[ale] [waay OT[ OT: Electronic Voting in GA

[Christopher Bergeron]

What scares me about this whole thing is the lackluster view of it from 
our most intellectual citizens (IMHO):
us!  We're the "thinkers" of our generation/community.  Believe it or 
not guys, we're among the few that have rational (often labeled as [OT]) 
discussions about topics of actual substance.  I _highly_ fear what has 
been happening in my/our government (corruption; vote-compromise/buying; 
etc...) While I'm not saying the last presidential election was 
"bought"; I intensely feel that something is amiss, "in general".  No 
party lines; no bias; just a feeling that there needs to be a massive 
injection of integrity and honesty into our "elected officials".  I 
don't mean to jump on a soapbox here, but I think it's an innevitable 
topic that will come up eventually (especially given ALE's nature to 
jump [OT] onto topics of general relevance/importance to the community).

Anyway, my point is this:
I'm a relatively young man (at 26) and I'm facing a SERIOUS dilemma for 
both my generation and the generations that I'm supposed to create, 
develop, and nourish.  My quandry is obvious...  What has happened to 
ethics in this country?  Especially in light of the events of last 
Sept.?  Since then, I've seen a lot of local contributions; but nothing 
politically that really strikes any "real" chords.  Are there no JFKs or 
other _genuine people_ that can INSPIRE the naive/new generations (like 
myself?)  Would someone with integrity please step up to the plate?

What to do?

I vote.  I write letters to my "elected officials".  I do what I can for 
the community.  I just feel so helpless...

...should I wait and see if my letters make difference?  Am I jumping 
the gun?  I don't doubt my country what-so-ever; I'm just starting to 
doubt how it's being guided.

I apologize sooo much for this WaaayOT post.  I'm just so flustered by 
"things" that I just don't know where else I can vent.  Hopefully, 
someone, somewhere can make things better...


-CB


P.S.
If no one steps up, I will be running for the presidential candidacy in 
2022.  My platform will be HONESTY, INTEGRITY (doing what is right just 
because it's the right thing to do), and 100% AVOIDANCE of CAMPAIGN 
CONTRIBUTIONS (hopefully my controversial* views will provide necessary 
media exposure).


*controversial in this sense is integrity and honesty (nothing more)






aaron wrote:

>On Friday 18 October 2002 16:23, Danny Cox wrote:
>  
>
>>Just to really make your weekend:  today, I received in the mail a
>>pamphlet describing how the new electronic voting machines in GA will
>>work!  They're secure!  They're accurate!  They're fast!  They're
>>completely un-auditable!
>>
>>	Sorry, is my cynicism showing?
>>    
>>
>
>Yes. Clearly.  ;-)
>And its very justifiable:
>
>The voting machines are touch screens, a technology that has proved 
>itself completely undesirable to the public and consistently unreliable 
>through a thousand attempts at kiosk and banking machine interfaces.
>
>Not that the faulty touch screens will make much difference. To my 
>understanding the POS voting boxes run on wince, so their reliability is 
>already close to nil.
>
>I know I'd feel a WHOLE lot better about the things if the completed 
>ballots were printed out in hard copy so that voters could actually 
>confirm and check the form for errors before dropping it in the ballot 
>box for counting (and physical auditing and recounting when necessary).
>
>This discussion reminds me that the inventors of democracy, the ancient 
>Greeks, could call for a vote to banish (ostracize) incompetent or power 
>hungry leaders for a decade at a time.  The balloting was accomplished by 
>dropping marked pottery shards (ostrakon) in a barrel. I could consider 
>accepting the new voting machines if doing so brought a return of the 
>option to banish all the bad public officials by simply busting up a 
>little dinnerware!
>
>peace
>(after justice)
>aaron
> 
>
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>
>  
>




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