Posted on 12/15/2004 7:48:03 AM PST by areafiftyone
AKRON, Ohio - A federal judge has ruled voting rights are not denied to those who cast ballots on systems that use punch cards.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. upheld punch-card voting in the nation's first trial challenging that method of voting.
The American Civil Liberties Union argued that punch-card machines are not uniform, are outdated in several counties and don't allow voters to correct mistakes. The ACLU also claimed that Ohio violated the voting rights of blacks, who live predominantly in punch-card counties.
"All voters in a county, regardless of race, use the same voting system to cast a ballot, and no one is denied the opportunity to cast a valid vote because of their race," Dowd said in a 32-page ruling.
A message seeking comment was left Wednesday at ACLU offices in Cleveland.
Punch-card ballots are used in 69 of 88 Ohio counties, representing nearly 73 percent of registered voters.
About 92,000 ballots cast in last month's presidential election failed to record a vote for president, most on punch-card systems.
A lawyer representing Democrat John Kerry, who lost Ohio and the election by 119,000 votes to President Bush, has asked that representatives of the campaign be allowed to inspect those ballots as part of a recount being done in Ohio.
The recount was requested by two minor presidential candidates who received 0.3 percent of the vote in Ohio on Election Day. The Kerry campaign supports the recount even though it has acknowledged that there are not enough votes to change the outcome.
Well a judge said it so it must be true.
This is getting embarrassing. All this nonesense needs to be shut down immediately.
We need to stop this 'punch card' business. Imagine being a harmless little card, doing your daily business when *WHAM* you get punched! This extremely violence against punch cards can not be tolerated in a society that prides itself on orderly voting processes. I had hoped all this needless voilence was over now that we are no longer hanging chads or getting them pregnant in voting booths. Please send unmarked bills to me to help fight this battle!
If you are VOTING using a punch card, how can this be DENYING your right to vote?? Argh, these people are showing themselves as the lunatics they are.
Ironically, the punch card systems are now some of the best understood voting systems we have following the 2000 Florida debacle. Dozens of scholarly papers have been written covering punch station maintenance (clean out those chad channels), ballot layout (no butterflies, please), counting standards (dimples and corners). I'd feel safer voting on a punch card system than I would on a black-box system like the new touch screen or the old lever systems. However, punch card ballots for absentee voting is a really bad idea.
I thought Kerry lost by more than 119K. BTW, the ACLU always goes out and gets lawfirms to help them pro bono. WHen these lawfirms lose, don't you think the world should know? Shouldnt all their clients know that these folks are helping the ACLU screw up the country? Of course the attorneys do it because it looks good on their resumes which are only seen by future employers. But what would their current clients think? Out them all!
If you cannot operate a punch card ballot perhaps you need to fall back and regroup. The punch card has been used for quite a few years and in quite a few places, these same people used these type of cards in previous elections and their rights were safeguarded then and are safeguarded now.
The problem is the ACLU and the Socialist Democrats. They are not selling what the American people want, they have trash.
< ...don't allow voters to correct mistakes. >
Ummm...you can get a new card.
Our rural county used punch cards for years. It was a clunky system and our county was always last in the area to get returns in. And there were recounts almost every election. However, no one ever equated that to voter fraud or disenfranchisment. It just equated to antiquated voting machines. So I find it amusing to read about other precincts still using the same system ... and discovering that our county was not being cheap to still use those ... it was part of a conspiracy to cheat us out of our vote! Wow, the things you learn!
ann
How many different type of voting methods are there? Some of these are DESIGNED with vote fraud in mind.
The worst was the 'butterfly ballot' in floriduh. Who would create a center-folded piece of paper with a METAL STRIP down the middle???
The metal strip serves what purpose?
I think I know- Take a stack of paper an inch thick and try to jam a pencil through it. You cant. But take a stack of 'butterfly' ballots several inches thick, if you like. and jam a pencil though the hole for YOUR CANDIDATE.
Result: You can easily do this, thereby invalidating any vote for a DIFFERENT candidate (double punch).
I think there should have been an investigation into the DESIGN ITSELF!!!
The standard now is not a fair election but a perfect election. That isn't reasonable; then again, the plaintiffs in this case aren't reasonable people.
Judge Dowd Ping!
A pencil won't work. Way too big. However, a stiff 14 inch narrow diameter rod with a hammer WILL work...
Presto - Hanging chads...
dvwjr
***About 92,000 ballots cast in last month's presidential election failed to record a vote for president, most on punch-card systems. ***
And once again this proves we need to go to a different voting system as the DEMs have again shown themselves to be too dam dumb to play with sharp instruments(As they proved in 2000 in Fla).
Kerry gained a few thousand votes when all the provisionals were counted.
The only "perfect election" is when the Dems win, to these people.
Funny how no lawsuits were brought in Wisconsin, or Pennsylvania.
I guess hanoi john is only concerned that all the votes be counted in states that could steal the election for him.
David Dowd was a class-act as the Prosecutor in the murder trial where I was privileged to be a juror 30 years ago; he still is!
out here in the boondocks we still use mechanical lever machines that are at LEAST 50 years old... and i will fight like hell to keep them!!! they can't be monkeyed with in real time and are all certified before and after an election
just because we have the technology to do it electronically doesn't mean we should
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