Want paper ballots in MO? Check BradBlog

[galloglas]

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3636

Please see this recent post, re: Missouri.

And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, drop a dime on the SoS. That phone call will be important!

[ogsball]

1. In Greene County . . .

. . . you get a paper ballot unless you op for the handicapped voting machine. Of course this is a very Repulican area.

[galloglas]

2. Thanks for the info, Ogs

There are a lot of different systems spread around in the various EDs in Missouri. Jackson County is part OpScan, while the KC ED part is pure Diebold DREs, with "grocery tape" paper trails.

But with all the pressure Brad's Blog will geenrate, it could set the stage for HCPBs (as unreal as that might seem).

OpEd News carried a short piece I wrote (10-03-2006) about hand counted paper ballots. There are a lot of reasons for HCPBs that don't have preventing election fraud. The title was "A Dozen Random Reasons for HCPBs".

The first six are below,


1) "Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed." -- Declaration of Independence

The voting process should be transparent and understandable to all. The use of our human senses, eyes or ears, are our best measure of truth and reality. HCPB are the most basic form of that.

2) Democracy is so important that it should not be subject to time limits when determining the winners of elections. Whether or not ballots are scanned as "quick, preliminary answer" as to who won, only the HCPBs are official, with the actual count being done at the place the ballot is cast.

This process should be visible to any individual, or the press, from the start to the finish.

3) Voting is the essence of Democracy.
HCPBs results in a deeper tie between citizens and their government/nation than machine voting can do, in much the same manner that Selective Service and jury duty does.

4) Voting machines have software. We all know software has "glitches". Paper ballots do not.

5) Voting machines are machines and, by definition, they break down. HCPBs do not. No one has ever lost the opportunity to vote due to "glitches" in paper ballots.

6) Voting counting software has been, and can, misprogrammed. Such cases have cost voters their votes. Paper ballots are not vulnerable in that way.

The rest are here.

http://www.opednews.co/articles/opedne_phil_lin_061003_a_dozen_random_reaso.htm