Florida shifts to paper ballots.
By on Feb 2nd, 2007 at 7:30 am
Florida shifts to paper ballots.
“Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL) announced plans on Thursday to abandon the touch-screen voting machines that many of Florida’s counties installed after the disputed 2000 presidential election. The state will instead adopt a system of casting paper ballots counted by scanning machines in time for the 2008 presidential election.”
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Don’t think paper ballots are going to save you, kids.
Remember, the 2000 election was stolen quite easily despite the ‘handicap’ of paper ballots. More recently, the Mexican Presidential election was also stolen wihout the aid of electronic voting machines.
Rigged electronic voting machines just make rigging the election vastly easier…the crooks can almost ‘phone in’ the steal. But paper ballots don’t make the election unstealable…they just makes it a little more difficult, and while the criminals that have hijacked this country can be accused of many sins, sloth is definitely not one of them.
February 2nd, 2007 at 7:38 amYou’re right TMM,
Paper ballots are not the ONLY thing needed; regular random audits followed by investigations are also imperative. We must increase our vigilence and demand the highest standard of integrity in the voting process.
However, this is a HUGE victory for democracy. Without a paper ballot, there is nothing to audit DREs (especially ones with proprietary software) are disasterous and must go. This is the best first step in YEARS!
February 2nd, 2007 at 7:59 amThese machines better be validated before they are used for the election.
February 2nd, 2007 at 8:01 amIt seemed like Crist was going to be okay, even as a Republican governor. Then I read that he asked for money for stem cell research, but wouldn’t include embryonic stem cells. He says he doesn’t want to ignite a controversy. That sounds like he’s not against it, but doesn’t have the backbone to support it.
February 2nd, 2007 at 8:12 amPaper ballots are a must. And the 2000 Florida vote was decided by the Supreme Court and not by a recount. A full and proper recount would have given Florida to Al Gore.
I have long thought new voters 18 to 21 should be conscripted to register voters, supervise the ballot casting, and scrutinize the counting. It would bring the young into the system, overcome some of the logistics, and bring confidence back to the system.
February 2nd, 2007 at 8:12 amGood.
February 2nd, 2007 at 8:12 am“Florida shifts to paper ballots.”
They figure that stealing two presidential elections is as much as they can get away with. For now …
February 2nd, 2007 at 8:22 amJesus H. Christ. When did we become like this says my grandma.
February 2nd, 2007 at 8:57 amWhat a Demon+crazed country.
The Russians, Chinese and Iranians must be laughing their heads off.
Paper ballots are not sufficient to restore democracy; but they are a necessary part of the solution. We need an auditable trail. We will also need institutions willing to properly resort to audits (i.e. SCOTUS)
To realize any good in voting we will have to resurrect the buried idea of the public good. But that is a different post.
February 2nd, 2007 at 9:29 amPaper ballots that can be verified for recounts is infinitely better than touch screen machines; but, it is not the be all and end all of clean, fair and honest elections. It is a good start. Ohio, what are you doing to clean up your mess?
February 2nd, 2007 at 9:56 amDiebold built their voting machines on the Windows CE OS. That is written in C++, a very unsecure system that lends itself to buffer overflows etc.
They should have used a Unix, Linux, Free BSd platform and wrote the Code, open source style, in Java or another secure language.
February 2nd, 2007 at 10:11 amThat is a good way to end the controversy…but, the optical scan readers are also computerized and can also be manipulated.
February 2nd, 2007 at 10:46 amWonder who got paid off this time?
February 2nd, 2007 at 10:48 amAnd the criminal Republican right will still do their best to steal elections. Impeach now!
February 2nd, 2007 at 11:22 amYay, extra butt-wipe.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:21 pmComing from Florida, I can say that this is actually a good thing. The optical scan paper ballots are much, much better than the easily hacked computer ballots. There have been stories after stories of the results on the computer ballots being “changed”. The optical ballots give you 1) a paper trail, and 2) a verifiable recount. It was when they changed from scanning ballots to the punched ballots that all the mess started.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:32 pmWe need hand-counted paper ballots to be used in all American elections. As long as we use any electronic computerized vote “counting” system, there will be GOP thugs happily hacking, rigging and then stealing elections for the corporate right wing.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:03 pmGood for Gov. Crist. Now if only my state of Georgia would do the same. All the voting machines here are Diebold pieces of crap, but GOP politicians in this state want to continue cheating to win in elections.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:55 pmHere here. We need paper ballots in every election, in every county of every state.
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:04 pmI’m also a Florida resident. I complained about the electronic machines numerous times to our election board. As some said here, it’s not a complete victory, but it’s a victory nevertheless.
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:28 pmOn a related side note: when I went to sign the record before casting my ballot, it turned out someone else had signed next to my name. I complained about that too.
Lily,
Did they still let you vote?
Signing on the wrong line, that’s the kind of thing you expect from people who don’t even live in the state full time.
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:44 pmWage, yes they did, but I had to sign my name in a margin.
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:01 pmOh, now I wonder if Crist will do anything about Ann Coulter’s fraudulent vote. One can only hope.
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:02 pmFlorida has the dumbest people ever.
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:35 pm#24 Flaco, Did you mean dumb for working towards fair elections or for complaining about a system vulnerable to hacking? http://www.campaignline.com/webedition/page.cfm?navid=51&pageid=914
February 2nd, 2007 at 6:14 pmOr were you referring to Ann Coulter?
Hell yea fair elections, but too many dumb Floridians even after the supposed stolen elections cannot figure out how to vote.
February 2nd, 2007 at 6:48 pm