This primary election we had in Ohio was fucked up in the extreme, and it was deliberately designed to disenfranchise even more voters than ever.
The new diebold machines = shit.
Half the poll workers didn't know how to figure them out; we had roughly 2,000 call off the night before the primary because they didn't want to work the polls and be stuck trying to figure them out and look like morons in front of the voters.
More than half the voters couldn't figure out the machines.
Far too many polling locations didn't open on time because the poll workers that did show up were ill-trained and couldn't get the machines set up on time. Some locations, despite the requirement to be open at preceisely 6:30 AM, didn't open until after 1 PM.
Nobody who worked the polls got proper training on the new machines or the new opening and closing procedures. Nobody. Even I, who managed to get a pretty decent handle on the blasted contraptions, found myself learning ON MAY 2, THE DAY OF THE PRIMARY that there were opening and closing procedures not taught at the class I was required to take beforehand, and attended. Small wonder so many people called off.
A week since the primary, and all the votes (absentees) STILL are not counted. There are about 3,000 absentee ballots left to go, and counting on the original 17,000 there were didn't even begin until Saturday. Some races are so close, recounts are inevitable. Which means further delays in official election results.
Ken Blackwell knew exactly what he was doing when he used Ohio taxpayers' money to purchase the diebold machines--a company in which he has invested. (Corruption, much? Yes, I think so.) He rigged the 2004 presidential election in Ohio for his guy George Bush--on whose campaign he co-chaired in our state. And now that he wants to be governor, so he can further ruin our state, he'll rig his way into office.
And that means making sure yet more Ohio voters throw up their hands, give up on the system and never vote again. Because the fewer people (read: Democrats) vote, the better his chances of fooling enough of his fellow Republicans into voting for him.
It's times like this I get scared for what's left of what used to be the greatest democracy on Earth in modern times.
But, there is a sliver of good news; you're reading the journal entry of a Precinct Committee Member!
The new diebold machines = shit.
Half the poll workers didn't know how to figure them out; we had roughly 2,000 call off the night before the primary because they didn't want to work the polls and be stuck trying to figure them out and look like morons in front of the voters.
More than half the voters couldn't figure out the machines.
Far too many polling locations didn't open on time because the poll workers that did show up were ill-trained and couldn't get the machines set up on time. Some locations, despite the requirement to be open at preceisely 6:30 AM, didn't open until after 1 PM.
Nobody who worked the polls got proper training on the new machines or the new opening and closing procedures. Nobody. Even I, who managed to get a pretty decent handle on the blasted contraptions, found myself learning ON MAY 2, THE DAY OF THE PRIMARY that there were opening and closing procedures not taught at the class I was required to take beforehand, and attended. Small wonder so many people called off.
A week since the primary, and all the votes (absentees) STILL are not counted. There are about 3,000 absentee ballots left to go, and counting on the original 17,000 there were didn't even begin until Saturday. Some races are so close, recounts are inevitable. Which means further delays in official election results.
Ken Blackwell knew exactly what he was doing when he used Ohio taxpayers' money to purchase the diebold machines--a company in which he has invested. (Corruption, much? Yes, I think so.) He rigged the 2004 presidential election in Ohio for his guy George Bush--on whose campaign he co-chaired in our state. And now that he wants to be governor, so he can further ruin our state, he'll rig his way into office.
And that means making sure yet more Ohio voters throw up their hands, give up on the system and never vote again. Because the fewer people (read: Democrats) vote, the better his chances of fooling enough of his fellow Republicans into voting for him.
It's times like this I get scared for what's left of what used to be the greatest democracy on Earth in modern times.
But, there is a sliver of good news; you're reading the journal entry of a Precinct Committee Member!