The war on fair elections comes earlier and earlier every year.
Secretary of State Tre Hargett got a shiny new present for Christmas and the voters of Bedford, Lincoln, and Rutherford counties got lumps of coal.
Seriously, who cares about a fancy new website and “election night results program!” if we can’t be sure that even one vote cast on the touch screen electronic voting machines used in yesterday’s House District 62 special election was counted accurately?
The most important feature of a free and fair election system is transparency – being able to verify that what goes in is what comes out. The touch-screen electronic voting machines used yesterday provide zero transparency. The votes cast on them are 100% unverifiable.
Secretary of State Hargett knows that 93 out of 95 counties cast votes on these machines and yet he continues to want us to use them in election after election. Why, as the guardian of our democratic process, doesn’t he want to fix our broken election system?
Why is Tre Hargett more concerned with shiny new toys instead of accurate elections?
Bob, Mary wants the lawsuits to happen. She wants there to be doubt in the voting process. That’s how she can write a blog about a “real winner” of an election.
Mary, I can’t believe you have the nerve to call someone less of an American than you.
What did I tell you about people that talk about other people?
Let me get this straight, you would rather give up the ability to do a recount in a close election and therefore give up the ability to ascertain the real winner all for the sake of convenience? That’s not very American of you.
Bob, before we discuss paper ballots, please prove to me that one vote cast during an election on the machines we use now has been counted accurately.
Mary,
I was on a Tn County Election Counting Board in 2008. We counted about 3000 paper ballots from absentee voters. It was a nightmare! About 5% of the ballots had voter errors where the Counting Board had to determine the voter intent. If you think the machine voting system is fraught with errors, just wait until the counties have to count paper ballots. Talk about the potenial for vote manipulation and voter error. It will be a disaster! Perhaps we can all throw out our cell phones and go back to using tin cans and strings as well.
The paper ballot crusade will lead to vote manipulation and an increase in lawsuits by a factor of 10. Until you have actually counted these ballots yourself, you should withhold your opinion and judgements.
We must always, as citizens engaged in a participatory democracy, be vigilant about election protection. Paper ballot elections are no exception.
That said, please prove to me that one vote cast during an election on the machines we use now has been counted accurately. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Let’s see. The Democrat controlled legislature approve and paid for new voting machines. The Democrat Secretary of State picked the companies that the counties could buy the machines from. The Democrat Coordinator of Election oversaw the whole process. Every county in Tennessee (all 95) which were controlled by Democrats decided which machines to buy and use. So now it is Tre Hargett’s fault that these machines are being used in elections? Wow! What insanity!
Why not do parallel testing at each election, and yearly hash coding to make sure the machines are legit.
Do you really want to use paper ballots?
Any worker with a pen can change votes on a paper ballot.
I wonder, with a democratically controlled congress and White House, why can’t you blog about the great direction our country is headed?
Instead, you insist on talking about people.
Remember..
Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas.
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