Election Day Discussion 1718
With the polls now already open in most of the country, this is the official on-topic place for all Slashdot readers to discuss the election itself. And get out and vote if you can. Also, if you haven't noticed, the Slashdot poll shows once and for all where Slashdot readers fall on the election. I'm off to vote in a couple hours. Wonder if we'll have Diebolds in my district.
Vote Libertarian (Score:4, Informative)
Voter fraud! (Score:1, Informative)
Bush to win 50% to 48% (Score:2, Informative)
4 more years!
Election rigging already? (Score:2, Informative)
Vote planting in Philly (Score:3, Informative)
Before voting even began in Philadelphia -- poll watchers found nearly 2000 votes already planted on machines scattered throughout the city... One incident occurred at the SALVATION ARMY, 2601 N. 11th St., Philadelphia, Pa: Ward 37, division 8... pollwatchers uncovered 4 machines with planted votes; one with over 200 and one with nearly 500... A second location, 1901 W. Girard Ave., Berean Institute, Philadelphia, Pa, had 300+ votes already on 2 machines at start of day... INCIDENT: 292 votes on machine at start of day; WARD/DIVISION: 7/7: ADDRESS: 122 W. Erie Ave., Roberto Clemente School, Philadelphia, Pa.; INCIDENT: 456 votes on machine at start of day; WARD/DIVISION: 12/3; ADDRESS: 5657 Chew Ave., storefront, Philadelphia, Pa... A gun was purposely made visible to scare poll watchers at Ward 30, division 11, at 905 S. 20th St., Grand Court. Police were called and surrounded the location... Developing...
Remove the Chicken-Hawk (Score:0, Informative)
Irag was an optional war.
Virtually his whole org are chicken-hawks.
wusses.
Relevant sites? (Score:3, Informative)
Of course there's always non-US news sites like The Guardian [guardian.co.uk] and The Economist's articles [economist.com] regarding the election.
Breaking "news" also appears on Drudge Report [drudgereport.com]. As far as blogs go, I don't really have any good ones. Any other ones you guys like?
Vote! (Score:2, Informative)
No, no, no, no. Get out and vote EVEN IF YOU CAN'T.
I don't care how hard it is, how inconvenient it is, what state you live in - think your state's tally is a foregone conclusion? So what - the totals still matter.
Seriously, folks - no matter which "side" you're on, this election MATTERS. GO VOTE!
Or don't complain for four years.
thank goodness, looks like kerry is winning. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Election rigging already? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Voter fraud! (Score:2, Informative)
Meanwhile, the Republican party is engaged in massive, organized vote fraud [eriposte.com]. Does anyone care?
Re:Here in VA -- WINVote (Score:3, Informative)
The wait was not due to the machines, though; they only had one set of voter rolls, and one person flipping through them to verify voters. They had us divided up into A-K and L-Z lines. The L-Z line was maybe 30-45 minutes; the A-K line was the aforementioned 2+ hours. I worry about how many people turned away from the lines, just because they didn't man the polls appropriately...
Re:Vote planting in Philly (Score:4, Informative)
Salon's.com [salon.com] election news column, War Room [salon.com] reports that early voters in New Mexico and Texas have already reported serious problems [salon.com] with electronic voting machines. Many computer scientists (aka Slashdot readers) have been very vocal about the potential pitfalls of electronic voting. A group of e-voting experts including Barbara Simons, perhaps the medium's biggest critic, has started a blog to interpret what potential problems might mean [evoting-experts.com] as the vote -- and mis-votes -- keep coming in. Are there any Slashdoters who may be interested in this virtual bug hunting/.interpretations?
Re:SouthPark (Score:5, Informative)
doosh? what is that? oh, you meant...
douche Pronunciation (dsh)
(Medicine)
n.
1.
a. A stream of water, often containing medicinal or cleansing agents, that is applied to a body part or cavity for hygienic or therapeutic purposes.
b. A stream of air applied in a similar way.
2. The application of a douche.
3. An instrument for applying a douche.
Noun 1. douche bag [thefreedictionary.com] - a small syringe with detachable nozzles; used for vaginal lavage and enemas
and also
Douche Bag http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=do
Main Entry: douche bag
Pronunciation: 'düsh 'bAg
Function: noun
Date: circa 1963
slang : 1 One with an undescribeable fucked up-ness hence stupidity, poor idea of what's cool, possibly an arrogance about them. 2 One with an intolerable personality.
Other Forms: Douche, Douchey
Meat heads are douche bags.
Dude, stop being a douche bag.
Dude, stop being a douche.
Dude, that was a douchey move.
* why yes, I have nothing better to do today having already voted for the doosh bag
Re:accuracy and precision (Score:2, Informative)
Reliability of Existing Voting Equipment [caltech.edu]
Using an average of "residual votes" weighted by the prevalence of the voting equipment type, they found that about 2.1 percent of all ballots resulted in an uncounted vote.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that at least one state (and quite possibly enough electoral votes to swing the election either way) will be "decided" with a margin of victory lower than 2.1%.
--kirby
Voter Ignorance (Score:5, Informative)
Ignorance is rampant and I would rather have an intelligent informed nation choosing their leader based on facts, logic, and rationale rather than emotional responses, self-interest, and personality marketing/propoganda.
The Cato Institute published a report which is here: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-525es.html [Cato.org] and it details its findings on the study of voter ignorance. Here is an excerpt:
"Overall, close to one-third of Americans can be categorized as 'know-nothings' almost completely ignorant of relevant political information," writes Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, in "When Ignorance Isn't Bliss: How Political Ignorance Threatens Democracy."
"Most of the time," Somin notes," only bare majorities know which party has control of the Senate, some 70 percent cannot name either of their state's senators and the vast majority cannot name any congressional candidate in their district at the height of a campaign."
Overall, voters tend to be "abysmally ignorant of even very basic political information... the sheer depth of most individual voters' ignorance is shocking to observers not familiar with the research."
A few examples from many in the report:
* The Patriot Act? What's that? Three-fourths of Americans say they know little or nothing about it. 58 percent say they've heard "nothing" or "not much" about it.
* Seventy percent don't know about the $500 billion new drug benefit added this year to Medicare, which Somin describes as "probably the most significant domestic legislation passed during the Bush administration."
* A majority cannot make even a rough estimate of how many Americans soldiers have been killed in Iraq.
* 61 percent believe that there has been a net loss of U.S. jobs in 2004.
* Over 60 per cent don't know that, during President Bush's term, there has been an explosion in domestic spending (about 25 percent above previous levels) that has enormously increased the national debt.
* Last year, 58 percent of Americans could not name a single federal Cabinet department.
And such voter ignorance is, alas, nothing new:
* In 1964, at the height of Cold War tensions, only 38 percent of the public knew that the Soviet Union was not a member of NATO.
* In 1994, after Republicans took control of Congress under the highly-publicized leadership of Rep. Newt Gingrich, 57 percent of Americans said they'd never heard of Gingrich, despite the avalanche of press coverage.
* In 1996, 67 percent couldn't name their congressman, and only 26 percent knew that senators serve six-year terms.
* In the 2002 elections, only 32 percent of voters knew that the Republican Party controlled the House.
In 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote: "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
Mass ignorance is easy to exploit and sway opinions based on nothing more than emotions.
And in conclusion I say that if you do not truly understand the issues, have a good concept of how the government and the world works, and grasp the ideals and principles of what this government was founded on and it's history - then stay the hell out of the voting booth!
Re:Vote planting in Philly (Score:2, Informative)
Of course, one must wonder why they aren't *all* showing counts on lifetime.
Best online interactive electorial US map (Score:4, Informative)
As of now, I believe after reading this [bloomberg.com] that the states are going to be voting almost exactly as the did in 2000, and it will come down to Florida making the call, yet again!
PHILLY: not diebold machines... Danaher ELECTronic (Score:3, Informative)
as for the drudgereport story..... it has not made local news that i caught. not sure what the deal is with it.
Re:While the Poll is obvious... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Voter fraud! (Score:5, Informative)
The GOP are the ones who are trying to get these machines replaced -- not the Democrats.
Re:Voting was fine (Score:3, Informative)
They allowed her to vote anyway after showing a driver's lisence and a utility bill with our current address on it.
Re:Why bother? It's stolen already (Score:3, Informative)
After SWVFT, Diebold, and this, how can anyone defend the mentality of the right in America? Oh, right, if Kerry wins the economy will tank and the terrorists will invade Wyoming, like they did under Clinton.
Re:Bush has brought meaningful change... (Score:2, Informative)
Actually, that figure does not say that Americans were the killers. That figure includes all "excess deaths" that occurred in Iraq. In fact, only half of those deaths were do to violence, and it does not say what party was the cause of the death.
You should see what Iraqis think about this [thetruthaboutiraq.org].
And, there were _many_ good reasons for invaded Iraq, a few of which I've listed elsewhere [christdot.org].
Re:Why bother? It's stolen already (Score:3, Informative)
I'm blogging live today, as usual
The faulty log with 3 missing hours (9:52pm to 1:31am) is here [blackboxvoting.org]
India conducted a full-scale electronic election earlier this year successfully - few of the EVMs were connected or hacked
Website tells if Diebold is being used at your... (Score:3, Informative)
MyPollingPlace.com [mypollingplace.com] will tell you what voting equipment is being used at your polling place, as well as instructions on how to use it. It will also give you the location for where you vote based on your street address and zip code if you are unsure of where to go to vote.
Let's Get Some Facts in This Biatch =) (formatted) (Score:5, Informative)
One half trillion dollars will be spent in Iraq according to the Congressional Budget Office. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University estimate we have 100,000 dead Iraqis on our hands. 16.7% of our soldiers will bare this incredible burden in psych wards according to The New England Journal of Medicine, assuming theyre not dead. And today, 1,122 Americans will not vote because they couldnt escape the American torture chamber that is Iraq. Tomorrow a few more will die and several more will be added to the 7,532 people that were serious injured in Iraq, so do not forget this when you vote.
Kerry's not my favorite, but today he represents everything the republican party would offer traditionally and more!
(1) He's fiscally conservative
(2) He's socially liberal (no bigotry here!)
(3) He's environmentally friendly
(4) His foreign policy acknowledges the other
(5) He's actually aware of national security
Now, let the flame war begin!
Re:Do you welcome your Islamist overlord? (Score:5, Informative)
That's very interesting considering the lists released by the Clinton administration don't even show Arafat as ever having stayed at the White House. For reference:
First term list of guests [washingtonpost.com]
Guests from 1999 through August 2000 [cnn.com] (you'll have to click the link in the article to see the list)
Your source to back your claim?
Re:Wonder if I was a "Caged Voter" (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Your friends are watching you (Score:4, Informative)
There is a big difference between the two forms of government. A democracy gives power directly to the people. A republic gives electoral power to the people, and the decision making power to the elected officials.
Yes, pretty much. (Score:2, Informative)
So, the democrats have had dibs on color for a long time.
Re:I've been waiting at work all morning for this (Score:1, Informative)
Before posting the inevitable abuse, please bear in mind that the author is American [randomhouse.com].
Re:if you choose to not vote (Score:3, Informative)
The problem with this view: there's nothing to distinguish your "not voting to show disillusionment with the system" with someone else's "not voting because of laziness and apathy".
Traditionally, the former is expressed by casting a spoiled ballot. With voting machines, though, that's not really possible anymore.
Re:Voter fraud! (Score:3, Informative)
Other sources are reporting the same now. Apparently the poll watchers mistook the machine's "odometers" for "tripometers". Kinda makes all these paranoid Republican types look quite silly.
Re:Bush has brought meaningful change... (Score:5, Informative)
Read more about it in this Indimedia article: The truth about "thetruthaboutiraq.org" [indymedia.org].
Re:Badnarik is not qualified to be President (Score:5, Informative)
1. Sure, experience in other offices helps, but a 3rd party candidate shooting for high offices will always lose in an entrenched 2 party system.
2. Badnarik may not have held an office with a little name sign on his door, but has been studying the US constitution for over 22 years now. In fact, he teaches an 8 hour class on the constitution, which is available online [archive.org] for your viewing pleasure. He's been teaching it now for at least 4 years, but possibly more. I bet senator Kerry and presient Bush couldn't even tell you what article of the US constitution describes their position, much less what it actually says their powers are.
I could go on, but it's not worth my time. Libertarians actually go after a lot of this country's problems from the fundamental root, rather than using broad sweeping generalizations like "a safer america is what we want".
Trouble voting in California. (Score:2, Informative)
On my registration form, I listed a mailing address that differed from that of my residence. I received my voter registration card in the mail, which gave me a polling place a few blocks from my listed residence. The card includes a note saying that since I'm a late registrant, I will not be receiving a sample ballot. No big deal. My mind is made up for the presidency, and I've done my homework regarding the local ballot measures. I'm also not a Florida resident, so I presumed I could figure out the ballot without seeing a sample. (Ok, cheap shot.)
Lo and behold, though, yesterday I receive a sample ballot after all. Complete with a polling place listed on the back. Only trouble is, it differs from the one on my voter registration card. It's not even in the same county. The local measures were the wrong ones, and there was a spot for Mayor of a town I don't even live in. Confusion arises.
So I go down to polling place #1. This is where I'm a resident, and as I understand it, that's the relevant issue at hand. I could theoretically have had them mail be a ballot overseas, if my legal residence was here in Northern California. I stood in line for quite a while, actually.. which was good to see. I finally get to the front of the line, and there's 3 poll workers doing their thing. I mention the ambiguity to them, and the 3 poll workers check their roll call sheets, or whatever the appropriate term is. Turns out I'm on only one of these 3, theoretically identical roll call sheets. Poll worker #3, who doesn't look like he's even old enough to vote, reasons, 'Well, you're on /my/ sheet, so you must be in the right place.' Unconvinced, I give them the ol' 'BBL' and drive down the road to polling place #2.
Again, I wait in a rather long line, and when I arrive at the front, it turns out I'm on all of the roll call sheets there, thus calling our pimply-faced friend's judgement into question.
So as I type, I'm trying to get through to the voter registrar's office, to see about clearing this up. Thus far, all I've received is the message, 'We're sorry, all of our representatives are helping other voters, please hold..' yada yada. Followed by 15 minutes of dead air. Followed by a dialtone. Hopefully, the registrar's office is just busy, and this isn't a ${Party} conspiracy to discount my vote. ;)
What concerns me most about this though, is that I just IMed a friend telling them what was going on, and she mentioned that several people at her job are going through the same thing....
Hopefully this will straighten itself out. Anyone have any other brilliant suggestions besides the registrar's office, and possibly that 866 number that keeps getting mentioned?
Re:Voter fraud! (Score:2, Informative)
Drudge Debunked once again! [dailykos.com]
here's the summary for ya if u can't follow the link:
The 'votes' that were 'casted' on the machines before polls opened were the ticker (like on an old car's mileage) to count the number of total votes that each machine had processed.
no big deal
Re:It can't be said enough... (Score:5, Informative)
Look at it closely.
The only reasons they cannot deny you the right to vote are
1. due to race, color, or previous condition of servitude (Article XV) - Hmmmm and felons can't vote (look at Article XIII which seems to equate your sentence with involuntary servitude).
2. due to gender (Article XIX). Yay women can vote.
3. Failure to pay your taxes (Amendment XXIV)
and 4. Due to age, as long as your are oder then 18 (Amendment XXVI).
So except for those reasons you can lose your right to vote.
Use it while you've got it, it's the only way to keep it.
Re: Vote Libertarian (Score:2, Informative)
(via archive.org)
Re:I was disenfranchised. (Score:2, Informative)
I assume your question is about the party registration, for the voter registration card. Its actually optional, whether you want to declare you voter affiliation or not. And if you do declare it, you do not have to vote according to your affiliation. I don't why people do register a party affiliation, as I personally choose not to. If I had to guess, it would be because of pride or the feeling of needing to belong.
I hope that helps!
Re:Voter fraud! (Score:2, Informative)
Perhaps this will turn out to be an organized and targeted attack?
Re:I was disenfranchised. (Score:3, Informative)
Not dissing you, but I don't have to say whether I'm and NDP, Liberal, Green, Bloc or Conservative supporter at all - that's what the ballot is for. Why is it that you have to do that down there? Really, I've always been curious of that and it's never been explained.
Re:SouthPark (Score:1, Informative)
Kerry didn't volunteer until he had tried every way under the sun to get out of going. Read your history, Sparky.
Re: Vote Libertarian (Score:4, Informative)
Of course, Kerry doesn't say the word "draft." He calls it "national service," and it can be either civilian or military variety. It's not a new idea. The Democratic Leadership Council (of which Kerry is a member) proposed it back in 1988. A re-worked version [ppionline.org] [pdf] of the proposal was published last year by the Progressive Policy Institute (the think tank lapdog of the DLC). Kerry's published plan [kerry.com] incorporates steps 1 and 2 of the DLC/PPI proposal by tying government-funded privileges, such as student loans, to service in the military, AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, etc. The third step, which undoubtedly will be passed once the first 2 are completed (and which won't be announced until Kerry is in office), will make national service mandatory using the current Selective Service system.
Re:I was disenfranchised. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I was disenfranchised. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Mark voters thumbs with an ink pen (Score:4, Informative)
The ink does not come off for about a week, no matter what you apply to it.
Re:I was disenfranchised. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I was disenfranchised. (Score:5, Informative)
That's it.
And if that isn't right or you don't pay taxes (like University students), you simply show up to the polling station in your riding with some documentation as to your identity and proof that you live in the riding - like a lease agreement, a phone, cable, sewer bill etc (even a Visa statment is acceptable, as long as it has you name and adress on it and you have another form of picture ID that proves you are the person on the bill).
Very simple and verey effective.
We also mark an X on a paper ballot, which is then scanned so we get both electronic counting and paper ballots in the event of a recount. And we usually know the winner of the Election the night of the election (In 2000, our government called an election, had a 36 day campaign, voted and declared the winner and started back to business between the time of your election and the date the Supreme Court appointed GWB).
Just an FYI that Canada is not some draconian place. We have a pretty effective democracy up here.
Re:Diebold voting process (Score:3, Informative)
The upshot is that, in California, one does not have to feel like one is at the mercy of the paperless election system. Go, Kevin!
Re:accuracy and precision (Score:3, Informative)
You are mistaken, please read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margin_of_error#The_
My moter voter hickup (Score:3, Informative)
When I updated my address with the Califonia DMV, I checked the box to have them update my voter registration. That was about 3 months ago.
Last month, I called the county voter registration office and they said I wasn't registered.
So I drove down in person and submitted a change of address there.
I confirmed it last week over the phone and was on the updated list of registered voters for my polling place. They had the main list printed Oct 22 and another list with the folks who registered afterwards.
There are election monitoring web sites. I would reccommend you go to http://www.commoncause.org and click on the voter experience link.
They are collecting accounts of voting experiences (including irregularities).
If this is a pattern, they can do something about it.
Re:Do you welcome your Islamist overlord? (Score:3, Informative)
From American Spectator: [spectator.org]"Bill Clinton, for example, invited a terrorist to the White House who had conspired in the deaths of Americans, even letting him sleep and sate himself at taxpayer expense as an honored guest for weeks at a time. His name was Yasser Arafat, the Kato Kaelin of the Clinton years, bunking so frequently at the White House the press described him as a "constant guest." One of Arafat's terrorists, marveling at his White House residency, was able to brag to the press, "Arafat was a guest at the White House more often than Netanyahu was."
What a stunning example of the slashdot mod system that your partial list is 'insightful'...
Kerry leading in early exit polls (Score:5, Informative)
According to the Des Moines Register poll out late Saturday evening, 27 percent of Iowa adults have already voted. And among those Kerry leads 52 percent to 41 percent.
relevent links:
Salon War Room Report [salon.com]
Gallup Poll original data [gallup.com] (I think this is the correct data set)
USA Today story [usatoday.com]
All news stories merely mention this in passing.....
Re:Your friends are watching you (Score:3, Informative)
Level of error: effectively zero (Score:5, Informative)
(Deep breath. I'm about to do something totally insane--try to present a rational, factual explanation of a political subject on SlashDot. Maybe its because I've been eating nothing but red M&Ms all day....)
IAMPAEO--BIHBO
I Am Not Presently An Election Official--But I Have Been One. And I can promise you, with all sincerity, that the margin of error is effectively zero. We count every single ballot, whether on the voting machines or in absentee ballots, regardless of how late we have to stay up to do it. The people in your county registrar's office total up all of the ballots from the polling places, and keep checking and re-checking until they have it right. The math is done in front of representatives from all political parties, as well as any candidate-appointed watchers that are present as well. When the election results are certified, the results are correct--with an error rate of zero.
Oh, c'mon. What about...
I have been an election official for more than fifteen years--and I have been involved in counting votes on Election night in heavily Democratic wards, and in heavily Republican wards. It does not matter--we get the vote total correct, and we turn it in to the county. Then the county re-checks our work--and they carefully preserve the voting machines until they're convinced we have done the work correctly. (One year, back in the 1980s, the county had questions about one of our voting machines and called the officials back in later in the week to make sure they understood what we'd done.)
Don't confuse the results announced on TV with the certified election
I have also done consulting work with the Elections Unit of a major TV network [go.com]. They have an entirely different agenda: their goal is to "call" the election for one candidate or the other before any other media outlet. They are basing their "calls" on exit-polling data ("pardon me, ma'am, but could you tell me who you voted for?") in a handful of selected precincts across a state. They will report preliminary totals ("And we now see Governor Bloviate leading with 1,424,325 votes with 21% of precincts reporting...") without explaining the context (are those Bloviate's strong precincts? Who says the numbers are correct?) They're out to report fast, accuracy be damned. (Sorry, Charlie, but that's the way it really is.)
The real story, the real vote total, comes when the election is certified. And the "chaos" that we all saw in Florida was the actual process of certifying an election. There were flaws (the biggest: they hadn't defined any rules for how to count votes)--but they eventually arrived at a standard, and used that standard to count votes. They ended up with a total. That's the final number.
All that said....
The total vote count will be determined with a level of error of zero. What will not be determined--and what I fear will be rampant in this election, on both sides--is how many votes were fraudulent, due to duplicate registrations, absentee ballot fraud, etc.
Re:SouthPark (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Mark voters thumbs with an ink pen (Score:1, Informative)
Re:While the Poll is obvious... (Score:4, Informative)
I think that's really what this whole election is going to come down to... so many of my american friends are voting "against bush" rather than "for kerry"
National Service != Draft (Re: Vote Libertarian) (Score:4, Informative)
Our own Corporation for National and Commmunity Service [cns.gov] "provides opportunities for Americans of all ages and backgrounds to serve their communities and country through three programs: Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America. Members and volunteers serve with national and community nonprofit organizations, faith-based groups, schools, and local agencies to help meet community needs in education, the environment, public safety, homeland security, and other critical areas."
And is not another name for the draft. Anyway, back to the page you linked to, if you read just a little further down you would have seen this:
Re:Bush administration censored Bin Laden Tape (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Kerry leading in early exit polls (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Democratic responsibility (Score:2, Informative)
People should RTFC!
--
wwjd? jwrtfm!
Re:Kerry leading in early exit polls (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.mysterypollster.com/main/2004/11/exit_
The source is well-informed and brings up many good points to consider. Take any exit poll with a grain of salt and be patient for the official tally. You can burn a lot of energy reading the tea leaves.
Re:Your friends are watching you (Score:4, Informative)
Um, most people in the world use the word "democracy" to mean "representative democracy"
A republic run by representative democracy is not an oxymoron. (A republic can be democratic or non-democratic).
Democratic* republics: USA, Ireland, France
Non-democratic republics: Syria, Belorussia
In turn a democracy can be a republic or not a republic.
(*By "democratic" I mean a representative democratic government - people drop the representative because it is a pain to write it out when every serious non-pedantic person knows what they are talking about already).
Re:huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Exactly my point. This is nowhere near 100,000.
Sorry, but that's not entirely true. The numbers on IraqBodyCount.net are fully-backed media documented numbers about specific incidents with specific casualties. That means that, out of the thousands of civillians killed during the war in Iraq, we have hard and fast proof about that many, right now, with zero additional time spent gathering information.
The 100,000+ number is a reasonable guesss about the actual numbers of casualties, inclulding those who didn't specifically make the fscking international news.
Sheesh.
I don't know if a 6:1 ratio of casualties to media-reported specific casualties is correct, but it seems reasonable. It seems a whole lot more reasonable than a 1:1 ratio which is, I believe, what you're choosing to go with.
Re:While the Poll is obvious... (Score:2, Informative)
Don't forget that the State Fair is held in Wake County, which is predominantly democratic (and most of the visitors to the fair, especially on weekdays are from Raleigh and Durham. In fact, most large city centers in NC are democratic. The question is whether the increased population and turnout in the cities will offset that of the rural areas.
I think that the pollsters will be found to be off, but I think when the smoke clears, we'll still be a red state.
-Alex
Re:While the Poll is obvious... (Score:3, Informative)
The colors are not official party colors at all ( in terms of a party featuring just red or just blue), and generally signs, banners, bumper stickers, etc. for both parties feature some scheme of red, white, and blue.
If you go to the New York Times [nytimes.com] website, you can look at their rather interesting representation of the map, with dark red and blue for solidly Republican or Democratic states, light shades of those colors for states that are not sure bets for a party, but still noticeably lean one way or another, and yellow, for the five truly undecided "swing states."
Diebold - oddness. (Score:5, Informative)
They handed me a smart card, and I put card in and made my selections.
When came to the end I went to select the "cast ballot" button it returned a message "Are you sure you want to proceed, you haven't made all the selections you are entitled to."
OK?? So I went back and double checked everything. I definatly had voted on everything there was to vote on. Spent about 10 Minutes in all checking and rechecking.
I had to hit the "Cast Ballot" to finish and return my card.
So when I finished I complain to the manager there, and they said it's seems to happen every so often, we don't know what's the reason.
They really didn't know anything about these system, or what they could do about errors or problems.
So I walked away wondering if some of my votes were just dropped or something.
I mean as a programmer this system really made me feel incredably unconfortable as to it's reliablity, accuracy and security.
Re:I was disenfranchised. (Score:3, Informative)
but when you register to vote you actually have to say where your vote will go?
or am I reading this wrong?
You don't HAVE to, but you CAN. And you're not saying where your vote is going (IE a person registered as a Republican is under no obligation to vote as a Replublican), it's just stating which party you're "affiliated" with.
It's totally optional.
Election monitors unable to do their job (Score:3, Informative)
Dayton Experiences (Score:3, Informative)
We had many complaints of challegers intimidating voters, directly interacting with and interrogating voters, requesting voters to give their name to the challenger, among other things. Most of the problems voters had were locating the right place to vote, or they registered and weren't on the list, or hadn't registered at all.
The challengers were intimidating even if they didn't say anything, and I fail to see the purpose they serve. First, they sit behind the poll workers with a list of names (which more than likely contained the names they tried to challenge before the election, in which case they are in direct violation of a federal order enjoining them from doing that.) Then, they just glare at voters and make them feel uncomfortable. This is especially true in areas were the population is overwhelming black. They serve no purpose, because if they do challenge someone, the poll judge asks a few questions of the voter and the voter is allowed to vote almost every time. The only reason they are there is to intimidate and discourage people from voting. (If you believe in your candidate, you should want everyone to vote, shouldn't you?)
There were a few other minor things, but most centered around inappropriate actions of challengers. Hopefully a few will be tossed out before the end of the day.
My voting experience had a few bumps as well. I was immediately asked for ID, which I respectfully refused, and had to find my own name in the roster, because the poll worker couldn't hear me apparently. Once that was done, I had to get in a second line, where they took my ballot, wrote down the number, then wrote my name and address as they were on a second roll. (I'm not sure what the point was in that). As I was waiting in line, a lady asked if her son who has frequent epileptic seizures could be allowed to vote instead of waiting in line, so as to not disrupt everyone, and make it easier for him. The lady refused, so I made it a point to inform the poll worker and the voter that if there is any kind of disability, they can request to have the worker bring the ballot out to them in their car or whatever, and vote there. There is no reason why having a disability should prevent you from voting.
That said, I've heard some great news regarding early exit polls; the number of new voters I ran into was incredible; people genuinely seem to actually care about voting and making sure their vote is counted. It was somewhat reassuring to see so many people be so determined to vote.
The more people that vote, especially among groups that tend to avoid the polls, the better it is for the candidate I support. From what I've seen, things are looking very good.
Re:I was disenfranchised. (Score:3, Informative)
Basically, think of it as a pre-election vote of confidence in the party.
Re:Kerry leading in early exit polls (Score:4, Informative)
Click on the advertisement for a free one-day pass.
http://www.electoral-vote.com/ Mirrors (Score:3, Informative)
through
http://www.electoral-vote8.com/ [electoral-vote8.com]