Stupid Americans! -- Stupid... Stupid... STUPID!!! _____________ ovywfuju

William Graham wrote:
"Dave Martindale" wrote in message
...
"Ken Davey" writes:

Here in Canada we use paper ballots and I see no reason why the USA
cannot do the same!.

Well, the USA does seem to have a lot more questions to vote on in a
single election.

In a federal election in Canada, you pick one of the candidates for
your riding and that may be it. Takes a few seconds to vote, and
not much more to count - even if the counting is done by hand.
Municipal elections may be a bit longer, with some referendum
questions, but are still probably 2 or 3 pages at most.

I remember reading some elections chief in some state saying that the
absentee ballot for that state would be 19 pages long. Even with
people voting on electronic touch screens, they expected each voter
to take 5 minutes. With all these questions, hand-counting the
ballots after an election would take a lot longer than it does in
Canada. Still, I do wonder why there seems to be so little concern
about the
trustworthiness of the electronic voting machines. And the Electoral
College seems just plain weird to an outside observer.

Dave

Here in Oregon, we vote by mail on a normal sheet of paper. I don't
know if the results are machine read or not, but they could always be
counted by hand, even if they are. I personally voted about a week
before the 2nd of November, but the Oregon election board doesn't
release any results until election day, regardless of when they
actually count the ballots. Other than the burden it puts on the Post
Office, I see nothing wrong with this way of doing it, and the post
office gets 37 cents each way, or 74 cents per voter.....

Hello, southern neighbor (Seaddle resident here, looking like WA will
have a Republican Gubernor!) Being optically challenged as a bat, I get
an absentee ballot in order to be able to take my time filling it out.
I'm so cheap, though, that I save the stamp and just walk it over to the
polling place across the street on election day...

All this gnashing of teeth about electronic machines not having a paper
trail does strike me as a bit silly - back in the early '70s when I
reached voting age, we used the lever pull machines - which had no paper
trail...

Later, when we used punch cards it was an obvious and logical step to
check the card for 'stretched neck' or 'knocked up' chads before
depositing it in the box - apparently a mental feat beyond the ability
of a large percentage of Al Bore voters a few years back who chose to
shriek victim rather than take even minimal responsibility for
themselves.

Oh well...

Bob ^,,^

OT, SchmOT - I'm still waiting for my Maxxum 7D!

William Graham wrote:
"Dave Martindale" wrote in message
...
"Ken Davey" writes:

Here in Canada we use paper ballots and I see no reason why the USA
cannot do the same!.

Well, the USA does seem to have a lot more questions to vote on in a
single election.

In a federal election in Canada, you pick one of the candidates for
your riding and that may be it. Takes a few seconds to vote, and
not much more to count - even if the counting is done by hand.
Municipal elections may be a bit longer, with some referendum
questions, but are still probably 2 or 3 pages at most.

I remember reading some elections chief in some state saying that the
absentee ballot for that state would be 19 pages long. Even with
people voting on electronic touch screens, they expected each voter
to take 5 minutes. With all these questions, hand-counting the
ballots after an election would take a lot longer than it does in
Canada. Still, I do wonder why there seems to be so little concern
about the
trustworthiness of the electronic voting machines. And the Electoral
College seems just plain weird to an outside observer.

Dave

Here in Oregon, we vote by mail on a normal sheet of paper. I don't
know if the results are machine read or not, but they could always be
counted by hand, even if they are. I personally voted about a week
before the 2nd of November, but the Oregon election board doesn't
release any results until election day, regardless of when they
actually count the ballots. Other than the burden it puts on the Post
Office, I see nothing wrong with this way of doing it, and the post
office gets 37 cents each way, or 74 cents per voter.....

Hello, southern neighbor (Seaddle resident here, looking like WA will
have a Republican Gubernor!) Being optically challenged as a bat, I get
an absentee ballot in order to be able to take my time filling it out.
I'm so cheap, though, that I save the stamp and just walk it over to the
polling place across the street on election day...

All this gnashing of teeth about electronic machines not having a paper
trail does strike me as a bit silly - back in the early '70s when I
reached voting age, we used the lever pull machines - which had no paper
trail...

Later, when we used punch cards it was an obvious and logical step to
check the card for 'stretched neck' or 'knocked up' chads before
depositing it in the box - apparently a mental feat beyond the ability
of a large percentage of Al Bore voters a few years back who chose to
shriek victim rather than take even minimal responsibility for
themselves.

Oh well...

Bob ^,,^

OT, SchmOT - I'm still waiting for my Maxxum 7D!

A wrote:
So, you have been very quiet. Do you not have anything to say?

Maybe he was the philandering sot that aerated his cranium in New York
the other day "because Kerry lost the election"...




wrote in message
...
You blithering idiots! You re-elected that imbecile George Bush as
your President. He's a complete moron and so are most of you!

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 05:43:40 -0800, "Bob Harrington"
wrote:

A wrote:

Maybe he was the philandering sot that aerated his cranium in New York
the other day "because Kerry lost the election"...

We can only hope.

Personally, I find this thread amazing. A presumed foreigner, under
the cover of anonymity -- who probably has understands American
politics as well as we understand the politics in whatever second- or
third-rate nation he's from -- insults us. And our reaction?

A few agree with him that in fact, we ARE stupid. A few try to
explain WHY we're stupid, and a few more try to engage him in a
rational discussion of the issues., Somehow, those responses don't
seem right.

If a neighbor comes overr to my house to complain that I'm an idiot
for painting my kitchen blue, I don't think I'm going to explain why
blue is the best color for kitchens, or that I preferrred yellow but
my wife overuled me, or, "Let's sit down over a cup of coffee and
discuss it."

I'm going to invite him to go home and paint HIS kitchen any color he
likes, but stay out of my business. And if he says he has to look at
my kitchen through our open windows, I'm going to suggest he buy some
drapes and keep them closed. He doesn't have to look at my house if
he doesn't want to. (i.e. "participate in anything the US does" for
the metaphorically challenged).

But that's just me. Your milage may vary.

Marco Milazzo

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 05:43:40 -0800, "Bob Harrington"
wrote:

A wrote:

Maybe he was the philandering sot that aerated his cranium in New York
the other day "because Kerry lost the election"...

We can only hope.

Personally, I find this thread amazing. A presumed foreigner, under
the cover of anonymity -- who probably has understands American
politics as well as we understand the politics in whatever second- or
third-rate nation he's from -- insults us. And our reaction?

A few agree with him that in fact, we ARE stupid. A few try to
explain WHY we're stupid, and a few more try to engage him in a
rational discussion of the issues., Somehow, those responses don't
seem right.

If a neighbor comes overr to my house to complain that I'm an idiot
for painting my kitchen blue, I don't think I'm going to explain why
blue is the best color for kitchens, or that I preferrred yellow but
my wife overuled me, or, "Let's sit down over a cup of coffee and
discuss it."

I'm going to invite him to go home and paint HIS kitchen any color he
likes, but stay out of my business. And if he says he has to look at
my kitchen through our open windows, I'm going to suggest he buy some
drapes and keep them closed. He doesn't have to look at my house if
he doesn't want to. (i.e. "participate in anything the US does" for
the metaphorically challenged).

But that's just me. Your milage may vary.

Marco Milazzo

"William Graham" wrote in message
news:Ki%jd.590530$8_6.107413@attbi_s04...
True, but I forgot to add that it means that I am effectively
disenfranchised, at least as far as the presidential race is
concerned....I have voted Republican all of my life, and my vote has never
been worth a tinkers Damn, because I have lived in California or Oregon
all of my voting life.....This is the only bad thing about our electoral
college system........

Try being a Democrat in Texas. . . :-(

- John