[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> My analogy is to sports which may seem trivial but allows for a clearer
> look
> at things. In a baseball season, once a team has statistically been
> eliminated from the pennent race it unlikely to protest a bad call (let us
>
> say it the last game of the year and you are in last place and the ump
> makes
> a mistake). The next year the �team is fighting for the pennent. Same bad
> call. The team protests. Is it reasonable argue that the protest should be
>
> allowed because bad call that did not affect outcome were not protested? I
>
> think not.
> But in the end - if a bad call is made and there is no easy remedy under
> the
> rules of the game it stands (say a runner is called out when he is safe or
> a
> ball is interfered with by a fan and called a homerun - see yankess
> orioles
> in 96). That is my opinioin about this election. All remedies to insure
> that
> the ballots are correctly counted should be taken. Everywhere there is a
> question. if the Republicans want to recount all of Florida that is fine
> with
> me. Other disputed states fine as well. anywhere it couid make a
> difference.
> We have the time. the country is not falling apart and if it took two
> extra
> weeks to get it right so be it. there is no rush.
Yes I know all of that (and I'm a Yankee fan) but as others are fond
of pointing out the constitution or written laws or interpreted laws have
more to do with this than umps at a baseball game, right? How many years
have there been true violence at ice hockey games but last year (April or
May 2000) was the first time a player was actually charged with assault. So
now because there has been actual case law other places can step in now and
charge sports people when there is uncalled for violence.
There were 15k bad ballots in 1996. They've had four years to
correct the problem. Because they didn't they have to live with the results
now. Yes the whole country should have automatic recounts, and the vote
should be exact not sampled, but it's time and money. <fake hysteria> We
have the elderly who have to chose between eating dog food or buying heart
medicine. You want to kill the elderly just because you want a fair count.
</fake hysteria>
I had a fun week and weekend. I was working on my bathroom in my
house so no real bath or shower for 3 days, decided to drive to my parents
for a bath while my bathroom cured. Three hour trip listening to AM talk and
NPR. Took shower and decided to go for drive in the woods. Got ten miles
(16.12km) into the woods at a dead end, I knew the road dead ended, and
found I had flat tire. The bolts holding spare on truck were rusted,
couldn't remove them. Luckily cell phone worked so I could call for help.
Four hours and $100+USD later, still have to buy a new tire, I was out of
the woods. Slept on mom's couch before three hour trip back, listening again
to NPR, only to find a bad pipe in my bathroom. I can take a bath now but I
have to rip out wall I just put in to fix pipe for shower. (Yes I tested it
before I put wall in, don't know what happened, didn't use nails).
What's important about this is the good ideas or info from the
radio:
1) It would take 60 million to 'standardize' NYC alone for new
machines. Someone had said this, we can spend money to fix the potholes on
your street or buy a voting machine which we use twice a year. NPR suggested
that the feds provide matching funds so locals can buy the machines with
less money. How long would it take a voting machine maker to jack up their
prices, especially when they suddenly have orders for thousands of machines?
2) They talked about elections in Finland. A quiet and quick four
months of hype before the election, and the results were done very fast.
Both candidates were at the center of the government, together, watching the
results come in. Then poof, one person won. They shook hands and that was
it. The US stretches over 8 time zones. I don't know how many people are in
Finland but, as with the Netherlands, they are small, it's easy for them to
get the vote over quickly. I like the idea of 24 hours of voting so all
polls open at the same time and close at the same time, like noon in NYC to
2 AM in the Aleutian islands.
3) A local DJ said his uncle in Pittsburgh received a notice for
jury duty this summer. (Lists for jury duty are made from eligible voter
lists). The only problem was his uncle died in 1959. The election officials
checked and he has voted 31 times in 40 years. They set up a 'sting' to
catch the person voting with his uncle's name but no one showed up. The same
sort of thing happened at the University of Michigan. You get football
tickets based on being in a program for so many years. They decided to check
their lists and found a few thousand people who were still buying tickets
but were actually dead.
4) Removing the Electoral college would mean that the candidates
wouldn't have to go to any states, period. Well placed ad spots on the major
networks and some local ads in the major population areas would be all the
campaigning they'd have to do. (Maybe not a bad idea after all). My brother
said that, statistically, one vote in a big state doesn't count as much as
one in a small state and that one vote in a large city in a large state
doesn't count as much as a vote in a small town. Can anyone point it out,
mathematically? Compare Wyoming with less then 1m voters and 3 electoral
votes and Florida with 25 votes and 6m+ voters and maybe a voter in Miami to
one in a small panhandle town. I'll get him to work on it also.
Kevin Tarr
Trump high, lead low
