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tomder55 · Sep 15, 2010, 12:06 PM

My grand dad used lever voting machines... so did my dad. So did every New Yorker until yesterday .The lever machines work .They've always worked . No one complained .It was simple . See your candidate's name ;pull the lever ,vote registered . It served the State well for years.

Yesterday New Yorkers used paper ballots in a semi-private cubicle . Thanks to Federal money provided ,and a Federal mandate to make the switch ,the State complied . The voter had a SAT déjà vu moment filling in circles with the pens provided Then if you don't need assistance the voter got to insert the ballot into a machine and the machine registered the vote (formerly called Diebold machines ).
Problems Reported With New Voting Machines - NYTimes.com
Angry New Yorkers Hate New Electronic Voting Machines
By 1 hour after the vote ended only 3% of the vote had been registered and counted and I wondered how the system was improved by spending huge sums of taxpayers money to replace an efficient voting system. I half expected to see Recovery act signs posted at the polling places.

Today the Feds announced they will investigate 'voting irregularities ' in NY. And Bloomy is pontificating about the unaccceptabilty of the whole charade. He called it an outrage... indeed .
Feds probing how Board of Elections chose flawed electronic voting machines

New Voting Machines Debut in NY -- With Problems | NBC New York

smoothy · Sep 15, 2010, 12:29 PM

Washington DC had similar issues yesterday with new voting machines...

washingtonpost.com

I wonder how well they test these things as it appears to be fairly common for major malfunctions these days. I rarely remember hearing about it years ago.

Lockheed-Martin doesn't do it do they... based on Virginia State Computer Server farm probems in recent weeks I hope not.

cdad · Sep 15, 2010, 04:37 PM

Ive never used a lever type machine before. It sounds strange. The Ballots were on a sheet and there were templates to vote with using a punch. Worked for me. Im not fond of electronic machines these days because its too easy to mess with the software.

tomder55 · Sep 15, 2010, 04:51 PM

Yup and there were unconfirmed reports on NY radio that Republican voters were being turned away at heavy Democrat districts being told "there was no Republican primary today " .

Catsmine · Sep 15, 2010, 05:13 PM

Originally Posted by tomder55

yup and there were unconfirmed reports on NY radio that Republican voters were being turned away at heavy Democrat districts being told "there was no Republican primary today " .

But were they Justice Department employees with nightsticks telling people that?

paraclete · Sep 15, 2010, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by Catsmine

But were they Justice Department employees with nightsticks telling people that?

Interesting picture of democracy you paint there

speechlesstx · Sep 15, 2010, 08:30 PM

Why fix what ain't broken? Is it really progress if the technology doesn't work?

Now that I've said that, I've never used a lever machine either. I first voted with the punch method and it worked fine in Texas. We moved to the SAT circles and they worked fine here in Texas. The past few years we've used touch screens and it's as easy as pie... and as far as I know we've had few if any complaints and I've never encountered even a hint of voter interference - we enforce the rules to keep all electioneering and outside interference from the voters at all voting locations.

So, why is that all these voting irregularities, technical malfunctions and voter intimidation seem to occur in major metropolitan areas which tend to lean to the left?

bleusong52 · Sep 16, 2010, 11:25 PM

I can say I never used a lever machine either. Use a punch system which seems to work well. ND does not have some of the problems other states do with having to recount votes - unless it is a too close to call situation.

Having touch screens would be interesting. One thing I wish would change - in the primaries, one can only vote one ticket - you're either voting Democrat or Republican. Does that happen anywhere else?

tomder55 · Sep 17, 2010, 02:25 AM

One thing I wish would change - in the primaries, one can only vote one ticket - you're either voting Democrat or Republican. Does that happen anywhere else?

Yes... in NY the primaries are closed ,and frankly I prefer it that way. Open primaries leaves too much room for mischief with cross over voting.
Here's how it works. Let's say one party has a weak candidate and a strong candidate running... and the other party has one that is a sure winner and also has the majority of registered voters in the state. The word spreads that voters should cross over and vote in the other party's primary to vote for the weaker candidate .

This is exactly what happened in the Pennsylvania primary in 2008 .Rush Limbaugh was leading an effort to get Hillary the state's slate . I am also convinced that McCain was nominated in large part because of cross over primary voting.

The primaries are a tool for the parties to select their candidates. If a voter wants to participate ,I don't think it unreasonable to register in the party.
I am independent by choice ,and did not vote in the NY primary. I do not feel abused at all by the process.

Catsmine · Sep 17, 2010, 02:34 AM

Originally Posted by tomder55

The primaries are a tool for the parties to select their candidates. If a voter wants to participate ,I don't think it unreasonable to register in the party.
I am independent by choice ,and did not vote in the NY primary. I do not feel abused at all by the process.

In Carolina the primaries allow "unaffiliated" voters to choose which ballot they cast. I maintain "unaffiliated" status to vote for the best candidate regardless of which animal buys lunch for them.

tomder55 · Sep 17, 2010, 03:21 AM

Cats you have the integrity that the voters I'm talking about lack . The problem is that too often the voter isn't going into the booth to vote for the best candidate... but rather for the weakest one of the other party.

Question... did cross over voting in Carolina produce candidate Alvin Greene ?

Quote from a Compost article on the subject :

State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II (R-Fairfax) said in opposition to Open Primaries: "Why on Earth would anyone think that my opponents have any right to pick my nominee?. The Washington Redskins don't let the Dallas Cowboys in their huddle when they're calling plays."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...120501245.html

speechlesstx · Sep 17, 2010, 06:47 AM

Originally Posted by tomder55

State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II (R-Fairfax) said in opposition to Open Primaries: "Why on Earth would anyone think that my opponents have any right to pick my nominee?. The Washington Redskins don't let the Dallas Cowboys in their huddle when they're calling plays."

It sure liked like it Sunday night. :D

Catsmine · Sep 17, 2010, 07:29 AM

[QUOTE=tomder55;2528035]
Question... did cross over voting in Carolina produce candidate Alvin Greene ?

South Carolina does have open primaries, but no one has raised the cross-over issue regarding Greene. Every other issue except that one, yes.