[ale] Voting machines

[Phil Turmel]

Strongly agree on switching to pen and paper.  Scanners that read the 
filled-in bubbles are easy with modern machine vision, and are easily 
spot audited with random samples of actual ballots post-election.

Strongly disagree on pushing people to vote.  Those who aren't inclined 
to vote or simply don't care about politics should be left alone.

Strongly disagree on the Oregon model.  I know people there, and they 
are not at all confident that their ballots and only their ballots are 
being honestly counted.

Our constitution, as amended, calls for a uniform election *DAY* across 
the country.  Early voting and mail-in voting are abominations. 
Absentee voting should return to the past practice where only military 
necessity and involuntary travel needs qualify.

There is already a federal law that employers must allow employees 
sufficient time off to vote on election day.

It simply is not possible to provide ballot security (chain of custody) 
under candidate representative observation for early voting and 
widespread mail-in voting.  It is difficult but possible for a modest 
number of military personnel and a few others with damn good excuses.

Not to mention the opportunities for vote-buying, ballot harvesting, and 
coercion by nefarious types when many mail-in ballots are circulating.

IMNSHO.

On 12/8/20 11:44 AM, DJ-Pfulio via Ale wrote:
> I disagree with having any voting machines at all. They are a waste
> of money, add complexity where it isn't needed.
> 
> Voting in Georgia has 2 complex processes (election day and early
> voting) and 1 simple process (absentee) when only 1 simple process
> is needed.  Pen and paper.
> 
> Why make it harder than that?
> 
> Pen and paper can be used for absentee, early and election day
> voting. Humans (election workers) don't need to learn 2 complex
> processes and waste time setting up computers, securing power,
> equipment, and generally wasting money for things not directly
> related to reading a ballot.
> 
> Paper ballots scale by adding tables and chairs.
> Power outages don't stop voting.
> 
> Missing memory cards?  Huh? Why is that even a thing?  Human training
> failures will continue to happen, as long as the processes are complex.
> 
> Pen and paper is the answer.
> 
> Question: Why don't ACT/SAT use computers for testing kids?
> Answer: because it is a stupid idea due to logistics, expense,
>          complexity.
> 
> If I had my way, Georgia would move towards the way that Oregon
> votes and registers voters. The goal is to get every Georgia citizen
> to vote legally and to allow citizens who choose not to vote or be
> registered to do that as well. But it needs to be harder NOT to be
> registered than to get registered, not the other way around.
> 
> Voting on my kitchen table, where I can spend a few days looking
> through candidates, their platforms, and considering each is much
> better than "winging it" on election day after waiting in line.
> Someone said they "only" had to wait in line 2 hours to vote early
> in October.  That's a waste of time. Have the absentee ballot delivered
> to your home, then vote when it is convenient to you any time before
> election day.
> 
> If your postal delivery isn't secure, then use early voting ... or
> pick up a ballot package, take it home. This isn't possible today in
> Georgia, but hopefully they will make it so. No need to have both
> early voting as a separate process.
> 
> I love the ballot drop off boxes. Simple, elegant, convenient. No need
> to trust the USPS, if you don't want that.
> 
> In Oregon, they've not seen any widespread voting fraud in the 20+ yrs
> they've been voting by mail. Seems like a good system to me. Definitely
> more convenient.
> 
> IMHO.