ARGH!
That's all I have to say about what happened last night. Okay, not all I have to say.
I got an opportunity to work the voting booth in one of the precincts in my ward this year, pays fairly well for a day and a half's work.
The problem:
The fucking Diebold machines. They're crap, they're easily hacked into, and they've been used to rig at least two previous elections here in Ohio (Diebold's CEO, a major Bush supporter, bragged he'd deliver Ohio to his candidate for the 2004 election--no worries, eh?).
For a little background, here are some links for your perusal:
Link #1
Link #2
Link #3
Last one:
Link #4
So you can see why I have no love for these electronic monstrosities. But that's not the only reason last night was horrendous. Last night, for me to be able to work the voting booth, I had to take a three-hour class on how to operate the damned machines. The class was poorly organized, with too many attendees and not enough competent trainers to answer everyone's questions. To make matters worse, and this is no knock at old people but most everyone there was either well over seventy or over fifty at the youngest. The only two exceptions were myself and one other guy in his twenties.
He and I appear to have been the only ones capable of actually figuring out the machines without a whole lot of trouble. We all got partnered up with someone, and confusion reigned most of the evening. My partner, a woman who appeared to be in her early fifties, has to be one of the most technologicially impaired person I've met since my parents.
Bottom line, most of the booth workers and election judges are going to be completely overwhelmed, because they can't figure out new technology. Last month at my Ward Club meeting, we had a demonstration of the Diebold election-rigging machines and it was a disaster. Virtually everyone had trouble trying to figure it out, the machine's touch screen options are so confusing.
No thanks to Diebold and the Ohio Legislature, the election this primary (May 2) and in November is going to be an exercise in fucking over the voters. Again. Those allowed to vote (you now must present what amounts to a poll tax to vote, in the form of paid-for identification such as driver's licenses, utility bills, current mailings from the government, paychecks, etc.) will likely have their electronic votes cast for the wrong candidate, and even if they vote for the correct one it'll likely be logged for someone else--someone Republican. And then there are the provisional ballots, which I've learned will be thrown out and not counted at all--thus negating them completely. But there is hope; we voters in Ohio are allowed to vote by absentee ballot this year, and I'm going to make sure as many registered voters take advantage of that as possible. The next month or so before the election is going to be pretty busy for me, and that's not even counting my job search.
Okay, enough of the rant. Journal updated, readers informed, time for breakfast.
That's all I have to say about what happened last night. Okay, not all I have to say.
I got an opportunity to work the voting booth in one of the precincts in my ward this year, pays fairly well for a day and a half's work.
The problem:
The fucking Diebold machines. They're crap, they're easily hacked into, and they've been used to rig at least two previous elections here in Ohio (Diebold's CEO, a major Bush supporter, bragged he'd deliver Ohio to his candidate for the 2004 election--no worries, eh?).
For a little background, here are some links for your perusal:
Link #1
Link #2
Link #3
Last one:
Link #4
So you can see why I have no love for these electronic monstrosities. But that's not the only reason last night was horrendous. Last night, for me to be able to work the voting booth, I had to take a three-hour class on how to operate the damned machines. The class was poorly organized, with too many attendees and not enough competent trainers to answer everyone's questions. To make matters worse, and this is no knock at old people but most everyone there was either well over seventy or over fifty at the youngest. The only two exceptions were myself and one other guy in his twenties.
He and I appear to have been the only ones capable of actually figuring out the machines without a whole lot of trouble. We all got partnered up with someone, and confusion reigned most of the evening. My partner, a woman who appeared to be in her early fifties, has to be one of the most technologicially impaired person I've met since my parents.
Bottom line, most of the booth workers and election judges are going to be completely overwhelmed, because they can't figure out new technology. Last month at my Ward Club meeting, we had a demonstration of the Diebold election-rigging machines and it was a disaster. Virtually everyone had trouble trying to figure it out, the machine's touch screen options are so confusing.
No thanks to Diebold and the Ohio Legislature, the election this primary (May 2) and in November is going to be an exercise in fucking over the voters. Again. Those allowed to vote (you now must present what amounts to a poll tax to vote, in the form of paid-for identification such as driver's licenses, utility bills, current mailings from the government, paychecks, etc.) will likely have their electronic votes cast for the wrong candidate, and even if they vote for the correct one it'll likely be logged for someone else--someone Republican. And then there are the provisional ballots, which I've learned will be thrown out and not counted at all--thus negating them completely. But there is hope; we voters in Ohio are allowed to vote by absentee ballot this year, and I'm going to make sure as many registered voters take advantage of that as possible. The next month or so before the election is going to be pretty busy for me, and that's not even counting my job search.
Okay, enough of the rant. Journal updated, readers informed, time for breakfast.