Omen of Things to Come? CA Primary Bedeviled by Bumpy 6/6/06 Vote

[Wilms]

Omen of Things to Come?

California primary bedeviled by bumpy 6/6/06 vote

By M. Mindy Moretti

electionline Weekly – June 8, 2006

SAN DIEGO—The devil was in the details as Californians went to the polls on the sixth day of the sixth month in the sixth year. And though the Armageddon feared by some hexakosioihexekontahexaphobics (and voting advocates) didn’t quite materialize, it was still a bumpy day all over the Golden State for voters and election officials.

In a state with a hodgepodge of voting systems in place, there was a hodgepodge of problems on a day when only around 30 percent of the state’s voters cast their ballots:

* In Merced County (ES&S), problems started early with pens used to mark the ballots bleeding through to the opposite side of the ballot.

* In Orange County (Hart InterCivic), there were reports of paper jams in printers and instances of machines not working at all, forcing voters to use paper ballots.

* In Contra Costa County, 35 of the AutoMark machines used for accessibility (5 percent of the total purchased for the county) broke down.

* And in Ventura County (Sequoia) polling places reported problems throughout the day with the machines rejecting ballots.

snip

http://electionline.org/ElectionlineToday/tabid/84/Default.aspx

[Kurovski]

1. Some of those headaches could be so easily avoided with paper ballots.

If you don't mind, Wilms, here's a direct link to the article cited.

http://www.electionline.org/Newsletters/tabid/87/ctl/Detail/mid/643/xmid/192/xmfid/3/Default.aspx

[dempeoria]

2. That depends on whose counting them...

...and who's putting them in the ballot boxes. I think it'll all work out. I don't think any system comes with a guarantee. The necessary changes will come--it'll tighten up. Have faith that our system works! (Or will work!)

[Kurovski]

3. With machines, it's still a matter of who's counting votes.

and who's programming them, and unfortunately there is no way to do a recount if a fraudulent tally is suspected.

Faith should never be the way we run elections.

They must be verifiable and transparent.

Welcome to DU!:hi: So I'm guessing you're from Illinois?

[dempeoria]

5. Yes

And any system is flawed. Paper ballots can be stuffed, can appear and disappear, can be fraudulent. I'm not sure anything is foolproof.

[bananas]

4. Did you notice the byline?

"M. Mindy Moretti" M.M.M. much more malicious than 666!

edit: direct link http://www.electionline.org/Newsletters/tabid/87/ctl/Detail/mid/643/xmid/192/xmfid/3/Default.aspx

[Just WTFisWTF]

6. Doesn't mention any of the really bad things

Sounds like another scammer to me.