EFF Launches "Paper or Plastic 2004" to Educate CA Voters About Paper Ballot Option

[deathboy]

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation today launched a campaign to inform California voters of their right to vote on a paper ballot in the upcoming election. The website and animation for Paper or Plastic 2004 are available at:

PaperOrPlastic2004.org


... if you're asking yourself "Why should I vote on paper?", you REALLY deserve that meatfucker to "win" a second time.

Comments

[redcountess]

Did you read yesterday that a federal judge ruled on Monday that Florida voting machines do not need to give a paper receipt?

And a state judge has given a similar ruling in New Jersey.

So much for the Land Of The Free :-/

[lisaparratt.livejournal.com]

That was a typo: it's really Land Of The Fee

[madkatsjournal.livejournal.com]

"Cannot be used in a recount" - well, surely the point is that they get the count right in the first place. The numbers can be changed, as they are simply data - but a malicious paper counter can also 'tweak' their figures quite easily. You would hope that in the event of a machine being unable to complete the request and returning an error, the voter would either be advised by the machine to vote on paper or the voter would raise the attention of the staff, point out the error and demand paper to cast their vote?

[deathboy.livejournal.com]

A malicious body could tweak the totals gathered in any count, but the physical evidence still exists. As I'm sure you know, an electronic figure can just simply, easily, be changed leaving no trace, no history or evidence to be re-assessed later, differently and/or by someone else. The equivalent of actually changing the marks on the paper votes.

I don't think the issue of machines taking individual votes incorrectly is anywhere near so much at question, but the value of a figure in a database versus physical, recountable, unique and individual (so much more difficult to fake en masse rather than, say, an SQL query...).

The aggregate of any such count is always easily frigged, but the elements still exist. Throwing the elements away leaves you with nothing but the aggregate, which is flimsy as fuck.

[madkatsjournal.livejournal.com]

True - however, I think people have too little faith in the control around the figures. They should be as safe as the boxes of papers which get transferred around - which, themselves, should be safe from, say, being flung into an incinerator on their way from one place to another.

[dreamburnt.livejournal.com]

You can't read the paper without seeing something about registrations being tossed, people being purged from the voter rolls, absentee ballots not being mailed, security issues with new voting machines...

Locally, we had a minor kerfluffle when the person in charge somehow neglected to deliver the damn machines to some precincts.

It's enough to make you cry.

[dcpunk.livejournal.com]

oh you gave us quite a laugh. and yes our country is run by a bunch of idiots.

may the revolution begin.

[flatlineloki.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm really wishing that Bush at least would've left the economy alone. I'd like to move to Canada if he gets re-elected. Due to his incompetence, I can't even run away to another land.

I don't know what's worse though . . .

The fact that there's a good chance he'll get re-elected, or the fact that the majority of *informed* information I get on Bush comes from you and other's that don't even live here. Mind you, a majority of people on my friend's list are anti-Bush, but still . . . you're the one giving me all the damn good tidbits of info.

What a fuckin' world.

[leftoftheedge.livejournal.com]

If it wasn't for the fact that the winner would have the power to keep shgging things up globally, this'd all be rather amusing. I seem to recall Zimbabwe offering to send election monitors in at the last election to show the Americans how to do it properly.

-Elections are like the World Cup: they happen every four years, you either hate them or can't get enough of them, and whatever way it ends you're left hoping for a better result at the next one.

[anti-girl.livejournal.com]

you going to be around next week for drinking fun? I might be in the london area, need time out and chance to catch up with my mates... beverage?
MissAnthropy xxx

[deathboy.livejournal.com]

tis possible, pet - prod me :D