Lipstick on a Pig -- Get Rid of All Voting Machines -- NOW!

Canada has national provincial, and local elections,…all elections…on paper ballots. They experimented with voting machines and were very unhappy. In Canada they have procedures for taking, storing, counting, observing the vote count, and recounts. IT’S NO PROBLEM. WHAT’S OUR PROBLEM?

Despite this being the age of the internet, and wireless everything, vote counting in Canada is still decidedly low-tech.

http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes/voterstoolkit/votecounting.html

* Voters mark paper ballots by hand
* Ballots are placed in a cardboard box
* At the end of the day, the DRO holds up each ballot, and announces who the vote is for
* The poll clerk and party scrutineers tally the results on a piece of paper
* Results are phoned in to Elections Canada, and the party offices
* Advance and mail-in ballots are not counted until election day, at the returning office
* Preliminary unofficial results are entered into a computer at the returning office, to be forwarded to Elections Canada, and the media consortium
* Within seven days, the returning officer validates the results, making them official
* Recounts are automatic, if the margin between two candidates is less than 1,000 votes

For 50 years, until the early 1970s, the post office issued special stationery for DROs to mail results to candidates and returning officers. After being phoned in, those results are now delivered in person.

Party representatives (scrutineers) are there as witnesses to make sure the whole process is fair. If none are available (these are volunteer positions), then the people working the registration desk, or regular electors, can serve the purpose. (Scrutineers also keep track of who has voted, and let the campaign office know. The office will then call people to encourage them to vote.)

We must make every day count so that on that day, every VOTE is counted!

Ohio primary is on May 2nd -- please read the thread below to see what you can do: Call the Kucinich campaign and send an alarm! Donate! Get out the vote! Help run parallel elections!

Ohio rolls out new Diebold voting machines in time to unseat Kucinich

:grr:

Recommended.


Never Forget: George W. Bush willfully violated National Security to cover-up his willful launch of a war of aggression and illegal occupation of Iraq.

Why have any software involved. This is not a daily process or weekly, it's special, voting is.

Occurs periodically. We have the right to WITNESS THE PROCESS.

You CANNOT WITNESS THE PROCESS if it's hidden.

HIDING BENEFITS PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO OPERATE IN SECRET.

Plus Canada and Great Britain vote on paper all the time and do well, few disputes, occasional
charges of small scale fraud around the margins.

WE CAN DO IT NOW. THOSE WHO RESIST HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE.

Exactly x 2.


Peace.

excellent!

The rest? Find some landfill they can pollute.

All very simple indeed.

Votes are then counted in the presence of representatives of each candidate, with any disputes being decided immediately (I've done this, nothing difficult about it - the aim is simply to ascertain the voter's wishes). Releasing of information about the count before the official result is illegal. If the result is close candidates can request a recount. Once all parties have agreed, the Returning Officer makes the official annoucement - hey presto we've got a new M.P. (or whatever was being elected).

Now I'm gonna start calling 'em "Repiglicans."

Only problem is HOW do we get rid of those nefarious machines when such a small percentage of the people and the legislators are not in denial of the undisputable fact that this technology totally SUCKS.

Gotta 'cause a major ruckus I guess.

K & R

They better wake up, we have a right to see our vote and see it counted.

NO MORE OUTSOURCED PRIVATE ELECTIONS RUN SECRETLY BY THE DIEBOLDS.

Cheers!

and obligation to its people - fair and accurate elections. That is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. We are the tailors measuring our own necks for the yoke of tyranny. Since the machines have so many documented "glitches" and insecurities they should be boxed up and sent back to the manufacturer. Or we can discount them and sell them on Ebay to third world despots who would like to have an easier way to steal elections.

Great post, as usual, autorank! :yourock:

And, it needs to happen ASAP!

TC

Maybe one day, when they get the machines "right", we'll accept them.

Like maybe when pigs fly.

Clear compartmentalized ballot boxes.



For more on this idea of how you can get a quick vote count at the precinct level without the use of electronic vote counting machines see link below.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=425015&mesg_id=425015

FOLLOWING PUT TOGETHER BY KSTER. EXCELLENT ALTERNATIVE. CAN IT WORK BY '06?

1) No more electronic GLITCHES.
2) No more humidity problems.
3) No technical assistance needed to operate.
4) No problem if there is a power failure.
5) No special rooms for storing after an election.
6) Completely transparent, reusable multi-purpose stackable ballot box.


Items needed at polling place :

1) Flashlights, in case of power failure. People need to see to vote.
2) A couple of fans, to make people comfortable in case its humid outside.
3) Hand-held calculators to keep a count of the ballot box totals, to prevent ballot stuffing, and for reporting totals to the media. You know how they want their totals immediately.
4) Democrat, Republican and Independent observers. The more the merrier.


Instructions:

1) At the beginning of the day, place an empty ballot box into the voting booth.
2) When one of the four compartments gets full, remove from voting booth. If it is mostly filled with Democrat ballots put it on the Democrat table. If it is mostly filled with Republican ballots, it then goes on the Republican table.
3) Replace the full ballot box that you remove from the booth with another empty ballot box.
4) The Ballot boxes on these tables are the totals that you call into the media throughout the day.
5) Take plenty of pictures of the ballot boxes that are on these tables.
6) At the end of the day, add up the totals from all of the ballot boxes, and check to see if the ballot total matches the amount of voters that voted that day.
7) Call in these totals to the media. We now have a BALLOT TOTAL at the precinct level. Hopefully with plenty of photos.

Now they become ballot transport boxes:

Load up and transport the ballots to the central counting facility. With PLENTY of observers from all parties present, we hand count the ballots, with no rush, because we already have a general idea of who won.

When Winners AND losers are satisfied the election is complete..

Now they become storage boxes for the ballots. Transport the ballot boxes back to their community where they are stored, in these same ballot boxes, for the amount of time the state requires. After that amount of time the ballots are then recycled, and the boxes are then ready for the next election.

For the HAVA requirement for disabled voters



http://www.vote-pad.us /

Unless you like these machines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to have and to store, having Democratic votes stolen and the Republican party hijacked by a group of Neocon’s, AND HAVING YOUR VOTE COUNTED IN SECRET, then by all means, buy the electronic vote counting/scanning machines and have your ballot locked inside a machine that no one can see or worse yet, an invisible ballot recorded electronically.


But if you are concerned about the future of Democracy for your kids and grandkids, DEMAND to see the ballots EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. Most importantly, Don’t rely on a machine to count your vote IN SECRET. It’s your Country! Demand to WATCH AND/OR COUNT THE BALLOTS BY HAND, OUT IN THE OPEN WITH PLENTY OF OBSERVERS from all parties.

Nothing, but nothing else is relevant. And even then, there's the matter of voter suppression and intimidation by republican low-lifes to be addressed (with the utmost force and rigour). Maybe a special kind of riot squad like the French have, but composed of African Americans!