Democracy at Risk

N Y Times ^ | 01/23/2004 | PAUL KRUGMAN

[Phlap]

So is this a call to return to the butterfly balot? These liberal loonies want it both ways.

If Al Gore were half the man RMN was this debate wouldn't be on going.

[Uncle Miltie]

"in red states, which voted for George W. Bush, 32 percent of the public believes that the election was stolen. In blue states, the fraction is 44 percent."

So less than half the electorate are ignorant leftists. Good news!

[risk]

I guess 32% have no clue how our constitution specifies that the Electoral College decides the presidency?

[Piranha]

I never thought I'd agree with Krugman, but I don't see the harm in creating an auditable paper record as a protection against voter fraud (by either side).

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

When will the NY slimes learn that America is a
Constitutional Republic not a democracy.
A democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on
what to have for dinner.

[LaraCroft]

Whatever side of the fence you stand on, these computer votes are a really bad idea.

I've voted with them in the last few elections. You touch one name, a different one comes up, if you aren't watching correctly, you just go on. Once I couldn't even get it to go back and change one. Neither could the poll worker.

The real problem is and always has been the governments penchance for creating problems, jumping the gun to solve the problem, in a non researched way (one of the real hazards of having an unlimited spending account) and then if its wrong, deny, admit if you have to and spend more to fix your fix.

The government is like a rich, spoiled child.... willful, wasteful and uncaring where the money comes from.

[Paleo Conservative]

So less than half the electorate are ignorant leftists. Good news!

Actually its even better. It's less than a third.

[Paleo Conservative]

So less than half the electorate are ignorant leftists. Good news!

Actually its even better. It's less than a third.

[harpu]

Been around long enough to know that when you post a Paul Krugman article, you need a MAJOR BARF ALERT in the title, unless you're Krugman deciple and then you just need to move on.

[johnny7]

(If the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, do the stupid get stupider?)

No. They get state or city jobs.

[Arrowhead1952]

The disputed election of 2000 left a lasting scar on the nation's psyche.

No it didn't.

What the election of 2000 did was prove that God still cares about America enough to bless us with a courageous leader who knows Him!

The disputed election of 2000 left a lasting scar on the dumbocRAT party.

[ken5050]

Did you read Dowd's piece yesterday?...She's totally gone round the bend...

[expatpat]

What's to stop a poll worker in precincts where there are no poll-watchers (Republican poll-watches are heavily intimidated in inner-city precincts) from just putting in vote after vote into the machine, paper-trail or no paper trail? IOW, what ID checks are there?

[expatpat]

I find myself agreeing with Krugman in this point: a paper trail is critical, in my mind. However, that is not enough -- there needs to be a fool-proof ID system in place, at least as good as used for credit-cards.

[harpu]

The pathetic irony of all these NYTimes, WASHCompost, and other like journalists, is that they actually believe their writings will overide the truth.

AND, sadly, we also know that no one outside of NY and DC reads the Times and Compost but. unfortunately, their journalistic(?) poison gets picked-up by lesser papers (here in Texas the Startlegram [sinkspur's favorite rag]) and Bush haters go crazy with it as though their writings were the gospel truth.

[Redcoat LI]

An article from former Enron advisor and the Albert Scheer of Malaysia,Paul Krugman?
This needs a mega-barf followed by painful dry-heave alert.

[PersonalLiberties]

How about using one of those cards like a debit card, with a magnetic strip on it. That a way you could at least recreate things, if need be - I think (not hip on techno)

But, I agree having no trail is scarey for all sides.

[Uncle Miltie]

Correction: The disputed election of 2000 left a lasting scar on the nation's psyche psychos

[neverdem]

So is this a call to return to the butterfly balot? These liberal loonies want it both ways.

So what else is new?

I was thinking about posting this last night, but I wasn't in the mood to make all the disclaimers for Krugman's extraneous prose. I think this is the first time I agree with Krugman on his main point, i.e. this system of computer voting without a verifiable paper printout to audit is begging for manipulation and fraudulent results. I don't trust anyone when the stakes are that big. There's too much temptation. Remember "trust but verify".