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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Robb
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
 Posted - 11/02/2004 : 11:18:52 [Permalink]
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In Ft Worth I got to the polls about 15 minutes before they opened and was behind about 100 people or so. They were well organized and I was done in 30 minutes. It might have helped that a lot of people vote straight ticket around here. Since this is the first presidential election scince I moved here I don't know if it is normal or not. The news around here says it may be a record turnout as well.
I am curious what kind of ballot everybody used? We have the paper ballots with a broken black arrow pointing to the candidate, and you use a black marker to connect the arrow. Then you put it through a scanner machine. I liked it because it was easy to read and there was a paper ballot as a record of the vote. Also, no chads!
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2004 : 11:38:59 [Permalink]
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Here vote's compulsory, but you can:
a) Vote for a candidate.
b) Vote null (vote doesn't count).
c) Vote blank (vote goes to whoever's winning).
What Ricky said is what happens here. We're all dragged out of our homes, on a sunday, to vote. Some of us could care less.
quote:
The people who vote now are more or less informed about the candidates. They take the time to go all the way down to the polls to vote. I would think that the percentage of informed voters would go down if we forced everyone to vote.
That's what happens here. We see people voting for the most obscure candidates just to get over it, voting null or blank, voting for the most popular at the polls, etc, just because they don't know, don't care or just don't want to be dragged into the business, but are forced to.
I find that to be a bad, bad thing.
By the way... here we get a tidy computer. We type the number in, see the picture that comes up along with name & party of the candidate, press 'confirm' and it's done! |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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@tomic
Administrator
USA
4607 Posts |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2004 : 12:21:40 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by filthy
I'd like to see some thoughts on the Electoral College. Is it a good thing or a crock?
I think it's an anacronism that should be retired.
Agreed, filthy. Or at least allow the states to divide up their votes.
I simply cannot see how small states get anything out of the system that they couldn't get without it. As it has been shown, in a winner-take-all system, the states that get attention aren't the big versus little ones, but rather the ones that are closely constested.
Sure, this year it's been all OH, FL, WI and PA, which are large states, but also NM, with something like 5 votes.
Meanwhile, large states like CA and NY (with the largest two cities in the US) got no attention, nor little little ones like MT or WY. But in this case, they got no attention because they are very much for one side or the other.
I imagine that were we at least to divide up a state's vote, or go comepltely to the popular vote, candidates would pay more attention to population areas like the East Coast Megelopolis, Chicago, LA, SF, the main cities in TX, FL, OH, and so on. Rural areas might not get as much attention, but shrewed politicians would still make efforts to go to visit cities in rural states (Oklahoma City, Tuls, Kansas City, Little Rock, etc.) and make appeals to those nearby rural voters. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2004 : 13:08:27 [Permalink]
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The Rude Pundit has voted:
quote:
11/2/2004
The Miracle of the Machines - An Election Day Story:
So the Rude Pundit was walking to his local precinct this morning to cast his ballot. He had his voter registration card. He had his driver's license. He had gone to mypollingplace.com and made doubly sure of where he was supposed to vote. There he had discovered that he would be using one of those new-fangled touchscreen machines he'd heard so much about. This one was the AVC Advantage from the good people at Sequoia Voting Systems. These are surely days of miracle and wonder, the Rude Pundit thought as he walked up to the school where he was to vote. He had a smile on his face - it felt like foreplay in the delicate moments just before penetration and, soon, orgasm.
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/
Robb, here in our somulent, little township, we use a cardboard ballot and mark in the boxes with a #2 pencil. Then we stick it in the slot of a machine that devours it with a ferocious buzz/whoosh noise, and a readout gives the number of votes cast thus far. I always feel that I should be careful of my fingers around that thing, but I've never heard of any problems with it.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2004 : 13:33:03 [Permalink]
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Let's get rid of the electoral college: I'll pick the Presidents from now on.
Better yet, we divise a mathematical formula to take the score of the last Redskins home game, the total score of the World Series, and perhaps a couple other fall sports stats, and if the result is greater than zero, the incumbent party gets to stay in power, while if it's less than zero, the Whitehouse switches parties.
That way, we can also terminate the inter-party campaigning, which is just nasty as hell. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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satans_mom
Skeptic Friend
USA
148 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2004 : 17:41:53 [Permalink]
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I didn't wait in line at all. I took my time, carefully, and voted for either Libertarian or Democrat. I even voted one or two Republican for there being no other parties... But I voted Kerry.
I got a sticker claiming, "My Vote Counted!"
It didn't. I live in Texas.
We have paper ballots, fill in the bubbles next to the candidate's name, and stick it in a box, where I believe someone either puts it into a machine or counts by hand.
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Yo mama's so fat, she's on both sides of the family.
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Renae
SFN Regular
543 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2004 : 20:33:54 [Permalink]
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I didn't have to wait at all to vote in Seattle at 5pm. We use paper-fill-in-the-bubble ballots. There were two (TWO!) frowny, well-dressed, lawyerly-looking people hovering in the voting room. Azzif we'd vote anything other than Democratic in my neighborhood. 
The electoral college should go...maybe it would convince people their vote does count.
I hafta say I get misty and patriotic around election time. That feeling will rapidly evaporate if Bush wins.  |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2004 : 22:25:05 [Permalink]
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Jesus Fucking Christ! That fucking idiot is going to win. Again! (Well, sort of...) FL has now been called for Jeb, er, George. That leaves OH as Kerry's only hope. And as of this writing (12:23 Eastern), he's down by about a 140,000. They say it's too close, but it doesn't seem like it. And if OH goes, then there's little chance even if MI, WI, and MN all go Kerry.
Damnit! How can all these god-lovers be so stupid?!? |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2004 : 22:30:04 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Cuneiformist
Jesus Fucking Christ! That fucking idiot is going to win. Again! (Well, sort of...) FL has now been called for Jeb, er, George. That leaves OH as Kerry's only hope. And as of this writing (12:23 Eastern), he's down by about a 140,000. They say it's too close, but it doesn't seem like it. And if OH goes, then there's little chance even if MI, WI, and MN all go Kerry.
Damnit! How can all these god-lovers be so stupid?!?
He still needs NM....
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2004 : 01:10:52 [Permalink]
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Ohio result won't be known until 11 days post election. They won't start counting the provisional ballots untul that day, and you know Kerry isn't going to concede an extremely close race there until those provisional ballots are part of the official count.
I predict legal challenges by both parties. /sigh |
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2004 : 01:14:17 [Permalink]
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An intersting tidbit....
IF Kerry takes Ohio he'll win. G.W. has the popular vote tied down nicely with something like a 3.5M vote margin.
So, it's possible that W could lose, and take the popular vote by a wide margin.
Despite the electoral college possibly favoring the guy I want to win this time around.... I still think it should be scrapped in favor of a winner-take-all popular vote. |
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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