Republican are trying to steal the election again!

[Funk]

Widespread voter regularities (ballot malfunctions, registration problems, etc.) reported in areas of Ohio and Pennsylvania that normally lean democratic. Wow, surprising, huh?

Also: first official 2008 election conspiracy topic!

[Owl of Parliament]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

First I do the splits over an egg; then I do a somersault into an open watermelon.

[DK]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

First I do the splits over an egg; then I do a somersault into an open watermelon.

Second

[Caciss]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

why can't democrats steal the elections too?

[Xyster]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

Because democrats have no ninja skills. Sad, but true.

[The Toecutter]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

why can't democrats steal the elections too?

Because historically, they haven't tried hard enough. About 600 'dead people' voting democratic in 2004 for starters, versus hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes for the republicans that year.

This time, however, both parties are trying to steal it.

[gray]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

you mean organizing millions of people across the country in the span of 12 hours isn't going perfectly?



mother ****ers

[ChaosKnightXD]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

There have been errors in a couple places in Virginia as well that I know of and it's a swing state what a coincidence. Like a person who was supposed to be at the voting place to set things up at 4 AM something didn't show up til 6 AM and caused paper ballots to be used instead at least for a little while I think. Glad I didn't vote there.

[Bon]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

There have been errors in a couple places in Virginia as well that I know of and it's a swing state what a coincidence. Like a person who was supposed to be at the voting place to set things up at 4 AM something didn't show up til 6 AM and caused paper ballots to be used instead at least for a little while I think. Glad I didn't vote there.

I used a paper ballot.

[Jamos]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

^ Same. Which is odd, because we've done electronic for a while now.

[Stormy]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

Electronic voting systems are too vulnerable to tampering, in my opinion.

[thetruecoolness]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

Especially ones with no paper trail like the ones in GA. Not sure how true it is, but there have been rumors that in 2000 Democratic leaning counties in GA had patches applied to their voting machines by the company who makes them. I believe the Diebold machines were even ruled unfit for voting, but are still being used.

[Stormy]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

Especially ones with no paper trail like the ones in GA. Not sure how true it is, but there have been rumors that in 2000 Democratic leaning counties in GA had patches applied to their voting machines by the company who makes them. I believe the Diebold machines were even ruled unfit for voting, but are still being used.

You ttc, as a programmer/techie, should know better than anyone. So I think that validates my opinion.

Its just far to easy to manipulate electronic voting systems, and its even easier to cover up if there is no paper trail. Its even easier if the information is sent over the internet.

[orius]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

Widespread voter regularities (ballot malfunctions, registration problems, etc.) reported in areas of Ohio and Pennsylvania that normally lean democratic. Wow, surprising, huh?

As someone who lives in an area of Pennsylvania that normally leans Democratic I can tell you for a fact that the problem is that the voters are idiots. They don't vote properly, have no idea where they're supposed to vote, or don't register on time.

Voter stupidity was the whole reason Gore lost Florida in 2000, because 10,000 senile Floridians voted for the wrong candidate and instead of asking for a new ballot, voted twice and screwed the ballot (and if the precints didn't have enough extra ballots to cover mistakes, then the election planners, who were probably largely Democrats, were stupid there too).

If they'd voted properly, he would have won, and we wouldn't have had years of Democrats whining because it's easier than trying to get people to take an election seriously, and they can't blame the morons because they don't want to lose the votes. This is the kind of crap we get for making things more "accessible". Yes, quick registration at the DMV and absentee and early ballots might make some aspects easier, but voting is both a right and a responsibility. The voter is supposed to know what the hell he or she is doing. Voting isn't a lark, elections aren't freaking American Idol or some half-assed Internet poll that doesn't mean squat, they have real consequences.

And then there's all the bad consequences of trying to switch to electronic voting after that fiasco in Florida. A bunch of idiots can't vote straight, plus the counties typed up ballots that supposedly were difficult to read or something, so our wonderful politicians decide to throw everything into confusion. They push for these electronic systems, largely because the damn companies are paying them lots of cash. Then the voters don't like them because they can't provide a written backup of votes and they fear tampering. So all these areas switch to electronically read paper ballots which puts everything back to square one, because paper ballots are the most prone to voter error (not to mention the costs invovled in printing them every year, the paper used, etc.)

Can't speak for every area, but it's been a mess where I live; before they switched to e-voting we had old mechanical lever machines. They worked well, and they prevented errors like overvotes. But thanks to Congress trying to "help" us, the local counties switched to machines with touch screens. Then the state passes some piece of legislation that blocked their use because they didn't have some security software upgrade or something, and the damn manufacturers refused to budge, and the politicians in the state and in congress didn't have the balls to try to make these manufacturers comply. I don't give a damn if it's not profitable for them, they want to make money, go into something that doesn't provide a necessary public service or something.

So the county, already having spent money on those machines, had to go out and get a second set of machines, this time optical scanners so the people could actually vote, after borrowing similar machines in a previous election. We went through something like 3 elections in a row with different machines, and the county had to shell out more money because of it. This is supposed to help us? And there's been no mention of trying to sue the company because they spent money on machines they can use (which is where a class action lawsuit would actually be jusitfiable).

The more of this **** happens, the less I like democracy.

Because historically, they haven't tried hard enough. About 600 'dead people' voting democratic in 2004 for starters, versus hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes for the republicans that year.

It's more about which party's more powerful locally. Graveyard votes have always been a pretty popular tactic, particularly in areas where many of the local officials are of the dominant party and go out of their way to see where the voter rolls haven't been updated in a case of death. But it's really about which ones can get away with it, and wherever one party has a strong enough majority to dominate the other one, they'll be able to use more trickery because they can get away with it, from having enough party officials in power, to a local voter base that regularly votes for the party unless there's a truely egregious scandal.

This time, however, both parties are trying to steal it.

What do you mean "this time"? There's been attempts by local political machines to control the vote whenever the will of the people gets inconvenient throughout most of American history.

[gray]

Re: Republican are trying to steal the election again!

those damn republicans stole the election! thank god we were warned, over and over, so we know how they did it.