thomas malloy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The Acorn people have gone out of their way to register people who don't > have a right to vote.
That is completely incorrect. *Some* of the ACORN people went out of their way to register fictitious people, and non-people such as Donald Duck. Actually, they didn't "go out of their way;" they did this in lieu of doing actual work. There is no chance that any of these registrations made it into the system, so they will cause no harm. > I don't understand why the Debold system doesn't have > a paper based electronic system, like we do in Minnesota. Good question! Every Diebold voting machine is equipped with a cash register printer and a roll of paper. You would have to change out the faceplate on top of the printer to print a ballot for each vote, but that would be a trivial matter. I figure it would cost ~$50 for the faceplate, plus a minor program change. Deibold says it can't be done, or they say they will charge $700 per machine and it will take years. The security problems with the Deibold machines could be 99.99% fixed by printing paper ballots and auditing a small fraction of total votes cast. That is, by comparing randomly selected precinct to confirm that the printed ballots totals agree with the voting machine totals. > But it's clear to > those of us on the right, that the Democrat's agenda is to win, and the law > be damned. The right wing blogisphere has been all other the Acorn matter . . . That is complete nonsense. The "Acorn matter" is trivial, and ACORN did not violate any laws or do anything even slightly unethical. Some of ACORN's temporary employees did, but they were fired. ACORN followed the letter of the law, reporting the bogus applications and turning them in. > You have to understand that as much as you fear a Republican victory, we > fear a Democratic victory. I do not fear a Republican victory. The U.S. can survive 4 or 8 more years of Republican incompetence. It would be a shame if they win, and there will be many lost opportunities and no doubt more economic bad news, but I am sure the nation will survive. I also do not fear McCain. The only president who ever scared me was Nixon. As for Obama, I find it ludicous that anyone would be afraid of him -- or his agenda! That's like being afraid of Eisenhower or Carter. I can well understand why Republicans find his agenda distasteful, but Obama himself, and his means, methods and politics, are the squeeky-clean, white-bread, middle class, Eagle Scout John Glenn variety. He is professor of constitutional law, for goodness sake! Read his book. You will find nothing remotely dangerous or outside the norm. Of course you won't like his tax policies or health care policies, but policies can be changed. Just win the next election and put things back. Even if he were to socialize health care to some extent (which he will not do, but I wish he would) a later conservative government can privatize the system again. Nothing is permanent in politics or government. - Jed
