Why hurricane Ike demands paper ballots on November 4

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http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2008/3204


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Ike has blown all the way up into the Great Lakes region with devastating impact. Power has been knocked out and airports shut by gale-force winds up to 78 miles per hour. Days later, hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners remain blacked out, and casualties still mount. Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has declared a state of emergency, with up to 2 million Ohioans still without power.

A repeat performance on election day could change the course of US history if paper ballots are not universally ready.

A bitter battle now rages here in the Buckeye State over whether the Secretary of State’s office should provide as many paper ballots as voters might want.

Under current arrangements, half or more of Ohio’s may show up to the polls and be forced to cast their ballots on electronic touch-screen machines. Of 5.4 million ballots cast in 2004, George W. Bush’s official margin of victory was less than 119,000 votes.

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Voter rights organizations throughout Ohio have called on Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to decertify all electronic voting machines and rely strictly on paper ballots. As of now, Brunner plans to allow the machines to be deployed, even though their software is considered “proprietary,” and no reliable recount can be done with them.

A Democrat, Brunner has publicly stated a preference for making paper ballots available to any voter who wants one. But the Republican Party, which controls the state legislature, and the conservative Columbus Dispatch editorial board, claim this would cost too much money. So Brunner has caved to pressure and currently plans to provide enough paper ballots for just 25% of the electorate.

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The same must be done throughout the United States. A nation spending its blood and treasure to allegedly bring democracy to Iraq and the world can certainly afford to spend whatever it takes to make sure all Americans can vote on election day, and get their votes reliably counted.
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"plans to provide enough paper ballots for just 25% of the electorate."


the creative ways the neo cons have for ruining voting day are numerous.

also working real slow to keep the lines long until closing time.

moving the polling place at the last moment with no signs at the old place telling the address of the new.

etc., etc.

[ensho]

1. kick

nt

[MadrasT]

2. Paper ballots are the only way to go.

Computerized voting machines should be outlawed.