[Cboldt]

Equal protection can swing in every direction. Even if the court was mistaken that punch cards are more error-prone, their conclusion rests on the (abjectly unreasonable) requirement that all voting systems be "the same."

As a serious student of the law (have law degree from acredited school), I used to give the benefit of the doubt to judges, that they would apply the law in an intellectually honest way. The Supreme Court of Florida disabused me of that naivete. (Some) judges are nothing more than political hacks, if called to serve as such.

[Congressman Billybob]

The "laundry list" California ballot, which has been previewed on FR, runs to seven pages in print form. It must run to about the same number of pages in electronic form. On the top of every page it says "Vote for one candidate."

From my experience with balloting, and reading the literature on that, I'm ready to wager right here and now that at least 50,000 ballots -- more than the number that the three-judge panel got their knickers in a twist over -- will make the following error: They will vote for one candidate per page or nearly every page.

All those ballots will be counted on the recall, but will be "spoiled ballots" for the replacement election. It will be such an obvious mistake that observers afterwards will say "How did they make that dumb move?" There will be calls for "better ballots" etc. There will be litigation.

H.L. Mencken once wrote, "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the average American." I add this, "No one ever missed a bet, underestimating the reading ability of the average American voter."

I now expect that what the press will headline as "THE UNDERVOTE" will be at least 8%. That's how much smaller the counted vote for replacement will be than the vote on the recall. But that will include tens of thousands who do not vote at all on the replacement. (The right NOT TO VOTE is also constitutionally protected.) And it will include all the dummies who ignore the plain, repeated instruction to "Vote for one candidate," and vote for two or more anyway.

Mark my words on this.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, "Lessons for Iraq from General Washington, Major Andre, and Der Fuhrer Adolf Hitler," discussion thread on FR. Article is also on ChronWatch.

[tioga]

page 48, Shut Up & Sing, by Laura Ingraham, she elaborates on minority rule vs majority rule....

very good reading, I recommend it...

[jetson]

The hallways of the 9th circuit court is smelling intensely of rotten eggs and is getting stronger by the minute.

[trebb]

The 9th really hosed it when they cited Florida - the real issue was the butterfly ballots which (designed by Democrats) were "too confusing". The punched card/hanging chad fiasco didn't start until they (Gore's camp) got into the pure theft stage by trying to make sure "every vote counted", except of course those that weren't likely to vote for Gore - like the military that fights and dies for this country.

The reliability of the punched cards was a by-product of the attempted obfuscation...

[alloysteel]

Punch-card voting systems are not inherently more or less accurate than other methods, and they have two advantages - they are relatively inexpensive to count, and the tally may be run several times before serious degradation of the ballots occur. And so far as I know, California has still not declared the punch-card ballot illegal.

[Davis]

Bump of Ahhhhnold...