A Clean Count? The Florida voting virus: It couldn't happen again, could it? Untested technologies. Millions of first-time voters. Terror threats. Itchy lawyers. Sure it could. A road map to an anxious Election Day
Early bird: A New Mexico mother and her daughter hit the polls Oct. 5 Newsweek
This story was written by Weston Kosova, with reporting by Debra Rosenberg, Rebecca Sinderbrand, Holly Bailey, Arian Campo-Flores, Andrew Murr, Brad Stone, Mark Hosenball, Sarah Childress, T. Trent Gegax, Daren Briscoe, Cliff Sloan, Jennifer Ordonez And Eve Conant
Oct. 18 issue - It's just about impossible to stop Claude Hawkins from voting. The 24-year-old supply store clerk from Kansas City, Mo., was so enthusiastic about this year's election that he registered to vote three times, just to make sure his application wasn't lost. But when he showed up to vote in the state's Democratic primary last August, the poll worker told him he wasn't on the list. She offered to check with the board of elections. Instead, he decided to leave and go to the local union hall, where he'd voted in 2000. They couldn't find his name, either, even though the voter-registration card he presented listed his ward and precinct. He was given a list of all the local polling places. Hawkins went to the one closest to his house. Nope, wrong again. Finally, he trudged over to the last place he knew of in the area, a Methodist church. Sorry. When he explained the situation, a poll worker took pity on him and gave him a provisional ballot. Fill it out, he was told, and it would be counted later.
He went home, a bit bewildered, but relieved and pleased with his determination. The feeling didn't last long. A few days after the election, he got a call from a Democratic Party lawyer who told him his ballot had been thrown out because he'd voted in the wrong place. The final insult soon arrived in the mail: it was a postcard, days late, telling him the name of his official polling place. "I've seen a lot of people walk away from the polls," he says. The city eventually agreed to count his vote. Hawkins and other voters sued to get the rules straightened out before Nov. 2. He's prepared to do battle again if his vote gets bounced on Election Day. But he says he wonders how many others in his situation just gave up and went home. Halfway across the country, Jonathan Soffer is also getting ready for Election Day skirmishes. A 47-year-old history professor at Brooklyn Polytechnic University, he hadn't used his law degree in years. But when Soffer recently received an e-mail asking for lawyers to keep an eye on the Florida races for the liberal Election Protection coalition, he signed up immediately. He'll take down complaints about voter fraud or intimidation, and stand outside polling places, looking for signs of misconduct—though he has no idea what that might be. His one hope: that the vote count goes quickly, and ends up in John Kerry's favor. "Wait," he says, "we're supposed to be nonpartisan." Who picked this "unbiased man"
In Minnesota, officials at the state's Division of Homeland Security are worried about another kind of election threat. The agency recently issued a flier telling poll workers how to spot a "homicide bomber" in the line. Among the things to look for: "Unusual shapes or bulges protruding from a person's mid-section" and "May be seen praying fervently to himself/herself, giving the appearance of whispering to someone."
Brace yourself: it's happening again. The election is still weeks away, the votes aren't even close to being counted and already lawsuits are in the courts, tales of trashed ballots are in the news and allegations about dirty tricks are in the air. Awful as it is to contemplate, we may be headed for a repeat of the whole sordid 2000 election mess—the millions of uncounted votes, the shameless legal maneuvering, the prospect of winners' being decided by judges. And this time, with added worries—vague, but still there—about possible terror strikes around Election Day. "These are concerns," says DeForest Soaries Jr. Soaries knows what he's talking about. As chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a new federal agency created to help cool tempers and smooth out problems, he's spent months flying around the country trying to get a feel for the mood on the ground.
If you're looking for reassurance that 2000 was just a freak anomaly and this year will be different, Soaries isn't your man. He recently returned from Florida, where he found that hundreds of polling places had been destroyed by the hurricanes, a problem that could lead to mass confusion next month. "Now," he says, Florida (and every other state) has to "prepare for a hurricane called Election Day."
This might be a good place to inject a note of optimism. It's no secret that American elections have never been nearly as free and fair as our childhood civics textbooks made them out to be. In 1888, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison both hired "floaters" to vote again and again, and secretly destroyed each other's ballots. Lyndon Johnson was elected to the Senate in 1948 because his supporters stuffed ballot boxes in Alice, Texas. Dead men and rigged voting machines helped John F. Kennedy beat Richard Nixon in 1960. President Dwight D. Eisenhower urged Nixon to demand a recount, but Nixon wouldn't. He worried that a challenge would cause a "constitutional crisis" great enough to "tear the country Voters
Page 4: The Early Votes and The Lawyers: How Long Will It Take?
Newsweek
Thought it was THAT time again so brace up we are in for a bumpy ride
D
aka deltacent aka deltater
Life may not be the party I had hoped for.......
But while I'm here I might just as well listen to the music and dance..
I don't think we have ever had a clean count in the history of the country and I don't expect one now. People are people and we all make mistakes of some sort.
I have said this before. I think we should vote from secure ATMs with government issued voting card and pin number. Banks have had this secure environment for years with little or no problems. I do not believe in on-line voting using unsecured systems.
"Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those who say this are witless." ~Ayatollah Khomeini
ATMs are pretty reliable and there are plenty of them around. Obviously they would have to be government certified or something. Heck it's probably too simple for anyone to understand. They like to make beurocracies out of everything.
Voter cards could be issued with pin numbers just like cedit cards. Verification of the user will be easier with new fingerprint technology and this technology is already being used.
It's not rocket surgery you know?
"Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those who say this are witless." ~Ayatollah Khomeini
Delta said this in post #6 : NO it sounds simple butyou know Politicians, they make everything difficult.
D
I don't think it's politicians making it difficult as much as trying to make a system that isn't very flawed. It's very easy to come up with the idea, but it's much harder to implement and go through the process of doing everything correctly and fairly.
I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
- Bill Cosby
The guy who takes a chance, who walks the line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed.
- Gordon Parks
I heard on the News today that with so much messing around with the ballots of people who have already voted. Both sides may be responsible;e for us not knowing who wins this election until November Thanksgiving day.
That makes me ill. I will never make it. I am sick of the whole thing already.
IMAGINE!!!!!
D
aka deltacent aka deltater
Life may not be the party I had hoped for.......
But while I'm here I might just as well listen to the music and dance..
10-14-2004 10:31 PM
