Re: Absentee voters; Macho

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Rebecca, for introducing a element of realism into our idealistic
discussions, but I wonder - Is throwing people in jail the best way to
approach the problem? First, I think, we should establish model rules
of procedure and see if, using them, violations of the rules can be
detected. Not just that two counts that should be the same happen to be
different, but some indication of how they came to be different should be
discoverable from examination of the official record, etc.

Then we should expect to repeat elections in which fraud has been
detected.  There are a lot of political activists who would be willing
to go to jail in order to ensure the the 'right' person is elected, or
the 'bad' ballot measure is rejected. This attitude is akin to being
willing to die for your country, but less extreme. That they don't go
to jail now just makes the problem worse. 

There is a lot of incompetence in the conduct of elections. That
incompetence allows the fraud to flourish by cluttering the record
with false alarms.

As for suing - the people who are told that they have already voted
are not selected at random. One criterion is that they have the
appearance of being somewhat disfunctional at responding to
confrontation, e.g. their clothing, skin color, etc. And, not everyone
can enlist your aid in dealing with rejection.

Yes, we have procedural problems in the conduct of elections.
Unfortunately, we also have procedural problems in figuring out how to
solve procedural problems. One faction in the body politic seems to
prefer privatizing a process as a way of avoiding getting into the
messy details of how to make something work - but privatizing the
conduct of elections? is this really possible? So how do we deal with
people who don't believe that the government can do anything right?

This last question is not directed specifically at you, Rebecca, but
it really puzzles me. What are the starting points of discussion on
which we all really do agree? 

On Sun, Mar 18, 2007 at 10:36:01AM -0500, R. Mercuri wrote:
> I am sorry to break this news to you, but if your county absentee 
> ballots are disappearing, then there is every reason to believe that 
> your precinct ballots are disappearing too. You are suffering from an 
> illusion that has you believing that the precincts are safe from 
> corruption. Numerous computer scientists have already demonstrated that 
> the precinct ballot counters can be rigged so that incorrect vote totals 
> are reported. This will only be caught with a 100% in-precinct hand 
> count, RIGHT at the end of election day, publicly performed.
> 
> BTW, if you want to see votes disappearing en masse in the precincts, 
> just move to Ohio. I am currently the key expert in a recount from the 
> November 2006 election in Franklin County, Ohio. After we revealed the 
> facts about votes going missing at polling places, Franklin County 
> election officials admitted (in court) that 86% of the precincts had a 
> different vote signature totals from the polling books than were 
> reported as the number of ballots cast in the precincts. They told the 
> judge that this was "normal." I'm sure if it's normal for Ohio, based on 
> what you've told me, it's normal in Colorado too. Ballots go missing and 
> ballot boxes get stuffed in the precincts just as easily as they do in 
> the county with absentees -- this is a PROCEDURAL PROBLEM. If you want 
> to stop it, it has to be stopped by holding people accountable and 
> throwing them in jail if they aren't (as was done recently in Ohio due 
> to the corruption in the Cuyahoga County elections office). Your voters 
> who were told they had already voted should have SUED.
> 
> Eliminating absentee ballots disenfranchises the many citizens who are 
> unable to make it to the polling place on election day. I do not believe 
> that eliminating absentee ballots will solve your corruption problems. 
> Addressing your corruption problems is the only way to solve your 
> corruption problems. You need to throw the bums in jail and ensure total 
> transparency and total public oversight of your election process end to 
> end in order to have confidence in your elections.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Rebecca Mercuri.

-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx