use paper ballots

[JB88]

my girlfriend and i each vote at different locations but we went to vote together this morning.  at both places there were nice little old people standing at the entrances holding large "use paper ballots" signs.

they were in nice light blue lettering and they smiled as you passed.

in our districts you could choose to use an electronic machine if you wished, but there was only one where i went to vote.

i had to sign a peice of paper saying that i had chosen a paper ballot.

i'm glad that they did this.

in the last two elections i have voted in there has been a crotchety old gentleman at the door who insisted that i needed to provide two peices of identification to vote.  (in his view i was probably a whippersnapper who was gonna vote away his candidate..lol) i had to run home to get a second piece of usuable ID.  (this was 2000)  

last time (2004) when he insisted i explained that i had called the elections board (which i did) prior to coming over to vote and that they had affirmed that i was not required to show anything more than a drivers license of voter registration card.  i reported him that time.

he wasnt there this year...only the guy who asked me if i had a cell phone.

nope, you need one?

no thanks, just can't bring em in...thanks.

nice guy.



much better this year.


now here is the kicker.  i live in NW florida.  this is the place in the central time zome where the republicans supposedly rallied to get bush elected at the last minute and set us on this glorious path that we have been on for 6 years.


i am glad we have paper ballots again.  they were easy to use and easy to turn in.

not to say that it wasnt previously...but i feel better this year.  as if my vote is  being counted.



USE PAPER BALLOTS

[Mace2004]

Originally posted by JB88

now here is the kicker.  i live in NW florida.  this is the place in the central time zome where the republicans supposedly rallied to get bush elected at the last minute and set us on this glorious path that we have been on for 6 years.

Actually, the story line with the panhandle was not that the Republicans there put Bush over the top, its that they would have given him a very large margin of victory had the press not proclaimed Gore the winner before the panhandle polls closed.  For those that are unaware, most of Florida is in the Eastern time zone while the Panhandle is Central.  One of the networks, don't remember which, called the election at 7pm Eastern, 6 Central and the rest immediately followed.  

Most counts showed a very large shortfall in voter turnout in the very conservative panhandle.  I'm not positive but I think it was somewhere in the area of 30,000 to 40,000 votes short of normal voter turnout and most of these were expected to go for Bush.  Instead of a few hundred vote difference, it would probably have been several thousand and none of the Gore crap would have happened.

[JB88]

that's why is said "supposedly"

my point being that it would have behooved us to straighten up our act in the next election...but we did not.  it took us two cycles and into the third to start doing so in my voting district.