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perdita9

perdita9's Journal
perdita9's Journal
July 21, 2014

Electronic Voting Machines Failed to Record all my Votes

Pennsylvania held its primary on May 20th. At the polls, I ran into a bunch of friends and we decided, as a joke, to write my name in for Representative for the 137th district. (No democrat had gotten on the ticket to oppose Republican Joe Emrick). Laughing, we all got instructions for how to do a write in vote on the Sequoia AVC Advantage machines and took our place in line.

That night a friend called me with the results. “You got 2 write in votes.”

“But 5 people voted for me,” I told her. “You were there when we all voted.”

“Yeah, I don’t get it either.”

A call to voting machine technician yielded nothing but frustration. After explaining what happened, I was informed that my friends were idiots who didn’t know how to follow instructions. After I icily pointed out that there were 2 PhDs, a master’s degree and a BA among the 5 voters and everyone knew how to use a computer, he switched to a new explanation. “Your friends must have lied about voting for you.” Once he got picked that line of reasoning he stuck to it. My friends were only humoring me when they said they’d written my name in. No, it didn’t matter that I had witnessed 2 of them quizzing the poll workers on the instructions.

So I got 5 signatures on 5 depositions, all attesting that, to the best of the signee’s knowledge, they had written my name in for Representative of the 137th district. In response I received a letter from the County of Northampton Board of Elections stating that the machines are tested and inspected before every election. The fact that they failed during a real life experiment didn’t seem to bother them.

I’ve heard rumors that I’m not the only one who had this problem. People in other districts wrote in someone’s name as a lark, but it didn’t register on the final tally.

It appears all that paranoia about electronic voting machines may have not been so paranoid after all. And, if you’re thinking about running a write-in campaign in Pennsylvania, be advised that the machines will not make it easy for you.

July 20, 2014

Very Ugly Anti-Immigrant Protest today in Bethlehem, PA

The haters were out in force this morning, protesting against Central American children receiving services at Kids Peace - a not-for-profit organization which provides help to children in crisis.

People who support caring for children were outnumbered but we did our best to dilute the hate, and the hate was on full display. One woman had a sign urging motorists to not support upcoming Kids Peace fundraisers. At one point, they people waving confederate flags led a prayer through a bullhorn. Too bad Jesus didn't weigh in with His opinion of their antics.

When we left I had to walk my kid up the side of the road with no sidewalks and across four lanes of traffic. We couldn't use the crosswalk to get back to Kids Peace because at least one of the anti-immigrant haters was carrying a gun.

July 9, 2014

The Bible supports abortion

It's true. The topic of abortion appears exactly once in the Bible, in Numbers, chapter 5, verses 19-28.

A man thinks his wife committed adultery so he brings her to a priest. The priest makes her swallow 'the water of bitterness' (in some versions it's 'the bitter water that brings the curse' i.e. menstrual cycle) and says a prayer over her. If she's guilty of adultery, she'll have 'untimely birth and miscarriage'.

The water of bitterness is clearly an abortifacient --so how can 'religious' companies claim that god is against abortifacients?

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Member since: Mon Dec 7, 2009, 12:10 PM
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