BRAD BLOG: Counting Voters Ballots in American Elections, and Other 'Conspiracy Theories'

[BradBlog]

Eternal Vigilance: Not Just for Founding Fathers Anymore
Or, Counting Voters Ballots in American Elections, and Other 'Conspiracy Theories'
Or, the Mainstream Media and the 'Progressive' Blogworld...One Big Happy Family...With Liberty and Democracy for None...

-- Brad Friedman

Counting ballots is not done to find out what went wrong, but rather, to assure the results are right.
ATM's are fairly reliable. But I have a feeling if you get $300 from one of them, you'll likely count, by hand, all three hundred dollar bills to make sure they are there. Right? You'd be an irresponsible fool to do otherwise.

But with election results? Um, not so much.

As they like to say over at Daily Kos, after all, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." But that only seems to work one way. So, what exactly is the "extraordinary evidence" for the "extraordinary claim" that for the first time in United States' history, a woman has won a Presidential Primary Election, while staring down the barrel of dozens of independent pre-election polls, all predicting she would take a thumping?

Responsible coverage, from the mainstream media --- or, more disappointingly, the supposedly-Progressive blogosphere who have had no shortage of new epithets for The BRAD BLOG and its founding father, Brad Friedman, over the past week --- has not been easy to come by....

COMPLETE STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5542

[JuniperLea]

1. Now we know where the word "moran" comes from!

Who knew??!!??!! I'm series!!!!11!!! This is HUGH!!!11!!!1!!!

[BridgeTheGap]

2. They're are plenty of elections where the results aren't contested

Of course, that doesn't make the resulsts accurate.
I asked our local county clerk what actually gets counted if a recount is required. He said that they just match the total votes with the total # signed in to vote. If they number matches, that's all they care about. He was then asked "How do you know the voting is accurate, i.e. reflects each voter's intent? "We don't know. It's just not that easy to alterate the results of these machines, because of access."
What an idiot!

[peace13]

3. And to add to that...

if you work the polls and collect each signature, at the end of the day it is the machine that tells you how many signatures you should have! If the number doesn't match the book it is the poll workers problem. Go figure. It makes me very nervous to work elections now because as our BOE told us. 'If they get hauled into the SOS we are going with them.' In the old days you took the signature and gave the person a ballot...ballot went in the box. Pretty simple. At the end of the day A=B. Go figure. peace, Kim

[AntiFascist]

14. Also, Republicans are constantly trying to spin this as 'voter fraud'...

meaning that the real problem is the validity of the people who are voting, not the validity of the results of the machines.

[Junkdrawer]

4. Words have meanings from their use...So "Conspiracy Theory" means...

"Any idea that goes against the grain of the Corporate Media and which the Corporate Media would like dismissed out of hand without detailed investigation."

[Junkdrawer]

5. Kick

:kick:

[kster]

6. Good report Brad

Your really slapping them around this election cycle. Don't let em up for air. :patriot:

K&R

[althecat]

7. Stunning piece brad... really

superb.

bravo.

[Kurovski]

8. K&R. Thank you.

Great analogy for the whole deal here:

"May I be your ATM, please, "DemFromCT"? I'll give you exactly the amount of money that I'll tell you I'll give you. No need to count it. Just put in your pocket and walk away. You can trust me."

[K Gardner]

9. Thank you, Brad. Once again, a treasure trove of information and logic. For the hard work you

do and for the grief you take over it, my gratitude. I got just a tiny taste of what you must get daily and I must say, it stings the soul. It is difficult to comprehend. One day popular, the next day you'd think you had leprosy :hide:

There are more of us who believe in verifying the votes than don't.. I truly believe that. I hope we become enough of a vocal majority that we can shout down the leper-makers. I never dreamed, in the wreckage and devastation that was election year 2000, I'd still be sitting here in a befuddled mess, and we'd not have this shit fixed by now. So I thank you for sitting here with me..and speaking for me...and standing for me.. and trying to make certain my vote counts this time.

Take care...enjoy your trip. :hi:

KG

[kma3346]

10. Thank you for all you do, Brad

You are a true American hero.


:toast:

[Stevepol]

11. Just finished reading this blog and it's the best Brad I've seen.

This really lays it out, the insanity, the absolute insanity of the country and especially of certain bloggers who hold, evidently, that yes it's true that we trust the hackable machines without counting the paper but anybody who points this out and actually asks for a transparent election is a "conspiracy nut."

Try to wrap your mind around that one.

Brad has the patience of a Job in dealing with these people. He keeps saying the same thing over and over, and yet they still don't get it 4 years after perhaps the most suspicious election in American history. These same people will scoff at rednecks and others when they make irrational statements and yet they themselves continue to make even more ridiculous statements and slap each other on the back for it like a bunch of drunken snake oil salesmen at a convention.

[chknltl]

12. Dude, I don't know you but...

....THANK YOU! :patriot:

[flashl]

13. Thank you!!