‘Paper’ tigers issue warnings - Greens lead fight to scrap electronic voting machines

[kster]

By Helen Klein 02/24/2007

Forget electronic voting.

That’s what the New York Green Party wants the state to do, opting instead for old-fashioned paper ballots.

Braving a chill wind that created real feel temperatures in the zero range, and bundled in hats and gloves, members of the Brooklyn Greens took to Cadman Plaza, right behind Borough Hall, to make the case for their preference.

“We are calling for voter marked paper ballots that get counted by hand,” said Colby Hamilton, the presiding officer of the Green Party of Brooklyn. He said that many countries, including Canada, use paper ballots, and have results of elections within 24 hours.

“Voters expect accountability,” as they would get at ATMs, Hamilton noted, “but, for some reason, election officials don’t seem to think they have to have that level of accountability.”



http://www.brooklynheightscourier.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17894573&BRD=2384&PAG=461&dept_id=560113&rfi=6

[Joe Chi Minh]

1. They remind me of the villains in the old Westerns who'd say, "Are

you calling me a liar?" No. Not really. They apparently don't feel the need to say anything sensible in defence of their machines or their own good selves.

[kster]

2. You hit the

nail on the head. :thumbsup:

[Daylin Byak]

3. Excuse me but I thought this was "DEMOCRATIC Underground"

Where we talk about the politics and policies of The Democratic Party and there elected officals not there rivals The Green Party.

See..

Who We Are: Democratic Underground is an online community for Democrats and other progressives. Members are expected to be generally supportive of progressive ideals, and to support Democratic candidates for political office. Democratic Underground is not affiliated with the Democratic Party, and comments posted here are not representative of the Democratic Party or its candidates.

[kster]

5. Hand Counted Paper ballots is not a Progressive idea?

I think it is, because that is what I want, I am a Democratic voter and I would like to see HCPB'S happen. And you are supposed to be "generally supportive" according to the rules.

"Democratic Underground is an online community for Democrats and other progressives. Members are expected to be generally supportive of progressive ideals" :)

[Forkboy]

6. You can't get a more democratic ideal than the right to vote

Jeez...would you guys try some decaf? :eyes:

[depakid]

7. Maybe if the Dems would take this issue more seriously

then the Greens wouldn't have to always be out front and on the point....:think:

Come to think of it, the Greens advocate many other issues that the Dems would do well to take more seriously.

[Daylin Byak]

8. The fact of the matter is

We shouldn't be talking about the Greens cause there not Democrats, if I wanted to discuss the Green Party I would find a blog site dedicated to said party.

[depakid]

9. That's the type of narrow mindedness

that cost the Dems 12 years worth of election losses.

Perhaps we really should be questioning who we listen to.

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. Why would you do that. That way you'd only be talking to Greens about Greens and

any worthwhile initiatives they came up with. Where would be the sense in that? We also talk about neocons too.

Of course, if Democrats had reason to fear the Greens in elections, they might want to be more circumspect about complimenting an admirable initiative they came up with. But then again, there are some issues which are of such pith and moment, of such vital, such paramount importance, all non-psychos should feel free to support and to draw mutual strength from each other's counter-initiatives.

[Forkboy]

15. So this issue doesn't matter to you?

Your hatred of Greens is so overpowering that the most basic freedom this country has can come under attack and you would rather whine about whose trying to fix it than see it fixed.

Good lord....that is soooooo fucking lame and pathetic.No wonder this country is where it is.

[IndianaGreen]

4. Indiana Democrats prefer paper ballots too!

We have all been burned by electronic voting in recent elections, and even the optical scan machines cannot be trusted either. For example, in this past election my precinct was among several others where the machines malfunctioned and the ballots were not "scanned" until after the polls were closed. To this day I am not certain if my vote was counted.

Let's get over this irrational Greenphobia that some of you seem to suffer from and adopt a good idea such as this one. Just because the MSM loves instant results on Election night, we must remind ourselves of all the questionable results caused by electronic voting that ended up harming Democratic candidates and our democracy.

[roody]

10. The Greens had to do Kerry's job in Ohio

paying for the phony recount. Maybe the Dems should step it up a bit.

[election_2004]

11. California's new SoS, Debra Bowen

A wonderful and sharp woman, who just happens to be a Democrat, also distrusts electronic voting...and as our new Secretary of State, hopefully she will be able to discard the faulty and hackable electronic voting machines here in The Golden State, and implement verifiable voting options with a paper trail.

[BeFree]

12. Forget electronic voting

Good advice. The 2004 election was stolen by the e-voting machines and in 2006 there were probably another 3M votes stolen.

In Florida, there were 18,000 votes stolen by the machines and now Florida is finally thinking about letting you put your vote on paper. Imagine that, Florida is saying no to e-voting.

[MasonJar]

14. We need to push our reps constantly to change the HAVA law to

paper ballots. If each precinct counts its own, how long could that take? Then each could be counted again at the election hdqts.

[Top08Gear_com]

16. Electronic is not the problem

Electronic voting isn't the problem, it's like they said...they don't feel there's a need for a PAPER TRAIL.

You MUST have transparent source code
You MUST have A PAPER TRAIL
You MUST Count EVERY Vote... electronic, paper, absentee, etc ALL THE TIME

Preferably you then offer Instant Runoff Voting as well as other features which can make our votes COUNT no matter what, and increase voter confidence and turnout by leaps and bounds! :)

[AnOhioan]

17. I applaud the Greens for talking about this, But some...

members of the Democratic Party are doing the same.


"Go to paper ballots, a paper trail. Make our election process honest again. Enough of stolen elections. Make every vote count...."


Fom Kucinich's website, a segment of a speech on the House floor, September 20th, '06

http://kucinich.us/node/277

[Forkboy]

18. Yep,thanks for pointing that out

:thumbsup: to DK...who I'm sure is considered a fringe leftist by certain folk around here.