A historic moment - Diebold gets it right

[Coda]

After 4 election cycles the Democrats are not claiming that the voting machines are rigged. I'm so glad that they worked out the bugs.

[Scott Dolan]

Me too. I got tired of all the fucking whining.

Funny too, I remember hearing and reading reports of all sorts of chicanery nationwide earlier in the day. Matter of fact, Brian Williams did a story about it on NBC Nightly News that evening (the podcast is still available on iTunes if anyone is interested).

As the sun began to set, those complaints magically went with it.

[Gentle Giant]

You can break up the circle jerk. There was proof of tampering in past elections and you know it (I'll not define tampering; suffice to say there was well-documented monkey business).

It's an imperfect process all around. Even here in Boston, where we all vote correctly, there are problems that are being addressed (unlike you know when and you know where):

State says it will take control of city voting
Calls shortage of ballots latest in pattern of woes
By Michael Levenson and Matt Viser, Globe Staff | November 9, 2006

Secretary of State William F. Galvin declared yesterday that he will seize control of the Boston Election Department because the city has repeatedly demonstrated an inability to conduct fair and smooth elections.

The extraordinary move followed reports that the city ran out of ballots Tuesday at about 30 precincts in Mattapan, Dorchester, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and East Boston, heavily minority areas where voters turned out in droves to support Deval L. Patrick for governor.

City officials acknowledged they have a policy of distributing only enough ballots for 50 percent of registered voters at each polling place and then delivering more ballots from City Hall as they are needed.

Officials said the longstanding practice saves time and effort. There had been little reason to change it, they said, because ballots have not run out in the past. But the policy apparently resulted in shortages Tuesday night, when Election Department drivers got stuck in traffic and the city was forced to speed surplus ballots to the polls in police cruisers.

After huddling with Galvin at City Hall yesterday, Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he would hire a consultant to review the city's election procedures and recommend changes. But Galvin said the shortages pointed to fundamental problems in the management and policies of the Boston Election Department that require more drastic action.

"There has been a pattern of conduct here that is just unacceptable," Galvin said in an interview. "This is not simply about an error being made. There's been a history of errors, and yesterday's errors were serious. There was a failure of management."

Galvin said he will begin working out plans for a takeover in coming days. His options include putting representatives from his office in City Hall who would supervise election operations or seeking a court-appointed receiver to oversee the vote . It was unclear how long Galvin would retain control of the department or under what conditions he would return it to the city.

"Candidly, I have no desire to micromanage the Boston Election Department," he said. "It's about as appealing to me as taking over the Baghdad Election Department. But as this situation made clear, we're now talking about the rights of voters. And now, we have to deal with it."

Menino said that the city has been told of at least 27 precincts where there were problems and that his aides planned to contact precinct wardens to conduct a full count. A Globe tally found 32, based on accounts from voters, elected officials, and campaign volunteers.

As news of the shortages spread yesterday, there was fresh outrage in the city's minority communities, where Patrick's candidacy had sparked excitement. Voter turnout in Roxbury, for example, surged by 20 percent over the gubernatorial election in 2002. But the ballot problems fed suspicions by some voters in those neighborhoods that the political establishment considered them second-class citizens. Yesterday, two city councilors, Charles C. Yancey and Felix Arroyo, called for hearings to expose the management failures that caused the shortages.

"The sad thing is there are many people in the city of Boston who feel alienated and feel cynical about the political process and harbor the suspicion that there may be some nefarious forces that were trying to hurt Deval Patrick," Yancey said. "We're not going to rely on the administration solely policing itself. In this case, we're going to get some answers right from the people involved."

Menino, who has prided himself on good relationships with Boston's minority communities, found himself on the defensive yesterday. He said he was sorry that the city had failed to provide enough ballots.

"I apologize for that," Menino said. "It should not have happened."

Election officials -- including Election Commissioner Geraldine Cuddyer and Michael Galvin, chief of Basic Services and the official who oversees the election department -- did not speak to reporters yesterday. The 24-employee Election Department has been the target of severe criticism in recent years and has undergone several leadership changes. In 2004, Menino appointed Cuddyer, former chief of his 24-hour constituent hotline, even though she had no experience overseeing elections. Galvin is no relation to the secretary of state.

Voters and poll workers described scenes of chaos on Tuesday as ballots ran out and voters grew angry. One poll worker, in an e-mail to the Globe, said election workers had trouble getting through on busy phone lines to Election Department officials at City Hall to request more ballots.

Bruce Bolling, a former city councilor, said that on Tuesday he was at Boston Latin Academy in Roxbury, which had no ballots for more than an hour. About 100 people waited in line to vote.

"People were really upset," he said. "I assured people they would be able to vote, ballots were on their way. . . . People were really upset because, as you can imagine, many wanted to support Deval Patrick and exercise their constitutional right. People just couldn't understand this. How do you not have enough ballots?"

Menino said he was surprised and "absolutely angry, very angry" when he learned of problems Tuesday evening. "It was a good Election Day for us until about a quarter of 6," he said.

Menino said the policy of giving each precinct enough ballots for half of its registered voters has been in place "since I was a child."

William Galvin said his action yesterday was the first such move in Massachusetts since the mid-1980s, when Secretary of State Michael J. Connolly took control of city elections to resolve problems with voting lists.

Menino and Galvin said they hope to work cooperatively to resolve the problems. Galvin said he was not sure of the remedy.

"It's going to require more hands-on management and supervision rather than going down a checklist of to-do things," Galvin said, "because we already did that and it obviously didn't work."

[Scott Dolan]

Circle jerk?

Watch, or listen to, the NBC piece.

[Monte Smith]

I'm also against circle jerks. I think I voted for a ballot initiative against them on Tuesday. Either that or I voted against some other perversion. Or I voted for a jerk. Or both, can't recall.

But glad to see that the voting machines are functioning perfectly. Well, maybe not perfectly. As long as the machines are programmed to allow voters a choice between Democrats and politicians of another party, there is still the possibility of chicanery.

[Noj]

There was much more to the complaints about voter tampering and concern over Diebold machines than just sour grapes. I don't trust them, and I believe their use should be discontinued.

[Sandi22]

We have mail in ballots here in Oregon, that, or we can drop them off in designated drop off spots. I believe it's increased voting. They say it's much cheaper as well. We have had no problems that I know of with them, and with the weather here, they're a great thing to have. We don't have the halfway rude odd-ball polling place people to contend with any longer. We like it. A whole lot!

[Jeffrey Wozniak]

It is interesting though how there is no talk of voter fraud and "my vote didn't count" all over the place like in recent years when the left lost. Then again, if your candidate wins...

Makes it hard to take such claims seriously.

[Jon Abbey]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey Wozniak

It is interesting though how there is no talk of voter fraud and "my vote didn't count" all over the place like in recent years when the left lost. Then again, if your candidate wins...

Makes it hard to take such claims seriously.

or it just means that it was such a landslide that it overwhelmed the cheating this time. or the powers that be decided to hold off until the big boy election in 2008, it's less obvious if you don't do it every time.

[Jeffrey Wozniak]

I see the left is already making excuses for the next loss.

Oh boy...

[patricia]

It seems to me that making the voting machines tamper-proof, plus having a paper trail would be in the best interest of both the Republicans and the Democrats, as well as the fringe parties.
It should concern everybody.
It would be more reassuring if the owner of Diebold had not promised to deliver the election to the Republicans.
It would be more reassuring if the voting results were available for perusal, should there be a dispute.
There is a possibility that in the future the Republicans will be concerned that somebody has hacked the system, stealing votes from them.
A machine has no political affiliation. It does what the programmers tell it to do.
If it can be hacked, then the programmers didn't do their job.
This should not be a partisan concern, but a concern for preserving the integrity of the vote.
Just because the Democrats swept the Mid-Terms does not mean that the '08 Presidential Elections are therefore worry-free.
A thorough examination and a re-tooling, if necessary of the electronic voting machines must be done.
If the concerns cannot be addressed and fixed, then paper ballots can still be offered as an alternative, country-wide, the electronic machines converted into very nice planters.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by Coda

After 4 election cycles the Democrats are not claiming that the voting machines are rigged. I'm so glad that they worked out the bugs.

Or maybe the People caught wise....?

Besides, anybody with Ann Coulter as his avatar has very little credibility with me, Coda.

Personally? I think you do this shit just to be a jackass.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey Wozniak

It is interesting though how there is no talk of voter fraud and "my vote didn't count" all over the place like in recent years when the left lost. Then again, if your candidate wins...

Makes it hard to take such claims seriously.

Isn't it interesting it took this long for the republicans to figure they have to play fair?

Or, more to the point, they actually got the clue and decided the People had enough of their fraud?

Originally Posted by Jeffrey Wozniak

I see the left is already making excuses for the next loss.

Oh boy...

I see the right still hasn't a clue in hell.

[Jeffrey Wozniak]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

I see the right still hasn't a clue in hell.

You're right. Hell is reserved for the left

[Coda]

Here you go Goodspeak, right up your alley. Go ahead and sign this petition:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takea...ltl=1163619952

You don't like views that differ from yours eh? You're a real tool.

[Coda]

He he, made me chuckle.