Major Problems At Polls Feared

[Terri]

Washington Post

An overhaul in how states and localities record votes and administer elections since the Florida recount battle six years ago has created conditions that could trigger a repeat -- this time on a national scale -- of last week's Election Day debacle in the Maryland suburbs, election experts said.

In the Nov. 7 election, more than 80 percent of voters will use electronic voting machines, and a third of all precincts this year are using the technology for the first time. The changes are part of a national wave, prompted by the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 and numerous revisions of state laws, that led to the replacement of outdated voting machines with computer-based electronic machines, along with centralized databases of registered voters and other steps to refine the administration of elections.

But in Maryland last Tuesday, a combination of human blunders and technological glitches caused long lines and delays in vote-counting. The problems, which followed ones earlier this year in Ohio, Illinois and several other states, have contributed to doubts among some experts about whether the new systems are reliable and whether election officials are adequately prepared to use them.

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[azwhitewolf]

I say put a crayon and a white piece of paper into the voting booth. If you can't figure out how to spell the name of your candidate, then you are just too dumb to vote.

No sense in blaming the machines.

(That, and there's no way Schwarzenegger would win again. There's no way a California HS Graduate would be able to phonetically break that down)

This whole voting thing has gotten so out of hand, that there's no point in being able to count 3000 votes in 10 seconds if you have spend 3 months and a few days in front of the Grand Jury to prove it.

[ChristyB]

There is a reason why our forefathers only allowed 'Landowners' to vote, theoretically they were 'educated' and able to understand the process and what was at stake.

Now even the most illiterate are allowed to participate, you know, the people targeted by the Democratic Party.

I was speaking to my niece the other day, she just turned 18 and we heard something on the radio about Hillary Clinton. She said if Hillary ran for president she was going to vote for her, I asked her if she had been paying attention to politics and knew if she believed in the things Clinton stood for, and she said, "I don't know, but she is a woman and I think it would be cool to have a woman President". OH MY GOD! I slapped by brother upside his head and told him if he let her walk into a voting booth with that attitude he was a fool!

God save us from liberals and ignorance (or is that redundant?)

[Donna Son Io]

I ran into that same type of situation when I was in high school. I graduated during a Presidential election year, and all seniors were required to take a one-semester class in Voter Preparation. (As I recall, it was the only civics education I ever had in public school.) I took the class in the spring semester, when primaries were being held and things were heating up for the election that fall. One girl in my class, one of the best students in the entire senior class, announced one day that she was for a particular candidate because he was good-looking. A couple of months later, when he dropped out of the race because he had been losing in the primaries, she expressed her disappointment because she had wanted to vote for him because "he's so handsome!"

Unfortunately, a lot of 18-year-olds today (and in my day) just don't have the maturity necessary to make an informed decision and vote responsibly. Some do, but enough don't to make me wonder if we should raise the voting age.

[TomThumb]

Maybe there was some logic to setting the voting age at 21.

[candles]

We have to go through pre-marriage classes, driving lesson and then take a test, etc, this should be applied to the most important thing we have here in the USA, the right to vote.

[basssniper]

If the liberal demoRATS would have to take any kind of a test to vote, it would be a Republican land slide. If you doubt that statement, watch the Jay Leno show when they have "Jay Walking" on. I understand why California is so much a liberal demoRAT state. God must love stupid people because he sure made a lot of them. How some of these people graduated high school is beyond me. No wonder so many of them are unemployed. I would not want them working for me, or even with me. You would have to retrain them after a coffee break.

[Whitetop]

The question has to be are these voter machine problems real or contrived? Democrats used to be able to bus all the members of their base to the polls (more than one poll in some cases) and instruct their constituients on which lever to pull. Hanging Chads changed all that and because of their complaints during the FL Chad debate they now have to contend with electronic devices.

Like all democrat issues they offer no solutions; just problems. The more difficult it becomes for them to commit voter fraud the more they cry like a stuck hog about problems with voting machines. If people can't make an intelligent vote then they shouldn't be allowed in a voting booth.

The demos should be careful what they wish for because they just might get more than they bargained for. An electronic voting machine is much more complicated than switching one lever like we had 25 years ago. They can't instruct their robots on how to vote a straight ticket as easily.

[CSchultz]

Howdy Folks!

I'm at the Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne Indiana!

(Actually I'm in the Hotel, a few blocks from there.)

.....SSAAAAAAALUTE!! !!

I've been getting my brain crammed full all day.

I had 5 lectures, lunch and Dinner.
lots of notes to transfer into a workable, understandable format to share with everyone back in Kansas when I get home.

What an incredible campus, the chapel is at least 50 feet tall, like a giant "A" Frame, marble Altar, and one of the biggest pipe organs I've ever seen.

We had 500 in the morning service, and the hymns literally gave me goose-bumps.

I just booted up the laptop to see if they have Wi/Fi here at the hotel and as you can see, they do.

YippEEE

I'm going to fold this thing up and go downstaris to see if they have a bar too.

A nice cold beer always helps me type faster!!

See ya in a bit.

[RealDeal]

There's no way a California HS Graduate would be able to phonetically break that down

HEY NOW!!!

You prefer Angelides?? And let me ask you about your McCain, "people in glass houses..."