Posted on 07/13/2002 10:00:41 PM PDT by SkyPilot
Palm Beach Holds Mock Election
Sat Jul 13,11:32 PM ET
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP)</big. - Hoping to avoid a repeat of the 2000 election debacle, Palm Beach County held a mock election Saturday to test its new touchscreen balloting machines.
At shopping malls and supermarkets across the county, nearly 4,000 residents voted on topics like favorite holiday, best president, greatest American athlete and favorite patriotic landmark. About 73 percent of voters said the words "under God" should stay in the Pledge of Allegiance.
The 3,100 touchscreen machines, which cost a total of $14.4 million, were supposed to help the county and state live down the memory of the "butterfly ballots" that marred the 2000 election, leading some to complain the ballot was so confusing they voted for the wrong candidate.
Their debut in city elections this winter brought suspicions about their accuracy. A Palm Beach councilman filed a lawsuit blaming his loss on the touchscreen machines.
But Saturday's election amounted only to a demonstration of the machines, not a measure of their accuracy. Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore said she hoped the election would help voters familiar with punch-card ballots become more acquainted with the new technology.
However, LePore, who called demonstration "a great success," said her staff got some practice responding to a minor tabulating glitch.
A cartridge was removed from one voting machine too quickly, before results could be written onto it. But results were stored electronically in the machine, and elections workers were able to insert another one to download the results a second time.
A collection of congressmen had pushed for a mock election that would simulate voting conditions. LePore resisted, saying the cost of opening polling places no one would come to would outweigh the benefit.
Instead, she brought her voting machines out on a Saturday, mostly to places where people shop.
Following the recount that delayed completion of the presidential election results in 2000, Florida lawmakers banned punch card systems, saying counties could use touchscreen or optical-scan systems, in which voters fill in bubbles next to a candidate's name.
God answered it already.
Job 5:2 - Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
If they're so familiar with the old ballots, why did they find them so confusing? Hmmmmmmm!
.
The 3,100 touchscreen machines, which cost a total of $14.4 million, were supposed to help the county and state live down the memory of the "butterfly ballots" ...
NEVER!!! That stupidity is forever written in the history books ...... after all, how else can they keep claiming that Bush lost the election if they don't talk about the butterfly ballots, the hanging chads, and the idiots who allegedly couldn't use them?
The Blue Hairs thought they had voted for:
Pat Nader
or was it...?
Ralph Gore
Sorry sir. I didn't realize I was still sober and coherent. For any RAT lurkers out there taking notes on how to perpetuate voter fraud, I apologize for thinking out loud. 8^)
Perfect, just perfect.
Don't give the Demos any ideas - They will get PETA to recuit same.
It's called a feed-back loop.
A volunteer first told each person how to put the card in the machine, once they finally manage that they would help them try to vote on several different questions. Some you were told to vote for one and some to pick two.
As we waited in line we got a real education. NONE of about a dozen we watched vote could understand how to vote, even with someone telling them what to do, They would not follow either the written or verbal instructions they were given. They complained about the size of the type, the questions, how hard they had to touch the machine, everything except doing what they were instructed to do.
After we voted with no problems, a very nice election official asked me for my opinion. I suggested that just listing the item you have voted for in black and non votes in red may be confusing. I would prefer to see list at the very end of just everything I voted for. She told me that will be changed before election. We then chatted and wondered how any system would work for many of these people. I told her that many of these Palm Beach County voters are worse than I could possible imagine. No wonder the 2000 election was a mess. She said that she wishes more people around the Country would understand that there is a very different problem here than most areas. I live here and it amazed me.
My son just turned seventeen and of course had never voted . Today you didn't have to be a registered voter, but one volunteer keep trying to get him to register. He was trying to be polite with this very elderly lady and explained he won't be eighteen until next June. She actually even gave him a hand full of registration cards and keep telling him to just fill it out and send it in. He should take the rest to his high school. I noticed on the news last night a five year old voting, I wonder if they tried to register her.
Before leaving I mentioned having a hard time finding a listing of places where the mock election was being held on the web. A volunteer told me it had been in the Palm Beach Post. When I told them I would never buy that paper, my son told me it was time to go.
I can never get information like that from the lamestream media.
I agree with some voters being so unbelievably incompetent. I heard that the founders thought you could not vote unless you owned property, could read, and paid taxes.
That would go over real well today, don't cha think?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.