Stop the insanity!

Ben Edwards -

Ok, so regardless of what happens, and whomever becomes the 43rd president of the United States, there are some things that we should all take away from this year’s election.

  • The Butterfly Ballot…um no. Let’s begin the process of standardizing our ballot style across all the precincts of all the states in the county. We cannot have 19,000 votes thrown out in one county do to user error, when there are perfectly clear and concise ways to present the information that do not involve the use of friggin’ punch cards!
  • Let us also work towards updating the systems we are using to accept and count votes. It is estimated that some of the equipment being used in some parts of the county is over a hundred years old! They cannot even find replacement parts for these things! We should provide touch screens that capture data and send it to a central server (at that voting place — never over the internet). These screens should provide feedback as to what is being chosen and allow for confirmation. That server (or its data) is then transported to a tabulation center where votes can be counted (and recounted) in seconds.
  • We should have a national discussion about the electorate college and the way we vote on the president. I am not sure that it should be ditched, but it could possibly be reformed?
  • We need to, as a country, investigate every instance of irregularities in the practice of voting in the country and strive to eliminate them. We cannot have things like: blacks and others being asked to leave polling places up to an hour before the polls close, highway patrols setting up checkpoints near a polling area outside of predominantly black areas of voters (thus prohibiting many from getting to vote), or the spread of disinformation that confuses people or convinces them they cannot vote for some reason like stating that 2 forms of ID are required when only one was. (incidentally all of these things reportedly happened in the Florida elections)
  • Stop the polling! There is no need for hourly polls stating who is leading, and up to the second counts of votes and state predictions. Results of any election should not be predicted until after the last polls in the country have closed. Calling states and predicting winners can affect elections, idiots!
  • All absentee ballots must be in by election day and not just postmarked by then. New rule. Also the process of absentee voting should be scrutinized carefully as in many cases, there is widespread corruption in absentee ballots.

Good luck to whomever “wins”, it will be a tough 4 years and your political career will be over in 2004. Gore in 2004 has a certain ring to it.