Election Watch or: How Touching a Screen can be Fun
| By edhula3 - Nov 9th, 2005 at 12:49 pm EST |
I voted here in Atlanta, even though the results for mayor were already known two years before the election (eds.: 91% victory! The only reason people didn't vote for her was because she is black, a woman, or a black woman. A small fourth variable were the people who didn't like her for being a woman who is black).
What do I think of the other elections? Well, they were not too important nationally.
Kaine had clearly been leading in the polls prior to the election, but I expected him to win by about 2-3%.
Schwarzenegger, well, he has had better days. His plans flopped because he got elected as a centrist and proposed nothing that even seemed centrist. It seemed as if he were only trying to fight Democrats in California. Moreover, who would even think that in California, voters would approve of parental notification for a minor to have an abortion?
Corzine won and I think this is the only race that either national party should take something from. Well, that and the Maine gay rights vote.
Briefly: Bloomberg won (no shock), Texas banned gay marriage (NO!), and Ohio wants partisans to create voting districts. And Kwame won which was a surprise.
Why do the gubernatorial elections not matter nationally? They are local races run on local issues. These elections are hardly indicative of a new feeling of dislike aimed at the Republicans. We've seen growing malcontent with Bush and the Republican congress recently. These elections only asseverate the feeling locally.
In VA, Kaine was incredibly popular as Lt. Governor. He managed to successfully ride on the coattails of his predecessor (Kaine did have some contribution to Warner's popularity though) and was attacked and linked to Hitler. Voters in the middle (the ones who matter) always side with the attacked in instances like that.
Schwarzenegger showed a dearth of political alacrity with his proposals. Saying that he wants to decrease government spending and yet spending $300, 000, 000 for a special election does not make much sense either.
New Jersey has been a state the GOP thought could be in their grasp. And oh how they would love to have it. It is a "blue state" in the "liberal northeast" with Electoral College votes. The way to keep Democrats out of power without a shadow of a doubt, take NJ. Last night was supposed to be the night they "stole the state". Alas, things did not bode well for them. All it will mean for the Republicans is that they are somewhat demoralized but by no means do they really have to change any strategy.
Maine however, is something that should speak volumes about the national opinion on gay rights. People are OK with making sure gays are not discriminated against. What people are not OK with is gay marriage. I believe any party, for the next few years, that runs a platform of gay marriage will be doomed to failure. Give the movement time however, and people will accept it. The civil rights movement was a long movement before people finally accepted that total equality is good.
This, well, I strongly doubt that someone would be so politically corrupt that he would jeopardize our entire democratic system. (eds.: But then why the errors? Huh? Doesn't that prove the Bush administration is a perfectly well run Machiavellian political machine?) No. It is a nascent technology. Errors will occur. It is a computer. Alert me of a computer that is error free, I shall buy it. Adding to that, the report does say touch screens are sensitive (I am privy to that as I touched something and the screen scrolled down rather than record my vote). And have you ever used a touch screen before? Is it not slow and bulky? Same thing here. And at the end of the day, if the problem is resolved and your vote is recorded accurately, do those inconveniences matter? (eds.: BUT THERE IS NO PAPER TRAIL!!!! Our votes WON'T be counted accurately!!!) Ok, so print out a receipt when your vote is cast. Paper ballots, have to go. Remember Florida? Keep the machines. Fine switch companies, but have a paper receipt when your ballot is cast. Do remember as well that Democratic Secretaries of State allowed the Diebold voting machines, including my own here in Georgia.
What do I think of the other elections? Well, they were not too important nationally.
Kaine had clearly been leading in the polls prior to the election, but I expected him to win by about 2-3%.
Schwarzenegger, well, he has had better days. His plans flopped because he got elected as a centrist and proposed nothing that even seemed centrist. It seemed as if he were only trying to fight Democrats in California. Moreover, who would even think that in California, voters would approve of parental notification for a minor to have an abortion?
Corzine won and I think this is the only race that either national party should take something from. Well, that and the Maine gay rights vote.
Briefly: Bloomberg won (no shock), Texas banned gay marriage (NO!), and Ohio wants partisans to create voting districts. And Kwame won which was a surprise.
Why do the gubernatorial elections not matter nationally? They are local races run on local issues. These elections are hardly indicative of a new feeling of dislike aimed at the Republicans. We've seen growing malcontent with Bush and the Republican congress recently. These elections only asseverate the feeling locally.
In VA, Kaine was incredibly popular as Lt. Governor. He managed to successfully ride on the coattails of his predecessor (Kaine did have some contribution to Warner's popularity though) and was attacked and linked to Hitler. Voters in the middle (the ones who matter) always side with the attacked in instances like that.
Schwarzenegger showed a dearth of political alacrity with his proposals. Saying that he wants to decrease government spending and yet spending $300, 000, 000 for a special election does not make much sense either.
New Jersey has been a state the GOP thought could be in their grasp. And oh how they would love to have it. It is a "blue state" in the "liberal northeast" with Electoral College votes. The way to keep Democrats out of power without a shadow of a doubt, take NJ. Last night was supposed to be the night they "stole the state". Alas, things did not bode well for them. All it will mean for the Republicans is that they are somewhat demoralized but by no means do they really have to change any strategy.
Maine however, is something that should speak volumes about the national opinion on gay rights. People are OK with making sure gays are not discriminated against. What people are not OK with is gay marriage. I believe any party, for the next few years, that runs a platform of gay marriage will be doomed to failure. Give the movement time however, and people will accept it. The civil rights movement was a long movement before people finally accepted that total equality is good.
This, well, I strongly doubt that someone would be so politically corrupt that he would jeopardize our entire democratic system. (eds.: But then why the errors? Huh? Doesn't that prove the Bush administration is a perfectly well run Machiavellian political machine?) No. It is a nascent technology. Errors will occur. It is a computer. Alert me of a computer that is error free, I shall buy it. Adding to that, the report does say touch screens are sensitive (I am privy to that as I touched something and the screen scrolled down rather than record my vote). And have you ever used a touch screen before? Is it not slow and bulky? Same thing here. And at the end of the day, if the problem is resolved and your vote is recorded accurately, do those inconveniences matter? (eds.: BUT THERE IS NO PAPER TRAIL!!!! Our votes WON'T be counted accurately!!!) Ok, so print out a receipt when your vote is cast. Paper ballots, have to go. Remember Florida? Keep the machines. Fine switch companies, but have a paper receipt when your ballot is cast. Do remember as well that Democratic Secretaries of State allowed the Diebold voting machines, including my own here in Georgia.
!
Comments are closed for this post.
As to the post itself, I agree on the Gay Rights issue. Any party who straps themselves to gay marriage is certain to lose. I'm one of the few gay activists in my area who insists on civil unions, not gay marriage. I often butt heads with leaders in the LGBT community about this, but I believe in taking a realistic approach to this issue. Marriage has a religious sacredness about it, and we need to understand that. So, Civil Unions, with full benefits of marriage, I believe is a fair balance.
TMH
Um, right, except that most electronic voting machines don't allow for this. No paper trail means there are no receipts kept, internally or externally.
And I don't care in what party your secretary of state is, the institution of Diebold machines in Georgia was an unmitigated disaster.
Link
Luckily the national progressive groups have latched on to paper-trail electronic voting as an issue, so it's not just a few kids at Swarthmore, a professor at Bryn Mawr and an unknown investigative journalist anymore...
A) I never trust single intrest groups for "the truth". It is truthful, but their truth. I also never trust anything extreme. Why?
B) Because Barnes lost because of the fact he wanted to get rid of the confederate battle flag on the state flag and other issues from his campaign (I know the director of his campaign and his chief of staff quite well)
C) As I said, switch companies if they dont want to add reciepts.
B.) Yeah, Barnes pissed off a lot of people. I think we give the Flaggers too much credit: the most I'll say is that they made sure local newscasts featured some negative coverage of Barnes, and that helped drive the "out of touch" narrative. But if we're pointing at anyone, I think Bobby Kahn earned his share of blame.
C.) Georgia spent $54 million on new voting equipment. (I don't think it will link properly--but here it is Link ). You think they'll just "switch companies if they don't want to add receipts?" This was the largest purchase of voting equipment in US history--think they'll do it again only a few years after this investment?