Jim Webb's name cut off ballot!!!

[lies and propaganda]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/23/AR2006102301178.html

These bastards will stoop to the lamest of shenanigans.

Seems that his name on the ballot is James H "Jim......NO LAST NAME!!!

im seething
:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. the reason - "Webb" is too long a last name?

unbelievable.

[babylonsister]

2. We know, and have known since earlier today. I'm sure Webb

knows by now, and if it's fixable, it will be. Also, it's on a page that has no impact on voters IIRC.
So it is not that bad!

[lies and propaganda]

3. the article says it IS fixable

and they ARENT going to fix it.

Sorry if its a repost but i went back two through pages of GD and saw nothing, so I dont think everyone knows.

[Golden Raisin]

4. If you read the article it says

"Although the problem creates some voter confusion, it will not cause votes to be cast incorrectly, election officials emphasized. The error shows up only on the summary page, where voters are asked to review their selections before hitting the button to cast their votes. Webb's full name appears on the page where voters choose for whom to vote."

This is still pretty lame on several accounts. James Webb is not exactly Daniel Rostenkowski --- in other words its a pretty short name. I can't believe that reprogramming to have the summary page capable of displaying names in a smaller font is a big deal, or something that has to be put off until 2007. Worse still, election officials have known about the problem since 2003. Innocent bumbling or nefarious interference by election officials --- either way this is mother's milk to Rove and his ilk.

[Tracyjo]

5. I felt that way at first too

But if someone goes in to change it, what else is going to happen? I think we need to let people know about it and leave it as it is. If they do manage to change it, they need to make sure the (R) shows up after felix's name too.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. Go figure that the company, Hart Intercivics, is from Austin.

The one that makes the machines. Big surprise, eh?

Alexandria and Falls Church are a big part of Webb's support base. Hopefully the many well educated and well informed voters there won't be bamboozled by this.

If the machines aren't outright stealing votes in addition to this crap.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

9. The company that made the machines has nothing to do with this.

The morans who configured it for this election are the problem.

[radfringe]

7. some programs do have a character length limit

years ago when I worked for customer service for a mail order company - the most common occurance of cutting off a name due to character length was when entering the first name of "CHRISTOPHER". The program would chop it off and display it as "christopE" (drops the 'r')

however in this case it makes no sense

James H. Webb (including spaces/punctuation) contains 13 letters

George Allen (including space) contains) 12 letters


Webb's name has been cut to 7 characters as "James H"

If the program limited characters consistently - George Allen's name would be displayed as "george__" (with space after george = 7 characters)

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

8. Yes it's not adequately explained in the article at all. They say increased

font size makes long words get cut off.

OK.

Then how come with short, "ordinary names" like James Webb, his WHOLE LAST NAME is cut off, and a George Allen's party affiliation is cut off?

This stinks to high heaven.

[radfringe]

10. here's something else that STUNK

this year's primary - we went to vote

normally, outside the polling place, or just inside the entry way, a poster size ballot is displayed so voters can review it before voting

in the past all candidates names/party and special questions/resolutions etc are on it

this year - we go and take a look at the poster before entering the polling place

the only DEMS listed on the poster were ones running for local party slots or ones running for local offices

NO DEMS were listed for Senate or the House at the state/fed level

but all the REPUBS were listed

we asked the people at the registration desk about this... :shrug:
we asked if on the REAL ballot were the DEM names there... :shrug:

we did vote - the dems were on the 'real' ballot - but we were wondering how many other polling places had the same 'poster' and if people DIDN'T vote because the DEMS were missing from the poster

we did report it, and got a "gee, that's strange..."

granted we live in a very small town (more cows than people) - but both my partner and I asked around at work if any of our co-workers noticed the same thing in their areas. Those that bothered to look at the 'poster' did notice and wondered why the DEMS were left off.

it's going to be interesting to see what the POSTER says on Nov. 7