Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Pressin' The Diebold Screen
Today is Primary Election day in Pennsylvania, and so even though there weren't a whole lot of sexy races on the ballot, I did my civic duty and went to vote today.
OK.. there were two reasons I went to vote "primarily" today. The first one just feels good... today was the first vote I was able to cast on the road to putting Rick Santorum out of office. Granted, the vote was for Bob Casey, which doesn't feel great. But it was a BIG vote against Rick Santorum, which I loved.
The second reason I went was out of curiosity. Our local area has been assimilated updated to new electronic voting machines. Diebold... ask for it by name. Of course, the specter of Diebold is enough to make me cynical toward these new machines.
Beyond the potential for rigging and scams, however, is a simple idea.. and I'll just throw it out there for whomever to pick it up and create. Why can a voting booth not operate in the same way as an ATM... use the touch screen, make your selections, the selections are recorded, and the machine then spits out a damned piece of paper as a record of my vote?? Why would that be so difficult?
The answer, I'm sure, is that it wouldn't be difficult at all. The answer, I'm afraid, is that the people behind the decisions fear that a paper record would spoil all their fun.
On a lighter note, the touch screen does make it far simpler to cast a write-in ballot, so I'll let you know if I won any races tomorrow.
Tags: vote, election, primary, Bob Casey, Rick Santorum, voting machines, Diebold
Posted by FleshPresser at 10:38 AM /
Ma T posted at 1:04 PM
It's also an excellent day to vote against Chip Brightbill. Makes a body feel all good about oneself, doesn't it? :)
FleshPresser posted at 4:27 PM
Indeed... cleaning house cleanses the soul! :) Just wait 'til November! :)
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Today is Primary Election day in Pennsylvania, and so even though there weren't a whole lot of sexy races on the ballot, I did my civic duty and went to vote today.
Ma T posted at 1:04 PM
