the establishment is enriching themselves, and gathering behind the humongous security network, in preparation for the coming debacle.

    What did I forget? Oh yea. The match.

    Thanks for continuing to visit GDAEman Blog despite my recent dearth of activity.

  3. Lib: With the new method do you think it will be easier to write in a vote in the general midterm election? I'm thinking of writing in Harvey Milk for every effing seat up for grabs.

  4. libhom Says:
  5. pissed: I don't know the answer to your question. In the general election, there will be Greens on the ballot for most races, so I won't need to do write ins much anyway.

  6. how about the pads were just left on the desk at my district precinct. i could have take 2 or 3 or 333 ballots and scanned them all in. no one was minding the store

    or the "privacy booths" to vote. a joke



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